by Geoff Wolak
At GL4, now 2pm, I dumped my bag in the house and Graveson drove me around to the hangar in the rain. In the Intel Room they welcomed me back and showed me the newspaper coverage.
In one of the photos, Tiny could be made out in the back, Sanderson querying it.
‘She was checking out the hotel for me, strange men and deadly assassins. She is still working for the team but is unlikely to return here other than as a visitor, so she doesn't need a desk. She has an apartment and an office … elsewhere.’
Harris asked me, with a coy smile, if Tiny looked after me.
‘She sleeps with enemy agents ... and cuts their cocks off, and she shagged Tomo,’ I lied. ‘Would you sleep with her?’
‘Hell no.’
‘Me neither. But she's great at the job. And she got a plaque from the US Navy for saving the Nimitz. Solid gold.’
‘Will she sell it?’
‘As soon as she can,’ I quipped.
Sanderson asked, ‘A productive trip?’
‘I sat behind the CIA computer and went through all the faces, and we unearthed a few double agents, so … useful from that perspective. Aim was to get the media away from blaming the CIA, and the CIA are now happier, and happy with me, so … peace on earth and good will to all men in Intel.’
‘We need them on board, yes, and untarnished ideally.’
‘I want to send four more Wolves to Kosovo, plus … Henri and Dicky.’
‘We got a note to say that American Wolves were heading that way...’
‘I requested twelve of them, so that the KLA won't kick up a fuss – the Yanks are bankrolling them. KLA have complained about our men stopping the pillaging.’
‘Spoiling their fun, are we?’ he testily asked.
‘We are, and will do so in the future.’
‘I'll assign four Wolves, chat to Henri and Dicky and see if they're uninjured this week.’
Outside the hangar I bumped into Sergeant Crab with Stickler and the four superstars from 14 Intel. ‘How they coming along, Sergeant?’
‘Getting there. Stickler can shoot straight with a pistol, one other, and he's shit hot with a Valmet, two others very good.’
‘Push them hard, we want to see if they'll make the grade, but they did OK in Mauritania.’
‘I still have the blisters, sir,’ one told me.
‘Best check your boots then, and get a good old pair of well-worn ones.’ I faced Crab. ‘Book them a 24hr speed march soon, we'll sort the men from the boys.’
Down at the recreation hut I had a nose inside, walking through to the bar, which was now just about finished and looking a lot like a bar and not an empty brick building, our pub landlord adding bottles to the shelves.
‘You ready?’ I asked,
‘Ah, you're back, saw you on the TV with the President.’
‘I arrange girls for him.’
‘Huh?’
‘So when we opening?’ I quickly added.
‘Rocko arranged the opening night for Saturday. They gave me cash for free drinks and food, Mister Billy.’
‘Major Coalridge, yes. You'll be kept busy when we're here, money to be made for you. What about bar staff?’
‘I have three lined up, and they get a bit extra, and I told them that all the trouble here is late at night and that they won't be around, and that they get a lift home. Is … er … that OK?’
‘I'll have the MPs drive them home, how about that?’
‘That'd be great, aye. What about lunchtime trade?’
‘I'd say no, but I'll think about it. Men get free meals in the canteen and would not be allowed to drink, but weekends might be different.’
‘So weekday nights and weekend nights?’
‘To start with, yes, but when we deploy you can close up, or close on a Monday night say - if you want a rest. Or just see how many people use it. We won't let soldiers in unless we're away, but there'll be men down on courses so extra trade for you. I think … you'll either be flat out busy or dead quiet.’
‘As before, aye,’ he complained.
I had a look upstairs after he told me that it was just for officers, and I found two rooms and a toilet, nicely done out but basic, tables and chairs and sofas.
Downstairs, I had a look at the second shed, and the tables and chairs had been laid out ready for people to eat, a diner style around the edges but with extra tables in the middle, and at the end sat the sofas and coffee tables, on the walls a few large maps of interesting places – such as Liberia and Sierra Leone.
