Andy McNab - War torn

'What's so funny, Streaks?' giggled Binns.

'Binman, I just don't know!'

But they could not stop.

'Pull yourselves together and get on with the job,' Sol told them harshly. 'Or I'll hand the gimpy back to Jamie.' Men were always laughing as they fired. It looked like a kind of mania and Sol hated it.

The platoons were splitting into sections now to get through the maze of narrow streets and approach the compound from the positions they had agreed. The town was a labyrinth of alleyways and high mud walls.

'Stay together, 1 Section,' Sol warned as they struck off into a side street. 'This place is a rabbit warren.'

Over PRR Dave said: 'Fix bayonets.'

All members of his platoon, wherever they were, did so. You could do this mechanically, without emotion, like Angus. Or you could do it, like Jack Binns, with apprehension, knowing that this was a close-quarters measure and that it might mean you'd find yourself within arm's length of the Taliban.

'Don't worry,' Mal said. 'No one ever really uses their bayonet, not in the last hundred years. It's just to make you feel better.'

'You're all right,' said Binman. 'You've got the shotgun.'

'Have you, Mal? Sure you didn't put it down somewhere?' voices shouted.

'Get moving and stay alert,' Boss Weeks told them sharply as he followed them down the alley.

The soldiers felt vulnerable making their way through the twists and turns. Rooftops and windows gave the enemy any number of good firing positions and shots could be heard from all over the town. They advanced cautiously, Sol leading.

When Finn, near the back, saw movement on a roof he stopped suddenly. Behind him Boss Weeks froze and behind him the signaller.

'Don't fire,' the boss instructed.

Finn who had been prepared to lay down a few rounds to warn anyone armed up there that he was ready for them, grudgingly put the safety back on the minimi. They waited. Ahead of them, the rest of the patrol waited too. No one liked standing still here. The men looked around them constantly, like birds. Finn's attention was fixed on the roof. Slowly, a head edged out. And then another. Dark-haired, brown-skinned, big-eyed, it was two small boys, eager to see the soldiers pass.

'Shit,' said Finn. Jamie took a bag of sweets out of one of his pouches and threw it up to them. The boys caught the bag delightedly. But instead of eating the sweets they began to use them to bombard the men below.

Jamie laughed but Finn was angry. He shouted: 'Little bastards!'

'We know what they want to be when they grow up,' said the boss. Finn caught one of the sweets and stuck it defiantly in his mouth as the section moved on.

There was firing nearby and the boss heard on the radio that this was 2 Section, who were accompanied by Dave. One insurgent had been killed. Two more had fled.

Sol rounded a corner and almost walked into a man running towards him, looking over his shoulder. In a split second Sol took in his presence and the weapon he was carrying, a Kalashnikov PKM.

Sol knew, without actually having time to think it, that he had to be quicker than this man or his deadly weapon could slaughter the entire section. He did not give himself the luxury of hesitation. He darted forward. The insurgent turned to find himself eyeball to eyeball with Sol's wide, dark face. Sol had time to watch the man's features scatter into a mixture of surprise and horror before plunging the bayonet into his chest. The insurgent staggered and Sol pulled out the bayonet.

'I've got him,' said a voice from behind. 'Get down, Sol.'

Blood spurting from his chest, the man was still attempting to raise his weapon. Sol dropped onto the dusty ground and Mal fired the shotgun. The man fell.

The rest of the section rounded the corner and halted when they saw the corpse. Blood was blossoming in widening circles all over his torso. His eyes were open but clouding rapidly.

Sol stared at him and at the man's blood on his bayonet. 1 Section crowded around him.

Binns turned a shocked face to Mal. 'I thought you said no one had done that for a hundred years!'

Streaky asked: 'Was it hard to get it in him, Sol?'

'It was much easier than you'd think. And I've always worried a bit about getting it out but it extracts really easy, too.'

Another man, carrying an AK47, emerged through a doorway down the alley. Seeing them, he turned to run.

Mal raised the shotgun again. Its report echoed around and around the high walled alley. Everyone waited for the man to fall. He took his few last paces running from life to death. He turned into a ghost as he moved: his momentum remained forward as his body crumpled.

The boss was describing the dead men over the radio to Dave, who confirmed they were the pair who had escaped from 2 Section. 'At last the fucking shotgun's come in useful!' said Mal happily.

The boss was watching Sol.

'All right?' he asked.

'Yeah, course,' said Sol, wiping the insurgent's blood off the bayonet by scraping it across the man's body. He turned to Angus, the sharp shooter for the section.

'Don't s'pose you've got the pistol?' he asked hopefully. Dave had told Angry to bring his SA80 and not his sniper rifle today, which usually meant that he had left the pistol behind as well.

'Yeah, I did stick it in,' said Angus. Sol's face lit up. The boss smiled.

'Well done, mate,' said Mal. 'That'll save Sol getting his bayonet dirty again.'

Angus handed over the pistol. But Sol's bayonet remained fixed. Then he led them on, past the two bodies, through the tiny, winding streets. When they arrived at the compound where Asad's family had lived, everyone recognized it. But the only welcome today was the chatter of AK47s.

2 PLATOON WAS ALREADY IN CONTACT. THE ENEMY WAS NOT EXPECTING attack on another flank: a few were lying along the top of walls. When they realized that there were soldiers on both sides they evaporated, but not before Binns had killed one of them with his rifle.

'Shit, oh, shit,' said Binns when he saw the body of a Taliban fighter roll off a wall and fall to the street. 'Shit, was that me?'

Jamie looked at him hard because Binns had been involved in numerous fire fights over the last few months.

'So have you been missing them until now, Binman?'

Binns coloured.

'I never was sure before that it was me.'

'Go!' roared the boss behind them, aware that they had a good opportunity to advance if the enemy was reorganizing.

Covered by 2 Section, 1 Section ran forward to the shelter of an adjoining wall while engineers laid a bar-mine.

'You've been inside, boss, you know the layout here,' said Finn while they waited.

'I know the layout of the rooms nearest the door,' agreed Boss Weeks. 'I'm not sure how helpful that is.'

As rapid fire continued on the other side of the compound, the engineers retreated and a small hole appeared in the massive walls.

'We're attacking at state red,' the boss reminded them.

Sol took a grenade from his pouch and threw it into the room and Mal pulled him back by his webbing. There was a pause followed by a roar, then smoke, dust and shrapnel. Mal scrambled in behind it with the shotgun. There was no sign of anyone in the room, alive or dead. He put down thirteen rounds and then sank onto one knee and let Jamie, immediately behind, fire over him.

The others piled in through the hole and, behind them, the boss and then 2 Section. They spread out, moving from room to room, double tapping into every corner. They were outflanking the enemy now, who were still fighting 2 Platoon across the compound. The Taliban, recognizing their poor position, threw down machine-gun fire in no particular direction before melting into the walls.

Jack Binns found himself at a doorway and approached it gingerly. How did you know what would be waiting in there for you? A bunch of grandmas having a cup of tea, deaf to the fighting like so many Afghan civilians? Or a wild fundamentalist with a grenade? Each called for a completely different response.