Deep Black - Andy McNab [110]
We kept our eyes on the entrance as we both changed mags. I only had thirteen rounds left; I fed them all into one mag.
I heard a whimper then a shout behind me, and took a moment to work out where it came from. Nasir shook his head and pleaded with Salkic. The Motorola had survived his attempt to destroy it, and Salkic wanted to listen. His sister was sobbing, but defiant.
Salkic tried to mutter a few words of comfort but ended up in tears. His tormentor mocked and jeered as her sobs turned into rhythmic cries of pain.
Nasir ripped the radio from Salkic’s hands, hurled it to the ground and stamped on it, but it brought them only a few seconds’ respite. We could hear her outside, closer now, and Salkic retreated into a dark place of his own as his sister’s agony filtered into the cave. ‘She told me to be strong, and I will be,’ he murmured to himself. ‘The most important thing is protecting Hasan.’
Nasir sparked up, shouting at the top of his voice. If my guess was right, it had less to do with anger than drowning sound.
We all went quiet, apart from Nasir, who carried on trying to keep the cries at bay.
83
Everything went quiet. No more screams, no more shouts, not even from Nasir. Benzil insisted he did his share and went on stag above us, muttering a quiet prayer to himself.
Unless our call was taken seriously and SFOR appeared, night was going to be our only hope. I checked Baby-G: 11:14. If we could hold out until dark, we might be able to break out and make a run for it, especially if the cloud cover held.
‘Oh, God! Oh, God!’
Benzil was no longer praying: he was in shock.
Nasir was the first one up the rocks to join him. I was close behind.
The silhouette swayed in the cave mouth, then staggered a couple of steps to one side. Nasir could not suppress a gasp of anguish.
Salkic and Jerry came up to join us, just as the girl started to stagger in our direction, like a drunk coming down an alley. She lost her balance and bounced against the wall. Nasir pulled his weapon up into the aim as she called out for her brother. ‘Ramzi? Ramzi?’
One hand now against the wall for balance, she took a few more unsteady steps and groaned. Nasir still had his AK up, butt in the shoulder. Tears streamed down his face as he begged Salkic. They argued, and Nasir handed him the weapon.
Like me, Jerry didn’t need a translation. Either before or after the rape, she would have been drugged, then rigged up with explosive. It had happened all the time during the war. Mothers were rigged up and pushed back towards the trenches where their sons, husbands and fathers were holding the line. Serbs or Muslims, it didn’t matter, each side was as bad as the other. Now it looked as if the guys outside had decided that if Salkic wasn’t going to give Nuhanovic away, there was no point keeping him alive. Then again, maybe they just wanted to see how he’d react, and have a bit of fun.
She was no more than twenty metres from us and something needed to happen. But this was family shit and I was keeping well out of it. One of them would have to drop her.
Jerry dragged Benzil down to explain the score as Salkic begged her to stop, choking on his tears. Nasir joined in, but her only response was to hold out her arms, lose her balance and fall to her knees.
Now would be a good time: she was a static target. It would be a cleaner kill.
Salkic’s eyes were on Nasir’s, begging his brother-in-law for help. He couldn’t raise his arms.
Benzil had just worked it out. ‘Oh, God, he is telling him to shoot her . . .’
Salkic finally lifted the weapon into the aim as she tottered to her feet, calling out to him like a child. ‘Ramzi . . . Ramzi . . .’
Nasir urged him on, but the stock just collapsed off his shoulder. Nasir turned his attention to his sister-in-law, pleading