Outside that hut's main door I noticed the sandbag walls and I smiled; it was just like 1941. Ahead of me the road cut both ways, parking at the rear of the hangar to the right, and to the left was the Officers Mess, armoury, and then canteen as the road curled around, a spur in the road leading right towards the ranges, green fencing now up so the view was blocked. I could see an MP at the gate to the ranges and waved.
Outside the canteen I found Rocko.
‘You're back then,’ he noted.
‘Nice holiday. So what they been doing?’
‘Had a day off, then some range time, the new range.’
‘And the live firing village?’
‘Nearly ready they said, just need to fix the electrics with the targets that drop and register a hit. I reckon we could use it for pistol work as well.’
‘Why not, work out a scenario and scorecard system.’
He grinned. ‘If we get the Paras in, I figured we might put a dog or two in rooms.’
‘Sergeant Major, that would be mean of you.’
‘They gotta learn, and villages have dogs.’
‘They do, and I approve it. Stick a chicken in there as well, the chickens will go for their legs.’
‘Stretch has rigged up some charges as well,’ he added with a menacing grin.
‘He still laying mines?’
‘Yeah, and an MP stood on one, scared the crap out of him.’
I held my arms wide. ‘Everyone is supposed to know where they are!'
‘This one was near the fishing pond.’
‘Did Stretch mine the fishing area?’
‘Just the one mine, to scare the MPs. They threatened to kick his teeth in.’
‘Keep the peace, eh. Robby back?’
‘Yeah, doing some paperwork for 14 Intel, a few new faces, and Stiffy is here, he was on the long range earlier.’
‘How many houses are up for rent?’
‘MOD bought like twelve, some agreement of rent paid till it's finalised. MI5 boys have one, CT police have another, Intel captains have one – guy that was living in the Officers Mess after his wife kicked him out.’
‘And Doc Willy?
‘Still in the mess I think.’
I walked around to the guardroom since it had stopped raining, and inside they got the kettle on, updating me on no new attacks, but that they had been vigilant. Now that I was back they feared an attack.
‘Get the sniffer dogs in for the pub, Saturday. One bomb and they get all of us.’
‘It's checked every day, Boss, locked at night, most secure building in this country. Got cameras facing it.’
Next door I found the MI5 team and the CT police. ‘Got much to do?’
‘We check out local people, and when bored we note car registrations on the road outside or the village. We've checked everyone in the village, and one was an illegal – overstayed his visa by about ten years so they nabbed him, and one had a shit load of unpaid fines, so they nabbed him as well.
‘We drive around and have a look, down to the motorway hotel and sniff around, to the cafes, and we nabbed a small-time drug dealer that looked dodgy, but no spies or assassins yet.’
‘The good spies will get to know that you're looking, and have to alter some plans, no recon of this place,’ I told them. ‘We rounded up a dozen more rogue CIA agents and some FBI, so it should go quiet now.’
Six men pointed at the sign on the wall.
‘OK, OK, it should be quiet-ish
,’ I told them. ‘Just protect the new bar.’
‘Any trips away planned?’ they asked.
‘Kosovo is simmering, but we'll go back down to Liberia soon.’
‘Trouble there?’
‘No, just local criminal idiots, and we want it quiet for the oil men.’
Outside, my phone trilled, Tiny. ‘Good flight back?’ I asked.
‘I slept some of the way, so it went quickly enough. Anyhow, I had that plaque appraised and it's worth twenty grand.’
‘You going to sell it?’
‘Maybe, but I've not had a plaque before, so for now it's on my shelf at home. If I need some new dresses I can sell it later. But Bob was worried, my face in a photo.’
‘It's not a good photo, and you look like a spectator. They never labelled you as being with me. Besides, you look like a nineteen-year-old in the photo.’
‘You're such a charmer. What happened to that Group Captain?’
‘He's linked in, but not recently. My next call, chat later.’
I called David. ‘What's happening with our Group Captain?’
‘He suffered a stroke at a local cafe, might not make it, wife at his bedside.’
