Deep Black

by Andy McNab

  The valley gradually took shape before us as first light seeped into the eastern sky, and what I saw was not good news: next to no cover, just mud and stones. There wasn’t even a road.

  I stopped and waited for Salkic to draw level with me.

  ‘We’re going to be fucked out here on open ground.’ I nodded at Nasir. ‘Ask him how far to the cave.’

  We were in shit state. My jeans were in shreds; my legs shiny with blood and sweat. Everybody was caked in mud.

  Salkic and Jerry were still struggling to keep Benzil upright as we stumbled downhill.

  Nasir’s eyes narrowed as he scanned the landscape below us. I could see he was getting worried, and so was I. I didn’t want to use a cave: it was obvious cover, and would probably have only one point of entry and exit. If they followed us, they would check it out for sure. But as I looked around us, I realized that if we couldn’t outrun them, it was probably our only option.

  Nasir started gobbing off. Salkic nodded and turned back to me. ‘Not far, near the bottom. I know the cave he is talking about now. My father also fought there.’

  This side was much steeper, and we stumbled after Nasir as he picked his way through the mud and rock, trying to find an easy route down. He stopped after another couple of hundred metres and pointed east. I followed the direction of his finger and could just make out a dark shadow on the side of the hill.

  A second later, there were two high-velocity cracks above us. I looked up and saw the first of our pursuers crossing the skyline. Fuck it, the decision had been made for us.

  80

  It looked like it had been a natural cleft in the rock that had been given a makeover with several crates of Serb high explosive: the mouth was now big enough to take a truck. Rubble was piled up on each side, and the tyre ruts in the track leading to it were smothered by grass and weeds.

  The interior was cold and dank, but at least it gave us shelter from the wind. The walls glistened with slime and puddles of water splashed around our feet. Two rusty old cars and a skip full of wood had been abandoned just inside the entrance.

  The further we went inside, the more it stank of mould and decay. The darkness and a couple of mounds of rock spoil, debris from the blasting operation that had widened the cave, gave us cover, but this was going to be as much of a tactical nightmare as I’d feared: a confined space and the only way out the way we had come in.

  Benzil was suffering big-time. Jerry and Salkic lowered him on to the floor behind one of the mounds and tried to make him comfortable. He hardly even had the energy to apologize.

  ‘Don’t worry.’ I crouched beside him to move some stone away from his head. ‘It’s OK. Just rest.’

  There was no reply. His breathing was shallow and worryingly fast.

  Salkic collapsed the other side of him in the gloom. Jerry just dropped where he was and fumbled with the clips of his bumbag. I crawled up the rock pile and looked through the cave mouth, about forty metres away, at the brightening sky. It was still dark this far in, and should stay that way. My eyes were already adapting.

  Nasir had put himself on stag at the top of the pile to my left, and was also staring intently towards the entrance. I looked around at the other three. It’s natural for people to bunch up in situations like this, and they were tearing the arse out of it. I got them to spread out a bit. If rounds started bouncing about in here I didn’t want the flat tops getting two hits for the price of one.

  ‘Fuck.’ Jerry showed me what was left of his Nikon. A round had entered the left-hand corner and exited top right. He tried the power button. Not that that would help, even if the battery pack was OK. The lens was shattered.

  ‘The phone, Jerry – is the phone OK?’

  He nodded slowly, but I could see it wasn’t much consolation.

  Nasir started gobbing off and I could see movement on the hill a couple of hundred metres or so from the cave mouth. ‘Here they come.’ I turned back to the others. ‘We got five.’

  Jerry scrambled up to me. ‘Coming this way?’

  ‘Not yet.’

  I felt it; the look on Nasir’s face said it. We were fucked.

  Nasir settled himself into a fire position, scooping away some of the stone to make room for the curved magazine of his AK. The magazines on these things were so big and long that when you lay down you couldn’t fire them from the shoulder. It was part of the doctrine according to Dr Kalashnikov: the AK was intended to be gripped in front of a hero of the Soviet Union as he leaped from the back of an APC and charged gallantly forward on full automatic.

  Nasir’s eyes never left the men on the track. He gobbed off something to Salkic.

