Ben’s insistence almost appeared to amuse the SAS man, who seemed intuitively to know that nothing was going to stop him from going to help his mum, no matter how dangerous it was. More than that, he seemed to understand it. ‘You’re getting obstinate in your old age,’ he had shouted.
‘Just part of my charm,’ Ben replied, his face totally serious.
The chopper had barely been on the ground for two minutes — just time to offload — before they had taken off again. It was now mostly empty, to leave plenty of space for the evacuation they anticipated making.
Ben looked out from one of the side-gunners’ positions. They were flying high, following the course of the river. The moon still sparkled on the water, making the ground below them as beautiful as it was perilous. Adrenaline surged through him, replacing his exhaustion with a new sense of purpose. His mum was going to be all right.
Ricki turned to him.
‘We’ll be at FOB Jackson in about two minutes,’ he yelled over the noise of the chopper. ‘That’s where your mum is, Ben.’
Ben clenched his jaw and nodded.
‘I’m not going to lie to you. The soldiers defending the base have taken casualties. Deaths. There’s no confirmation who. It’s possible your mum is one of them, we just can’t say.’ Ben’s blood ran cold, but he did his best to concentrate on what Ricki was telling him. ‘The base is surrounded by enemy combatants. They’ve already brought down one attack helicopter and nearly downed another.’
‘What’s going to stop them doing the same thing again?’ Ben asked.
‘The pilots are going to switch off all the lights and use night vision to approach. The enemy will be able to hear us, but they won’t be able to see us until we’re right on top of them. We’ll have the element of surprise, but that doesn’t mean we won’t take incoming fire, and the enemy might just get lucky.’ He handed Ben his weapon. ‘I meant what I said before, Ben. This isn’t a toy. But if you need it, use it. Me and Matt are going to provide covering fire from the side-gunners’ positions.’
Ben nodded, his face serious, and he took the gun. If he’d expected to feel better with that weapon in his hands, he was wrong. He checked the safety catch was on, then put it to one side, doing his best to pretend that it wasn’t there, but at the same time running through the instructions Ricki had given him on the weapon’s use earlier that night.
They started to lose height. Ben felt his stomach churning as Ricki and Matt attached their night-vision goggles and approached the side-gunners’ positions. He edged towards the back of the chopper, taking the weapon with him, nervous sweat pouring from his body.
Ben took a deep breath and closed his eyes. He only opened them again when he heard the sound of firing. It was like thunder inside the chopper. Ricki and Matt were firing in short bursts, one followed by another. Ben watched the links of ammo chug into the guns as the chopper continued to lose height. He tried not to think about what would happen if they attracted enemy fire.
The aircraft wobbled. Heavier bursts of fire from the SAS men. Ben grabbed hold of the M16 to stop it sliding along the floor.
A change in the sound of the engines. Higher-pitched. From the side of the chopper Ben saw compound walls. The SAS men left the side guns and Ricki grabbed his M16 from Ben. ‘We’re landing in the middle of the base,’ he shouted. ‘You’re going to need to help people up.’ He handed Ben a torch. ‘Use this to guide them in.’
Ben jumped into action just as he felt the chopper touch down. Ricki and Matt hurled themselves from the side of the aircraft as Ben looked out. Through the darkness he saw scenes of devastation. To his right, a boundary wall with a huge hole blown into it and just beyond it, barely visible, the tangled remains of a downed helicopter. Ricki and Matt had positioned themselves between their Black Hawk and that hole and had started to discharge their M16s in the direction of the destroyed wall. The noise of the weapons, on top of the roar of the chopper, was almost deafening. Ben switched on the torch Ricki had given him. It was small but powerful. Almost immediately it illuminated a terrible sight: figures lying on the ground, entirely still. The sight sent a shiver down his spine.
He turned and looked through the other side of the aircraft, shining his torch out into the base. All he saw was confusion — people running towards him. In the light of his torch he saw flashes of camouflage gear; and beyond that, a body lying on the ground. ‘This way!’ he shouted. ‘Follow the light!’
Ben tried to pick out the faces of the people running to the chopper. He knew what he was looking for, but with each face that was not his mum, he felt a sickness growing in his stomach.
‘This way!’ he shouted again. ‘This way!’ Ricki and Matt’s M16s continued to fire in the background.
The first of the soldiers reached him. He didn’t look surprised to see someone of Ben’s age, but then Ben realized that he was hidden behind the light of the torch. He held out one hand to help the soldier up into the helicopter, but at the last moment the soldier stepped aside. The beam of light from the torch lit up three more figures. Two of them were armed, flanking the third figure, which they quickly manoeuvred up towards the side of the helicopter. And the sight of that figure made a wave of total relief crash over Ben.
He barely recognized his mum. Her face was dirty, her clothes torn and her eyes wide with fright. She stumbled as her chaperones hustled her towards the chopper. ‘Help her up!’ one of them shouted at him.
Ben didn’t need telling twice. He held out his arm and grabbed his mother’s hand firmly. ‘It’s OK,’ he shouted. ‘We’re going to get you out of here.’
Bel stopped. A look of confusion crossed her face as she peered towards him, trying to see past the glare of the torch. ‘Ben?’ she whispered.
He tugged on her arm. ‘Get up, Mum,’ he shouted. ‘We can’t stay on the ground for long.’ Behind her a small crowd of soldiers had congregated, waiting for her to get in. She clambered into the chopper, her face still a picture of astonishment.
‘What are you doing here, Ben?’ she said as she scurried to the back of the chopper.
‘It’s, er… it’s kind of a long story,’ he bellowed as he helped the soldiers up.
‘Then you’d better start talking, young man!’ she shrieked. Ben couldn’t tell if she was angry or relieved.
‘Actually, Mum,’ he shouted back, ‘I think I might wait until we’re out of here.’ He helped the last of the soldiers onto the chopper. ‘Are there any more?’ he demanded of the man.
The soldier shook his head. ‘We’ll have to come back for the bodies,’ he said grimly.
Quickly, Ben moved to the other side of the chopper. Ricki and Matt still had their backs to the helicopter and were keeping up the covering fire. He raised his torch to illuminate them, but at the last moment stopped himself. The SAS men wouldn’t thank him for lighting them up like a Christmas tree, he realized. Instead he called out to them. ‘Guys!’ he yelled. ‘Everyone’s on. Everyone’s on!’
Ricki raised one hand — a thumbs-up — and the two of them started to walk backwards, firing their M16s as they went, their backs slightly arched to protect them from the force of the helicopter’s rotary blades. The chopper’s engines changed pitch again: the aircraft was preparing to take off. Matt turned and jumped up into the body of the helicopter while Ricki continued the covering fire. Then he too joined them. He had barely set foot inside the aircraft when it lifted off the ground. Within seconds the SAS men had taken their side-gunners’ positions again: their weapons pounded above the noise of the rotary blades as the pilots gained height with a speedy, sickening lurch before swinging the chopper round and roaring away from the base.