Chapter 01

Afghanistan

In March, 2002 Australian troops of the Special Air Service Regiment are part of a multi-national force involved in Operation Anaconda. The operation is to eliminate a large group of al-Qaeda and Taliban forces, most of whom are in the Shahi-Kot Mountains of Paktia Province and some raids are conducted against forces in the surrounding area too. The insurgents’ bases and hideouts are well hidden in mountain caves at altitudes near 3,000 metres or more. They’ve been using hit and run guerilla tactics to attack government and international forces in the area. All over the country the international forces make similar raids on the insurgents when needed in response to attacks by the Taliban.

A column of civilians with serious injuries caused by Taliban and al-Qaeda insurgents is moving across the country for treatment by top specialists in military hospitals in Kabul. They’re under the protection of a group of US and Australian soldiers while they travel. The column includes some civilians being moved to safety because they’re wanted by the Taliban. Only the column leader, an Australian Army Captain, knows who is who in the column; and he’s not telling anyone. The column’s actual line of travel is known to only three people: the commander, his senior non-commissioned officer (NCO), and the Commander of the Alliance Forces in Afghanistan. The commander of the military sub-base it started from in southern Afghanistan was given the same route as the one set out in the column’s general orders. However, the column commander is using the flexibility in the last line of his orders which reads: ’The commander may alter the proposed route of travel as seems prudent for the security of the convoy.’ The actual travel route is about eighty kilometres further west on a totally different set of roads, and there’s a lots of rough country between the two routes. The route being used is such it’s almost impossible for anyone set up on the other route to be able to deploy to this line of march in time to attack the column.

The column is just over an hour into the five hour journey when the officer who’s second in command of the column, a US Army Lieutenant, realises the column isn’t on the route he was given by his colonel. Since the Captain is at the head of the column and he’s near the back of it he activates his radio and says, “Captain Peters, Lieutenant Jackson, we’re on the wrong road.”

Peters replies, “We’re where I want us to be. Now shut up and stay off the radio, like you were ordered to at base. Maintain radio silence.”

Jackson responds, “Sir, I have the whole route marked on my map, and we’re well off the planned route.”

Peters says, “Which word in the command ’stay off the radio’ don’t you understand? Keep silent.”

“But, Sir, we’re on the wrong road.” Getting no more response from the Captain the Lieutenant radios his colonel back at the base, and he spends a few minutes giving him a situation report. He’s just signing off when the field vehicle Peters is in pulls up beside his and signals for him to stop.

Peters jumps out of the vehicle and drags Jackson out of his while saying, “Don’t you understand simple English? Are you a Taliban spy or are you really that fucking stupid?”

The Sergeant in charge of the truck of US troops behind Jackson’s vehicle steps out of the truck’s cab while saying, “The last option, Sir. He’s a base pen pusher we got stuck with when our usual officer came down with appendicitis eight hours ago.”

Peters looks at the US NCO, “Right. Lieutenant Jackson, you’re relieved of your command and under arrest until such time as you face a formal hearing for the charge of wilfully disobeying your commanding officer in a combat zone. Master Sergeant Mathis, you’re in charge of the US contingent now, and you’ll take command when we make it to the US control zone near Kabul. Place Lieutenant Jackson in the back of the truck, under guard.”

Jackson says, “You can’t do this, Colonel Smith is my commanding officer and I’ve obeyed all his orders. I refuse to accept this unlawful usurpation of my authority.”

Peters had been walking away when Jackson spoke. He turns back, “When you were assigned to this column you were transferred to my command until we reach the Kabul control zone. Your idiocy has just placed the lives of every person in this column at risk through you disobeying my orders and telling the enemy where we are by using the radio. Now obey my orders and get into the truck.”

Jackson responds, “I’m not in your chain of command and I refuse to surrender my authority,” while he reaches for his side arm. He has it out of its holster before Peters even starts to move. But it’s Peters’ pistol that’s up and firing first as he blows away Jackson’s left knee. The pain causes Jackson to drop his pistol and fall to the ground.

Peters says, “Patch him up and throw him in the back of the truck. Take over command of the platoon, Sergeant Mathis.”

The sergeant salutes while he snaps out a crisp, “Yes, Sir,” as he waves for the platoon medic to put the Lieutenant in the truck and treat him. All three vehicles are soon on their way again and are fast to catch up with the column which hadn’t slowed down. Reaching the front of the column Peters increases the column speed by fifteen kilometres an hour. He dare not go any faster for fear of hurting the injured too much. But he must get away from here fast now the Taliban have had a chance to find them by using radio detection equipment or listening in on the radio traffic.

About an hour later the column is travelling along a road on a plateau, the road is near the top of a canyon with the Helmand River in the bottom of it. The plateau is very rough and slow going anywhere, except on the few roads across it. Another road comes across the plateau to the road they’re on at an angle and there are several trucks racing along it at high speed. Captain Peters swears. The roads join together further along, and it looks like he’ll make that point first. The other trucks don’t have injured people to worry about and are moving much faster, so they’ll overtake the column unless they’re slowed down. Studying the area with his binoculars he can see a point beyond where the roads join where it’s extra rough around it. If he can block the road the people in the trucks will have to stop and clear the blockage before they can move after them because the gullies near the road look to be impassable to trucks.

