Andy McNab - Crossfire

A flick of the torch revealed butane bottles, gas rings, a kettle. The fuckers made them watch the water come to the boil knowing what was about to happen.

I gave the live girl a slap. I had to make it sound like I'd come up here to carry on spreading the good news. Noah heard the scream and approved.

I left the door open and headed to the one opposite. It opened, but there was nothing inside except a tea chest in the corner. That left the padlocked room.

The keys hung from a nail punched into the doorframe. The reek of shit coming from the other side made me gag. I knew this wasn't going to be a good day out.

The Yale turned and I pulled open the door. The torchlight swept across a huddle of maybe twenty girls, heads bowed, bodies naked, emaciated, bruised and cut. Some were so young they didn't even have pubic hair.

The heads of the two nearest me were swollen from beatings. I pushed them aside. There was no sign of Dom. I moved through the middle of them. All they could see was torchlight, and they were flapping big-time. This wasn't whore-conditioning, this was sadistic shit. These fucks were enjoying this. That was why they were here in-country. They could get away with it.

I left the room and locked them back up for now. It had looked like a scene from a Nazi death camp, or the Idema pictures on the door at the Jock's. The guys hanging, burnt and whipped, the guys in the cupboard, the guy in the…

The hanging girl was still whimpering as I ran past and into the empty room. I shone my light on the tea chest.

Noah's laugh rolled up the stairs.

I ripped the nail holding the hasp closed and lifted the lid. The body was big, and white, its skin bruised and battered. They must have jumped up and down on the poor fucker to get him into this thing.

I leant closer. He was breathing.

I put down the weapon and torch, grabbed a handful of matted, blood-soaked hair and pulled. There was a moan. I couldn't make out what he was saying, but it was definitely Dom.

He rasped at me through swollen lips and gaps torn in his once perfect teeth. 'Please, please…' His eyes were so swollen they couldn't open.

I tipped the chest gently on to its side and pulled him out. He was cramped into a ball and his joints had locked. He couldn't unfold. Blood and saliva poured from his mouth as his begging went into overdrive.

It was Noah's kind of music.

'Only a few more hours, dude – he's gonna make us fucking millionaires!'

I ran back, unpadlocked the other room and threw the door open. The girls cowered in the corner, each not wanting to be the one the torchlight picked out.

'Go! Go! Get the fuck out!' I pointed the Mini-Ero at them, trying to get them sparked up.

A couple of heads lifted and stared. I dragged them out by their hair. 'Go on! Get the fuck out!' I left the rest to it. They looked too scared to move, but they'd get the idea.

I went back to Dom. He hadn't moved an inch. These fuckers hadn't any intention of releasing him, and he knew it.

The hanging girl managed a scream. I ran to her room and grabbed the chair. She started pleading, wondering what the fuck new kind of pain was coming her way. I climbed on the chair and told her to shut the fuck up.

'Yeah!' Noah liked to hear his mate Joey having fun.

Fighting to keep control of myself, I yanked on the rope knot that secured her to the ceiling hook and tried to break her fall as best I could.

She crawled across and ran her fingers over the dead girl's face. She wasn't going anywhere either.

I stopped in the hallway as the first two girls from the room scrambled towards me. They froze in the torchlight like petrified rabbits and I hurried them towards the stairs.

Dom hadn't moved. I leant down and put a hand on his shoulder. 'Come on, Fat Boy, come on. Dom, get up, we're moving.' I couldn't tell if he recognized the voice. It didn't matter either way. We could have a hug and a love-in later on, when he understood what was happening. I put my arm around him and took his weight.

More naked bodies hobbled past us as I staggered towards the stairs.

Noah had a sudden rush of blood. 'The bitches are getting away, man! Get the fucks, c'mon!'

There was more movement at the bottom of the stairs as the other maggots stirred. 'What the fuck, Joey?'

Dom's body began to unfold as naked, scared but now increasingly excited girls streamed past us to freedom.

Noah was outside, hitting the ones he caught, shouting at others melting into the darkness. The other two were out of their bags and joining in. It wouldn't be long before they stumbled across the real Joey. It was going to get noisy.

Weapon up, safety grip pushed in by the web of my right hand, I took my time going down the stairs.

'What the fuck…?'

They'd found him.

I waited halfway down, torch up in my left hand and parallel with the barrel, ready to light up the targets.

The first body stormed back in, shoving the girls aside to get to his maggot and weapon.

I waited some more. I wanted the full set.

The other two ran in. The moment they saw them, the girls still on the stairs below me were screaming. I thought my eardrums were about to explode.

I wanted the fourth body, but the other two already had weapons and soon they would have light.

I had to kick off now.

I hit the torch button and caught them both in a tunnel of light.

All I could do was stand my ground and fire, both eyes open, bringing the torch and weapon to bear on their centre mass.

Double-tap.

Double-tap.

It was almost like a range day, and had to be. Otherwise I would make mistakes and die.

Cordite filled my nostrils and the blast of the Mini-Ero filled my ears as I kept on firing into the killing area below me.

A thick cloud of cordite now hung in the torchlight and there was no movement from the bodies. The two bearded fuckers lay at the bottom of the stairs. The black-haired one had died with a sneer on his face; the brown-haired one with a look of utter shock.

I lowered the weapon. The remaining girls needed no second bidding to get the fuck out.

I cleared the doorway and moved outside, but Noah had gone. He'd left the others to it.

I had no time to lose. The Turks would be here soon and I wasn't going to waste time looking for the wagon keys only for them to follow me down the hill.

I ran back upstairs to Dom and gripped his arms. 'Get up! Help me, Dom. I can't do this alone!'

'My legs…'

He was trying, but not much of him was working yet.

I got him as far as the top of the stairs and had to move down three or four so I could get my shoulder under him and lift.

His feet bounced off each step as I went down. The torch lit the way, sweeping across two dead bodies and one very live one. Noah's massive frame filled the doorway.

'Fucking asshole!'

He ran at me.

I tried to avoid him, but with Dom's weight on me it wasn't going to happen.

He body-checked me. Dom slid off my shoulders as I stumbled over one of the dead and fell on to the concrete, syringe-strewn floor.

Noah threw himself on top of me. He wasn't bothered about grabbing a weapon. He was going to tear me apart with his bare hands.

'Asshole – fucking gonna die.'

He sat up, his entire weight pressing on my chest. His hands covered my face, then moved to my neck. I kicked and bucked to try to dislodge him, but it was like being trapped under a car. The Bergen dug into my back.

His huge fingers gripped my windpipe. I bucked again as he squeezed. I started to choke. My hands flew up to his wrists but I knew he was going to win.

I jerked my head from side to side.

'Fucking die.' His saliva sprayed across my face.