The inside of the chopper was drab and uncomfortable. The floor was covered with a thick, rubbery material and the sides were plastered with hooks.
Two pilots sat up front with a bewildering bank of controls at their fingertips. Propped up on their helmets they had a pair of night-vision goggles: darkness, after all, was just around the corner. It seemed impossible to Ben that only that morning he and Aarya had left the green zone and gone into the caves. A radio crackled noisily. Just behind the pilots were the positions for two side gunners. The guns themselves looked like something from the Second World War, with long links of ammunition trailing out beside them. The rest of the unit bundled in. Matt and Jack took the side-gunners’ positions, while Ricki, instead of closing the side doors, just slung a piece of rope across the opening. He had barely taken his place before the chopper rose suddenly and swiftly into the air. Looking out of the window, Ben saw the military base grow smaller, before the Black Hawk tilted in mid-air and then swerved sharply. The next thing he knew, he was gazing down onto a huge river that stretched as far as he could see into the twilight distance.
‘The Helmand River,’ Ricki shouted above the noise of the chopper. ‘It travels the length of Helmand Province. The Kajaki dam is at the northern end. That’s where we think your man must be headed.’
Ben listened carefully. ‘How big is this dam?’ he shouted over the noise.
‘Big,’ Ricki replied. ‘And important. It’s the site of a hydroelectric turbine. When the turbine is fully operational, it can supply electricity to millions of people in Helmand Province. It’s a major piece of infrastructure and heavily defended. The enemy are constantly trying to attack it.’
Ben shook his head. ‘I don’t understand. Why would the Taliban want to destroy it?’
‘Not all of them do,’ Ricki shouted back. ‘Most of them just want to control the ground. But some of them don’t want there to be electricity. Some of them want life to be like it was a hundred years ago.’
Ben blinked. He seemed to remember Aarya saying something similar back in her village.
Ricki carried on talking. ‘It’s not just the turbine that’s the problem,’ he said. ‘If the dam gets blown up, it could flood the whole of the Sangin valley. There are settlements up and down the river that could just be washed away. We’re talking thousands of deaths, Ben — not just now, but in the years to come from the radiation. That’s why we have to stop this bomb.’
Ben paused for a moment while the reality of what they were doing sank in. Outside, it was almost dark; Ben thought he could see the lights of individual settlements dotted along each side of the river. He shuddered to think that, if Amir got his way, all those lights would suddenly — and permanently — go out.
‘The bomb,’ Ben asked Ricki. ‘Is it really big enough to take out the whole dam?’
Ricki exchanged a meaningful look with the rest of his crew. ‘If it’s what I think it is,’ he said, ‘then yes. I’ve heard of these suitcase nukes. We all have. To be honest, I wasn’t even sure if they existed — you know, just part of military folklore. The Russians made them back in the nineteen seventies, but they’ve all been lost.’
‘Or hidden,’ Toby interrupted.
‘Or stolen,’ added Jack.
Ricki nodded in agreement. ‘Whatever happened to them,’ he said, ‘rumour is they have an explosive capability of a couple of kilotons.’
‘Is that a lot?’ Ben asked.
Ricki nodded. ‘Forget the Kajaki dam,’ he said. ‘That’s enough to take out Niagara Falls.’
Ben couldn’t help feeling slightly sick at the thought.
The pilot was wearing his NV goggles now. Suddenly his radio burst into life. ‘Attention Alpha Three Tango’ — an urgent voice came over the loudspeaker — ‘Attention Alpha Three Tango. Do you copy? Over.’
The pilot replied with a calm, steady voice. ‘This is Alpha Three Tango. We copy. Over.’
‘We have an emergency situation, Alpha Three Tango. Forward Operating Base Jackson. Enemy advancing on the FOB. Several men down and one British civilian on the ground, a Dr Bel Kelland. All available helicrews diverted to assist. Over.’
Ben’s eyes widened and his blood ran cold. ‘That’s my mum!’ he screamed. ‘Ricki, that’s my mum. We’ve got to turn back!’
But Ricki said nothing. It was the pilot’s call to answer. ‘This is Alpha Three Tango. Currently on course for Kajaki. Priority one, repeat, priority one. Cannot divert. You must have other guys in the area.’
‘Affirmative,’ came the reply. ‘Alpha Three Tango, you are cleared to continue your operation. Over.’
‘Roger that,’ the pilot replied. ‘Over and out.’
‘NO!’ Ben screamed. ‘We can’t just leave her there!’ He got to his feet.
Instantly, Ricki pushed him back down. ‘No one’s leaving anyone anywhere, Ben. If your mum’s in trouble, they’ll be sending air crews in to extract her right now.’
‘But—’
‘No buts, Ben. Listen to me. If she’s at FOB Jackson, the most important thing you can do is stick with us. That base is right by the river. If the dam blows, she’ll be underwater before you know it.’
Ben stared at him. Everything seemed to be crashing around about his ears. First Aarya, now his mum. Amir’s face, with its one milky eye, hovered on the edge of his vision. The very thought of him made Ben’s lip curl.
The SAS man stared back at him. A cool, level gaze. He could tell there was no way he’d be changing his mind.
‘All right,’ he said finally. ‘Let’s go and sort this out.’ Ben looked out of the window, and watched the Afghan darkness slip by.
At FOB Jackson, a weird silence had descended. Weird and terrible. Darkness all around. The dead soldier lay in front of the gates, motionless. No one could get to his body because to do so would mean stepping into the enemy’s line of fire. There was an occasional burst from the GPMG, but Bel sensed that these were just warning shots. As if to confirm this suspicion, Mears hissed: ‘They haven’t got a fix on the enemy. They don’t know where they are.’
Bel closed her eyes and tried to get rid of the utter dread that was seeping through her body. She thought of Ben, and of Russell, her husband. Where were they now? Did they have any idea of what was happening? Would she ever see them again?
A noise in the distance, from somewhere overhead. Mears breathed out a heavy sigh of relief.
‘What?’ Bel asked.
‘Apache,’ he replied.
‘A what?’
‘An Apache attack helicopter.’
‘How can you tell?’
Mears shrugged. ‘You get used to the sound. It’ll be here any second.’
He wasn’t wrong. Before Bel knew what was happening, the noise became louder and she could discern the sound of rotary blades.
A flash of light from the sky, then the Apache flew overhead, incredibly low — only metres above the wall of the compound, like some huge spirit in the sky. The beams of light shooting from it lit up the compound, illuminating both the dead and the living. The noise of the blades pulsated through Bel’s body as it slipped over the compound and hovered just outside the gates.
And then it fired.
The noise of the attack helicopter’s weapons made the GPMG sound like a toy gun. It fired short bursts, and although Bel couldn’t see what was happening, she could well imagine how destructive they were.
She never thought a weapon of such destruction would bring her such relief.
She found herself holding her breath. Mears put his head over the top of the sandbags and Bel followed suit, just in time to see the Apache rise into view again above the compound walls. It hovered there for a few seconds.