You wouldn t want to know. Dillon jumped down to the ground, reached up to help Sara, who was followed by Holley, who had found a large black umbrella in the helicopter and opened it, pulling Sara close to him in the pouring rain as they walked.
Inside the Raptor, Slay, Hamza, and Miller were still holding back, and Wali Hussein said, What s he got in the bag, Colonel?
Hamza ignored him and focused on Ibrahim farther up the street.
A very nasty-looking piece of work has just appeared, black robes, armed to the teeth. He probably doesn t kill anyone, just scares them to death.
Wali raised his voice. I m not interested in that. I asked you what s in the bag.
Greg said, What do you think? A special thank-you present for Ali Selim.
For a moment, Wali sat there staring down at them, his face working, and then he shook his head. I don t know what s going on, but I m not having it.
He felt under the center of the instrument panel, pressed, and a flap fell down with a. 38 snub-nosed Colt held by a clip. He turned, and Hamza tried to pull his Browning out of his holster. Wali fired wildly, hand shaking, missed Hamza but shot Miller in the shoulder, knocking him off his feet.
At the same moment, Greg Slay drew the. 25 Belgian Leon from his ankle holster and shot Wali Hussein between the eyes, killing him instantly. He reached up, caught him by the belt, heaved him down, and rolled the body out under the machine gun to fall to the ground.
Hamza turned from examining Miller. What now?
God knows what effect the sound of shooting will have on this place, but you ve got the machine gun, and I ll fly this damn thing, so be ready for anything, Slay said.
Dillon, Holley, and Sara paused in the middle of the street at the sound of the shots, and ahead of them doors opened, and tribesmen, with AK-47s at the ready, emerged. Holley dropped the open umbrella to the ground, obscuring them for a moment. Sara reached inside Dillon s bag, grabbed a pineapple grenade in each hand, pulled out the pins with her teeth, then held them up, holding each release bar tightly.
See the gift I bring you, she called in Pashtu.
I ll kill myself and my friends, but also every man in a fifteen-meter radius.
She released the bars, and there were cries of dismay. They turned and fled as she lobbed the grenades, chasing them. The effect was catastrophic, men blown from their feet. Dillon had her by the arm and across the street, kicking the nearest door open, Holley following them.
There was no one at home, although a fire smoldered on a stone hearth. Dillon and Holley had taken Uzi machine pistols from the bag and passed another to Sara. They all went down to floor level as a storm of bullets few in, splintering the wooden shutters at the windows.
I ll check the back, Dillon said.
He reached the kitchen as the outside door opened and a man appeared, whom he knocked backward into the yard with a quick burst of fire, then closed and barred the door. He returned to the others, crawling as bullets reduced the shutters to matchwood. Firing stopped for a moment, and Holley peered out cautiously.
I can see at least twenty out there. I think they ll try to rush us at any moment.
Indeed, there was the chatter of the Raptor s machine gun, and in that instant, Holley saw seven or eight men go down in the street. He looked the other way at the Raptor.
It s Colonel Hamza doing the firing. Maybe we could make a run for it.
There was the unmistakable rattle of a helicopter approaching, and Holley peered out to see another Raptor swoop in, a machine gun poking out of it, a man standing behind it, ready to fire, just too late, as Greg Slay boosted engine power to lift off with extraordinary rapidity, causing the other Raptor to take immediate evasive action to avoid a midair collision, exactly what Slay had intended.
The other Raptor needed to fly parallel to be able to bring its machine gun to bear, but Greg Slay, his skills honed by years of flying in combat zones, put the Raptor through a dazzling sequence of avoidance turns, during which Hamza s attempts to bring the machine gun to bear on the other craft proved as fruitless as his opponent s.
Slay half cursed, aware of Miller in the far corner, clutching a bloody shoulder, and shouted to Hamza, This is getting us nowhere. Try an RPG. I ll increase speed and look as if we re fleeing while you get ready, then we ll turn and take him head-on. Don t forget your safety harness.
Hamza took it down from a peg, slipped it on and buckled it, the webbing strap with the hook hanging. He dropped to his knees beside Miller and the box of grenades beside him.
As he opened it, he shouted above the cacophony, How bad are you?
Miller had his scarf tucked inside his tunic. I ll survive, don t worry about me. Just blow these bastards away.
That s exactly what I intend to do.
He had the launcher out, inserted a grenade, then hooked himself on by the machine gun and waited. They curved round and went headfirst for the approaching Raptor, whose pilot panicked, turning away and exposing his blind side so that Hamza, trusting his restraining strap to hold him, was able to lean out to fire.
The hit was a direct one. There was a colossal explosion, the other Raptor a great ball of fire as it mushroomed in the rain, pieces of the wreckage flying all over the place and then descending through a pall of smoke.
Slay half turned again and laughed harshly. Bloody good show, Colonel. That s given Ali Selim something to think about. Hamza stepped back, unhooked his safety belt, and Slay added, If you look in that locker above Major Miller, you ll find a pretty comprehensive medical kit. While you re attending to him, I ll take us back to Amira, and we ll see what the situation is there.
Ali Selim had stayed in the porch to watch the air battle far out over the plain, recognized the undoubted superiority of Greg Slay s flying skills, and knew defeat when he saw it, the situation hardly helped by fifteen or so dead or wounded tribesmen sprawled in the street in the rain.
He said into his mobile, You must have seen what happened, Omar. Stay where you are. Be prepared for a quick exit. He turned to Ibrahim. Bring the jeep out of the barn. We ll leave at once.
He stayed on the porch, watching the Raptor approaching in the distance, the remains of the other one sending a towering column of black smoke into the sky, and smiled slightly. Defeat was for this occasion only. There would be other times.
He turned inside the house, found his briefcase and laptop, put them into a bag, and went out to the backyard, where Ibrahim had already driven the jeep out of the barn and was waiting behind the wheel. Ali Selim climbed in and they drove away.
As they bumped along a track, scattering sheep to one side, Ibrahim said, A bad business, master.
Life often is you should have learned that by now. I m not finished with Ferguson and his people. There will be other days.
So where next? Ibrahim asked as slush that the windscreen wipers were unable to clear obscured his vision.
A place where the sun shines on a regular basis would be a change. Arabia, or Oman or, I know, Rubat, where our good friend Owen Rashid s uncle is Sultan. Would you like that?
Ibrahim, who was driving one-handed and reaching out through an open window in an attempt to clear the slush with his hand, said,
I would prefer it to this, master.
Excellent. That s where we shall go. It fits into my plans perfectly, Selim told him, and they topped the hill and started their descent to the Raptor waiting in the hollow below.
Greg Slay flew over the rooftops a couple of times, Hamza loosing off a machine-gun burst or two into the air to show that they still meant business, but only Dillon, Holley, and Sara appeared, waving up at them. Slay put the Raptor down and Hamza stood behind the machine gun, an intimidating figure, as Dillon and Holley walked backward, one on each side of Sara, weapons ready for trouble.