“We need to get out of here,” Nolan exclaimed. “They’ll hit this place with a Hellfire missile, now that the shooting’s started.”

  “Aren’t you going to kill me, soldier?”

  “No, you’re more useful to us alive. Besides, if what you say is true, you’re not the enemy, so there’s no reason to kill you.”

  Unless there’s a chance of you being captured by the enemy, and then you’d have to die.

  “We need to move fast. We haven’t much time left. Get your clothes on.”

  He followed her through a connecting door into the next bedroom. She gave him a hard glance as he stared at her. Then she grimaced as she realized the absurdity of her position. She was already naked, and he’d found her being screwed by the man they’d killed, so there was nothing left to hide. She pulled on heavy, long woolen knickers and a matching vest. Over that she donned a voluminous blue burqa so that her face was only visible through a narrow mesh square in the hood that enveloped her face.

  “Pretty, isn’t it?” She bent down and pulled on a pair of sandals. “I’m ready.”

  “You don’t have a briefcase or a purse, something like that?”

  He couldn’t see her expression behind the mesh, but her voice was bitter. “I am the wife of an Islamic militant. I do not have possessions. I am a possession.”

  “I was thinking of your scientific stuff. It could be useful to our intel people.”

  She tapped her head. “Since I was a child, I have possessed an eidetic memory. It’s all here.”

  “And you’ll tell our people whatever they want to know about this program?”

  He could see her face move behind the blue mesh, and her eyes fixed him with a hard gaze.

  “Yes, I will. Of course, you will need to arrange to get my father out, in case they persuade him to continue with my work.”

  “I guess they’ll want to do that in any case. There is another alternative.”

  “What’s that?”

  Nolan didn’t reply.

  “Oh, I see.”

  “Yeah. Now let’s go, we’re running out of time.”

  “But…”

  A huge explosion nearby rocked the house. Nolan grabbed her and started to hustle her down the stairs. But coming through the front door was a group of armed men, he stopped counting at twenty, but they were filling the entrance hall.

  “We need to go out the back way,” the woman shouted.

  She dragged him through a side door of the hallway, and bullets chipped at the brickwork as he went through. They ran outside of the house and sheltered in an alleyway across the street. Two men appeared, and he snapped off two shots from his Sig Sauer that sent them diving back inside the house for cover. He pushed the woman down out of the line of fire and unstrapped his MK11 Sniper Weapon System. This was too much work for a pistol. Then he checked his inventory of grenades; he had four in his webbing. He laid them out ready. If they came in a rush, he’d need more than a sniper rifle to hold them. But it would be a close run thing.

  * * *

  Vince Merano perched in his stand at the top of the town mill, in a tower that was almost as high as the mosque tower had been. He had a perfect view of most of the town. When the first shots rang out, he had already lit up the town market with his LTD. He pressed the button that patched the targeting information to the command center in the Nevada desert, outside of Las Vegas, and to the Reaper drone that circled overhead.

  “Creech, this is Bravo. Target is lit, do you have it?”

  “Affirmative, Bravo, on your order.”

  “The shoot is confirmed, that’s a go, Creech.”

  “Copy that.”

  He watched the sky. The drone was invisible, but he noted the flash of flame as the Hellfire ignited. The Hellfire, AGM-114, was an air-to-surface missile developed primarily for anti-armor use. It had multi-mission, multi-target precision-strike capability and could be launched from multiple air, sea, and ground platforms, including UAVs. The Hellfire missile was the primary 100lb-class air-to-ground precision weapon of the armed forces of the United States, reliable, relatively cheap, and very, very effective. This one was fitted with the metal augmented charge, MAC, the 18lb shaped-charge, optimized for blast fragmentation. Seconds later, the Hellfire struck the market slightly off center, taking out three quarters of the structure and leaving the remainder a blazing ruin, filled with the shrieks of wounded and panicked fighters. But he knew that many of them were not wounded.

  “Creech, Bravo. Hit it again.”

  “Copy that.”