  ‘What’s he getting so excited about?’

  ‘Nasir said I must never tell anyone where Hasan is, or his brother’s death would be in vain. He also wants to kill the aggressors.’

  Nasir got the drift of what was being said and grunted. They were both grim-faced. As far as these boys were concerned, the war had never really ended.

  I leaned into my pile of rocks, digging a space for my own magazine. ‘Ramzi, you’re the only one who knows?’

  Salkic was taking deep breaths; Jerry slid back down to help Benzil into a more comfortable position. ‘The only one here.’

  Nasir muttered something and I looked out. ‘They’re coming.’

  I slithered down too.

  ‘Jerry, you got any idea how to use a pistol?’

  He didn’t bother looking up, just nodded.

  ‘Good. Ramzi, tell Nasir to give him it.’

  Nasir handed it over, along with a couple of mags. I couldn’t see the make, but it didn’t matter at this stage, as long as it went bang and Jerry knew how to point it and reload. Whether he had it in him to kill a fellow human being was something we’d be finding out soon enough. As for me, I’d always managed to be pretty calm at times like this, maybe because I could accept when I was in the shit, and had never been particularly bothered about dying. I just wanted to make sure I took as many of the fuckers with me as I could.

  Nasir started muttering and I crawled back up my pile. The guys on the track had disappeared.

  ‘Where’d they go?’ I murmured to Salkic. ‘Ask him where they went.’

  Salkic did so. They’d gone off to the right, into dead ground.

  The Motorola sparked up. ‘Ramzi Salkic! Ramzi Salkic!’

  The gravelly voice echoed round the cave.

  I looked at Salkic for clues. His face was stony, but Nasir’s was contorted with rage. He immediately started shouting back, then he turned and yelled at me too, so vehemently that flecks of spit showered across my face. If the flat tops hadn’t known we were in here, they certainly did now.

  Nasir rammed his weapon into his shoulder and fired off a burst.

  I had to scream above the firing. ‘For fuck’s sake, stop! Ramzi! Get him to stop!’

  Spent cases rattled on to the stones. The air was thick with cordite. Salkic tried to calm him down and at last he succeeded. Benzil stared up at me, eyes wide as saucers, trying hard not to look scared.

  Return fire ricocheted off the walls as the flat tops shoved their automatic weapons around the edge of the cave and squeezed off. There was nothing any of us could do but curl up and hope.

  Apart from Nasir, who yelled at the top of his voice and sprayed half a mag at nothing in particular.

  ‘For fuck’s sake, stop firing! Save ammo.’

  Another long retaliatory burst came our way, filling the cave with sound heavy enough to feel.

  Salkic shouted at him and tugged at his trouser leg, but I knew Nasir wasn’t listening: blind hatred had taken over from common sense. If only he’d kept quiet, we could have let them come in and maybe been able to drop one or two.

  It stopped as quickly as it started. I raised my head just enough to look over the top of the mound but saw nothing. Benzil was still curled up below me, Jerry half covering him despite my instruction to spread out. Salkic was below Nasir, who was up on
his knees straining to find a target, still wanting to kill the world and his dog. He turned to me with wild eyes, and let loose another stream of angry words and saliva. His echo was as loud as their gunfire.

  I ignored him and kept my eyes on the cave mouth. If he’d wanted to top me he would have done it by now. I wasn’t sure what he was most sparked up about: his brother, me bringing the flat tops to Salkic, or that he wanted to kill everyone within reach. I hoped he still realized that if we were going to get out of here alive he’d need my steady pair of hands, as much as I’d need his not so steady ones. I waited until he’d finished and got his eyes back on stag.

  ‘What’s all that about, Ramzi?’

  There was no answer. I turned and even in this light saw the glimmer of tears in his eyes.

  Nasir tuned up again, venting his rage between Salkic, me and the cave entrance. Salkic reached up and put a hand on his leg, attempting to soothe him.

  ‘What’s going on, Ramzi? What the fuck is he saying?’

  ‘He’s blaming you because you led them to me in the mosque.’ Salkic’s face was a mask of pain. ‘Not only is his brother dead, but now they say they are collecting his brother’s wife, my sister, from Sarajevo. They have a family, two children.’

