Decisive Measures Read online

  Before I got out of the pickup, I wrapped a piece of rag round my face like a mask, but almost at once I could feel the dust in my nose and taste it in my mouth. The air was full of creaking sounds as the wooden buildings dried in the wind.

  When I reached my hotel room, I found that the dust had seeped in round the edge of the windows and suffused my books and clothes. It had even passed through the mosquito net and settled like talc on my bedding.

  After a quick shower I met Layla for dinner. The hotel menu had a choice of smoked fish, rice and okra – or an unidentified stew.

  We chose fish and, more in hope than expectation, I ordered a bottle of wine. I took a dubious sip, then another. ‘It’s delicious,’ I said, ‘full-bodied and Lebanese – just like the hotel owner.’

  She smiled, and the stress lines etched into her face disappeared. ‘That’s better,’ I said. ‘Leave your problems outside and relax.’

  ‘I get the feeling that’s not something you’re very good at doing.’

  I bowed my head. ‘Guilty,’ I said.

  She studied me. ‘So why are you here? I’ll grant you this, you don’t seem like the other mercenaries. They’re pushing forty. Yet what are you? Twenty-eight? Twenty-nine?’

  I nodded. ‘Right first time.’

  ‘You could have had another ten years in the RAF, couldn’t you? So why leave? And why come here?’

  ‘I guess I needed a change.’ It sounded lame even to me.

  She waited in silence for me to continue.

  ‘I – I just wanted a steady job, I suppose. No excitement.’

  ‘And no responsibilities?’

  ‘That too.’

  She gave a wry smile. ‘Sierra Leone isn’t exactly noted for its quietness, and when things go wrong here, even those on the sidelines find themselves involved whether they like it or not.’

  I poured us each another glass of wine. ‘So what about you?’ I said. ‘Why are you here?’

  ‘I got into trouble at my last posting. I expressed my opinions a bit too forcefully to a politician. It took some hasty diplomacy to prevent the entire medical team being expelled. I was lucky not to be sacked, but this was the worst posting they could think of.’ She smiled. ‘Funnily enough, despite all the deprivation and violence, I love it here. I feel as if I belong.’

  The hotel owner cleared away our plates and brought tiny cups of thick, black Lebanese coffee with powdered milk and gritty sugar. We sat talking late into the evening, long after the other diners had left. As we said good night outside my room, I leaned forward to kiss her.

  She let my lips brush against hers, but when I tried to prolong the embrace, she pushed me away. ‘Let’s just keep it friendly, Jack,’ she said. ‘I’d need to know an awful lot more about you before I’d even consider being the next notch on your bedpost.’

  ‘I know that,’ I said. ‘I didn’t—’ But she was already walking down the corridor.

  When I got into bed, I lay staring into the darkness for a long time but, like almost every night since Kosovo, the familiar nightmare was waiting for me when I at last fell asleep. This time there was a difference, however: a hand began beckoning from the flames and a man’s voice shouted over and over, ‘Come in. Come in.’

  I awoke. The voice continued. ‘Jack, come in. Jack, come in.’

  I lay there trying to make sense of it, as cold sweat trickled down my forehead. Then I sat upright, clambered out of bed and began to rummage through the pitch-dark room for the radio Grizz had given me. I found it at last, buried under my discarded clothes.

  ‘This is Jack. What’s happening, Grizz?’

  ‘There’s shit flying at Bohara. A big rebel assault. The guys have taken casualties. Get Layla, and get out here to the base. We must take the heli and go as soon as we can.’

  ‘But the heli’s not fit to fly until it’s been fixed.’

  ‘We’ve sorted it,’ he said. ‘Now get out here pronto.’

  I dragged my clothes on then ran and pounded on Layla’s door.

  A sleepy voice answered and she came to the door wrapped in a towel. Even half asleep she looked heart-stoppingly beautiful.

  ‘Grizz has been on the radio,’ I said. ‘There’s trouble at Bohara. We’ve got to get going at once.’

  She stared at me for a moment. ‘What sort of trouble?’

  ‘The rebels.’

  She turned back into the room. Through the half-open door, I saw the sheen of starlight on her skin as she dropped the towel and pulled on a T-shirt and jeans. A moment later she was hurrying out of the door, holding her medical bags.

