Deep Black

82

We lay there for another hour, Nasir and me on the rock piles with our AKs, the other three on the ground below us.

Mocking flat-top voices kept echoing round the cave, with the odd aggressive insult or a line or two from a song thrown in. Nasir couldn’t restrain himself. Each time, he’d give as good as he got.

I eased my way down to Salkic. ‘What’s Nuhanovic going to do now we haven’t turned up? Come looking?’

‘I don’t know. This is the first time I’ve failed.’

I put on my happy face. ‘Let’s try and make sure it stays that way. First up, we’ve got to keep eyes on the entrance at all times. Since he’s already there, Nasir might as well take the first hour.’

I wanted to get a routine going. A routine gives a sense of purpose and meaning. It kids you something productive is happening.

Salkic gobbed off and Nasir nodded, then cleared his nostrils into the rocks.

‘Ramzi, get that radio of yours on, just in case Nuhanovic sends some of your guys out and they get line of sight with the cave.’ There was a chance anyone trying to raise us would just scroll through the frequencies.

Benzil was still in a bad way. His face was etched with pain and concern. The scabs on his cheeks had cracked and started weeping again. ‘Do you think SFOR will come?’ His throat sounded like sandpaper. He needed liquid. He wasn’t the only one.

‘Absolutely. Sure of it.’

He pulled me so close I could smell the sourness of his breath. ‘Nick, what we talked about in Baghdad . . . the offer is still there. I know Rob would want you to take his place. We still have a purpose. I’m sure this is just a temporary setback that you will overcome for us.’

‘Let’s talk about it later, yeah?’

I crawled back up the rock pile to check on Nasir. He indicated with a shake of his head that nothing had changed, but wouldn’t look at me. Fair one, I’d be pissed off, too. I knew I’d have to watch him when we got out of here. When he reckoned he no longer needed me, that AK of his might be pointing my way.

‘What do you think, Nick?’ Jerry crawled to the bottom of the rocks. ‘They still there?’

‘You’re welcome to take a look.’

I slid down alongside him and put my lips to his ear. ‘Keep that weapon of yours handy and watch Nasir. He’s fucked off with us. We need to look out for each other.’

‘Ramzi! Ramzi!’ The gravelly voice from the cave mouth was now calm and controlled. Whatever it was saying, I liked it even less than when it was in mocking mode.

I moved back up to Nasir. Way in the distance, I could see a 4x4 making its way along the track. I watched it disappear off to our right. Salkic joined us. As Nasir filled him in, the look in his eyes told me all I needed to know.

‘Your sister?’

The radio crackled in his pocket. I made out a gravel-voiced ‘Ramzi! Ramzi!’ Then Salkic pressed the button and spoke. I couldn’t see that he was crying, but I could hear it. He was doing his best to make sure that whoever was at the other end couldn’t do the same.

Nasir mumbled away to himself, then started to rant at no one in particular.

Benzil’s eyes widened again. ‘What is it, Ramzi? What do they want?’

‘To know where Hasan is.’

Before I could say anything, a piercing scream echoed round the cave. Nasir ripped the radio from Salkic’s hands and cracked it against the rock, but the screams and begging continued from just beyond the cave mouth.

Salkic lay with his arms over his head to try to block out the world. I knew exactly how he felt.

Nasir scrambled over the rocks and ran towards the light.

‘For fuck’s sake!’

I picked up my AK and started after him, flicking the safety down to full automatic. He might want to kill me once this was over, but I needed him alive if we were going to have a chance of getting out of there first. He kept left, weapon in the shoulder, oblivious to me behind him.

Fifteen metres to go and the moans and cries outside were drowned by the crunching of our feet on the rock chips. I checked safety again.

We only made it another five metres before another barrel appeared in front of us and fired a long burst into the cave. Nasir stood his ground and got some rounds down as I moved to his right and joined in.

Nasir didn’t need any shouting at. We were on autopilot. He turned on the spot, ran back a few paces, stopped, turned and fired. I followed suit as we fired and manoeuvred back to safety. I could taste the cordite as empty cases clinked off the walls.

I turned for the last time to see Nasir and Jerry firing from the rocks. As I ran and hurled myself over the pile between them, I could feel the pressure waves of Nasir’s AK against my face as they covered me in.

Everything fell silent, apart from the hissing of my barrel as I put it on the ground and it made contact with a puddle. Nasir slapped me on the shoulder as we both climbed back up to our vantage-point. It seemed as if I was in his good books at last, but I wouldn’t stop watching my back.

We kept our eyes on the entrance as we both changed mags. I only had thirteen rounds left; I fed them all into one mag.

I heard a whimper then a shout behind me, and took a moment to work out where it came from. Nasir shook his head and pleaded with Salkic. The Motorola had survived his attempt to destroy it, and Salkic wanted to listen. His sister was sobbing, but defiant.

Salkic tried to mutter a few words of comfort but ended up in tears. His tormentor mocked and jeered as her sobs turned into rhythmic cries of pain.

Nasir ripped the radio from Salkic’s hands, hurled it to the ground and stamped on it, but it brought them only a few seconds’ respite. We could hear her outside, closer now, and Salkic retreated into a dark place of his own as his sister’s agony filtered into the cave. ‘She told me to be strong, and I will be,’ he murmured to himself. ‘The most important thing is protecting Hasan.’

Nasir sparked up, shouting at the top of his voice. If my guess was right, it had less to do with anger than drowning sound.

We all went quiet, apart from Nasir, who carried on trying to keep the cries at bay.