Mark Abernethy - Golden Serpent

They moved quickly around the spur towards the head of the valley and the mine entry. Sawtell wanted to do the jungle transit during daylight. Mac liked that, and he liked the way Sawtell’s boys maintained total silence while moving really fast. Not quite a jog but more than a march.

Around Mac the men managed to clock the tree tops at the same time as watching where their feet were treading. It was a particularly hazardous assignment for the guy on point. The Sabaya MO – as Sawtell had reminded everyone at the briefi ng – was to mine and booby trap the approaches to his hide-outs. Fitzy was trying to fi nd a path through the jungle as well as check for Claymores and triplines.

They came into a clearing after twenty minutes, panting, staying low, staying silent. Some drank from water bottles.

When the other team caught up, Sawtell conferred with their team leader, a fi rst lieutenant called Gordie.

Sawtell came over to Mac, got in his ear. ‘That’s the mine entrance, about half a click at our two o’clock. We’re going over the top of it, take out any sentries. Copy?’

Mac nodded.

‘You, Paul, Fitzy and Jansen take the ridge right up to the top and check for air ducts or escape routes. Don’t engage. Only recce.

Copy?’

Mac nodded.

Sawtell gave an RV for six pm, then moved away.

Mac turned to Paul. ‘Hear that?’

Paul nodded. Mac beckoned Jansen and Fitzy over. ‘Know the mission, guys?’

They gave thumbs-up.

‘Fitzy takes point,’ said Mac.

‘And Jansen can sweep,’ said Paul.

The Green Berets nodded. If they hadn’t been asked, they would have suggested.

They lined up a point about four hundred metres above the mine entrance and then climbed straight up the spur, making good time.

The jungle was less dense than the valley they’d come through, with visibility through the trees as much as one hundred metres in places.

They stuck to the Green Beret MO and maintained silence. Mac’s advanced hand signals had deteriorated since the Royal Marines but he still had the basics.

They got to a false summit after half an hour and stopped on the ridge. Mac slugged water and looked around. The area was like a small plateau – strangely fl at for a piece of ground on a hillside in this sort of country. He did a three-sixty, his M4 already a part of his hands, looking for a chimney-like structure that would alert them to an air vent for the mine. Sixty years ago the dirt was probably excavated and spread around, hence the fl at area. Trees had grown up through it and a thick carpet of leaves covered the earth. But it still felt fl at, out of place. Maybe.

Paul had the same idea. ‘This is the go, right here, I reckon.’

The area was about the size of a basketball court and the vent should have been noticeable. They wandered around the area but no luck.

Mac came back to Paul, who had been doing his own recce, and pointed up the hill. Paul gave thumbs-up – there was a cracking sound and then he disappeared. Vanished.

Mac threw himself to the ground, wondering where the sniper had shot from. Paul groaned quietly, out of sight. Carefully, Mac scanned the fl at area and the trees, looking for the shooter.

Fitzy had a sheltered position on the edge of the clearing and Mac could see him looking everywhere at once, pointing his rifl e, trying to pick the sniper amongst all the leaves. Facing the other way, with his back to Fitzy’s back, Jansen was scoping the ground and trees with ninety-degree arcs.

There were no more shots and Mac’s breathing was now ragged.

Jansen crawled to Mac on his elbows and they crawled to Paul together, Mac thinking, Being hit twice in two days – what are the chances?

Stopping where Paul had gone down, there was no sign of a body.

Mac was almost hyperventilating. He had no idea where Paul was, had no idea where the shooter was hiding, had no idea if these were his last seconds.

He cast about, looked at Jansen. Jansen leaned further over and almost disappeared himself, yelping slightly.

Mac heard an echo, grabbed Jansen by the bergen and pulled him back. They moved leaves aside with their M4s. A two-and-a-half-foot tunnel disappeared perpendicular into the ground. Sitting about fi ve feet down was Paul, his right leg jammed into an iron ladder rung, his left leg dangled down into the tunnel, his body wedged against the far side of the tube.

Great if you were into yoga, thought Mac.

Paul was in agony. The painkillers he’d been taking for yesterday’s gunshot wound would not be strong enough for the contortion.

Mac dropped his rifl e, pulled the bergen off and eased down onto the top rung of the built-in ladder. Putting his hand down, he gripped around Paul’s wrist and heaved. After three tries Paul came up like a cork out of a bottle. Jumping onto solid ground and limping around the clearing, he checked his right leg, mouthing the word fuck twenty or thirty times but saying nothing aloud. The slightest human noise in that vent would amplify many times over by the time it echoed into the main tunnel below.

They knelt around the hole and let Paul walk off the twisted ankle.

He was in agony.

Mac put his fi ngers to his eyes, Jansen nodded. They crawled to the hole, dragging leaves away from it so nothing fell down. Leaning over, they stuck their heads in. A breeze came up thick and strong, indicating the mine had some part of it open. But they couldn’t see anything; it was completely dark.

It would require patience to hear sounds, evidence of people.

Jansen and Mac got comfy and listened while Paul and Fitzy stood guard.

Mac was just about to call it quits when there was a faint clanking sound. Jansen looked up at Mac, then listened again. More clanks, a male voice.

Mac and Jansen crawled into the cover of the trees where they joined Paul and Fitzy. Mac keyed the radio.

Sawtell came on, grumpy with someone breaking radio silence.

‘Thought you might like to stealth this?’ said Mac.

‘Better than storming a steel door,’ replied Sawtell.

‘We’ve found the vent. Right up the spur, where you said it was.’

‘How long?’

‘Take you twenty minutes.’

‘See you then. Out.’

Mac and Paul locked eyes. Time to fi nish this.

Sawtell wanted a man to stay at the tunnel entrance while Fitzy, the tunnel rat, went down fi rst. He wanted Spikey in second for any tricky locks or doors and he wanted complete radio silence.

The men slapped pockets, tucked boot laces into the tops and turned watches inward.

Mac suggested Paul sit this one out, what with the ribs, the face and the ankle. Paul just smiled and downed another handful of painkillers.

The tunnel was steel-lined so the soldiers wrapped M4s in their BDU shirts, tying them over their shoulders like a swag to stop them knocking and echoing. Mac and Paul couldn’t use a shirt so they’d need to stick especially tight to the ladder.

Mac was fourth down, Paul after him. They dipped into the tunnel and moved down the rungs. Mac kept looking up to reassure himself there was light above, but after fi ve minutes, he forced himself to look down to make his eyes adjust to the murk.

They made their way further and further into the tunnel. It got so cold the sweat on the back of Mac’s ovies started turning icy. The only sound was muffl ed boots on rungs, shallow breaths. Eleven adult men in a narrow steel tube. Almost one living organism operating to its own rhythm. And it was almost totally silent.

At one point Mac heard a muttered ‘fuck’ as one of the guys knocked his G-Shock and it lit up.

They travelled like that for what seemed like an eternity, the tension high. All it would take was one tango at the bottom with an assault rifl e and they’d all be dead.