I was so chuffed with my idea that I wanted to discuss it with someone immediately. But it didn't seem fair to wake Tony, who was sleeping quietly. I could hardly start honking about the plan over the radio to Pat.
So for the time being I had to bottle it up inside me.
I was still on stag when Khadduri reappeared. It was after six, the sun hanging low over the desert, and the heat had at last started to abate. Tony was getting some food down his neck when I saw the clean, white land- cruiser hurrying down the approach road towards the main entrance. Instead of detaining it, as they had every other vehicle, the guards whipped up the barrier and saluted it-past.
'Watch this,' I said. 'It looks like the VIP visitor. I thought the bastard was supposed to come tomorrow.
Looks like he's a day early — or our intelligence was Out.'
The jeep drove straight through the camp to our corner and pulled up outside the front door of the accommodation block. Out stepped Khadduri with one other guy, both went indoors, and the vehicle drove away.
The sight prompted me to a quick decision. 'Listen, Tony,' I said, 'we're going in tonight. There's nothing to be gained by waiting. Quite the reverse. He might clear off before tomorrow evening, after all. D'you agree?'
'Fine by me. Provided the bird stays on the nest.'
'Right, then.' I held in my pressel switch and called, 'You there, Whinger?'
'Roger. How 'you doing?'
'Fine. Onpass to head-shed that the bird's on the nest and the operation can go down tonight. Get them to clear that, OK? And ask if there's any update from their end.'
’Roger. I'll call you presently.'
I imagined Whinger going through on the Satcom a direct, one-to-one call to the comms centre in Hereford: 'Zero Alpha, Zero Alpha, this is Delta Four.
Over.' At the other end I could see Yorky and Mac, and probably the CO, sitting round in the ops room while the duty signaller kept an eye on the set. 'This is Zero Alpha,' Mac would answer, 'go ahead.' Whereupon Whinger would pass on what I'd said and ask for permission to proceed. There'd be a slight dday after each person had spoken, but the voices would be crystal clear. There was no question of anyone eavesdropping on the exchanges because speech was automatically encrypted; the snag was that a satellite transmission created a much bigger electronic splash than high- frequency radio, and so was easier for a direction-finder to pick up. Exchanges were therefore kept as short as possible.
I also imagined the Prime Minister taking the closest possible interest in the operation. By my calculation the time in London was four o'clock, and probably the PM was in the House of Commons, fielding questions and giving stick to the Opposition. But at the back of his mind, I told myself, I bet he's thinking of us. I bet he's wondering how we're doing.
In the baking, sandy confines of the OP we waited for an answer, and presently Whinger came back on the air. 'OK,' he said, 'I've been through. I told the head- shed that two guys have eyeballed the bird, and that he's definitely on the nest. They just want to be sure you've seen enough and are confident about going in.'
'Tell 'em we're fine. No problem. We've seen everything we need to. We'll aim to go in at midnight, when the rest of the personnel have thinned out. If all goes according to plan, we'll want the chopper on ERV Six by 0200. Check that with them too. And ask if there's any news on the personal front, please.'
'Will do.'
Again we waited, and soon Whinger relayed confirmation through: no personal news, but the operation was on.
'In that case,' I said, 'we need you three guys up here by 2200. That'll give us plenty of time to brief you on details before we move up to the wire. Make sure Norm has his lock-picking kit. Bring both lPGs and the Dragunov. Don't forget — plenty of Semtex, and a can of fuel for a distraction charge.'
We saw them before we heard them: dark figures moving lowly towards us through the moonlight.
When they were thirty metres offI said quietly over the radio, 'OK, lads, we have eyes on you. We're right in front.'
We stood up and let the three come to meet us.
Then we led them round the front of the dune to give them a view of our objective.
'There's the building,' I began. 'And there's the lighted window. As in the script. The main entrance is the one facing us, but there's a back door round the corner to the left, in the shadow. Look at the fence. See where the first missing floodlight is? Up that side, fourth from the left-hand corner, more or less behind the building. We aim to cut the wire at that point, in that pool of darkness. Once we're through, Norm — you'll accompany me and Tony to the building, to pick the lock on that back door. When we go in, you'll stay in place to cover the door. All right?'
'Aye.' Norm nodded.
'Whinger, you stay on the fence to secure the gap.
You'll have the Dragunov as well as your AK-47. If any Libyan threatens our withdrawal, you can drop him from there with the sniper rifle. OK?
'Pat, 1 want you to range right-handed along the front fence.' I swung a hand across. 'Get down as far as the gate beside the tower there and get ready to crack offa distraction charge. If we can, we'll keep everything quiet. But if things go noisy, set a time-fuse and pull back this way. When the charge goes, put a rocket into the satellite dish where those red lights are showing.
From the gate, the range should be about three-fifty metres. Is all that clear?'
'What if it doesn't go noisy?' Pat asked.
'We'll call you as soon as we're back through the wire. Once we're together again, you may still get a go at the dish. Then we'll tab off in orderly fashion to the OP. There we pick up our kit, leg it for the LUP, and away. Any more questions?'
'What if you can't find the target?' asked Whinger.
'We'll find him. We know the bastard's in the building. Ten to one he's sitting in that room right now. But if anything goes wrong we'll have to play it by ear. If he gets out of the building, by any mischance, one or other of you fence guys will probably have to drop him.'
The temptation to go in early built steadily. By 2300 the camp had fallen totally quiet. The light burned on in the target room, but nobody else seemed to be stirring. I imagined Khadduri at his computer terminal, working out details of his strategy for a mass Arab attack on Israel.
We'd told the head-shed that zero-hour was going to be midnight, and for a while I reckoned we'd better stick to that.
Then, as we sat in the moonlight on the face of a dune opposite the corner of the wire, Stew came on the air with a question that fairly put the wind up us. 'Aye,' he said, 'Are you guys on the move somewhere?'
'No,' I told him. 'We're sitting tight with eyes on the target building. Why?'
'I've just seen three people moving out to my left as I face you.'
'What were they doing?'
'Walking in single file. Apart from that, I couldn't tell. They were right at the limit of visibility.'
'Any weapons?'
'Not that I could see.'
'Roger. It could be the camel herders. We'll carry on regardless.'
I pretended to be cool, but in fact the sighting changed my mind about waiting. If there were people about in the desert, the less we hung around the better.
'Bollocks.to it,' I said. 'Let's go in now. There's no point in farting about any longer.'
I called Stew again. 'Tell the Kremlin we've advanced the deadline: we're going in right away, and we'll keep them informed.'
While the others hung back and covered me, I crawled forward seventy metres to the fence at the darkest point and went to work with bolt-cutters. A thick ground-wire ran along the bottom: it felt as if it was under tension, so I left it alone and made an L- shaped incision in the mesh, with sides two feet long.