“Let’s go, we need to finish them and move on.”

  They jumped up and ran forward, pulling out their Sig Sauer P226s on the run. This would be close-in action. It was no place for a long rifle. Dave and Zeke were already there amongst the survivors, finishing off the last of the resistance with single shots from their HKs.

  “You done? We need to push on a find the Boss,” Nolan snapped out as he looked around for any more targets. But there were none.

  “Yeah, all finished here.”

  “Right, let’s go.”

  The Seals ran towards the sound of the shooting. Lieutenant Talley was hunkered down inside a stone building, some sort of a merchant’s store; sacks of grain and dry goods were piled everywhere. The Seals were firing out of the small windows, which made perfect firing slots. Talley looked up as they ran in.

  “Have you seen Major Siddiqi, Chief?”

  Nolan shook his head. “Not since the attack started.”

  “He was sheltering behind the well just off the main square when the firing got bad. A group of insurgents moved in, and we had to pull back, but they were all around his twenty. I’m worried he may have been taken prisoner. The poor bastard.”

  The two snipers stared at him. Vince replied. “Or he’s gone over to them.”

  “No, I don’t believe that. You know that all of these Afghans play both sides against the middle, and Siddiqi’s no different from the norm. But these people will give him a hard time. We have to assume he’s a prisoner, but we’ve got more problems. Creech sent over an unarmed Predator drone. They’ve sent a message that a further force of fighters, about fifty or sixty men, is on the way here. They’re due to arrive shortly.”

  The Predator drone was an invaluable reconnaissance platform. The General Atomics MQ-1 Predator was used primarily by the United States Air Force and Central Intelligence Agency. Designed in the 1990s for reconnaissance and forward observation roles, the Predator carried cameras and other sensors. Some had been retrofitted with armament, but sadly not this one. Powered by a Rotax engine and driven by a propeller, the Predator could fly up to 400 nautical miles, loiter overhead for fourteen hours, and then return to its base. Armament could be useful at times like this, but it reduced the TOT, the Time Over Target.

  “How shortly?”

  “Fifteen minutes.”

  “Shit.”

  “Yeah, my thoughts exactly, Chief. We need to pull out of here.”

  “No luck with Rahimi or the bombmaker?”

  “No, no sign of them. We’ll need to regroup and try again. But not now, we don’t want to have to fight a pitched battle.”

  “Any chance of them sending a Reaper to help us out?” Merano asked him.

  The MQ-9 Reaper was the more modern armed variant of the unmanned drones. A 950 horsepower turboprop, giving it a maximum speed of about 260 knots and a cruising speed of 150-170 knots, powered the aircraft. The MQ-9 could be, and normally was, armed with a variety of weaponry, including Hellfire missiles and 500-lb laser-guided bomb units.

  “Not tonight. They say there’s nothing in the area, and nothing they can get in the air soon enough to help out. We’re on our own, so we’ll pull out and work out a new plan.”

  “That won’t be easy now that they know we’re here,” Brad Rose grumbled.

  “That’s why they send in Navy Seals, Brad,” Talley told him grimly. “The others do the easy stuff. We do the impossible. Now let’s get out of here.”

  Two of the men surveyed the area behind the grain store and pronounced it clear.

  “Carl, you and Brad use the M320s, and give us some cover while we pull out,” Talley ordered.

  “Smoke grenades, Boss?” Rose looked surprised.

  “No way, high explosive. I want as many as possible dead, not temporarily blinded. Give them four rounds apiece. The rest of you put some lead in there, and give them something to occupy their minds. As soon as the last grenade explodes, we’re out of here.”

  The two Seals loaded the first two grenades, pointed and fired. M320 Grenade Launcher Module was the US military's new single-shot 40 mm grenade launcher system. The grenades sailed unerringly towards the target, and before they exploded, Winters and Rose had reloaded and fired two more grenades. The enemy defenses crumpled into rubble, and the snipers were able to go to work, blasting at the confused and demoralized Afghans as the Seals made their run to a new defensive position. The rest of the Seals poured on the gunfire, and the hostiles took serious casualties from the intense fire before they were able to run for cover. Talley jumped up as the last grenade left the launcher.