  We ran downstairs and out into the darkness.

  I revved the engine of the pickup and we drove off through the deserted streets. Layla sat silent in the passenger seat staring out through the windscreen, her lip caught between her teeth.

  ‘Are you all right?’ I said.

  ‘What? Yes, sorry, I was just thinking about Njama’s people, wondering if they’re safe.’

  We left the city and began the climb through open country towards the mountains. As we approached the bend where we’d encountered the roadblock, I slipped the radio and my pistol under the seat. The rifle that Grizz had given me was still sitting in the hotel room. I cursed, but it was too late to go back for it now.

  I was only half expecting the barrier to be manned, but as we rounded the corner, I brought the pickup to a juddering halt. A dozen heavily armed men stood guard on the barrier. They levelled their rifles at us as soon as we came into view.

  ‘This doesn’t look too clever,’ I said.

  ‘Give them some cigarettes and we should be all right,’ Layla said.

  I wound down the window and held out the carton as we stopped in front of the barrier. The soldiers looked tired and edgy. One of them – the leader, I guessed, going by the mirrored sunglasses he wore like a badge of office – walked to the door of the pickup, took the cigarettes from me, then jerked his head. ‘Get out of the car.’

  We got out and the soldier searched us in turn. I saw Layla flinch as he handled her breasts while pretending to search for concealed weapons. Then he stepped back and signalled to two of the others to search the vehicle.

  They handed him Layla’s medical bag, then one of them found the radio and pistol under the seat.

  The leader turned the pistol over in his hands. ‘What is this?’ he said angrily. ‘Who are you? What are you doing here?’

  ‘As you can see from our medical bag, we’re doctors with Medicaid International,’ I said before Layla could speak. ‘We’re on our way to treat a very ill patient. Please let us pass.’

  ‘Since when do doctors carry guns?’

  I spread my hands. ‘These are dangerous times. I carry it only for protection from robbers and bandits.’

  He studied me for a moment. ‘Where is this patient of yours?’

  ‘At the army camp at the top of the hill.’

  He stiffened. ‘He is a soldier, then.’

  ‘No,’ I said. ‘She is a civilian. The soldiers took her to the camp because she was so ill.’

  ‘What is wrong with her?’

  Layla jumped in before I could reply. ‘She is with child. She has been in labour for almost two days. If we do not get to her soon, both she and her baby will die.’ She held his gaze. ‘Please. Imagine if this was your wife and your baby. One day it might be.’

  He hesitated, then gave a curt nod. With some show of reluctance, his men began moving the barricade.

  ‘My pistol and my radio?’ I said.

  He shook his head. ‘Radios are the tools of spies, not doctors.’

  I thought about arguing, then let it go. ‘And my pistol?’

  He slipped it into his pocket. ‘You will have no need of this. I and my men control this road. We permit no thieves or bandits.’ His smile challenged me to argue with him if I dared.

  We got back into the pickup. I drove away up the hill.

  As we passed out of sight of them I heard machi
ne-gun fire coming not from behind us but from somewhere in the darkness ahead.

  I braked to a halt, switched off the lights, then put the pickup in gear and began creeping forward again, steering only by the faint glow of the moonlight reflected from the surface of the road.

  When we crested the brow of the hill, I saw a reddish glow away to our left. It pulsed and flickered, sending sparks spiralling upwards.

  ‘The base,’ Layla said. ‘What do we do?’

  I pulled the pickup off the road into a small clearing at the edge of the forest. ‘We go forward on foot and see what’s going on.’

  We climbed out and inched our way forward through the trees, stumbling over dead branches. I was soaked with sweat, as much from tension as the exertion in the heat of the night. Pumped up on adrenaline, I was hyperalert, straining my eyes to see into the darkness ahead, imagining rebel soldiers hiding behind every bush.

  We crawled the last few yards through the undergrowth at the edge of the base. I raised my head a little and parted the branches in front of me, then flattened myself at once.

  Not more than thirty yards away was a rebel position. Their commander was directing fire, shouting orders into the radios he held in either hand. Other groups of rebels were scattered around the perimeter and the heavy machine gun we had heard from the hill was set up a hundred yards to his right.