  The voice, so many thousands of miles away, was calm, as if he’d just sent in an order for pizza. But seconds later, another flash seared the sky, and seconds after that, the market erupted in more misery and death as the Hellfire’s high explosive, metal augmented charge filled the air with thousands of slivers of metal; ending any chance of the Taliban fighters being able to live to fight another day.

  “Creech, Bravo. Target is destroyed. Stand by for further targets.”

  “Copy that, standing by.”

  He shifted his area of focus to look for the next target. He’d seen Nolan, Murray and Winters disappear into the large house at the side of the town square. They’d be out by now, so it would be worth taking care of it to cover their tracks. He used the LTD to fix the coordinates and called in the order.

  “Creech, Bravo. Confirm new target is lit.”

  “We confirm, waiting for your fire order.”

  “That’s a go, Creech.”

  “Copy that.”

  Another flash in the sky, the short journey of the missile, and the house erupted in tangle of broken stonework, timber, wrecked furniture, and the inevitable consequence of war; bodies. He could hear the screams as the building disappeared in a haze of smoke, dust and flame.

  “Creech, Bravo. That was a hit, stand by.”

  “Roger that.”

  Vince moved position so that he could sweep almost the whole town with his riflescope. He saw movement and made ready to shoot down anyone who looked as if they may be armed, or otherwise present a threat. But it was Lieutenant Talley and the rest of the men moving from house to house, and obviously searching for anything that may be connected to the nuclear program. Then he spotted another movement, maybe a hundred yards behind them. It was more a change in light and shadow, in the gloom of the scabrous alleys and streets that made up the town. But any movement was a threat. He squinted down the barrel of the scope and looked for the faint variations in light that could mean a clear and present danger. He surveyed the area where he’d seen the movement. Yes! Four men were hiding in the shadows, and the distinctive banana-shapes of their assault rifle clips were a giveaway, Taliban, and almost certainly maneuvering to shoot up Talley’s group. Vince checked the range and glanced around at the wind. After the three explosions from the Hellfires, the winds had changed as the raging heat of the fires and explosions played havoc with the air currents. He decided it was within bounds. The shoot was not so far that he needed to worry. The range was well within the capabilities of the flat trajectory of the 7.62 mm rounds fired by the SWS. He chambered a round and calmed his breathing, adapting to the calm, almost Zen-like way of the world-class sniper. Then he fired.

  * * *

  Talley jerked around as he heard the ‘zip’ of an incoming silenced round, followed by the meaty ‘thunk’ as it found its target. There were four men behind him, emerging from a doorway across the other side of the narrow lane. Except that now there were three, as one man fell to the ground, blood streaming from a bullet hole through his head. The other three lifted their weapons to shoot, but at that moment, Zeke and Carl came running around from the front of the now-destroyed house, firing from the hip with their HK416s; the remaining three fighters were mowed down by the concentrated fire from the 5.56 rounds. The two Seals ran up to him, followed by Nolan with a woman in a burqa. What the hell was that all about? Talley ignored her, checked that his men were covering the area for further threats, and then leaned forward to add his gun to the fight. He saw a group of fighters across the square setting up a machine gun. If they succeeded, the whole balance of the battle would change. He turned to his men.

  “We need to take out that gun, follow me. Let’s go!

  He charged across the square, his men following him, firing from the hip. Nolan watched them go and watched the Afghans die even as they struggled to assemble their gun.

  “Are you okay, Chief?” Zeke asked Nolan, trying hard to keep his expression neutral as he fired a glance at the woman. He looked back at Nolan, unsure about him.

  Did you have another of those blackouts, Chief? What the hell am I going to do about that? And that woman, it’s the fucking bombmaker. Are you insane? Jesus!

  “Yeah, I’m good, thanks. That must have been Vince who took out the first one. He’s over there someplace, in that tower, some kind of a mill.”

  “When are you going to take care of the woman? You have to sort her out now. You have to kill her.”

  Nolan understood, and he was right. Except that things had changed. He shook his head. “It’s not a simple one, Zeke. I need to talk to Talley, and he may need to put it up the line, maybe even to Washington.”

