A ledge a few feet wide had been cut out of the cliff in front of it and another sangar had been constructed, guarding the cave mouth. Straining my eyes, I could just discern the blacker shapes of the heads of four guards crouching behind the sangar wall. A narrow flight of steps had been cut out of the bare rock leading from the track. It was impossible to climb them undetected by the guards above.
Dexy wriggled his way back until we were shielded by the rock face. ‘Boon, take the far sangar. Rami, set up here and keep the guys on the clifftops occupied. We can’t make a covert entry. We’ll have to blow them out of there.’ He checked his watch.
‘It’s 12.42… now.’ He glanced at Boon. ‘I’ll give you forty minutes to get there. Blast-off at 1.22. My shot the signal. Sean, Amica, when you see me and Tank go in, get on our heels as fast as you can. Don’t draw attention to yourselves by firing, but if you are targeted, use short bursts – fire and movement. Maximum, six minutes to clear those caves and set the charges. 1.28 we’re pulling out.’
Rami checked his gun and Tank assembled a grenade launcher, both working in complete silence. Boon had already disappeared into the night, working his way like an eel along the edge of the wet track. I watched him until he disappeared into the darkness. He had advanced inch by inch, moulding his body to the contours of the rock and offering no outline or discernible movement to the guards watching above. It would take him every minute of the forty to cross those two hundred yards.
The rest of us waited, the tension palpable. I checked and rechecked my rifle, and kept touching the spare clips and the grenades at my belt. I slid back alongside Amica and put my mouth close to her ear. ‘Go ahead of me this time, just behind Dexy and Tank. It’s your best chance. They’ll deal with anything in front of us and it’ll take the guys on the clifftops a few moments to get their range and bring fire to bear.’
She whispered a reply, her mouth so close to my ear that her lips brushed along my cheek. ‘No, you’ll be faster than me.’
I turned my head to argue again, but she put her finger on my lips and shook her head.
Dexy checked his watch. ‘Time to move out. Stay on our boot heels. When we move, you move. When we freeze, you freeze. Safety catches on. We haven’t come this far to blow it with an accidental discharge. When I fire that first shot, go like fuck behind us.’
The rain was still hammering down, streaking our faces.
Dexy dug his fingers into the mud and smeared more over his face. Then he flattened himself and wormed forward along the track. I followed Tank so closely that now and then my head scraped against the sole of his boot.
The rain lashed off the rock face and cascaded into the ravine. I was soaked to the skin, but barely aware of the cold. I worked my way forward, inch by painful inch, driving myself on with my elbows and feet, my face turned slightly to the side to keep my nose and mouth clear of the water. I had no sense of how far we had travelled or how far we had to go. At one point we paused for so long that I thought we’d reached the foot of the steps, but then we moved on again.
At last we stopped once more and I heard a faint scraping sound, like a steel whetting a knife, as Tank slid the RPG from his shoulder. I peered forward through the curtain of hair plastered against my forehead and saw him lying full-length, RPG at the ready, held in his half-extended arms.
Chapter Fifteen
The sudden chatter of a machine gun broke the silence. There was a curse from Dexy, a burst of answering fire from further up the track and a movement from the sangar above us. Then Dexy and Tank leapt to their feet, the barrels of their RPGs swinging up in unison. There was a double report, so close together it merged into one blast. Twin streaks of fire flashed upwards towards the cave and there was a flash that lit up the night and threw the canyon into stark relief, followed by a massive explosion.
I had closed one eye to save my night vision. As the flash faded and fragments of rock and debris fell around us through the rain, I saw Dexy and Tank sprinting to the cave entrance above me. There was more gunfire from in front and behind, the whipcrack of assault rifles and the rattle of heavy machine guns etching lines of tracer across the darkness.
I felt Amica push my back, and began to scramble up the steps. My mouth was dry and the weight of the bergen dragged at my shoulders. The risers were high and the steps barely wide enough for two feet to stand together. I held my assault rifle at the ready in my left hand and dug the fingers of my right into the cliff face to propel me upwards.
