And then it happened.
Bel didn’t hear the sound of the ground fire above the noise of the chopper. But she definitely saw its effects. A flash of red as a blast hit the Apache, just below the rotary blades, and the huge metal machine suddenly started to spin dangerously out of control. The beams of light flashed then receded like some terrifying fairground attraction. There wouldn’t be any candy floss tonight, though.
‘What’s happening?’ Bel shrieked. ‘What’s happening?’ For once, Mears didn’t have an answer. He too looked on in shocked astonishment as the Apache, twirling now like some sort of demented, shining spinning top, sank from view.
And then came the explosion.
It made the walls of the compound shake. A great ball of fire rose up into the air — even from where Bel was hiding she could feel the heat — and an enormous, dull red mushroom cloud billowed up into the sky.
‘Apache down! Apache down!’ Somebody was screaming the news at the top of their voice, even though there was really no need. There couldn’t have been a single person in the vicinity of that explosion who didn’t know what had just happened.
Suddenly Bel felt Mears pulling at her arm. ‘We need to get to the back of the compound!’ he shouted. ‘Away from the chopper.’
‘Why?’
‘Those Apaches carry Hellfire missiles. If one of those goes off, they’ll take out the front of the compound and who knows what else. Run, quickly!’
Bel did as she was told, and they weren’t the only ones who had that idea. Six or seven soldiers ran with them, and as they hit the back wall of the compound, they formed a protective ring around Bel with their rifles pointing directly towards the entrance. Through the blown-apart gates Bel could see thick black smoke and orange flames. Her thoughts turned to the pilot of the Apache. There was no way he could have survived that.
The body count, Bel realized, was mounting. ‘How many men on those things?’ she screamed.
‘Two,’ a voice replied.
Her whole body was trembling now. It was like the worst nightmare she’d ever had, only there was going to be no waking up from this. Mears was next to her, his own breathing heavy and trembling. ‘The enemy won’t want to approach,’ he said. ‘Not with the Apache burning between us and them.’ He sounded like he was trying to reassure himself more than Bel.
‘But… but…’ Bel was finding it difficult to speak. ‘Will they send another helicopter? We need someone to get us out of here. You said we were surrounded!’
Mears kept his weapon pointed at the entrance and didn’t look at her. ‘They’ll have to be careful,’ he said tersely. ‘Normally those Apaches scatter the enemy as soon as they appear — just make them run away. If that didn’t happen, it means they’re confident. I don’t know what they used to shoot the thing down, but our commanders aren’t going to want to send in another one until they know what they’re dealing with.’
‘But it’s night-time,’ Bel said. ‘How are they going to find out?’
Mears breathed out deeply. ‘I don’t know, Dr Kelland. I just don’t know.’
Fear and frustration almost overcame Bel. She felt her knees going weak. ‘Well, what are we going to do in the meantime?’ she hissed.
Graves turned to look at her. His young face was determined but serious. ‘The only thing we can do,’ he said. ‘Wait for reinforcements. And until they come, defend ourselves to the last…’
Chapter Nineteen
Ben felt the Black Hawk losing height. They were coming in to land, but through the window of the chopper, he could see nothing but darkness.
‘Where are we?’ he asked.
Ricki waited until they were on firm ground before he answered. ‘About half a mile from a small town called Angoor.’
‘Shouldn’t we go straight to the dam? I mean, if that’s where Amir’s headed…’
Ricki shook his head. ‘The dam’s being watched by British troops. They’ll let us know if they see anyone approaching, but we want to find this guy before he gets close. Angoor’s an enemy stronghold. That means no troops. It’s the closest place to the dam that Amir could be sure of not bumping into ISAF forces. We’re going to ask a few questions, see if anyone can put us on the right track.’
‘Right,’ Ben said. ‘Doesn’t that, er… doesn’t that make it kind of dangerous for us?’
Ricki nodded. ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘It does. We’ve landed at a distance, so we need to approach the town on foot. When we’re there, we’re going to ask a few people a few questions.’
‘Who?’
The SAS man winked. ‘Wait and see,’ he said. His face became serious again. He held up his rifle. ‘Listen carefully, Ben. You’re not armed and you’re not going to be. But if anything happens to the rest of us, you need to know how to use one of these.’
Ben looked apprehensively at the weapon.
‘This is an M sixteen,’ Ricki continued. As he spoke, he pointed out the different parts of the weapon. ‘This is the trigger. You know what that does. This is the safety catch. It’s on at the moment, but you can switch it to semi-automatic or fully automatic. On semi-automatic the gun will fire one shot every time the trigger is pulled. On automatic, the weapon will continue firing until the magazine is exhausted or you take your finger off the trigger. Have you got that?’
‘Yes,’ Ben replied. ‘I think so.’
Ricki pointed to the other side of the weapon. ‘This is the magazine release catch. This thing coming out of the bottom is the magazine. Holds thirty rounds. Once you’ve loaded a new magazine you pull back these two lugs.’ He indicated a lever at the back of the weapon. ‘When you’ve done that, your weapon’s fully loaded, so the safety catch has to be on unless you’re going to discharge it.’
‘I’m sort of hoping I won’t have to.’
‘Me too,’ said Ricki. At the back of the weapon there was an extendable telescopic arm. ‘This digs into your shoulder to keep your gun steady,’ he went on. ‘Flick this switch here to move it in and out and get it into a comfortable firing position.’ He held the weapon up and tapped on a cylindrical object at the top. ‘This is a hologram sighting system. Look through it.’
Ben did as he was told.
‘Do you see a red dot?’
‘Yeah, I see it.’
‘That’s where the rounds will fall.’ He lowered the gun. ‘This tube at the end of the barrel is a suppressor. It silences the sound of the gunfire. We use these so that if we’re in a contact situation, it’s difficult for the enemy to locate our position.’ He gave Ben an extremely serious look. ‘Listen to me, Ben. This thing is not a toy. The sights aren’t zeroed in to your eye and you’ve never fired one before. You only touch it if you’re in the worst case scenario. Have you got that?’
Ben nodded.
‘OK.’
At the back of the chopper there was a flight case. Ricki opened it and pulled out a number of stained Afghan robes. ‘Dishdash,’ he said curtly as he handed them round. He gave one to Ben. ‘This should fit you,’ he said. ‘We’re never going to look like Afghans, but if we put these over our clothes, we should merge into the background a bit better, and for longer.’
Ben pulled his robe over his head. It was heavy and made from a coarse, uncomfortable cloth. It also didn’t smell that good. He noticed that the others kept their M16s hidden under their dishdashes: in seconds they’d gone from looking like awesome fighting machines to regular guys.
‘Let’s go,’ Rick instructed.