  81

  There was a few seconds’ stunned silence as I slid down rocks next to Jerry and took the Thuraya out of his bumbag. The little red LED glowed brightly in the gloom when I hit the switch. ‘Your sister got a phone?’

  He recited the number and I tapped the buttons.

  ‘We’ll need to get nearer the entrance for a signal. Can we call Nuhanovic to get us out of this shit?’

  Salkic shook his head. ‘He has no phones. I drive there each time we need to talk. I’m sorry, this is not all your fault. I was in too much of a hurry after meeting you and Benzil. They must have followed me to the farm. Now we all have to pay the price.’

  I checked Baby-G and the Thuraya: 06:47 and no signal.

  I pulled up the antenna and pointed it at the entrance. ‘You up for it?’

  He stood, without a flicker of fear.

  ‘Stay to the right, hugging that wall. If there’s trouble, just turn and run back. Whatever you do, don’t move into the centre of the cave.’

  I held out my AK to Jerry. ‘Can you handle one of these?’

  He didn’t look too sure, but he’d probably photographed enough guys using them to have a vague idea of which end was which.

  ‘Ramzi, tell Nasir what we’re doing. Tell him, if he’s got to fire, to use single rounds and aim. We must save ammunition. Got that?’

  He nodded and started to gob off in Serbo-Croat while Jerry took the AK.

  ‘There’s one in the chamber. You know how to work the safety catch?’

  To my surprise, he immediately looked in the right place. The safety on an AK is a long lever on the right-hand side. All the way up is safe; first click down is fully automatic; next click down is single shot. Old Soviet doctrine: lots of firepower and not much aiming.

  I took his pistol, a 9mm semi-automatic made in South Korea by Daewoo, the car people, and told him not to fire unless Nasir had a stoppage or got dropped. I didn’t want to be in more danger from Jerry than the bastards outside.

  ‘OK, Ramzi, you ready?’

  Benzil gave a bit of a good-luck wave. Salkic nodded to him. ‘If God wants me to die today, then so be it.’

  ‘Enough of that fucking Muslim fatalism.’ I meant it. ‘Just have a quick word with him now so you stay alive and get us to Nuhanovic, all right?’

  He patted my arm. ‘Inshallah.’

  We bent low, trying to become part of the rock. After ten metres we had to get down on our stomachs and crawl through the puddles and chunks of rubble.

  I checked the Thuraya every metre. One bar would be enough. Sweat poured down my face, despite the cold. And my twelve-dollar coat was no barrier to more stagnant water and mud. Sharp stone chips cut into my elbows and knees. The pain would come later.

  I could hear them outside now, just to the right of the cave mouth. I stopped, Thuraya in my left hand, 9mm in my right, trigger finger out straight over the guard, thumb on the safety catch. No way was I giving myself the slightest opportunity to have an ND [negligent discharge] as we moved forward.

  Still no bars, maybe ten metres short of the entrance.

  ‘Salkic! Salkic!’ It was Motorola voice again, followed by that mocking laugh.

  Nasir screamed back. Whether they knew it or not, these guys were doing us a favour. The more noise they made, the more cover it gave us.

  We inched forward. About two metres from the end, a bar appeared in the display. I stopped and motioned Salkic to come up level with me. Even Jerry joined in the shouting now. Nasir might be angry, but he wasn’t stupid.

  I hit Send on the number and passed the Thuraya to him. Then I held the pistol out in front of me, left hand supporting the right, aiming at about chest height, safety off and first pad of my finger on the trigger.

  Nasir and Jerry were still letting the guys outside know what they thought of them at top volume, but they weren’t getting much in return. Maybe the flat tops were becoming bored. Then I heard a roar of laughter. Whatever was being said, the flat tops thought it was pretty funny.

  I hadn’t heard Salkic say a word. I felt a tap on my arm and he passed me the phone. He didn’t look happy. I listened; it was still ringing. I hit the button and leaned over so I was speaking right into his ear. My eyes were still forward, pistol out, pad on the trigger, safety off. ‘You definitely know where we are?’