  Murray came closer to him and spoke quietly, so the woman couldn’t hear. “That wasn’t the order, Kyle. They told us to kill her.”

  “I know that. But she has information that could well decide them to change that order. I’ll talk to Talley when we join up.”

  “If the insurgents get her back, it would cause a real problem.”

  Nolan stared at him. “If there’s any chance of that happening, she dies. Clear?”

  Murray nodded. “It’s your call, Chief.”

  “Yeah, it’s my call. Any doubt, kill her.”

  They looked across the square. Smoke from the Mayor’s house swirled around, blotting out sight of many of the houses. When the smoke cleared slightly, they could see a large house, or maybe a warehouse, across the other side. While they watched, a gun barrel poked out of a window. Nolan focused his binoculars and swept the lenses around the building opposite. There was no sign of Talley or the rest of the platoon, but they could all hear the firing. He called up Talley on the commo.

  “Boss, this is Nolan. Do you need our help?”

  “We’re okay, Chief, what’s happening over there?”

  “Vince called in a Hellfire missile on that house, and we got out just before it hit. We found Hotaki.”

  “You took care of her?”

  “That’s a negative, Boss. She’s European, a Swede. The woman’s a hostage, not an enemy.”

  He quickly explained how they had a hold on her through her father. And that she had information that could help the Americans to finish off a dangerous element of the insurgency.

  “You know what to do if there’s any chance of them getting her back?”

  “We all know that, Boss. It’s a done deal.”

  “Okay, I’ll talk to headquarters later and see what they have to say. But it’ll have to wait for now, can you join us over here?”

  “Yeah, we’ll come around the outside of the square, in case there are snipers.”

  “We’ll keep an eye out for you.”

  They skirted around the edge of the square and finally ducked inside the building where Talley and his men were waiting for them. The first floor was covered in corpses. The Seals had killed all of the defenders. Nolan counted eleven. Talley glanced at Gulpari Hotaki.

  “Ma’am, you’ll need something else to wear. You won’t keep up with us in that outfit.”

  “I have nothing else, Lieutenant. These are the only clothes I have.”

  Talley looked at Brad Rose. “We saw some clothes upstairs. Take the woman and get her changed into a shirt and pants. Something she can run in, if necessary.”

  “You wish me to dress in men’s clothes?” The woman was aghast. Then they heard her laughing. “I’m sorry, I have been a prisoner of these people for so long, the idea was very strange. Of course, I will change into men’s clothes. I doubt my husband will ever see me wearing them, and if he does, there is nothing he can do to me now.”

  When they’d disappeared up the stairs, Nolan turned to Talley. “Have you found anything yet? Any nuclear materials?”

  He shook his head. “That’s a negative. We need to keep searching, but we had to take out this place first. They were starting to snipe at us from inside the building. It’s clear now. We’ll ask the woman about it when she comes down.”

  He was about to go on when a new voice cut into their earpieces.

  “Bravo, this is Creech. We have sight of a new group of insurgents moving towards the town, count approximately fifty plus, repeat fifty plus. ETA your position in thirty minutes.”

  “We need to be out of here in twenty,” Talley snapped out. “We still have most of our mission to complete, if…”

  He looked up as Gulpari Hotaki came down the stairs wearing men’s tribal clothing. White pants, a long white shirt and black waistcoat. On her feet she wore American canvas combat boots and her hair covered by a turban she’d wrapped, rather elegantly, around the top of her head. She looked part Afghan tribesman, and part beautiful European woman.

  “That’s better, Miss Hotaki. You’ll move much better in those clothes.”

  She smiled shyly. “Thank you, Lieutenant. I feel better.”

  He nodded and turned back to the men. “The priority is to find Rahimi and take him out, along with the rest of the bombmaking materials. We’ll spread out and search as much of the town as we can.”

  “You’re looking for our store of materials? I can lead you there.”

  They looked at Hotaki. “You’ll do that for us?”

  “Of course, Lieutenant. I would be more than pleased to see them destroyed. I would guess you will find Gemal Rahimi there, or nearby. He will be more than anxious to protect them, but it will be well guarded.”

