Recoil

12

04:20 hours

They came at us in waves, maybe fifteen to twenty bodies at a time. The flash eliminator at the end of my gun barrel glowed red from the sheer number of rounds that had rattled through. Standish was certainly getting his body count now.

When the lull came, I opened the top cover in an attempt to cool the working parts.

Sam called round for ammo states. The shouts that came back from all of us were exactly the same: ‘Low.’

‘All right, listen in. First light’s in two hours. Davy and Nick, get Gary and the rest of them on the back of our wagon.’

I left the gun on the terrace with the top cover up, and went over to Frankenstein’s body.

Davy looked up. ‘He’s stiffening.’ He was trying to get Gary’s arms down by his side. ‘Another hour or so and we won’t get him down the stairs.’

I grabbed under his armpits and Davy took his legs. He looked shaken.

‘You all right, mate?’

‘It’s just . . . Well, I know his girlfriend. They have a couple of kids together.’ Davy grunted with the effort. ‘But she’s going to get fuck-all. She didn’t want to marry this fucker.’ He nodded at Frankenstein’s head, lolling from side to side as we moved along the landing.

We got to the top of the stairs and the stench of shit and death hit my nostrils.

We carried Frankenstein down the staircase the best way we could, got him past the other bodies and the gold and on to the back of our wagon.

Standish and Annabel were sitting against a wheel of the Renault. He was setting up the comms, and clearly brooding. We’d fucked him off big-time, but so what? He could do all the talking and organizing he liked, but he most definitely wasn’t one of us.

‘So what will she do?’

‘Fuck knows. The army’s not going to do anything – she’s not “wife of”.’

There was a shout from Sam, up on the parapet. ‘Davy, Nick – stay there.’

A minute later he materialized out of the gloom. ‘Get out and scavenge some mags. We’ll cover.’

I looked through the gap I’d shot in the wall. More than a dozen bodies lay scattered in the moonlight. If Davy thought Gary’s girl had pension problems, what about the girlfriends of this lot?

We scrambled over the rubble into no man’s land.