  Inside the base, the huts nearest to us were ablaze, but through the smoke I could glimpse the hangar where the heli was. It looked intact and was still protected by a cordon of defenders.

  Even so, the position seemed hopeless. There were no more than a couple of dozen soldiers at Grizz’s disposal and at least ten times that number of rebels.

  ‘We have to get into the base,’ I said. ‘If I can get the Huey airborne we’ve a chance of driving these bastards off.’

  ‘We can’t,’ Layla said. ‘They’ve got it completely surrounded.’

  ‘We’ve got to do something. If we just sit here, Grizz, Tom and everybody else will be slaughtered. We’ve got to create a diversion somehow. Come on.’

  ‘Where are we going?’

  ‘Back to the pickup.’

  Chapter Five

  With the crash of gunfire reverberating in our ears, we retraced our steps through the forest.

  Before I drove away, I ripped my shirtsleeve off, then unscrewed the cap from the fuel tank and dowsed the cloth in petrol. I left half of it protruding from the neck of the tank, then drove slowly, without lights, down the track to the base.

  The thunder of gunfire grew louder and, as we rounded a bend, I saw the glare of burning buildings and the muzzle flashes of scores of weapons. I stopped the pickup in the darkness beneath a clump of trees overhanging the track.

  The rebel commander’s position was directly ahead of me down the track, just beyond a parked truck. I turned my head and let my gaze travel slowly along the perimeter of the base, picking out the other groups of rebels.

  I touched Layla’s arm and pointed to a section of the fence almost midway between two groups of rebels. A tree grew close to the wire and the ground dipped down towards the fence, giving a little cover. ‘That’s the best place,’ I said. I stripped off my flying jacket. ‘Take that and sprint down to the fence. Wait under cover of the tree until the balloon goes up, then throw the jacket on to the barbed wire and climb over it.’

  ‘And where will you be?’

  ‘Right on your heels all the way.’

  ‘It’s too dangerous, Jack. Even if the rebels don’t shoot us, when Grizz’s men see us climbing over the wire, they’re not going to wait for us to identify ourselves, they’re just going to shoot us.’

  ‘That’s the chance we have to take. If we don’t get into the base and get that heli airborne, they’ll all be killed.’

  I leaned across the seat and kissed her. She stared at me, then took my flying jacket and slipped out of the pickup.

  I watched her run down the slope to the tree, then I reversed along the track a hundred yards. I got out of the pickup, found a good-sized rock and slipped it into the vehicle’s footwell, then walked back to the tailgate. I struck a light, ignited the cloth trailing from the neck of the petrol tank and sprinted for the cab. I accelerated through first and second gears, then lined up the pickup on its target, rolled the rock onto the accelerator, jamming it to the boards, and dived out of the side. The impact as I hit the ground drove the air from my lungs.

  Still accelerating, the pickup bucketed along the track and hit the rear corner of the truck. There was a beat of silence then a blast as the petrol tank exploded and fire erupted into the air. Before the glare had faded, I was running bent double down the slope.

  I saw Layla throw the jacket on to the barbed wire and begin to climb. I reached the bottom as she struggled over, and heard her stifle a cry of pain as a barb spiked her hand. Then she was dropping to the ground on the other side.

  I was almost at the top when I heard a shout from inside the base and a burst of gunfire was directed at me. A moment later I was also spotted by the rebels. Caught in the lethal crossfire from both sides, I threw myself forward. I felt the barbs ripping and tearing at me, then I was falling to the ground.

  I landed heavily on my side, but staggered to my feet and was off, stumbling after Layla, running for cover as bullets cracked and whined around me. We flung ourselves into a hollow and lay still as bullets chewed at the earth above our heads.

  I waited for a lull in the firing then, still in cover, I shouted, ‘Grizz!’ I raised my arms. There was an isolated shot, then silence. I straightened a little, and advanced a couple of feet out of cover. Four black soldiers had their guns levelled at my guts. I could see their puzzlement at my white skin.

  Beyond them I saw Grizz with his back to me, crouching behind an earth mound and directing fire towards the far side of the compound. I heard Layla start to follow me. ‘Not yet,’ I said. ‘Wait there.’