  “That’s it, we’ll head back to the tower, or what’s left of it, and exfiltrate along that goat path. Move!”

  They ran, their legs pumping as they literally sprinted out of the center of town, away from the battle to their first destination. When they reached it, the tower had indeed completely collapsed. Talley urged them on.

  “Keep going. Snipers, give us cover, and fall back behind us when it’s clear.”

  “Roger that.”

  “I’ll take the first stand,” Nolan shouted, dropping behind a rock barely large enough to use for cover.

  He watched the town, but so far their rapid exit had taken the enemy by surprise. He looked around and saw that Vince had gone to ground, and he stood up and ran back. They leapfrogged behind the platoon, giving it cover from any pursuit, but there was none. Finally, they reached the position where Talley had decided to pitch camp, three miles out from Adasabad. It was far enough away not to attract attention, but near enough to spy on the town. The camp was a shallow cave in the side of a low range of hills. The cave was just a small, dark, jagged opening, set into the broken rock and dirt of the hillside, about three feet high and four feet wide. It went into the hillside to a depth of about twelve feet, which was enough to shelter them while they regrouped. Nolan clambered through the entrance and sat down. Already the men were checking their guns and equipment. He sighted his scope on the main track that led to the town. A large group of insurgents was running along it at a fast pace to join the fight for the town, unaware that it was over, for the time being.

  “Chief, we need to prep for the next stage. Chief, are you okay?”

  Nolan glanced around as Talley spoke to him. He realized he’d lost it, yet again.

  Dear Christ! Not now, not here.

  “Kyle, you were out of it just then, what happened? It was like you were having one of those blackouts. What’s going on?”

  “I’m alright, no problem. What were you saying, what stage is that, Boss?”

  “Hold it down, Chief. I’ll maintain a temporary base here while Vince locates a stand from where he can take out targets of opportunity.”

  “Right. And me?”

  “I want you volunteer to lead a small team to locate Siddiqi and bring him back. That’s if you’re okay.”

  Nolan stared at him. “I’m fine, but you’re not serious? We don’t even know yet that the bastard wasn’t double-crossing us.”

  “Even more reason go and get him back. He’d be a rich source of intelligence. But if he is on the level, you know our rules. We never leave one of our own. You know that, Kyle.”

  Nolan glanced at him. The use of his first name again was a ploy, to make a point.

  “I don’t know, Boss. We could get hit badly and come out with nothing. It’s not a good one.”

  “I’ve established contact with Creech, direct. They’re putting a pair of Reapers into the area. You’ll have plenty of support to hit these bastards. Think about it, it’s,” he looked at his wristwatch, “it’s coming up to twenty three hundred. If you think it’s a go, you’ll need to move out at zero two hundred.”

  “Back to Adasabad.”

  “Yes, back to Adasabad.”

  Nolan turned away. He had to convince Talley that it was crazy. If it was one of their own, sure, but Siddiqi? No way.

  And if he has gone over to the other side, he won’t be giving any intelligence to anyone, I’ll rip the fucker’s throat out.

  Chapter Four

  They were dozing when the noise of someone approaching brought them to full alert. Will Bryce was on sentry duty, and he put his head inside the cave.

  “Heads up, it’s only some old guy coming towards us from the direction of the town. He doesn’t look like a threat, but who knows? He’s about five minutes out.”

  They had one thought. Suicide bomber. Why else would a lone man be heading towards a body of armed troops? And how could he even know they were there? Bryce had read their minds.

  “He seems to know our exact position, but how in hell he found our twenty, I’ve no idea.”

  Will went back outside, and they crawled out of the entrance and fixed the approaching figure with their night vision goggles. He walked straight to their position, right up to the cave entrance, and stopped.

