The Sixteen (29 page)

Now I could see the sense in what they were saying; no one would ever believe me back at my platoon, even if I told them the truth. So, after that, whenever I got back to camp and Bill or Dave asked where I’d been, I would joke with them.

‘Oh, you know, just popped over to Cairo to sort a few of these wogs out!’

It was strange, actually saying it made me feel so much better somehow!

D
uring the months following the operation in Cairo I’d been picked up and taken for training on a fairly regular basis, roughly every two or three weeks, but there’d been no other missions since. Even so, our training was still as intense as ever and I was becoming increasingly restless.

I felt just as Spot had told me I would – I hadn’t been the same since the job in Beirut. Killing that guy in broad daylight right under the noses of the guards and all of those people had really done something to me. It’s hard to explain but I’d felt great. It might sound crazy, but for me the next job couldn’t come quickly enough, that was if there was ever going to be a next job!

That uncertainty was the one thing I didn’t like about being a part of all of this, the fact that I never knew if or when I would be
picked up. I was living on a knife-edge, constantly keyed-up, in a state of anticipation and disappointment. Every time they picked me up I thought, ‘surely this must be it’, but for a long while, nothing happened.

This continued for some weeks, then one Monday afternoon in the middle of a training session, the door of the hut suddenly burst open. Sweat was pouring off me and dripping into my eyes and I could just about make out the figure of Ken standing in the doorway with a big smile on his face.

‘Well, lads, this is it! We leave for Jarâba tomorrow night,’ he announced, rubbing his hands together.

I turned and looked at Dynamo. ‘Where on earth is that?’

‘I’m not quite sure, Geordie,’ he replied. ‘But I think it’s somewhere near the Syrian border.’

‘That’s right, Dynamo,’ Ken said, then turned to me adding. ‘You’ve always wanted to meet the rest of the lads, Geordie, well you’re going to meet the whole gang tomorrow night.’

‘Great!’ I said grinning; this was more like it!

‘It must be something pretty big if it’s going to take all of us to do it!’ Spot said.

‘Well, it’s big enough,’ Ken replied. ‘You’ll be crossing through Lebanon and into the Israeli/Syrian border area; if things go wrong all hell will break loose.’

‘What’s the target this time, Ken?’ Dynamo asked.

‘Our intelligence is that a secret meeting has been arranged between some important civilians and military top brass and if these particular people get together as planned, it will have enormous repercussions throughout the whole of the Middle East,’ Ken explained. ‘So it’s our job to make sure that the meeting doesn’t take place. We think they are up to something a bit “naughty”, that’s why they don’t want anyone to know what’s going on, and
why their meeting is taking place in the middle of nowhere. The fact that it’s so secret will work to our advantage and make it much easier for us to get back, they won’t want to draw attention to themselves by alerting the rest of the country to what is happening once we’ve interrupted their little “get-together”! My lads and I are taking care of the transport, so grab some tea and I’ll go through the plans; there won’t be time when you meet the others on the beach.’

Ken walked ahead of us into the small ‘office’ area, helped himself to a drink and sat down at the table where he spread out a number of photographs and a large map. The four of us followed suit and when we were all seated he began to outline the details.

‘OK. We’ve got three things going for us. Firstly, obviously the element of surprise, they certainly won’t be expecting us. Secondly, although they’re bound to be fairly well guarded, our information is that the place is surrounded by only a single fence perimeter, and lastly, the River Jordan is just about bursting its banks due to the heavy rain and snowfall up in the mountains around Mount Hermon.’ Ken paused and sipped his tea before continuing.

‘The bad news is that they won’t all be there when we arrive, two of them aren’t due to get there until Wednesday evening. That means you’ve got a full day to make yourselves scarce. Right, here’s the plan. I’ll be here with the hack at 2300 hours tomorrow night to take you to within five miles of the mainland. A small fishing boat will be waiting for you there, which will take you to a deserted area eight miles south of Tyre.’

‘Oh, no!’ I groaned. ‘Not Lynch and that flamin’ boat again, I nearly broke my neck last time!’

‘Never mind, Geordie, it’ll be worth it for some of Lynch’s greasy bacon and eggs!’ Spot laughed.