  He nodded slowly. With my left hand, I fished around in my jeans for the Holiday Inn card and tapped in the number. ‘Tell the hotel we’re being robbed. They’re armed. We need SFOR.’

  I pressed Send and handed it over. While I concentrated on the entrance he muttered quietly into the mouthpiece.

  Someone outside bellowed Salkic’s name again and he took advantage of the noise to repeat the information more loudly.

  The barrel of an AK poked round into the cave at about waist height. I took first pressure on the trigger of the Daewoo, my eyes glued to a point just above the muzzle.

  I caught a glimpse of cheekbone and pulled the pistol up until I had the clear and focused foresight centre mass of the target. The rear sight was out of focus, just as it should be. The first pad of my forefinger squeezed the trigger a couple of millimetres, until I felt the first pressure stopping me moving it back any further.

  Salkic was still mumbling into the phone, but I shut every ounce of background noise out of my head as I watched the cheekbone grow into a face, which half turned so its mouth could shout more efficiently into the cave. I could see the veins in its temple swell with effort as spit flew from its lips.

  Then he turned to fire.

  The weapon’s foresight was level with his upper lip as I took second pressure. The pistol kicked in my hands and the boy crumpled. Another AK, attached to a pair of hands, appeared and fired. I could feel the pressure waves of the rounds above me, then a volley of single shots rang out from behind us.

  When the AK finally stopped, I pushed myself up against the rock, kept my head down, and started to run.

  Heavy 7.62 short rounds started to bounce off the walls again but there was nothing we could do about it. We just had to keep low and keep moving.

  As I scrambled over the rock piles into cover, Salkic was at my shoulder, still firing.

  ‘Stop! Stop! Save the ammo!’

  I grabbed the phone from Salkic and switched it off. ‘What did they say? They understand?’

  His chest heaved. ‘I think so. And they must have heard the firing.’ He slumped against the rock pile, trying to catch his breath.

  Nasir and Jerry had stopped firing. The only sounds now were our breathing and the shouts that echoed from just outside the cave mouth.

  Jerry took back the phone. ‘Maybe she was out at the shops. Maybe they couldn’t find her . . .’

  Salkic lo
oked up, his eyes full of concern as he looked beyond us for Nasir. ‘We’ll see.’ His voice was far too calm. It was that fatalism shit again.

  82

  We lay there for another hour, Nasir and me on the rock piles with our AKs, the other three on the ground below us.

  Mocking flat-top voices kept echoing round the cave, with the odd aggressive insult or a line or two from a song thrown in. Nasir couldn’t restrain himself. Each time, he’d give as good as he got.

  I eased my way down to Salkic. ‘What’s Nuhanovic going to do now we haven’t turned up? Come looking?’

  ‘I don’t know. This is the first time I’ve failed.’

  I put on my happy face. ‘Let’s try and make sure it stays that way. First up, we’ve got to keep eyes on the entrance at all times. Since he’s already there, Nasir might as well take the first hour.’

  I wanted to get a routine going. A routine gives a sense of purpose and meaning. It kids you something productive is happening.

  Salkic gobbed off and Nasir nodded, then cleared his nostrils into the rocks.

  ‘Ramzi, get that radio of yours on, just in case Nuhanovic sends some of your guys out and they get line of sight with the cave.’ There was a chance anyone trying to raise us would just scroll through the frequencies.

  Benzil was still in a bad way. His face was etched with pain and concern. The scabs on his cheeks had cracked and started weeping again. ‘Do you think SFOR will come?’ His throat sounded like sandpaper. He needed liquid. He wasn’t the only one.

  ‘Absolutely. Sure of it.’

  He pulled me so close I could smell the sourness of his breath. ‘Nick, what we talked about in Baghdad . . . the offer is still there. I know Rob would want you to take his place. We still have a purpose. I’m sure this is just a temporary setback that you will overcome for us.’

  ‘Let’s talk about it later, yeah?’

  I crawled back up the rock pile to check on Nasir. He indicated with a shake of his head that nothing had changed, but wouldn’t look at me. Fair one, I’d be pissed off, too. I knew I’d have to watch him when we got out of here. When he reckoned he no longer needed me, that AK of his might be pointing my way.