Dexy had already reached the entrance. I saw his arm outlined against the glow from the still burning bodies in the sangar. It arched back, then forward, and a small black shape lobbed into the mouth of the cave.
There was another blinding flash. I tried to up my pace, but stumbled and almost fell as my foot slipped from the edge of a step. Bullets were now striking the rock face around me. Tracer sliced across the cliff, seeking me out. Dexy and Tank dived through the cave entrance, firing bursts from their weapons. There was a flash and a bang from further up the ravine. The tracer died for a moment, then resumed.
A blizzard of fire riddled the cliff face around me. I threw myself across the edge of the sangar and rolled over and over. The cave floor was littered with bodies.
I was in a huge arched chamber. There were numerous recesses and small rooms opening off it, and two dark tunnels. Dexy and Tank were working their way along, tossing grenades and firing bursts into each. I scrambled to my feet and glanced behind me. There was no sign of Amica. I stared into the darkness, willing her to appear.
Bullets ricocheted from the rock, screaming past me. Then a dark shape hurled itself through the wall of fire and rolled across the floor. It seemed impossible Amica had not been cut to pieces, yet somehow she rose and half-ran, half-stumbled towards me.
Dexy was still working his way deeper, clearing each recess and entrance with a grenade and a burst of fire. Ignoring the explosions, Tank was working his way along a line of cases and chests piled against one wall, cursing and swearing as he threw open the lid of each one.
There were stacks of boxes full of ammunition, grenades and shells and crates of rifles and small arms. ‘Where are the fucking Stingers?’ he shouted.
Dexy was firing down one of the tunnels. Tank flattened himself against the rock alongside and unclipped a grenade. I hardly saw him throw it. A second later there was a roar and the blinding flash of white phosphorus. I heard screams from the tunnel, drowned by more bursts of fire from Dexy and Tank.
I fired down the other tunnel and sprinted into another huge chamber. A generator powered the lights strung across the arched roof. Wooden crates were stacked against one wall. Inside were rows of flat plastic packs, containing morphine base.
I cursed, then swung round as I heard the sound of boots in the tunnel behind me. Tank appeared, with Amica following a couple of paces behind. ‘The Stingers?’ Tank said.
I shook my head.
He swore again and turned to run back through the tunnel.
Just then I saw the glint of metal among a pile of rocks by the opposite wall.
‘Wait,’ I said.
I pulled a few boulders out of the stack, exposing a dull green barrel the diameter of a drainpipe. A yellowing but still legible sticker was fixed to it: ‘Confidential National Security Information. Unauthorised disclosure subject to US criminal sanctions.’
Tank pushed past me. ‘Give me the charges from your bergens.’
He began laying them all the way around the base of the mound. He worked with precision and blinding speed, packing each explosive charge into the mound, fixing a detonator, setting the timer and then moving on to the next.
We ran back through the tunnel into the first chamber. Rounds were still screaming across the entrance, but the firing from the other tunnel had stopped.
Dexy ran back towards us, his face black with smoke and bloodied by a score of cuts from rock splinters. There was a dark stain on his shoulder and his left arm hung limp by his sid
e. ‘Two minutes,’ he said.
‘What’s through the other tunnel?’
‘Living space, dormitories, kitchens.’
‘The enemy?’
‘Not any more,’ he said. ‘Only twelve men. No officers.’
We stared at each other. Something was wrong. Tank was still moving around the chamber laying more charges against the grenades and ammunition.
‘One minute.’
I ran through to the third chamber. It was strewn with more bodies. Some had died where they slept, on rugs now stained with blood. I glanced round the chamber. At first I saw nothing unusual, then I noticed the faintest rectilinear outline on the back wall. A door? I stared at it again, then yelled to Tank and Dexy.
Tank took one look, then motioned us into cover and fixed two charges on minimum fusing. He dived for cover just before the blast and the camouflaged steel door flew open, blown from its hinges.
The chamber beyond it was empty, but a long, sloping tunnel led away from it: a rat run for the officers’ escape.