  She ignored me and came alongside me, her arms also raised. I shouted again at the top of my voice. ‘Grizz!’

  I saw him turn, stare at us, then shout at the soldiers. They kept us covered as we moved slowly forward. A moment later Grizz came sprinting towards us. He pushed past the soldiers, dragged us down behind the earth mound and grabbed us both in a bear hug. ‘Thank God,’ he said. ‘I’d written you off. Can you get airborne and give us some help here?’

  ‘Just watch me. Get your boys to give us some cover while we get the heli out. It will fly, won’t it?’

  ‘Let’s hope so. We fixed it, but we’ve had no time to test it.’

  ‘Guns?’

  ‘Fully loaded. No time for the rocket pod, though.’

  ‘Right.’ I turned and ran at a crouch towards the hangar. Grizz followed. ‘Where’s Tom?’ I called over my shoulder.

  ‘You’ll have to manage without him. He’s been hit in the leg.’

  We dragged the hangar doors open. I put on the night-vision goggles and then fired up the engines while the heli was still inside the building. The defenders laid down a barrage of fire until Grizz gave them the signal, then a dozen of them dropped their weapons and ran to push the Huey out of the hangar into the open.

  When the nose of the heli appeared the rebels redoubled their fire, raining down everything they had to try to stop the Huey getting airborne. Even though an embankment partly shielded it from the rebel fire, rounds were cracking and rattling on the heli’s metal skin. I tried to force myself to concentrate on the controls in my hands.

  As soon as the tips of the rotor arms cleared the hangar door, I gunned the engines. The rotors turned, blurred and accelerated into an unbroken disc overhead.

  Grizz threw himself into the cab as the Huey lifted on its springs and then we were airborne. I banked hard away from the main concentration of rebels, climbing rapidly to two hundred feet, then I swung round and came in low and fast at my first target, the rebel command position.

  I heard the chatter of the mini-gun as Grizz opened up from
the door of the cab, laying down a barrage of fire, but I held off with the nose gun until the cross hairs intersected on the left-hand man in the rebel group. Then I squeezed the trigger, easing the right rudder down to walk the line of fire right across the cluster of rebel troops. The nose guns thundered and I heard the heavy rattle of ejected cartridges and smelt smoke and the tang of cordite.

  I was already banking to bring the next group of rebels into my sights: the men manning the heavy machine gun. I squeezed the trigger again, swinging the heli around to move the line of fire through the target. The ground below me shook and erupted. Clods of earth were flung high into the air and dust mingled with smoke.

  A few rebels returned fire, but it was ragged stuff. They began running in all directions. I saw the commander jump into the truck and begin urging the driver back, but its way was blocked by the burnt-out pickup. I lined up the guns and riddled the truck from bumper to bumper. It disappeared in a cloud of smoke and flame.

  I pursued a group of fleeing rebels until I had emptied the guns, then banked around, back to the base.

  We landed and I climbed down from the cockpit. Slowly the defenders began to emerge from behind the barricades.

  Grizz slapped me on the back, ‘Great shooting, ace.’ His men fanned out across the base, pausing to examine each fallen rebel. There was a drum roll of single shots as the injured were finished off with a bullet in the head. I turned away.

  Grizz caught my eye. ‘That’s the nature of war for all sides here,’ he said. ‘The Geneva Convention didn’t make it this far. There’s not enough medicine, food or anything else to supply your own side, let alone prisoners of war. So.’ He put his forefinger against his temple and mimed pulling a trigger.

  Layla emerged from a bunker looking drawn and deathly pale. We looked at each other. Grizz’s face was a mass of cuts and bruises. I didn’t paint too pretty a picture either.

  ‘Where’s Tom?’ I said, suppressing a guilty twinge that I had only just thought about him.

  Grizz gestured towards a low building alongside the hangar. ‘He’s in the hut there. Like I said, he’s wounded, but he’s OK, I think. He caught a bullet in the thigh, a flesh wound, but he made a lot of fuss about it – you know what pilots are like – so we dosed him up with morphine.’ He switched his gaze to Layla. ‘Now the heat’s off, you can look him and the rest of the casualties over.’