‘What was he up to?’
‘We're not sure, but it seems that he thought he was reporting out to the CIA.’
‘He was!'
‘Well, officers are not allowed to do that, friendly nation or not.’
‘I caught one in Langley, spoke to her and recognised her, then punched her on the nose.’
‘You are indeed becoming a diplomat in your old age. What was the outcome?’
‘She struck a deal and gave up a few people.’
‘A few more off the list, but how many more are there out there?’ he wondered.
‘A few more, always a few more. Oh, Deep State openly admit to a desire to remove Saddam Hussein, and that they don't give a fuck about Kosovo.’
‘So they'll crank up the heat on Iraq. We'll have to be prepared just in case.’
‘You think they'd attack him?’ I asked.
‘Unlikely, it's a very big country and they'd need half a million men, but an air war would suit them.’
‘Yanks love bombing things, yes. Oh, I increased the Wolves in Kosovo, just in case the KLA go after them, and I made sure that most are American. They won't upset the Americans, not if they want a loan after independence.’
‘No, quite.’
In the canteen I sat with Swifty and his nurse, who now seemed to be an open item. Two other medics sat at the back and I nodded their way. ‘You two out in the open?’
‘Hard to keep a secret around here,’ Swifty complained.
‘Well who cares, you could be dead next week.’
‘How was Washington?’ he asked. ‘We all saw you on the TV doing the speech bollocks.’
‘I got a look around the White House, around Washington and Gettysburg, which was all interesting, and I asked the President to deal with matters quietly, not shout about them. The media were doing more harm than good.
‘And then I went to visit the CIA, recognised a lady and smacked her in the nose. She's now doing time.’
‘Subtle,’ Swifty noted. ‘Who was she working for?
‘Not those paying her wages. Anyhow, Saturday is opening night yeah?’
They nodded.
‘They gunna have civvy barmaids?’ Swifty asked.
‘Yes, the landlord said.’
‘Have to keep them away from Tomo.’
I faced Nurse Sarah. ‘Where you staying?’
‘In your small room. My lot have a house here, but no room for me in there unless I'm on the sofa. But there are rooms in the huts with Echo.’
I wagged a finger. ‘I don't want to hear you two when I'm trying to sleep.’
‘We go off base, a bed and breakfast, cheap enough,’ Swifty told me.
‘I used to do that, with a lady officer in Air Traffic Control at Brize Norton, nice old B&B with a stream and ducks.’
‘Cocksford?’
‘Yeah, how'd you know?’ I puzzled.
‘Officers use it, and one of mine – a doctor – got caught with a nurse, so we all know the name. He got a reprimand and she was moved to another base.’
‘I never got caught, and wouldn't have given a fuck either way. I would have worried about her though.’
‘We deploying anywhere?’ Swifty asked.
‘Liberia, nice and warm. No specific threats, but we need the place safe for the oil workers, so we go hunting – and in the towns this time.’
Saturday came around, and I put on civvy clothes, Swifty and his nurse in civvy clothes, and as we walked out Moran, Mitch and Ginger were in civvies as well.
At the first recreation shed we wandered in, no one in uniform apart from a solitary Wolf.
‘Why you in uniform?’ I asked him.
‘On stag tonight, Boss. Always two Wolves or Echo lads on the barracks roof when they're here.’
I nodded. ‘Keep us safe down here.’
I chatted to a few Wolves, then to Sambo and Sasha, talk of Captain Henri in Kosovo - and would he eat squirrels shot by Murphy. I finally walked through to the second shed, finding most of Echo in here and stood drinking, nods exchanged with a few, a few rude jibes from others.
Robby was in, chatting to Stretch and Stiffy, and I was surprised to find Mally and a small gang.
‘What you lot doing here? No work to do?’
‘We got a week off, then we're down to West Africa for a few weeks, some of us back to Colombia,’ Mally told me.
‘So what's the White House like?’ one asked me.
‘Smaller than it seems on the TV, and surrounded by taller buildings. They don't show that on the TV, it always looks isolated, but it's right next to larger buildings.’
