by Andy McNab
Noah heard it, too. His laugh echoed round the building. ''Bout time that bitch learnt a little respect…'
The other girl was way out of Basma's reach. She hung like a tongue-dangling carcass in a slaughterhouse. Her teenaged body was covered with black scorchmarks and red blisters. In places, her skin peeled.
75
A flick of the torch revealed butane bottles, gas rings, a kettle. The fuckers made them watch the water come to the boil knowing what was about to happen.
I gave the live girl a slap. I had to make it sound like I'd come up here to carry on spreading the good news. Noah heard the scream and approved.
I left the door open and headed to the one opposite. It opened, but there was nothing inside except a tea chest in the corner. That left the padlocked room.
The keys hung from a nail punched into the doorframe. The reek of shit coming from the other side made me gag. I knew this wasn't going to be a good day out.
The Yale turned and I pulled open the door. The torchlight swept across a huddle of maybe twenty girls, heads bowed, bodies naked, emaciated, bruised and cut. Some were so young they didn't even have pubic hair.
The heads of the two nearest me were swollen from beatings. I pushed them aside. There was no sign of Dom. I moved through the middle of them. All they could see was torchlight, and they were flapping big-time. This wasn't whore-conditioning, this was sadistic shit. These fucks were enjoying this. That was why they were here in-country. They could get away with it.
I left the room and locked them back up for now. It had looked like a scene from a Nazi death camp, or the Idema pictures on the door at the Jock's. The guys hanging, burnt and whipped, the guys in the cupboard, the guy in the…
The hanging girl was still whimpering as I ran past and into the empty room. I shone my light on the tea chest.
Noah's laugh rolled up the stairs.
I ripped the nail holding the hasp closed and lifted the lid. The body was big, and white, its skin bruised and battered. They must have jumped up and down on the poor fucker to get him into this thing.
I leant closer. He was breathing.
I put down the weapon and torch, grabbed a handful of matted, blood-soaked hair and pulled. There was a moan. I couldn't make out what he was saying, but it was definitely Dom.
He rasped at me through swollen lips and gaps torn in his once perfect teeth. 'Please, please…' His eyes were so swollen they couldn't open.
I tipped the chest gently on to its side and pulled him out. He was cramped into a ball and his joints had locked. He couldn't unfold. Blood and saliva poured from his mouth as his begging went into overdrive.
It was Noah's kind of music.
'Only a few more hours, dude – he's gonna make us fucking millionaires!'
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I ran back, unpadlocked the other room and threw the door open. The girls cowered in the corner, each not wanting to be the one the torchlight picked out.
'Go! Go! Get the fuck out!' I pointed the Mini-Ero at them, trying to get them sparked up.
A couple of heads lifted and stared. I dragged them out by their hair. 'Go on! Get the fuck out!' I left the rest to it. They looked too scared to move, but they'd get the idea.
I went back to Dom. He hadn't moved an inch. These fuckers hadn't any intention of releasing him, and he knew it.
The hanging girl managed a scream. I ran to her room and grabbed the chair. She started pleading, wondering what the fuck new kind of pain was coming her way. I climbed on the chair and told her to shut the fuck up.
'Yeah!' Noah liked to hear his mate Joey having fun.
Fighting to keep control of myself, I yanked on the rope knot that secured her to the ceiling hook and tried to break her fall as best I could.
She crawled across and ran her fingers over the dead girl's face. She wasn't going anywhere either.
I stopped in the hallway as the first two girls from the room scrambled towards me. They froze in the torchlight like petrified rabbits and I hurried them towards the stairs.
Dom hadn't moved. I leant down and put a hand on his shoulder. 'Come on, Fat Boy, come on. Dom, get up, we're moving.' I couldn't tell if he recognized the voice. It didn't matter either way. We could have a hug and a love-in later on, when he understood what was happening. I put my arm around him and took his weight.
More naked bodies hobbled past us as I staggered towards the stairs.
Noah had a sudden rush of blood. 'The bitches are getting away, man! Get the fucks, c'mon!'
