Everything fell silent, apart from the hissing of my barrel as I put it on the ground and it made contact with a puddle. Nasir slapped me on the shoulder as we both climbed back up to our vantage-point. It seemed as if I was in his good books at last, but I wouldn’t stop watching my back.
We kept our eyes on the entrance as we both changed mags. I only had thirteen rounds left; I fed them all into one mag.
I heard a whimper then a shout behind me, and took a moment to work out where it came from. Nasir shook his head and pleaded with Salkic. The Motorola had survived his attempt to destroy it, and Salkic wanted to listen. His sister was sobbing, but defiant.
Salkic tried to mutter a few words of comfort but ended up in tears. His tormentor mocked and jeered as her sobs turned into rhythmic cries of pain.
Nasir ripped the radio from Salkic’s hands, hurled it to the ground and stamped on it, but it brought them only a few seconds’ respite. We could hear her outside, closer now, and Salkic retreated into a dark place of his own as his sister’s agony filtered into the cave. ‘She told me to be strong, and I will be,’ he murmured to himself. ‘The most important thing is protecting Hasan.’
Nasir sparked up, shouting at the top of his voice. If my guess was right, it had less to do with anger than drowning sound.
We all went quiet, apart from Nasir, who carried on trying to keep the cries at bay.
83
Everything went quiet. No more screams, no more shouts, not even from Nasir. Benzil insisted he did his share and went on stag above us, muttering a quiet prayer to himself.
Unless our call was taken seriously and SFOR appeared, night was going to be our only hope. I checked Baby-G: 11:14. If we could hold out until dark, we might be able to break out and make a run for it, especially if the cloud cover held.
‘Oh, God! Oh, God!’
Benzil was no longer praying: he was in shock.
Nasir was the first one up the rocks to join him. I was close behind.
The silhouette swayed in the cave mouth, then staggered a couple of steps to one side. Nasir could not suppress a gasp of anguish.
Salkic and Jerry came up to join us, just as the girl started to stagger in our direction, like a drunk coming down an alley. She lost her balance and bounced against the wall. Nasir pulled his weapon up into the aim as she called out for her brother. ‘Ramzi? Ramzi?’
One hand now against the wall for balance, she took a few more unsteady steps and groaned. Nasir still had his AK up, butt in the shoulder. Tears streamed down his face as he begged Salkic. They argued, and Nasir handed him the weapon.
Like me, Jerry didn’t need a translation. Either before or after the rape, she would have been drugged, then rigged up with explosive. It had happened all the time during the war. Mothers were rigged up and pushed back towards the trenches where their sons, husbands and fathers were holding the line. Serbs or Muslims, it didn’t matter, each side was as bad as the other. Now it looked as if the guys outside had decided that if Salkic wasn’t going to give Nuhanovic away, there was no point keeping him alive. Then again, maybe they just wanted to see how he’d react, and have a bit of fun.
She was no more than twenty metres from us and something needed to happen. But this was family shit and I was keeping well out of it. One of them would have to drop her.
Jerry dragged Benzil down to explain the score as Salkic begged her to stop, choking on his tears. Nasir joined in, but her only response was to hold out her arms, lose her balance and fall to her knees.
Now would be a good time: she was a static target. It would be a cleaner kill.
Salkic’s eyes were on Nasir’s, begging his brother-in-law for help. He couldn’t raise his arms.
Benzil had just worked it out. ‘Oh, God, he is telling him to shoot her . . .’
Salkic finally lifted the weapon into the aim as she tottered to her feet, calling out to him like a child. ‘Ramzi . . . Ramzi . . .’
Nasir urged him on, but the stock just collapsed off his shoulder. Nasir turned his attention to his sister-in-law, pleading with her to stop.
She came a few steps closer. In the gloom, I could see that her nightgown was ripped and she was covered with blood. She was totally spaced out.
I couldn’t see a line behind her.
Maybe she wasn’t rigged up. Maybe this really was just their idea of a good day out.
Nasir screamed at her. The sound reverberated round the cave and she stumbled against the wall, disoriented. She took another couple of steps. I still couldn’t see a line.
Salkic brought the AK into the aim again but it wasn’t going to happen.
She continued to stumble forwards. This had to be done or we’d all be dead.
Fuck this. I got my butt in the shoulder and pushed the safety all the way down to single shot. All the shouting and screaming around me became background noise.
I lined up the rear- and foresight so they were centre mass of her head. She’d be dead before she heard the round fired.
There was a shot from my right and some of the back of her head slapped against the wall.
I turned. Jerry had the 9mm up in the aim.
She was on the ground, but still moving. Nasir grabbed Salkic, pulling him behind the rock pile. The flat tops might detonate her now she was down.
Jerry fired again but his tears and shaking hand got in the way of his aim.
He didn’t miss with his third round. Her body quivered, she gave a low moan, then nothing. I scrambled over, grabbed Jerry, and we joined the others behind the mound.
He took fast, shallow breaths; his whole body was shaking. I eased the weapon out of his hands, applied safe, and put it into his pocket.
We waited, but there was no explosion, only Salkic’s chilling sobs of grief. I wished there had been. It would have made us all feel a lot better to know Jerry had done the right thing.
There was a chorus of laughter and catcalls from the lip of the cave. Nasir held Salkic’s head into his chest. His eyes drilled into me. Benzil crawled back up the rocks.
Salkic pushed Nasir away, dug under his shirt and pulled out the two keys. He handed them to me, fingers caked with mud.
Benzil carried on praying above us as Salkic talked me through the approach to Nuhanovic’s house, explained the whole security set-up. His voice was measured, almost robotic. ‘I am now going to do the two things I wish most: protect Hasan and avenge my sister.’
Benzil protested. ‘Enough people have died. Please, let’s wait for SFOR.’
Salkic was scarily calm. ‘I do not fear joining my sister in paradise, if it is God’s will.’
Jerry and I exchanged a glance. More of that fatalist shit.
He told Nasir exactly what he had told us, and by the tone of the exchange Nasir wanted to go with him. Salkic wouldn’t hear of it. Nasir had to stay with us. They embraced each other, then he nodded to each of us in turn and got to his feet. Hollering and shouting at the flat tops, he started down the cave.
He reached his sister and knelt down. His shoulders shook as he stroked what was left of her head.
Very gently, he turned her on to her stomach. Please, let there be a rig on her. I couldn’t see anything. Salkic was in the way.
Then I heard the rasp of gaffer-tape. Nasir muttered in Serbo-Croat, but I got the gist. I watched as Salkic removed three egg-shaped hand grenades from her back. A string was attached to the middle one. The way she’d fallen must have prevented them detonating it.
‘Jerry, she was rigged.’
Nasir looked at him and nodded. It wouldn’t be much consolation, but he’d done the right thing.
Jerry looked stunned. Nothing had registered with him, one way or the other. He was probably still rerunning her death in his head video.