  “My name is Abraham Dur. I watched you come here after the battle in the town and followed you. I am here to help.”

  They gaped at him. Dur was short, almost tiny. In a country where men were shorter than Americans, he was exceptionally short, maybe five feet tall. And incredibly old, the men thought he had to be at least eighty. Which in this country meant that he was probably in his forties. When he spoke, he showed a pair of gums; he’d lost all of his teeth. He was dressed traditionally in Afghan costume and a pakul hat, much like they were, except that his clothes were little more than rags displaying the evidence of frequent repair. His lined face and leathery skin were shriveled, and his sunken cheeks were a marked contrast to the piercing, blue hawk eyes. Eyes that watched them and weighed up what they saw. Old he may have been, but he was no fool.

  “You couldn’t have followed us,” Talley snapped back. Then he realized something even stranger; the man was speaking fluent English.

  “What’s going on, Mr. Dur? What do you want?”

  “I want you Americans soldiers to help me. My granddaughter is held prisoner inside the town. I would like you to rescue her.”

  Nolan smiled inwardly as he watched Talley try to make sense of this development. The poor old guy was trying to save his family. Then his smile faded. If the guy wasn’t on the level, and if he presented a threat, he would need to be dealt with. Best not to get too sentimental.

  If he gives me the order to cap him, I’ll have to put bullet in his brain. It wouldn’t be the first time.

  “I’m sorry about your granddaughter, Mr. Dur,” Talley continued. “But we’re fully occupied with our own problems. Maybe you’d better come inside the cave and explain yourself.”

  Because if we don’t like what we hear, buddy, you won’t be leaving here alive.

  He nodded at Eisner and Rose who’d taken up a position behind the man to stop him fleeing. They expertly searched him for weapons and herded him to the cave entrance where he went inside. He was so short that unlike them, he didn’t need to duck through the entrance. They followed him in. He sat cross-legged on the ground and waited. The man looked very frail, and yet maybe he had something about him; a second inspection suggested that he had a certain dignity, and more importantly, some steel in his backbone. And something else, something that was more than the vulnerable exterior revealed. This was no fool. Talley sighed.

  “Okay, what’s the story? First of all, how did you follow us out here?”

  The man shrugged. “It was not difficult. I have lived here all my life, and apart from the main track that comes into the town, there are only four or five paths that you could have used. I left through the cave system underneath the town. It surfaces about a mile back from here.”

  The men exchanged glances. This was interesting.

  “Would you like something to drink?”

  He looked at Nolan and grinned, showing pink gums where his teeth had once been.

  “That would be most gracious, thank you.”

  One of the men passed him a flask of water, and he drank heavily.

  “Thank you. You wish to know how I can speak your language? That is easy. I worked as a translator for the Soviets when they were here. I spoke Russian because of relations I have in Tajikistan. They sent me to Moscow where I learned English so that I could be of use to them with interrogations of CIA spies. They expected the Americans to invade and take up arms on behalf of the Mujahideen, but of course, they were beaten before that was possible.”

  “We never intended to invade,” Talley said, with a trace of irritation. “That’s just a load of Soviet crap.”

  Dur shrugged. “Maybe so, but they thought it was so. Or at least, some of them did. But you want to know why I have come to you tonight. My granddaughter, Najela, she is only fourteen years old. When the town mayor knew that he would have an important guest, he took her from her family to be given to this man as a gift.”

  “Would the guest be Gemal Rahimi?” Talley stared at him, unsure of how to deal with the unexpected arrival of the elderly Afghan.

  Dur inclined his head. “That is him, yes. He has already arrived in the town, and my granddaughter will be presented to him this evening. I want you to rescue her for me. Although they will be on the alert after your failed attack.”

  The men glanced at each other. The old guy didn’t pull any punches.

  Talley ordered Eisner and Rose to watch him while he went outside the cave to talk with the men. He looked at Nolan.

  “What’s your opinion, Chief?”