There was more movement at the bottom of the stairs as the other maggots stirred. 'What the fuck, Joey?'
Dom's body began to unfold as naked, scared but now increasingly excited girls streamed past us to freedom.
Noah was outside, hitting the ones he caught, shouting at others melting into the darkness. The other two were out of their bags and joining in. It wouldn't be long before they stumbled across the real Joey. It was going to get noisy.
Weapon up, safety grip pushed in by the web of my right hand, I took my time going down the stairs.
'What the fuck…?'
They'd found him.
I waited halfway down, torch up in my left hand and parallel with the barrel, ready to light up the targets.
The first body stormed back in, shoving the girls aside to get to his maggot and weapon.
I waited some more. I wanted the full set.
The other two ran in. The moment they saw them, the girls still on the stairs below me were screaming. I thought my eardrums were about to explode.
I wanted the fourth body, but the other two already had weapons and soon they would have light.
I had to kick off now.
I hit the torch button and caught them both in a tunnel of light.
All I could do was stand my ground and fire, both eyes open, bringing the torch and weapon to bear on their centre mass.
Double-tap.
Double-tap.
It was almost like a range day, and had to be. Otherwise I would make mistakes and die.
Cordite filled my nostrils and the blast of the Mini-Ero filled my ears as I kept on firing into the killing area below me.
A thick cloud of cordite now hung in the torchlight and there was no movement from the bodies. The two bearded fuckers lay at the bottom of the stairs. The black-haired one had died with a sneer on his face; the brown-haired one with a look of utter shock.
I lowered the weapon. The remaining girls needed no second bidding to get the fuck out.
I cleared the doorway and moved outside, but Noah had gone. He'd left the others to it.
I had no time to lose. The Turks would be here soon and I wasn't going to waste time looking for the wagon keys only for them to follow me down the hill.
I ran back upstairs to Dom and gripped his arms. 'Get up! Help me, Dom. I can't do this alone!'
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'My legs…'
He was trying, but not much of him was working yet.
I got him as far as the top of the stairs and had to move down three or four so I could get my shoulder under him and lift.
His feet bounced off each step as I went down. The torch lit the way, sweeping across two dead bodies and one very live one. Noah's massive frame filled the doorway.
'Fucking asshole!'
He ran at me.
I tried to avoid him, but with Dom's weight on me it wasn't going to happen.
He body-checked me. Dom slid off my shoulders as I stumbled over one of the dead and fell on to the concrete, syringe-strewn floor.
Noah threw himself on top of me. He wasn't bothered about grabbing a weapon. He was going to tear me apart with his bare hands.
'Asshole – fucking gonna die.'
He sat up, his entire weight pressing on my chest. His hands covered my face, then moved to my neck. I kicked and bucked to try to dislodge him, but it was like being trapped under a car. The Bergen dug into my back.
His huge fingers gripped my windpipe. I bucked again as h
e squeezed. I started to choke. My hands flew up to his wrists but I knew he was going to win.
I jerked my head from side to side.
'Fucking die.' His saliva sprayed across my face.
My hands dropped. My Adam's apple was being pushed deep into my throat and I couldn't breathe.
I felt a stabbing pain in my neck and chest. I thrashed and bucked, but more weakly than before. My right hand felt for a syringe. My brain was telling me to breathe, but I couldn't. I saw showers of white stars and the pain subsided. Not good. I gripped the syringe as the world blurred and faded and my head began to explode.
I focused on his eyes, or where they should have been in the shadow above me.
I swung my hand up and stabbed and stabbed.
He screamed and his scream became a howl. His hands loosened on my throat as Dom tried to pull him off me.
I kicked and pushed, looking for a weapon in the torchlight.
Coughing and retching, I scrambled to my feet.
Noah swept Dom aside and got to his knees. His agonized screams reverberated round the room.
I spotted the Mini-Ero's muzzle jutting out from beneath Dom's thigh. I grabbed his foot and pulled him away from Noah's flailing fists, then lunged for the weapon. I gripped the safety and squeezed off the rest of the mag.
