Deep Black

81

There was a few seconds’ stunned silence as I slid down rocks next to Jerry and took the Thuraya out of his bumbag. The little red LED glowed brightly in the gloom when I hit the switch. ‘Your sister got a phone?’

He recited the number and I tapped the buttons.

‘We’ll need to get nearer the entrance for a signal. Can we call Nuhanovic to get us out of this shit?’

Salkic shook his head. ‘He has no phones. I drive there each time we need to talk. I’m sorry, this is not all your fault. I was in too much of a hurry after meeting you and Benzil. They must have followed me to the farm. Now we all have to pay the price.’

I checked Baby-G and the Thuraya: 06:47 and no signal.

I pulled up the antenna and pointed it at the entrance. ‘You up for it?’

He stood, without a flicker of fear.

‘Stay to the right, hugging that wall. If there’s trouble, just turn and run back. Whatever you do, don’t move into the centre of the cave.’

I held out my AK to Jerry. ‘Can you handle one of these?’

He didn’t look too sure, but he’d probably photographed enough guys using them to have a vague idea of which end was which.

‘Ramzi, tell Nasir what we’re doing. Tell him, if he’s got to fire, to use single rounds and aim. We must save ammunition. Got that?’

He nodded and started to gob off in Serbo-Croat while Jerry took the AK.

‘There’s one in the chamber. You know how to work the safety catch?’

To my surprise, he immediately looked in the right place. The safety on an AK is a long lever on the right-hand side. All the way up is safe; first click down is fully automatic; next click down is single shot. Old Soviet doctrine: lots of firepower and not much aiming.

I took his pistol, a 9mm semi-automatic made in South Korea by Daewoo, the car people, and told him not to fire unless Nasir had a stoppage or got dropped. I didn’t want to be in more danger from Jerry than the bastards outside.

‘OK, Ramzi, you ready?’

Benzil gave a bit of a good-luck wave. Salkic nodded to him. ‘If God wants me to die today, then so be it.’

‘Enough of that fucking Muslim fatalism.’ I meant it. ‘Just have a quick word with him now so you stay alive and get us to Nuhanovic, all right?’

He patted my arm. ‘Inshallah.’

We bent low, trying to become part of the rock. After ten metres we had to get down on our stomachs and crawl through the puddles and chunks of rubble.

I checked the Thuraya every metre. One bar would be enough. Sweat poured down my face, despite the cold. And my twelve-dollar coat was no barrier to more stagnant water and mud. Sharp stone chips cut into my elbows and knees. The pain would come later.

I could hear them outside now, just to the right of the cave mouth. I stopped, Thuraya in my left hand, 9mm in my right, trigger finger out straight over the guard, thumb on the safety catch. No way was I giving myself the slightest opportunity to have an ND [negligent discharge] as we moved forward.

Still no bars, maybe ten metres short of the entrance.

‘Salkic! Salkic!’ It was Motorola voice again, followed by that mocking laugh.

Nasir screamed back. Whether they knew it or not, these guys were doing us a favour. The more noise they made, the more cover it gave us.

We inched forward. About two metres from the end, a bar appeared in the display. I stopped and motioned Salkic to come up level with me. Even Jerry joined in the shouting now. Nasir might be angry, but he wasn’t stupid.

I hit Send on the number and passed the Thuraya to him. Then I held the pistol out in front of me, left hand supporting the right, aiming at about chest height, safety off and first pad of my finger on the trigger.

Nasir and Jerry were still letting the guys outside know what they thought of them at top volume, but they weren’t getting much in return. Maybe the flat tops were becoming bored. Then I heard a roar of laughter. Whatever was being said, the flat tops thought it was pretty funny.

I hadn’t heard Salkic say a word. I felt a tap on my arm and he passed me the phone. He didn’t look happy. I listened; it was still ringing. I hit the button and leaned over so I was speaking right into his ear. My eyes were still forward, pistol out, pad on the trigger, safety off. ‘You definitely know where we are?’

He nodded slowly. With my left hand, I fished around in my jeans for the Holiday Inn card and tapped in the number. ‘Tell the hotel we’re being robbed. They’re armed. We need SFOR.’

I pressed Send and handed it over. While I concentrated on the entrance he muttered quietly into the mouthpiece.

Someone outside bellowed Salkic’s name again and he took advantage of the noise to repeat the information more loudly.

The barrel of an AK poked round into the cave at about waist height. I took first pressure on the trigger of the Daewoo, my eyes glued to a point just above the muzzle.

I caught a glimpse of cheekbone and pulled the pistol up until I had the clear and focused foresight centre mass of the target. The rear sight was out of focus, just as it should be. The first pad of my forefinger squeezed the trigger a couple of millimetres, until I felt the first pressure stopping me moving it back any further.

Salkic was still mumbling into the phone, but I shut every ounce of background noise out of my head as I watched the cheekbone grow into a face, which half turned so its mouth could shout more efficiently into the cave. I could see the veins in its temple swell with effort as spit flew from its lips.

Then he turned to fire.

The weapon’s foresight was level with his upper lip as I took second pressure. The pistol kicked in my hands and the boy crumpled. Another AK, attached to a pair of hands, appeared and fired. I could feel the pressure waves of the rounds above me, then a volley of single shots rang out from behind us.

When the AK finally stopped, I pushed myself up against the rock, kept my head down, and started to run.

Heavy 7.62 short rounds started to bounce off the walls again but there was nothing we could do about it. We just had to keep low and keep moving.

As I scrambled over the rock piles into cover, Salkic was at my shoulder, still firing.

‘Stop! Stop! Save the ammo!’

I grabbed the phone from Salkic and switched it off. ‘What did they say? They understand?’

His chest heaved. ‘I think so. And they must have heard the firing.’ He slumped against the rock pile, trying to catch his breath.

Nasir and Jerry had stopped firing. The only sounds now were our breathing and the shouts that echoed from just outside the cave mouth.

Jerry took back the phone. ‘Maybe she was out at the shops. Maybe they couldn’t find her . . .’

Salkic looked up, his eyes full of concern as he looked beyond us for Nasir. ‘We’ll see.’ His voice was far too calm. It was that fatalism shit again.