Stephen Leather - The Hunting

Sid pulled the Glock from its holster and stuck it in the waistband of his pants.

There was a survival knife in a sheath on the man’s right leg and Raj undid the straps and took it.

Abdullah came over and undid the vest and pulled it off. He put it on over his shirt.

Sal grabbed the transceiver and hurried away with it.

As Sid began unbuttoning the unconscious man’s fatigues, Raj heard the roar of the helicopter’s turbine and he looked up to see it heading back towards him. There was a man leaning out of the door with a carbine. Raj grabbed his gun, shouldered it and fired two quick shots at the doorway. The man pulled back and the helicopter flashed overhead. Abdullah and Sal ran off to hide in the trees.

Raj put the gun back on the ground and helped Sid strip off the man’s fatigues. He unclipped the man’s watch, a black Casio G-Shock, and put it on his own wrist. Erol was sitting up, groaning. Mo was about twenty feet away, lying on his side. His chest was moving so he was still alive, albeit stunned.

Raj took the fatigues from Sid. ‘Sid, see if you can get Mo up. We need to get away from here.’

Sid rushed over to the injured man.

Raj pulled on the socks and the boots. They were loose but he could wear them. He tied the knife scabbard to his leg. The helicopter was banking overhead, preparing to head back in his direction.

He stood up, threw the fatigues over his shoulder and ran over to Erol, the Heckler in his right hand. ‘You okay?’ he asked.

Erol frowned. ‘I think so.’

‘Nothing broken?’

Erol shook his head and Raj helped him to his feet. Erol put his weight on his right foot and yelped in pain.

Sid had thrown Mo over his shoulder. ‘Come on, we need to get into cover,’ said Raj. He headed into the trees with Erol. Sid followed.

The helicopter banked overhead and bullets ripped across the clearing, tearing through the vegetation and kicking up divots of earth.

Erol was limping badly and had to lean on Raj with most of his weight. Jaffar came over and helped Raj with Erol. Together they got him out of the clearing. Jaffar stared up at the helicopter. ‘Motherfuckers!’ he shouted.

‘They just want us away from their guy,’ said Raj. ‘We’ll be okay here.’ He set Erol down on the ground. Sid had propped the unconscious Mo up against a tree and was staring up at the helicopter. He pulled the Glock from the waistband of his trousers. ‘Don’t bother, Sid!’ shouted Raj. ‘The rounds will just bounce off it.’

Sid nodded and put away the gun.

CHAPTER 21

Colonel Bell tapped the pilot on the shoulder with his steel claw. ‘Pull around and get ready to land on the south side of the clearing,’ he said.

‘Roger that,’ said the pilot, and he put the helicopter into a right-hand turn. The treetops flashed below them.

Bell turned back to address his team. ‘Right, we’re going to land and retrieve Nick. We’ll do a fly-by at low speed and I need Barry, Chris and Charlie to bail out and move across the clearing to the north to establish a perimeter. The only firepower they have is Nick’s Heckler and his Glock, and if they have any sense they’ll be running and not looking back.’

Barry, Chris and Charlie nodded. They were all Delta Force veterans who had worked with the Colonel in trouble spots around the world for the last five years.

‘As soon as the clearing is secure we’ll land near Nick and retrieve him, then you three return to the heli and we’re out of there.’ Barry opened his mouth to speak but Bell beat him to it and silenced him with a wave of his claw. ‘This is not a search and destroy mission, our client wants those men alive so lay down covering fire but that’s as far as it goes.’

Barry tightened his grip on his carbine. ‘Roger that, sir.’

The helicopter pulled a tight turn, then swooped down to the south side of the clearing. The pilot hovered a few feet above the ground and Bell shouted for the men to go. Barry, Chris and Charlie jumped down and immediately fanned out, firing short bursts towards the trees.

The pilot took the helicopter up and headed south. Bell peered out of the open doorway and saw the three men moving determinedly across the clearing. From the look of it they weren’t taking any return fire.

He could see Nick, lying on the ground. He’d been stripped down to his boxer shorts. Bell couldn’t see any blood, but the man wasn’t moving.

He heard the cracks of the Hecklers as the three men continued to move, fanning out so they were now more than thirty feet apart. He tapped the pilot on the shoulder. ‘Down we go!’ he shouted.

The pilot put the helicopter in a sharp turn, then he approached the clearing from the west, into what little wind there was. He put the helicopter into a hover about twenty feet away from Nick. Bell jumped out and ran away from the helicopter, bent double at the waist even though there was plenty of clearance. Two more men followed him, carbines at the ready.

The helicopter’s rotors continued to spin, kicking up dirt and grass. Bell knelt down besides Nick and grabbed his hand. ‘Nick, are you okay?’ he shouted.

Nick squeezed his hand but didn’t answer.

‘We’re going to get you out of here, buddy,’ said Bell. Nick squeezed again. He was breathing shallowly, his chest barely moving, and he kept his eyes closed. There didn’t appear to be any bones protruding through the skin but there was no way of knowing what the internal damage was.

‘Let’s get him to the heli,’ said Bell.

The two men let their carbines swing on their slings as they bent down and grabbed Nick’s feet and shoulders. Bell kept his Heckler at the ready as they carried Nick to the hovering helicopter. The pilot had taken the helicopter so low that its skids were just a few inches above the rocks.

Barry, Chris and Charlie were continuing to fire sporadic bursts into the trees but there was still no returning fire. Bell took a quick look over his shoulder. The two men were lifting Nick into the helicopter and the men inside reached for him. Together they lowered him to the floor. One of them gave Bell the ‘okay’ sign.

Chris and Charlie turned and ran back towards the helicopter, keeping low, as Barry laid down covering fire.

Once Chris had covered twenty metres he looked and started shooting at the tree line as Barry turned and ran.

For the next thirty seconds they took it in turns to lay down covering fire as they crossed the clearing. Bell waited for them by the door. Barry and Charlie climbed in and took their seats as Chris fired a final salvo into the trees. Then Chris climbed in and Bell followed him and the helicopter’s engine roared as it leapt into the air. The pilot banked to the left and headed south-east.

CHAPTER 22

Raj peered out from behind the tree and watched as the helicopter flew off. ‘Have they gone?’ asked Sal from behind him. He was standing next to Erol who was sitting with his back to the tree, his legs outstretched. They had moved further into the forest when the helicopter had landed, but all the covering fire had gone high, ripping through the upper branches.

‘Yeah, they picked up their injured guy and took him away,’ said Raj.

Sid appeared at Raj’s shoulder. ‘Shit, I really thought they were going to come for us,’ he said. ‘I thought it was over.’

Raj looked at Sid. ‘How’s Mo?’

‘He’s awake but his leg hurts like hell. I think he’s broken it.’

Jaffar looked at the clearing. ‘Why did they stop?’ he asked. ‘Why didn’t they keep shooting?’

‘That man in the house, he wants to kill us and they work for him,’ said Raj. ‘That was just about retrieving their guy. The first three guys were establishing a perimeter so that the helicopter could land safely. They weren’t trying to kill us, they just wanted to make sure that we kept our heads down.’