Noah jerked like a puppet as he took the bursts, then toppled over on to his mates and lay still.
Everything went quiet for a second or two until real life elbowed its way through the door.
I could hear engines rumbling down the hill and hysterical girls begging for help.
I should have moved but all I could do for now was sit. My Adam's apple was still most of the way down my throat. I could hardly swallow.
Dom was moving, trying to curl up and protect himself. I heaved a blood-soaked sleeping-bag from under Noah.
'Help me, Dom. Come on.'
I pulled him up, got him on my shoulder. I threw the bag over him and headed through the door.
A cold wind blew and headlights bounced across the night sky. Searchlights swung left and right from the top of the Turks' vehicles.
I took the path to the right, the one that headed further uphill. I stepped over Joey's body. Light was flooding from the houses about thirty metres away. Contouring the ground with the heaviest weight I'd ever had on my shoulders, I staggered a few paces, stopped, made a fruitless attempt to get the sleeping-bag round him to protect him from the biting wind, and staggered some more.
My ankles twisted on the uneven footing. Dom felt like he was getting heavier and heavier. His legs bounced off the ground in front of me as I tried to shift his weight more evenly on my shoulders.
We made maybe two hundred more across the face of the mountain, still level with the house, and gradually lost ourselves in the darkness. I unloaded Dom on to the rocks. He didn't react. I got him tucked inside the maggot as best I could and zipped it up. I couldn't see if he had his eyes open. There was starlight, but my night vision hadn't kicked in yet.
I crouched down next to him. A horrible rasping noise came from the back of his throat. 'Oi, Drac – it's Nick. Nick Stone. It's over.'
The kidnap might be. But once I had him sorted out there were questions that needed answering.
He moved an arm inside the bag and tried to grab mine through the material. His grip was weak. His lips moved soundlessly. I thought he might be trying to thank me. I patted him through the bag. 'You owe me big-time.'
His breathing became shallow and rapid. A hand snaked out of the bag and tried to grip my shoulder. His chest heaved and tears streamed from his eyes.
The wind whipped the sweat from my face, then forced its way between my wet back and the Bergen. I was starting to freeze.
I looked up at the commotion round the target. The two wagons were static. The house was lit up like an historic monument. Girls were being wrapped in blankets and comforted. Soon they'd be drinking hot tea and getting medical attention.
I eased Dom's hand off my shoulder. 'Let's get you warm, eh? Not long now. We'll be out of here soon.'
I tried to zip him up some more but he was just too big. The top of the bag came up to his chest. I took off the Bergen and dug inside for the shemag. I wrapped it round his head, then packed away the Mini-Ero and mags. I'd need both hands to grip him now he was in the bag.
From down in the valley, a long line of flashing blue lights was making its way towards us. The cops would be over the moon. They could take the credit for busting yet another freelance torture chamber, and the dead men were all foreigners.
I pulled out the personal mobile and slipped it into the front pocket of my jeans before re-shouldering the Bergen. I gripped Dom in the nylon sleeping-bag and somehow got him back over my shoulder. 'Not far, mate. If they're not broken, your legs will be working by tonight, no drama.'
I started to pick my way downhill. The blue lights were nearly level with me now. Their headlights splashed across a couple of Turkish armoured trucks and their.50-cal gunners looked as though they'd shoot at anything that moved.
I pushed on for maybe another ten minutes, with the buildings and the road to my right, but I couldn't keep it up. Dom was just too fucking heavy.
I laid him on the ground again and sorted out the sleeping-bag. I held his head and leant in close again. 'Dom…' Fuck, I wasn't too sure who smelt worse. 'Dom, I'm going to check the road, OK? I'll be two minutes.'
I slid between two mud houses and made my way down towards Magreb's Hiace. It was locked. So were the two buses. The school was battened down. I needed to get into cover with Dom, and it wasn't just to keep him warm. The blue lights were still heading this way. In another couple of hours it would be light. Fuck the Yes Man, I'd deliver Dom when I was good and ready.
