Golden Serpent

CHAPTER 49

Sawtell wanted a man to stay at the tunnel entrance while Fitzy, the tunnel rat, went down fi rst. He wanted Spikey in second for any tricky locks or doors and he wanted complete radio silence.

The men slapped pockets, tucked boot laces into the tops and turned watches inward.

Mac suggested Paul sit this one out, what with the ribs, the face and the ankle. Paul just smiled and downed another handful of painkillers.

The tunnel was steel-lined so the soldiers wrapped M4s in their BDU shirts, tying them over their shoulders like a swag to stop them knocking and echoing. Mac and Paul couldn’t use a shirt so they’d need to stick especially tight to the ladder.

Mac was fourth down, Paul after him. They dipped into the tunnel and moved down the rungs. Mac kept looking up to reassure himself there was light above, but after fi ve minutes, he forced himself to look down to make his eyes adjust to the murk.

They made their way further and further into the tunnel. It got so cold the sweat on the back of Mac’s ovies started turning icy. The only sound was muffl ed boots on rungs, shallow breaths. Eleven adult men in a narrow steel tube. Almost one living organism operating to its own rhythm. And it was almost totally silent.

At one point Mac heard a muttered ‘fuck’ as one of the guys knocked his G-Shock and it lit up.

They travelled like that for what seemed like an eternity, the tension high. All it would take was one tango at the bottom with an assault rifl e and they’d all be dead.

Unless Fitzy drilled him fi rst.

Mac didn’t know how the US Army Special Forces did it, but in the Royal Marines and the SBS, your designated tunnel rat usually went on ahead. He’d have good night eyes and would be at the bottom of a tube like this, assessing the dangers and opportunities. In the SBS, the jockeys like Fitzy were a special breed. They were also the ones who liked the wet work – the close-in stuff with knives and garrottes.

Mac hoped Fitzy was down there and safe, hoped his night eyes were working better than Mac’s.

At last Mac felt a tap on his back – the sign that he was about to touch ground. He eased onto what felt like concrete, put his hand up and touched Paul on the back as he came down. Mac’s guide then pulled him back one step by the ovies. Mac pulled Paul back one step. And so it went.

They stood in blackness. Unable to see their hands in front of them. When the entire conga line was down, they pulled each other round in a laager, face in, then knelt down as their eyes adjusted to a low-light environment.

Mac got the feeling they were in a side tunnel. It looked to be curved on the ceiling, running at right angles to how the main mine should run.

‘First we fi nd the main shaft,’ said Sawtell, almost whispering.

The men pulled their shirts off their backs, unravelled their M4s and put their BDU tops back on. All in silence.

Mac had quelled his nerves to some extent but he was still uncertain about where they were going and how they’d fi nd the VX.

He fought the panic urge, breathed it through and looked over at Paul, who was strangely serene.

Without noise, Fitzy arrived back and hand-signalled to Sawtell.

Sawtell nodded and they slipped through the blackness behind Fitzy.

After ten minutes they stopped and formed the laager again.

Sawtell tapped Spikey who joined Fitzy at a wall. Mac saw there was an iron door set in the concrete side.

Spikey removed his mini-bergen and leaned against the wall while he assembled something. Mac couldn’t make it out even though Spikey was only two paces away.

The men breathed gently, excited but patient. Spikey seemed to be cranking something. Mac squinted, strained his neck. Paul whispered,

‘Auger.’

The grinding lasted fi fteen minutes, the troop dead silent. Then Spikey knelt at the bag and did something with what looked like a texta. He brought a box out of the bag. Fitzy put his hands near the hole Spikey had augered and Spikey fl icked a switch. A small black and white monitor sprang to life, so bright that hands went up to eyes. In the glow Mac could see that the tunnel was indeed curved, was about nine feet at its highest point, and had the long lines and grooves indicating where the boards had been all those decades ago when the concrete was poured in – probably by slaves.

The light also showed the door, which was iron, about fi ve-foot tall and much like a hatchway on a ship, with a locking wheel in the centre.

Mac saw an image come up on Spikey’s box. They’d put fi bre optic through the wall. Spikey looked over his shoulder at Sawtell who stood, knees creaking, and took the box. By the look of the monitor, there were lights on behind that wall. Mac felt his heart rate picking up. Spikey looked at the captain’s face, not at the monitor, looking for a sign that they were going to get it on. Do what they’d been trained for, fi nish Sabaya, grab the VX, get out of Dodge.