Tank threw himself flat in the entrance and fired his RPG up the tunnel into the darkness. As the echoes faded away, I could hear groans and screams through the ringing in my ears.
‘Twenty seconds,’ Dexy said. ‘Let’s go. Let’s go.’
Tank paused long enough to slide a detonator and timer into the remaining explosives in his bergen. He pushed it into the mouth of the tunnel, then we turned and ran.
The firelight still lit up the cave entrance. We paused just inside, Dexy and Tank at either side holding white phosphorus grenades.
‘Dump everything but your weapon, ammunition and belt kit.’ Dexy said. ‘I’ll count us down. Five… four…’
They pulled the pins together, then threw the grenades in a high arc, out towards the far end of the canyon. As he reached zero there was a double blast and a blinding flash of white light.
‘Go! Go! Go!’
We burst from the cave entrance, half-running and half-falling down the flight of rough stone steps. There was the briefest pause, then the firing intensified. Dexy tripped and crashed the last few feet, landing heavily on his wounded arm, but he dragged himself up at once and loosed off a burst at the machine gun on the cliff top.
I saw a line of tracer cutting through the night towards me and hurled myself flat. Then I pulled myself up to a crouch, fired, rolled sideways and fired again. Amica and Dexy ran past me, then turned and fired, giving Tank and me cover as we dropped back.
I saw Tank stagger and fall as a round tore into his thigh. He hauled himself up at once and hobbled away. A round tugged at my sleeve, another creased my hair and smashed into the rock face behind me. The noise was deafening, overwhelming, the firing so continuous that it merged into an endless cacophony.
There was a flash of answering fire from the track behind us. The next moment Boon sprinted past. We kept moving back a few yards at a time, giving each other what cover we could.
I flattened myself against the ground. Taliban soldiers were running along the narrow ledge at the far end of the ravine. We picked off three or four but at least a dozen ran on, firing as they went. They reached the foot of the steps leading to the cave. Careless of their own lives, a few sprinted towards us, shooting from the hip. The rest began climbing the steps.
I felt sick. They still had time to disarm the charges.
I heard the crack of Amica’s rifle, then there was a movement beside me. Tank was up and running back towards them, dragging his wounded leg, his weapon spitting out a continuous stream of fire. The two leading Taliban soldiers were cut to pieces. They fell back, dislodging a third behind them. And then suddenly it seemed that every enemy weapon was concentrated on Tank.
I paused for a second, watching in horror.
‘Come on.’ Dexy yelled.
But I couldn’t take my eyes off what was happening. Tank’s body was torn apart; his massive frame disintegrated as the rounds ripped into him. I froze for a moment, then sprinted away, dropped and fired, and then sprinted again. The rattle of the machine gun ahead of us fell silent as we approached.
Rami emptied a magazine in one burst, turned and ran straight back down the track, then threw his machine gun into the ravine. I saw the darkness on the track between us and the waterfall pierced by a score of muzzle flashes. We were trapped. There were troops in front of us and behind us, and we were pinned between the rock face and the ravine below.
We threw ourselves flat again. There was a roar as Boon detonated the mine by the sangar, but the volume of fire barely altered. Then I heard Boon’s gasp as if he had been kicked in the gut. He sank to his knees, clasping his stomach.
There was a tremor like the beginning of another earthquake. I felt the earth buckle and twist as a monstrous explosion lit up the night sky, reverberating from the canyon walls. A blast of hot air, fiercer than a desert wind, swept over us.
As the shock waves began to fade I heard another sound, a terrible grinding, crushing noise from the mountain behind us. With a roar even louder than the explosion, the entire face of the ravine peeled away in a massive avalanche of rock.
I raised my head. The track behind us now ended in a black void no more than five metres from where I lay. Then a cloud of dust and debris, dense as fog, swirled down the canyon and enveloped us.
‘Get down in the ravine,’ Boon shouted. ‘It’s your only chance. I’ll hold them off.’
The mess that had been his stomach showed he had no hope. He propped himself against a rock, laid his spare clips alongside him, and put his Browning pistol in his lap.