I moved back to the mud houses and sat under a corrugated lean-to with a pile of plastic bowls and a couple of old sacks. Below me, the Gandamack district was lit up again.
No curtains twitched in either house. Their inhabitants were either asleep or just wanted to get on with their lives and send their kids to school.
I powered up the mobile. It rang a couple of times, but I didn't hear where.
'Hello, mate, it's Nick. I'm going to need your van.'
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'Mr Nick, I come to hotel now?'
'No need. I'm outside. I'm by the school.'
I could hear movement his end as he jumped out of bed and Mrs M gave him a hard time.
'You in the shooting, maybe?'
''Fraid so, mate. I just want your keys, OK? Can you meet me by the wagon? Keep the lights off in your house, OK?'
'I come now, Mr Nick.'
I closed down and went to the van.
A door opened just ahead and a skinny body in a pullover, trousers and flip-flops joined me. We ducked into cover as the flashing blue lights surged past, strobing the mud walls of the houses as they snaked up the hill.
His eyes widened. 'Mr Nick, your face – much blood…'
'Don't worry, mate. It's not mine.' I peeled off some notes. 'I just want your van. I'll pay you for it. I've got eight hundred dollars with me.' I grinned. 'You could buy three vans for that, maybe.'
He held up his hands. 'Please, Mr Nick, I no want your money. You already pay. I drive you hotel.'
I got down on one knee and fished in my sock. 'That's the problem, mate. I'm not going back. All that shooting up there… It was a prison. There were young girls being tortured and raped. My friend was a prisoner too. I came to get him out, and now I must find somewhere to hide him while he recovers. He's been badly hurt.'
I stood up and offered him the money.
'Let me pay for your van. My friend's behind the houses here. I don't want to involve you in this, mate.'
'No. I drive you. I drive you where you want. I you friend, Mr Nick.'
I punched his arm. I knew I was beaten. 'Give us a hand, then. His name's Dom.'
He followed me into the darkness behind the two houses. The flashing blues h
ad almost reached the target. The Turks' searchlights kept sweeping the hillside.
'Mr Nick, I take you to my brother woodstore, maybe. Not far. In valley.' He looked down at the mess in the sleeping-bag. 'Oh…'
'Dom, this is my mate Magreb.'
He nodded weakly, then kept mumbling, 'Thank you,' over and over. I wished he'd shut the fuck up.
I turned back to Magreb. 'He'll be all right. Come on, let's get him to the van.'
I slid my hands under his armpits and Magreb took his legs. We staggered down the hill.
'You go to bar to find these bad people?'
'No. The people in the bar were all right.' I nodded in the direction of Noah's place. 'The bad ones were up there. So bad they weren't even allowed into the bar.'
'They dead now, Mr Nick?'
'Yes. Very.' I didn't want to beat about the bush. I needed him to know what he was getting himself into.
We lowered Dom on to the ground when we got back to the Hiace, and Magreb went to open the side-door. 'No, mate. We'd better get in the back and you cover us over.'
He didn't miss a trick. 'Checkpoint, maybe?' He opened the tailgate and we lifted Dom in. I followed and unzipped the bag to cover us both.
Magreb stood motionless at the back of the van.
I reached over and put a hand on his shoulder. 'You sure you want to do this?'
He leant towards me, his expression serious. 'I want my children live in peace, Mr Nick.' He pointed at the building beside us. 'I want them go school, be doctor, maybe. Those bad men, I no want here. I want leave us in peace. You make my home little safer now, Mr Nick. You my friend…'
I smiled and gave his shoulder a squeeze before we went into gratitude overload. 'If we're stopped, act normal. Tell them you're going to work, OK?'
He nodded and stepped back. The tailgate closed, immediately sheltering us from the chill wind.
We huddled together in the space between the seat and the back of the vehicle. I held Dom against my chest to give him as much extra warmth as I could muster. His head rested just below my chin. He moistened his swollen lips and tried to talk. 'Peter… I did not kill him, Nick. I did not kill him…'
