Pirate - Duncan Falconer [125]
As the SBS operatives passed one end of a broad street that ran through the town, the team stopped and crouched on one knee in all round defence. Downs stepped into the centre and the other team leaders closed in for a brief confab.
Stratton remained standing and looking down the street, realising where he was exactly. It was Lotto’s street.
Downs finished his brief and the team leaders took a moment to confirm the next phase with their own men. Then they got to their feet and continued down towards the bottom of the town and their respective objectives. They divided up, some going into the town while others went towards the brightly lit cargo ships anchored off the shoreline. Everyone knew what they had to do and focused on it like automatons.
Stratton looked at a porch halfway along the street. Lotto’s porch. With a light on inside.
The interpreter had joined Downs’s team for this next phase of the operation and they were about to set off when Downs realised Stratton wouldn’t be joining them.
‘More unfinished business?’ he asked his friend as he walked over to him.
Stratton’s bloodlust had ended with Sabarak but he had other things he wanted to know about. ‘Just some loose ends,’ he said.
‘Be careful, my friend. And I don’t mean with what you’re about to do, whatever that is.’
‘It’s OK. I just have to find out something.’ He looked back at Downs and smiled at him. ‘I’m not mad. Least I don’t think I am.’
‘I hope not. I’ll miss you if you are.’ Downs returned the smile and joined his men and they walked down the side of the town.
Stratton waited, then headed along the middle of the street, his Colt held easily in his hands.
Downs led the way to the corner of a street, where his team spread to cover both sides of the entrance. It was the street where the hostages were being held. He wondered if news had reached the pirates that an attack had taken place against the jihadist camp. If so, they had two main scenarios to deal with. The pirates would either take to their heels and run or they would try to defend their stolen property. Since the Somalis had no idea of the size of the force that they might encounter, Downs hoped they would take the wiser option and flee.
The first two of his men moved forward to probe the possible enemy positions. Downs’s main concern was their safety and it dictated his tactics. If the pirates were determined to defend their town, it could turn out bloody for the hostages, as well as for the pirates. His other fears, if the pirates had chosen to flee, were that they had tried to take the hostages with them or killed them before leaving.
The team spread out along both sides of the track in a staggered formation and advanced quietly along it. There was little sign of life other than the occasional sound from inside a dwelling. If word had spread that Westerners were coming, the local populace would probably hide in their houses until it was all over.
Downs’s lead pair stopped a short way along the street. A small Somali boy was standing in a doorway looking at the lead guy. The operative waved. The boy shyly returned it. His mother snatched him inside and closed the door. The lead pair eased forward. They had seen men with rifles up ahead through their night-vision sights. The men didn’t look like jihadists so were probably pirates. It looked like they hadn’t heard about the attack on the camp because they hung around the street, smoking and chatting easily.
This and any other option had been discussed during the operational brief. The aim was for minimal casualties so the strategy had been adjusted to allow for this. The lead pair had suppressors attached to the barrels of their weapons and they both lifted the carbines, aimed them using the thermal sights and fired in quick succession. Fifty metres away four pirates died where they stood or sat and fell to the ground.
The team quickly advanced to clear the area