  “That’s our job, Miss Hotaki. If they’re not well guarded, they don’t need the Seals.”

  She nodded. “Very well, follow me. But please, my own name is Agnetha Bergmann. I would prefer that you call me Agnetha, now that it seems my so-called ‘marriage’ is over.

  “Sure, Agnetha. Lead the way.”

  Nolan watched her. Now that she was recovering from her shock and fear, and had real clothes on, she’d changed. She reminded him a lot of Carol Summers, not that he’d seen Carol naked. Yet the San Diego detective had dark hair and dark eyes; this girl had blue eyes and blonde hair. All over, he’d noticed when he first saw her. Yet both women were slim and pretty, and both possessed an obvious intelligence and bravery. Carol to patrol the rowdy and sometimes deadly streets of the naval town, and Agnetha to survive the hell of captivity and forced marriage to a Taliban member. Yes, it was more than their bodies that were similar. They were both clever and tough, his kind of women. He felt a stab of guilt as an image of Grace appeared in his mind. He forced himself to deal with the job in hand. Talley pulled him to one side and spoke quietly.

  “She could be real useful to us, Chief.”

  “Yeah.”

  “I don’t want to keep repeating myself, but remember, the first sign that we might lose her.” He drew the edge of his hand over his throat.

  “I got it, Boss.”

  “Yeah. Don’t forget it.”

  Talley took point with Agnetha to give him directions, and the rest of the men assumed a loose formation that would keep them out of trouble if the enemy hit them without warning. Nolan fell in at the rear to cover their twenty. Twice, they heard a ‘zip’ and a meaty ‘thunk’ as a silenced sniper round hit its target. Proof positive that Vince was still at work, watching over them. They walked along the narrow street. There was no paving; it was just beaten earth. Then they turned into an even narrower lane, but this surface was paved with cobblestones.

  “It belonged to the local pharmacy,” Agnetha explained. “The chemist did good business in the town until the Taliban arrived. He put down these cobblestones and had plans to pave much more of the town, to make it usable during heavy rainstorms when the mud becomes impassable.”

  “What happened to him?”

  She pulled a face. “The same as happened to everyone else who tries to drag this country into the modern world. The Taliban murdered him and stole his building to use as a bomb factory.”

  Nolan waited with Zeke Murray at the end of the cobblestoned lane to cover Talley’s group as they ran forward and into the house. It was a tense moment. The lane looked like a perfect ambush spot, high stone walls either side, and a path about thirty yards long leading to the house. But they made it. The last of Talley’s men got inside, and the shooting started.

  “I don’t like it,” Nolan murmured to Zeke. “If the defenders are watching for an attack, they could be waiting in ambush and hurt our guys badly.”

  Both men stared at the house. And both saw movement at the same time. The building had three floors, and on the top floor a face looked out, saw Nolan and his men below, and jumped back out of sight. He reappeared a few moments later, but this time he had a rocket launcher. Nolan propped the barrel of his SWS on the stone wall and sighted in on the man. A single shot would kill him but would not destroy the launcher, which another man could pick up and use. He whispered to his partner.

  “Zeke, we need to hit the launcher and the raghead. I’ll take the guy. The moment he’s hit, I want you to put the launcher out of use.”

  “Roger that.”

  Zeke stood next to him, his HK416 propped against the stone wall so that the two Seals were side by side.

  “Set?”

  Zeke nodded. “That’s affirmative, Chief.”

  Nolan made a final check of the scores of different elements that made for a perfect sniper shot. Windage, breathing, a whole shitload of converging angles, elevation, even such infinitesimal factors as the relative humidity and air pressure; all of which he could only guess at. But long experience meant those guesses were generally spot on the mark. He squeezed, and the silenced round took the missileer directly in the forehead. As soon as Zeke heard the soft ‘thunk’ of the bullet, he opened fire with his HK416, a sound-suppressed three-shot burst that ripped into the breach of the RPG launcher. Man and weapon fell back inside the building. Neither would play any further part in the fighting inside Afghanistan.