Stephen Leather - False Friends

He ducked involuntarily as the explosive charges went off.

The charges had wreaked havoc on the cage around the stairway, mangling the metal frame and twisting the hinges, but it was still in place and blocking the stairs. Tommy and his number two on the demolition team grabbed it and pulled hard. It came away from the wall and they dragged it into the hallway.

Croft led the charge up the final staircase. As his feet pounded on the concrete steps a door opened on the top floor. Croft caught a glimpse of a bearded man and then the door slammed shut.

He reached the top floor, hurried along to the bedroom door and paused for a second for the rest of his team to join him. He stepped to the side and Seal Delta kicked the door hard, just below the handle. The jamb splintered and the door crashed open.

Croft went in first, just as they’d rehearsed, bent forward to keep his centre of gravity low, his carbine sweeping the room. One step into the room then a quick shuffle to the right so that the next man had a clear view.

There were three targets in the room. There was a man standing by the bed. A craggy face with a long straggly beard. Two women, both wearing long cotton nightgowns.

The women began screaming in Arabic. The younger one took a step towards the Seals, her hands curved into claws, her face contorted with hatred. ‘ Neek Hallak! ’ she screamed. Croft knew enough Arabic to know that she was telling them to go fuck themselves.

The older woman stepped to the side, putting herself between the soldiers and the old man. Her husband. They were both his wives, and both would die to protect him.

Seal Charlie shouted at the younger woman. ‘Shut the fuck up, bitch!’

The woman continued to scream at the Americans in Arabic, shaking her fist, her eyes blazing. Then suddenly she charged at Seal Bravo, wailing like a banshee. Seal Bravo lowered his aim and shot the woman in the left calf. Her leg collapsed and she staggered against the wall, her screams of anger turning into howls of pain.

The older wife grabbed hold of the injured woman and she too began to curse. Seal Charlie let his weapon fall on its sling and he dashed forward, shoving the two women against the wall.

Croft brought his gun to bear on the man, who was still standing next to the bed, a look of quiet serenity on his face. There was no fear, no anger, just blankness as if he couldn’t comprehend what was going on around him. Croft raised his weapon, his finger tightening on the trigger.

Off to his left, the injured woman had slumped to the floor, blood streaming from the wound in her leg, and the second woman was trying to stem the flow with her nightdress. Croft was barely aware of the women; he was totally focused on the man in front of him. Two more Seals moved into the room, their M4s sweeping left and right.

The man was still raising his arms, and now he stood almost as if he was crucified, his palms open, fingers extended. His eyes stared blankly at the soldier and a smile slowly spread across his face. It was the smile of a man at peace with himself. Croft pulled the trigger and a small dark-green rose blossomed in the centre of the man’s chest and his whole body shuddered, and even before he began to fall Croft fired again, this time at the man’s face. The bullet blew away most of the man’s skull above the eyeline, splattering blood, brain and bone over the wall behind him. The target fell backwards on to the bed, his arms still outstretched.

Three more Seals piled into the room. They began whooping when they saw the dead man on the bed. Croft clicked on his radio mic. ‘For God and country — Geronimo, Geronimo.’ His breath came in ragged gasps, the adrenaline still coursing through his system. He took a deep breath to steady himself before clicking the mic again. ‘Geronimo EKIA.’

EKIA. Enemy killed in action. The most hunted man in the world was dead.

Croft turned to look at his colleagues and punched his fist in the air. ‘You do not fuck with Navy Seals!’ he shouted. ‘Who do you not fuck with?’

‘Navy Seals!’ they chorused, then began whooping and pumping the air with their fists.

Shepherd stood in the doorway, his Heckler amp; Koch cradled in his arms as he watched the Seals cheering and slapping each other on the back. Henderson came up behind him and put a gloved hand on his shoulder. ‘We should go, Dan. It’s over.’

The woman who hadn’t been shot tried to get over to the dead man but Seal Bravo pushed her back down on the floor. ‘Stay where you are, bitch, or I’ll shoot you too!’

‘Stand down!’ shouted Croft. ‘I want the place searched from top to bottom. We want computers, papers, photos. . Anything that looks like intel we take. And let’s get his body into a bag.’ He saw Shepherd looking at him.

Shepherd took off his night-vision goggles. There were thin curtains over the windows and there was enough moonlight filtering in for him to see. There was a big-screen television on a table in one corner of the room, along with a video recorder and a stack of tapes.

‘What’s your problem?’ asked Croft.

‘Dan, come on,’ said Henderson, trying to pull Shepherd out of the room. Shepherd shrugged off Henderson’s hand.

‘What the fuck did you do?’ shouted Shepherd.

Two Seals pushed by Shepherd and headed for a cupboard on which there was a laptop computer and a stack of DVDs. They knelt down and took off their backpacks.

Croft pushed his goggles to the top of his head. ‘What do you think happened?’ he growled at Shepherd.

‘I think you shot an unarmed man, that’s what I think.’

Croft pointed at an AK-47 leaning against the wall by the bed. ‘What do you call that?’

‘I call it murder. He didn’t make a move for the weapon and yet you double-tapped him.’

‘Yeah, well, I wanted to make sure he was dead. That bastard was responsible for Nine-Eleven. He deserved what he got.’

Seal Delta appeared in the doorway, with Seal Echo close behind him. Seal Echo was holding a tube of rolled-up white plastic. ‘Got the body bag,’ he said.

‘You and Pete put the body in it,’ said Croft. He nodded at Seal Delta. ‘Are they searching the rooms downstairs?’

‘We’re on it,’ said Seal Delta. ‘They’ve already found a stack of porn.’

‘Make sure they take it with us. We need to show what degenerates these bastards are,’ said Croft.

Seal Delta disappeared out of the doorway and thudded downstairs. Seal Echo and Seal Charlie went over to the bed and unrolled the body bag.

Croft realised that Shepherd was still staring at him. ‘What the fuck are you looking at?’ he said.

‘I’m here to observe, remember?’ said Shepherd. ‘That’s what I’m doing. Observing.’

‘Get back to the chopper,’ said Croft. He pointed at Henderson. ‘You’re supposed to keep him out of trouble, Guy, and at the moment you’re not doing a great job.’

‘This isn’t over,’ said Shepherd. ‘No one told me this was a kill mission. I was told that we were here to capture and remove for interrogation.’

‘Yeah, well, maybe you weren’t in the loop,’ said Croft. ‘Now get back to the chopper. We’re leaving as soon as the body’s bagged.’

‘Who authorised you to kill him?’

Seal Bravo came up behind Shepherd. He elbowed Henderson out of the way and jabbed the barrel of his weapon against the side of Shepherd’s neck. ‘Do as he says and get the fuck out of here,’ he growled. ‘You won’t be the first Brit to get caught in friendly fire.’

Shepherd slowly turned to face Seal Bravo and stared at him with unblinking eyes. ‘If you want to pull the trigger then you go right ahead,’ he said. ‘But, just in case you’re wondering, that hard thing pressing against your leg isn’t my cock, it’s my Glock, and if you do shoot me my gun’s going to go off and blow away your nuts. To be honest, I’d rather be dead than live the rest of my life with no balls, but maybe you’re okay with that.’