  “We could use that info on the cave system he mentioned. It may be the only real way to get back inside the town and complete the mission. They probably won’t be expecting us, although they’ll still be watching. My guess is they’ll assume we’re long gone.”

  “Yeah, that’s my thinking, we could sure use that underground approach if he’s on the level. Have you thought about Siddiqi? I won’t make it an order, but I’m not happy to leave him to be butchered.”

  Nolan thought fast. In truth, it was unpleasant to even consider leaving the Major, unless he was a spy. But if he did have a foot in the Taliban camp, he deserved summary justice. A bullet.

  “I’ll take a look at it, Boss. This intel from Dur about the tunnel changes everything.”

  “Yeah, it sure does. So it’s a go?”

  Nolan nodded reluctantly. “Okay. If we go in through this cave system, we go as one group. It may be possible to roll up the whole town in one clean sweep if we can catch them with their pants down.”

  Talley nodded. “That’s my feeling. Let’s go back in and talk to Dur.”

  The elderly Afghan was still sat cross-legged, watched over by two Seals. Both had their Sig Sauers out, but the guns were held at their sides, not pointing directly at Dur, as if he wasn’t being held under armed guard. But there wasn’t a man in that cave who didn’t know the truth, Dur included. Talley sat down next to him.

  “We’re sympathetic to your granddaughter’s problem, Abraham. We may be able to help. Tell me, do you know of a woman in the town, a new arrival? She’s making bombs for the insurgents.”

  “I know this person, Gulpari Hotaki, yes. She came in from Pakistan, and she’s here to discuss a new weapon.”

  “A consignment of IEDs, yes, we know about those. We understand she brought the components with her. She’s there now, is she?”

  “She was there this evening, so she would still be there, yes. But excuse me. She did not bring a consignment of IED components. Gulpari Hotaki was involved with the Pakistani nuclear program, and the insurgency recruited her. I understand she is here to discuss the arrangements with Rahimi for the construction of a bomb.”

  There was total silence for a few moments. A couple of ‘Jesus Christ!’ and ‘Fuck that!’ expressions were murmured into the silence.

  “You mean a nuclear weapon?”

  “That is correct. The plan is to construct two of these weapons and then use them against the centers of opposition to the Taliban. I would guess that would be Kabul itself, and Bagram airbase just outside of Kabul. They are very proud of these new devices, there has been much talk and celebration.”

  “You’re sure of this, Abraham?”

  Dur nodded. “Of course. The leaders talk of nothing else but the plan to finish the war with one stroke. It is called Plan Salah ad-Din, after the great warrior Yusuf ibn Ayyub…”

  “Who beat the crusaders in the Holy Land, yeah, I got it. Okay, I have to call this in. Wait there, Abraham.”

  Talley used the encrypted satellite link to call the ISAF headquarters in Kabul. Within minutes, he was connected to Colonel Eugene Waverley III, an intelligence officer. The officer was less than happy to be dragged out of bed in the middle of the night.

  “A nuke? Are you outta your fucking mind, Lieutenant? We’ve heard nothing about this at intelligence. Are you certain this guy isn’t feeding you a line?”

  “I can’t be sure, Sir. But if I had to bet on it, I’d say the info is pretty good.”

  “I see. I need to talk to some people. Can you hold your position? I’ll get back to you inside of an hour.”

  “We’ll be waiting, Sir.”

  Brad Rose took out a spirit burner and made tea, the traditional Afghan hospitality for visitors, and passed a mug to Dur. He sat chatting to him while the others listened, but although the old Afghan was a mine of information about the town, he knew little about Plan Salah ad-Din, other than the name. He shrugged at Brad as they asked him.

  “It is pair of powerful bombs which they plan to build. That is all I know.”

  “But surely it will cause tens of thousands of deaths. That’s not war, it’s mass murder.”

  Abraham shrugged. “As Allah wills it. I know nothing of these things. Cannot the Americans respond with these bombs, only bigger?”