I hesitated for a second, then uncoiled my rope and looped one end over a boulder. I tied a rough knot and threw the rest into the ravine. The black dust still swirled around me as I swung myself over the edge.
The rope burned my hands as I tried to slow my descent. I looked back and could make out three dark shapes above me, as Amica, Rami and Dexy followed me. Dexy lowered himself one-handed, his left arm dangling useless at his side.
There was an eerie silence. Rather than fire blind, the Taliban were waiting for the dust to clear.
It was a few moments before I realised that the one constant sound that had been accompanying us throughout the long night – the thunder of the river – had ceased.
I looked below me. At first I could see nothing, but as the wind and rain began to disperse the dust cloud, moonlight filtered back into the ravine. There was no trace of the river. It had simply disappeared.
I felt the end of the rope slip between my feet and jerked myself to a halt, ignoring the stabbing pain in my hands. I lowered myself to the very end, hesitated and then let myself go with a silent prayer.
My landing knocked the breath from my body, but I was unhurt. I saw the dark shape of Amica swaying above me. ‘Let go, I’ll catch you!’ I called, but slipped as I caught her and we fell in an awkward heap.
Rami thudded down a moment later. Dexy must have dropped the last few feet of the rope almost in free fall. He crashed down, stifling a cry of pain. I took his good arm and pulled him to his feet.
He jerked twice on the rope and a moment later it came snaking out of the darkness above us and landed in a pool with a splash. ‘It’ll not delay them for long,’ he said. ‘Even if they don’t have ropes themselves, they’ll be able to scramble down where the side of the ravine’s blown in.’
Firing broke out again above us. It seemed faint and remote, but I thought of Boon alone on the track, waiting until the magazine of his Kalashnikov was empty, then pushing the barrel of the Browning into his mouth.
I glanced upstream. A massive barrier blocked the ravine, blotting out the light. ‘We can use the riverbed. The rock fall’s dammed the river.’
Dexy nodded. ‘And if we’re still in the ravine when the dam breaks…’ He didn’t complete the sentence.
The firing above us reached a crescendo, then ceased. Boon had fulfilled his last obligation to his mates.
‘Come on,’ Dexy said.
/> We turned and ran downstream, the sound of our pounding feet echoing off the rocky walls. We splashed through pools and vaulted over rocks, making no attempt at concealment. Our only hope lay in speed, not secrecy.
There were a few isolated shots in the darkness behind us, but they seemed to be random rather than aimed. I slipped and fell, crashing into an icy pool, and Rami sped past me, churning through the water. I got up and chased after him. Amica was close by, as sure-footed as a cat in the darkness. Hampered by his arm, Dexy brought up the rear.
Whenever I could risk raising my eyes from the ground in front of me I scanned the sides of the ravine, searching for a way up, but the black, glistening walls seemed sheer and featureless. My mind was fuddled with exhaustion and I began a stupid prayer for dawn, even though the light which might guide us to safety would also expose us to the Taliban.
I ran on, straining my ears for the sounds of pursuit, or the noise of the rock dam giving way. I imagined the water level rising higher and higher behind it as millions of gallons continued to flow down from the mountains.
At my feet was the first ominous sign. Water was beginning to flow along the bed of the river again. It was no more than a trickle at first, but it began to swell just as we reached the point where the riverbed disappeared into a narrow cleft of rock. There was no alternative; we had to go through it.
There was no sand or gravel underfoot; just huge slabs of smooth, slimy, water-worn rock. The walls of the ravine pressed in so close they seemed almost to meet over my head. As I began to clamber over the rocks, I heard the crack of rounds from behind us. I slid down the far side of a boulder and peered back. The firing was coming not from the rim of the canyon but from the floor of the ravine. ‘Come on,’ I said, ‘they’re on the riverbed.’
The Taliban soldiers were gaining rapidly, advancing over the smooth floor of the river as we struggled through the rocks. I heard the crack and whine of rounds ricocheting around us, and felt rock splinters tearing my skin. The noise seemed to grow in volume, echoing and reverberating from the walls of the ravine.
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