Deep Black - Andy McNab [107]
‘What’s all that about, Ramzi?’
There was no answer. I turned and even in this light saw the glimmer of tears in his eyes.
Nasir tuned up again, venting his rage between Salkic, me and the cave entrance. Salkic reached up and put a hand on his leg, attempting to soothe him.
‘What’s going on, Ramzi? What the fuck is he saying?’
‘He’s blaming you because you led them to me in the mosque.’ Salkic’s face was a mask of pain. ‘Not only is his brother dead, but now they say they are collecting his brother’s wife, my sister, from Sarajevo. They have a family, two children.’
81
There was a few seconds’ stunned silence as I slid down rocks next to Jerry and took the Thuraya out of his bumbag. The little red LED glowed brightly in the gloom when I hit the switch. ‘Your sister got a phone?’
He recited the number and I tapped the buttons.
‘We’ll need to get nearer the entrance for a signal. Can we call Nuhanovic to get us out of this shit?’
Salkic shook his head. ‘He has no phones. I drive there each time we need to talk. I’m sorry, this is not all your fault. I was in too much of a hurry after meeting you and Benzil. They must have followed me to the farm. Now we all have to pay the price.’
I checked Baby-G and the Thuraya: 06:47 and no signal.
I pulled up the antenna and pointed it at the entrance. ‘You up for it?’
He stood, without a flicker of fear.
‘Stay to the right, hugging that wall. If there’s trouble, just turn and run back. Whatever you do, don’t move into the centre of the cave.’
I held out my AK to Jerry. ‘Can you handle one of these?’
He didn’t look too sure, but he’d probably photographed enough guys using them to have a vague idea of which end was which.
‘Ramzi, tell Nasir what we’re doing. Tell him, if he’s got to fire, to use single rounds and aim. We must save ammunition. Got that?’
He nodded and started to gob off in Serbo-Croat while Jerry took the AK.
‘There’s one in the chamber. You know how to work the safety catch?’
To my surprise, he immediately looked in the right place. The safety on an AK is a long lever on the right-hand side. All the way up is safe; first click down is fully automatic; next click down is single shot. Old Soviet doctrine: lots of firepower and not much aiming.
I took his pistol, a 9mm semi-automatic made in South Korea by Daewoo, the car people, and told him not to fire unless Nasir had a stoppage or got dropped. I didn’t want to be in more danger from Jerry than the bastards outside.
‘OK, Ramzi, you ready?’
Benzil gave a bit of a good-luck wave. Salkic nodded to him. ‘If God wants me to die today, then so be it.’
‘Enough of that fucking Muslim fatalism.’ I meant it. ‘Just have a quick word with him now so you stay alive and get us to Nuhanovic, all right?’
He patted my arm. ‘Inshallah.’
We bent low, trying to become part of the rock. After ten metres we had to get down on our stomachs and crawl through the puddles and chunks of rubble.
I checked the Thuraya every metre. One bar would be enough. Sweat poured down my face, despite the cold. And my twelve-dollar coat was no barrier to more stagnant water and mud. Sharp stone chips cut into my elbows and knees. The pain would come later.
I could hear them outside now, just to the right of the cave mouth. I stopped, Thuraya in my left hand, 9mm in my right, trigger finger out straight over the guard, thumb on the safety catch. No way was I giving myself the slightest opportunity to have an ND [negligent discharge] as we moved forward.
Still no bars, maybe ten metres short of the entrance.
‘Salkic! Salkic!’ It was Motorola voice again, followed by that mocking laugh.
Nasir screamed back. Whether they knew it or not, these guys were doing us a favour. The more noise they made, the more cover it gave us.
We inched forward. About two metres