‘Go check out the barmaids,’ Mally told me, the others grinning.
‘I'm hoping that they're all fat and ugly.’
‘Hopes dashed,’ Mally told me. ‘One flashed her tits to Tomo for twenty quid.’
‘Oh gawd.’
I stepped into the bar to find a few people stood around the bar itself, and behind it were three nice ladies plus the landlord, and two of the ladies had big boobs and tight tops. ‘Everything OK?’ I asked the landlord.
‘This is the boss, Major Wilco,’ he told the ladies, who all keenly smiled at me.
‘Saw you on the TV,’ one said. ‘Better without the facemask, love, don't be shy.’
‘Er … thanks,’ I said, and walked on, finding many officers sat down and eating, a great smell in the air. The Intel captains were here, even Captain Perky, but she was in uniform.
‘You working tonight?’ I asked her.
‘I start in an hour, bite to eat first.’
I nodded at Billy as he sat with Harris. ‘Major Harris, did you get a written note from your wife?’
‘She thinks it's a unit function, and we rarely have them so I got a pass.’
Sanderson was not in uniform but in a casual suit, sat with two regular SAS officers.
‘Food OK?’
‘Very nice,’ Sanderson told me. ‘And it's free tonight.’
The Brigadier stepped in, a casual suit worn, and I got him a drink as we chatted about how the ranges would be used when we were away.
‘I'll probably take most of Echo down to Liberia in a week, 14 Intel and my regulars. No particular action, but they're complaining about keeping the oil men safe. We'll thin out the bad boys.’
‘Any organised groups?’
‘No, just local criminals.’
I nodded at the Mi5 men when they entered with CT police, all in civvies, and I led the Brigadier upstairs, finding it empty so far. We sat and relaxed, chatting about my trip to America, joined after half an hour my Sanderson and his guests. From the window I could see the ranges even though it was dark, the roads around them lit up.
‘What we doing with the extra land?’ the Brigadier asked.
‘Something for visito
rs. Maybe an assault course, running track, dirt bikes. It's a big old spread, so have a think, sir.’
‘Assault course would fit,’ he noted. ‘What about a helo pad?’
‘What for?’ I puzzled.
‘They sometimes buzz in when you're away, but the villagers must be able to hear them.’
‘Sure, if you think it's needed.’
‘First lot try the new range next week, Paras,’ he told me. ‘They've put up a shed and a covered area with tables, where men make ready weapons or clean them. They'll have tea in an urn, and medics on standby.’
‘They'll have Rocko shouting at them,’ I quipped. ‘Who takes over up in Credenhill?’
‘Guy named Forester, a high flyer, all the right connections. I've met him a few times at the UKSF, he's not with a regiment at the moment, been at the MOD for four months. But he seems OK, good record, family connections.’
‘Any action?’
‘That's the bit that's lacking.’
‘So he's there to do the paperwork,’ I scoffed.
‘How about you take him to Liberia?’
My eyes widened. ‘Is he free?’
‘For the next four weeks, yes.’
‘Then why don't you suggest it to him, some time training here first. If he's going to be sat in Credenhill I want him on my side.’
‘I'll sort it, but don't get him killed out there.’
‘I'll try. No promises.’
Later, downstairs, I mixed with those stood up, time taken to chat to many. When Colonel Bennet stepped in I was shocked. Drink down, I shook his hand, Stickler in the corner.
‘Decided to bite the bullet, sir?’
‘I heard about the function from Major Coalridge. We'd met before a few times and I asked a favour, if he would keep me informed about the lad, and after the car bomb I was a bit worried.’
‘You sure about this, he may just punch you?’
‘Well, I figured … I figured that he may get himself killed someday soon, so … there's a time constraint.’
I walked towards Stickler and waved him over, and to a vacant high table. ‘Stickler, this is Colonel Bennet, someone who saved my arse many times over, starting by helping me at the Glass House. He also got you out the Glass House, and he was wondering if you want to stay here?’