Ken finished his tea then continued: ‘There’s a railway and main
road not far from the shore at that point; the other lads will be waiting for you there. I’m sure I don’t need to remind you to make sure you are carrying nothing that will identify you in any way!’ he said pointedly. ‘You know the drill, no labels on your clothes, nothing that could indicate who you are or where you’re from. Your watches and compass can be easily obtained anywhere so don’t worry about them. I’ll be back at the beach to collect you at 0100 hours Thursday.’

As usual I was curious to know more about the operation and how things were organised. ‘Where does Lynch get the boat from,’ I asked. ‘Where does he keep it when it’s not being used?’

‘Forget it, Geordie, you don’t need to know that, only that he will be waiting for you where I’ve said he’ll be.’ Ken smiled and winked, tapping an area on the map.

Dynamo, who’d been shelling a hard-boiled egg as he listened intently to what Ken was saying, placed it on the corner of the table as he leaned forward to take a closer look at the map. The egg rolled off and across the dusty floor. Dynamo merely bent down, picked it up and stuffed the whole thing into his mouth. His cheeks bulged as he sat there chewing it, grinding bits of dust between his teeth then spitting these out of the side of his mouth. We all silently watched him in mock horror; he looked just like a hamster.

Spot nudged me. ‘Ye knaa wot, he’d eat owt, him man, Geordie,’ he said, in a near perfect imitation of my Geordie accent.

‘Oh, very good,’ I said, giggling, then mimicked him. ‘You’re spot on there, Spot, old boy!’

Dynamo looked at us indignantly. ‘What’s the matter with you lot, waste not want not. That’s my motto,’ he said with his mouth full. ‘Anyway there’s more to worry about than me and this bloody egg, what about those damn Israelis on the borders. It looks like
we’re going to be travelling pretty close to them, according to the route we’ll be taking. You know how trigger happy that lot can be!’

‘There’s no concern there, we’ve taken care of that and you won’t be anywhere near them,’ Ken replied, then continued: ‘From your meeting point on the beach it’s about thirty miles inland,’ he said taking the map back from Dynamo and spreading it out on the table top again. ‘Bren will be driving a truck which will take all of you about twenty-eight miles inland, to within roughly two miles of your target area just north of this place here, Jarâba, and not too far from the Jordan. You’ll have to cross the river at that point then go on to your final destination on foot. Once you’re across, you’ll split up into your teams and meet up again at a pre-arranged rendezvous point up in the hills. There’s the place and those are the coordinates,’ he said, pointing out another spot on the map, as we each took notes.

‘You shouldn’t have any problems getting there, but getting back after the targets are taken out and the balloon goes up is when the trouble could start,’ Ken said calmly and shrugged. ‘We can’t avoid that. The main thing you’ve got going for you on the way back is the damn river: you’ll be able to cross it but they won’t. That will be the key to you all getting back safely as there isn’t a bridge for quite a distance in either direction. As long as you all reach the river before they do, they shouldn’t be able to follow you across; as I said before, there’s been a lot of heavy rain in the area recently so the river will be really rough and totally impassable by ordinary methods. Anyway, some of the others will have booby-trapped the road, too, so that should slow up any of the buggers who make it that far.’ He paused, grinning. ‘You’ll get an update on things at the beach.

‘OK. Now, for the targets! There are actually five, and the less you know about them, the better,’ he said, indifferently. ‘As far
as I understand three of them are civilians and two are military. Royston’s team will be responsible for taking the targets out; the rest of you are there to assist them and ensure that he and his lads all get back out of the garrison in one piece. Believe me they’re really going to have a problem. The garrison is well guarded and there isn’t much cover, just a small wooded area on the hilltop nearby.

‘As you can see by the photographs of the place, it’s going to be a hell of a problem for them just to get in, never mind take the targets out. We’ve really studied the place and it’s just not possible for them to eliminate the targets without drawing attention to themselves, but that’s not our problem that’s for Royston’s mob to sort out.’ He slapped his hands onto his knees. ‘And I’m really looking forward to seeing what they come up with.’

‘Should be interesting,’ Chalky murmured as Ken stood up.

He went outside and returned a few minutes later carrying a couple of sacks, which he dropped onto the floor.

‘Here’s your gear,’ he said, opening the sacks and pulling out four pairs of denim-type trousers together with four jerkin-style khaki tunics and a couple of Arab-style headdresses. ‘This is what you’ll be wearing.