Sawtell didn’t fl inch, his face a mix of concentration, confi dence and professional reticence. He went over and over the same stretch of tunnel then looked over his shoulder at Gordie, a big, red-headed, freckly bloke with a Texan accent. Gordie was given the box and he shifted the picture back and forth too. Sawtell whispered in his ear, gestured with his hand. Mac got the impression Sawtell wanted more escape routes. Wanted better odds, rather than just throwing themselves into that lit tunnel and then trying to work out what to do.

Mac liked that.

Mac also had an idea.

He signalled Sawtell and whispered to him away from the hatchway door.

‘You sure about this?’ asked Sawtell.

‘No,’ Mac whispered.

Sawtell put his hands on his hips.

‘Mate, all I’m saying is that I think that’s a blast door. Get behind it if there’s blasting down the main tunnel,’ said Mac. ‘So logically, the blast tunnel follows the main tunnel all the way down.’

‘You saying that’s not the only door?’ asked Sawtell.

‘I’m pretty sure.’

‘You want to go with Fitzy, check?’

Mac gulped, said, ‘Okay.’

Sawtell chuckled. ‘I’m joking, McQueen. You look like a rabbit caught on the road.’

Fitzy now moved with a Maglite. The knowledge that there was a concrete wall between the main tunnel and the blast tunnel had eased the caution and they moved quickly, semi-jogging, assault rifl es stowed in the almost ready position, past the blast doors that seemed to be spaced two hundred feet apart.

The group moved deeper into the hillside, the cold and damp increasing with every step. Mac sniffl ed, noticed others were too. The dribbles of water of fi fteen minutes before were now running streams down the sides of the blast tunnel. It was getting eerie.

Fitzy suddenly stopped, his hand over the light so it cast a faint glow rather than a beam. Human voices were coming from the other side of the nearest blast door. Sounded like Tagalog.

Sawtell pulled Paul to the front and they listened. Paul whispered something in Sawtell’s ear and they listened some more.

Sawtell whispered something to Fitzy, who took off again. The group followed. When they came to the next door, they stopped and listened. Nothing but the sound of water running down the tunnel walls.

Sawtell pulled up Spikey and Fitzy and they did their thing again.

Now Mac could see how deft Spikey was with the auger and understood what the texta was all about. Spikey had marked the thickness on the fi rst drilling, so on the second and subsequent goes he’d know where to drill to very quickly. Instead of taking fi fteen minutes, it would take three.

What you didn’t want in these situations was the auger going too far, and the crushed mortar spilling out onto someone’s lap on the other side.

So Spikey was being thorough. He pulled the auger, gave thumbs-up. Fitzy brought the box with the fi bre optic camera and Spikey turned it on, got a picture. Fitzy fed it through really slow, until Spikey raised his right hand. Then he manipulated the picture again. To, fro, up, down. Sawtell took his turn. Liked what he saw.

Sawtell pointed at the blast door and Spikey stepped up again.

He pulled a mini grease gun from his bag, set to work on the hinges, trying to rub it in with his fi ngers. Then he greased the locking wheel in the centre of the door and pushed that in with his fi ngers too.

Wide adrenaline-pumped eyes peered out of cammed faces.

M4s were ready all around Mac. Fitzy fi ddled with the Ka-bar on his webbing and they all looked at Sawtell, waiting for the go sign.

Spikey stowed the B amp;E gear, wrapping everything in its own piece of thick felt and putting them carefully in the bag. Then he folded the bag on itself, velcroed it.

Spikey stood and Sawtell nodded.

Mac’s breath got shallow and fast. His fi nger rubbed on the safety.

Spikey stepped to the door, held the locking wheel like he was lifting a twenty-fi ve kilo weight onto a bench press. He put pressure on, his muscles fl exing. He put more on but the locking wheel didn’t budge. He put shoulder and bicep into it, trying to be smooth but with power, face grimacing.

Suddenly Mac felt relief fl ow through the soldiers. The locking wheel had turned.

And then Spikey turned to Sawtell.

The wheel had come off in his hands.