Deep Black

8

Two minutes passed, and still nothing.

I hit the pressle and her voice was waiting for me. ‘Blue Shark Echo, radio check.’

I spoke quietly, I didn’t whisper. Whispering always comes over as mush on the net, and in any case you always do it louder than you think; it’s better just to keep your voice really low and constant. ‘Blue Shark Echo. OK, I’m OK. What’s happening? There’s no strike. No strike, over.’

‘That’s a no strike, no strike.’ It was like she was taking an order at McDonald’s. ‘Wait out. Wait out.’

She obviously didn’t know what was happening either, but I couldn’t wait long for an answer. I needed to conserve battery power on the LTD in case I was going to have to stay here and redesignate.

The pause was taking too long. It was six minutes now since the attack should have happened. Renewed screams and cries for help came from the office block. The voice sounded different. The girl must have been replaced.

I was just about to hit the pressle again when she came back on. ‘Blue Shark Echo, Blue Shark Echo? Wait out, wait out.’

This wasn’t good enough. ‘Do I still designate? Do I have a platform?’

All she did was repeat, ‘Wait out.’

What was I supposed to do? I kept the LTD running. Why the fuck couldn’t Sarajevo get their act together?

I caught a blur of red in my peripheral vision and swung the binos.