Peter Corrigan - Bandit Country

PETER CORRIGAN

Published by HarperCollins Publishers Ltd

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk

First published in Great Britain by 22 Books/Bloomsbury Publishing plc 1995

Copyright © Bloomsbury Publishing plc 1995

Cover layout design © HarperCollins Publishers Ltd 2015

Cover photograph © Stephen Mulcahey / Arcangel Images

Peter Corrigan asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Source ISBN: 9780008155391

Ebook Edition © December 2015 ISBN: 9780008155407

Version: 2015-11-04

This book is respectfully dedicated to the officers and men of C Company, 4 th/5 thBattalion the Royal Irish Rangers

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright Published by HarperCollins Publishers Ltd 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF www.harpercollins.co.uk First published in Great Britain by 22 Books/Bloomsbury Publishing plc 1995 Copyright © Bloomsbury Publishing plc 1995 Cover layout design © HarperCollins Publishers Ltd 2015 Cover photograph © Stephen Mulcahey / Arcangel Images Peter Corrigan asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work. A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library. This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins. Source ISBN: 9780008155391 Ebook Edition © December 2015 ISBN: 9780008155407 Version: 2015-11-04

Dedication This book is respectfully dedicated to the officers and men of C Company, 4 th /5 th Battalion the Royal Irish Rangers

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Epilogue

OTHER TITLES IN THE SAS OPERATION SERIES

About the Publisher

South Armagh, 3 July 1989

The foot patrol moved quietly down the starlit street. There were four of them, forming a ‘brick’. They made up a single fire team. The point man kept his SA-80 assault rifle in the crook of his shoulder, eyes glinting in his darkly camouflaged face as he scanned surrounding windows, doors and alleyways.

Behind the point came the fire team’s commander, a corporal. Hung on the left side of his chest was a PRC 349 radio. It had a range of only a few kilometres, but the patrol was not far from home. The corporal had the 349 set on whisper mode. Its twin microphones were strapped to his throat and he edged a finger in between them, silently cursing the way they irritated his skin.

Behind the corporal came the gunner, armed with a Light Support Weapon. Similar to an SA-80, it had a longer barrel and a bipod to steady it.

The rear man was walking backwards, checking the street the patrol had just walked through. The men were in staggered file, two on each side of the road, covering each other as they made their way back to the safety of the Security Forces Base. It was pitch-dark, and they avoided the few street-lights that still worked in that part of the village. All of them had the needle in the sights of their weapons turned on so that it was a luminous line, helping them to pick out targets at night.

They were near the centre of the village now. The locals had whitewashed all the walls so that a patrolling soldier would stand out more clearly against them. That was the worst part.

A dog barked, and they all paused to listen, hunkering down in doorways. Nothing worse than a restless fucking dog; it told the locals they had visitors.

The barking stopped. The corporal waved a hand and they were on their way again.

The centre of Crossmaglen had a small, open square. Crossing it was the most dangerous part of any patrol. It had to be done quickly as the whitewashed house walls offered no concealment. As the brick paused on the edge of the square the point man looked back at his commander. The corporal nodded and took up a firing position, as did the other two men.

The point man set off across the square at a sprint. He was halfway across when there was a sharp crack, startlingly loud in the still night air. The point man seemed to be knocked backwards. He fell heavily on to his back and then lay still.

For a second the rest of the fire team was frozen, disbelieving. Then the corporal began shouting.

‘Sniper! Anyone see the flash?’

‘Not a fucking thing, Corp.’

‘Ian’s out there – we’ve got to go and get him! Gunner, set up the LSW for suppressive fire. Mike, we’re going to run out there and bring him in, OK?’

When the gunner was on the ground, with the LSW’s stock in his shoulder, the other two soldiers dashed out into the open.

Immediately there was the sound of automatic fire. Tarmac was blown around their legs as the bullets thumped down around them. The point man lay in a pool of shining liquid. His chest looked as though someone had broken it open to have a look inside. Behind them, the LSW gunner opened up on automatic. Suddenly the little square was deafening with the sound of gunfire. Red streaks sped through the air and ricocheted off walls: the tracer in the LSW magazine. A series of flashes came from an alleyway opening off the square, and there was the unmistakable bark of an AK47, somehow lighter than the single shot that had felled the point man.

‘Come on, Mike. Grab his legs.’

‘He’s dead, Corp!’

‘Grab his fucking legs, like I tell you!’

They staggered back across the square with their comrade’s body slung between them like a sack. The firing had stopped. All around, lights were flicking on at windows. There was the sound of doors banging.

‘Get a fucking field-dressing on him, Mike. Gunner, did you see where that bastard is?’

‘Saw the muzzle flash, Corp. But I think he’s bugged out now. The locals will be all over us in a minute though.’

The corporal swore viciously, then thumbed the pressel-switch of the 349.