‘You’ll need to take the usual stuff with you, set of ropes, crossbow, pulley wheels, lines and dog-clips, etc. and don’t forget the veg. grease, lads, you don’t know what it’ll be like near to the river. There’s a new set of CTCs each in that wooden box, over there,’ he said, pointing towards it, ‘and the heavier firepower will be waiting at the beach for you.

‘Right then, my job starts now, so I’ll see you lot tomorrow night at 2300 hours. Oh and by the way, make sure you have plenty to eat before we leave, it’s likely to be all you’ll get for a couple of days, apart from water and a few “dog biscuits”, and try to get
plenty of rest tomorrow afternoon as well, you’re going to need it, lads! See you tomorrow night.’ And with that, he left as abruptly as he’d arrived.

We continued with our training for the remainder of the day and turned in early. Tuesday passed uneventfully. We trained in the morning then we checked and prepared our gear in the afternoon, before eating and resting as Ken had suggested. By 2200, we were ready, dressed to look as much like the locals as possible with our skin and hair darkened as on previous operations. We wore our sashes and boot-knives and stashed our MK1s with the rest of the gear in our holdalls, together with a new CTC each.

Ken arrived with the hack promptly at 2300 hours and, as before, the helicopter created a huge cloud of suffocating dust when it landed. The four of us dashed forward and scrambled on board and he immediately took off. The noise was just as bad as I remembered it!

We swiftly flew out to sea and travelled uneventfully for roughly an hour before Ken indicated that we should look out for the boat. I couldn’t see the actual shoreline but knew it couldn’t be too far away as I could clearly make out the tiny lights of villages in the distance. Dynamo was sitting in the front; he spotted the boat and nudged Ken who immediately turned the helicopter, dropped down low and headed towards it, then hovered overhead as we abseiled down on to its deck.

This time we all made it into the boat without any mistakes or mishaps. As before, once we were in the boat, Ken immediately took off, ropes still hanging, and the hack disappeared into the night.

Once the helicopter had gone and the noise from its engine and rotor blades faded, everything was quiet. The sea was flat calm and it was a warm still night, with a sky that was full of stars. There
were no sounds other than the engine of the little boat as it sped through the millpond sea.

Lynch organised mugs of tea for us and as we sat drinking these, chatting, I looked around. It was pitch black and if it hadn’t been for those few tiny lights on the mainland, I don’t think I would have known what direction we were travelling in. Just as we finished our tea Lynch pointed ahead.

‘Right lads, grab your gear we’ve got less than half a mile to go.’

How the hell he knew that was beyond me. I peered into the blackness, but still couldn’t see the shore; it was just so dark. Minutes later he spoke again.

‘This is it, lads!’ he said and once more pointed towards the shore.

Just ahead of us, I could see a tiny pinprick red light flashing on and off. Lynch returned the signal then cut the engine and we drifted in the rest of the way until the bottom of the boat suddenly grated on the beach. Immediately two figures appeared out of nowhere and held on to it as Chalky and I jumped out of one side, Dynamo and Spot out of the other, landing up to our knees in water. We threw our bags ahead of us on to the beach and helped shove the boat back off the shore. It drifted slowly backwards disappearing into the darkness, then we heard its engine start and quickly fade again as Lynch sped off.

Picking up our holdalls, we began to make our way up the beach when we saw lights moving and flashing in the sky, like search-lights; vehicles were coming along the road.

‘This way lads, quick!’ one of the guys said, and led the way.

We followed him for about a hundred yards to the base of a railway embankment where I saw the huddled outlines of the others. There was a small, and very smelly, stream nearby but nothing else was visible in the dark.

‘OK lads, get under here!’ one of them said and they lifted over their heads a type of groundsheet, indicating for us to crouch underneath it too, as we heard a couple of trucks roll by along the road on the other side of the railway lines.

‘That’s been going on all night while we’ve been waiting here, it’s the main road,’ the guy nearest to me said.

One of them produced a torch and switched it on, as another laid out a map on the ground. Seeing their faces for the first time came as quite a shock. They all looked so realistic, just like a bunch of dark and swarthy Arabs.

I sniggered, nudging Dynamo, saying, ‘Are you sure we’ve come to the right place?’