Peters has his driver pull out of line to drop back beside the field vehicle with Sergeant Banners in it, Banners is his platoon sergeant. Peters shouts over the engine noise while telling Banners his plan to slow the enemy down. Peters drops back to his ’Q’ truck, which is a truck specially rigged to deal with awkward situations with the insurgents. The truck has over one hundred kilograms of explosives on it with Claymore mines set up along the tailgate and left hand side, there are also three large drums of fuel in it with explosives under them. The contents are well secured and all are set to be detonated by radio control from the unit in Peters’ vehicle. This super-sized car bomb is designed to make a section of road totally impassable for an hour or more. The truck and Banner’s vehicle also pull out of line to let the column pass them.

When Sergeant Mathis’ vehicle pulls up beside Peters’ vehicle he explains the plan to Mathis too. Mathis can see the merit of it, but he also knows it’s very risky for the person playing Horatio on the bridge in the middle of the plateau. However, the plan is the best they have in this situation because the main security for the column had been secrecy, until Jackson blew that away with his stupidity.

About twenty minutes later the column is coming up on the ambush point Peters has selected and the last three vehicles are now the ’Q’ truck then the field vehicles with Banners and Peters in them. The pursuing trucks are going faster and are already overtaking the column. They have to be slowed down and Peters aims to do that. These last three vehicles slow to a stop at the best point to block the road. The ’Q’ truck pulls across the road at an angle with its tailgate aimed across the plateau and the left side aimed down the road they just came up. Banner’s field vehicle backs up to beside the front of the truck in a way the heavy machine-gun mounted on its back has a clear field of fire along the side of the truck and down the road. Its left wheels are right on the edge of the road and the drop into the canyon is less than a metre away. A good nudge will see it over the side. Banners, his driver, and the driver of the truck are fast to leave their vehicles and climb into Peters’ vehicle. Peters is the best judge of when to leave, so he hands Banners the radio control and climbs up to man the heavy machine-gun. He also puts on an extra set of body armour he has in his vehicle. Banners and the others drive off, chasing after the column while leaving Captain Peters by himself.

Another soldier won’t improve the defences, but it will increase the losses if things go wrong. The plan is to shoot up the incoming trucks with the heavy machine-gun while working at delaying them as much as possible. When that becomes too dangerous Peters will drop into the driver’s seat and drive off, the engine has been left running to make this easy for him to do. When the insurgents are crawling all over the truck to shift it, which they’ll have to do because its tyres have been shot out and are now flat, Banners will set off the explosives by radio control. Banners needs to do this since he’ll be able to see the truck while Peters is busy driving fast to get away from it. The exploding truck will kill many insurgents, hopefully it’ll damage some of their trucks as well, and it’ll leave a burning wreck that’ll take them an hour or more to put out then shift out of the way. It may even damage the road surface and make the road impassable for some time to come.

Contact

Fifteen minutes later the insurgents are close enough to make it worthwhile opening fire on them. Peters takes aim and shoots up the cabin of the lead truck. The driver and the other person in the cab are killed. Their twitching bodies cause the vehicle to make a sharp turn left then go into a roll. Thus throwing its occupants all over the place where many make awkward landings and don’t get up again. The second truck slams into it because it’s unable to stop in time. They form a blockage on the road as five more trucks pull up behind them. Insurgents deploy from all of the trucks and start moving toward Peters. They spread out in good combat order in a much better way than he’s seen the insurgents use before, and they’re almost as good as regular troops. The machine-gun is in constant use as he rakes their advancing forces to kill men with short and accurate bursts while they move up both sides of the road.

Peters often switches back to where others are working to move the wrecks off the road. Fifteen minutes later the two wrecked trucks are on the side of the road and the rest of the force is moving forward. They have a steel plate up in front of the windscreen of the front truck and troops are firing at Peters from the back of the lead truck while it drives toward him at a slow walking pace. He’s very busy alternating his fire between the force on the road and the two forces beside the road. They all slowly advance while losing men with each accurate burst from his machine-gun.

The trucks are almost to his blockade when Peters thinks, I’ll finish off this current belt of ammunition in one long burst then take off. He’s raking the trucks with the final long burst when a small group of five insurgents charges out of the gully beside the road on his left and they’re almost at the back of the truck. While he swings the machine-gun toward them he thinks, How the heck did they got that close without me seeing them. He doesn’t make it as the lead insurgent opens up with the M16 assault rifle in his hands before Peters can get his machine-gun onto the new target. The full-automatic burst hits Peters in the left chest then it moves up to hit his arm, face, and head on the left side. The impact knocks him staggering backwards from the machine-gun. He falls over the side of the field vehicle instead of into the front seat. If he’d landed in the seat he might have had enough time to drive away, as per the plan.

With the machine-gun going silent all of the other attackers surge forward to the blockade as the trucks accelerate while the ground troops run. Peters falls onto his back beside the field vehicle, he gains his feet just in time to catch another full-automatic burst in the chest. The second burst knocks him backwards a couple of paces and over the edge of the canyon.

Banners has been watching the combat through binoculars while the column has continued to make north at high speed. On seeing the Captain take two bursts and get knocked over the lip of the canyon he knows the Captain has had it. He pushes the button on the detonator. He smiles when the truck explodes in a huge sheet of flame a fraction of a second after the Claymore mines go off. Because the road has curved slightly with the canyon he can see the steel balls of the anti-personnel mines tear up the ground and many of the insurgents beside the road just before the main explosion flips the lead truck up and over its tail to land on the truck behind it to squash the troops in both vehicles. The third truck is too close to stop, so it drives into the pile at its current speed. The truck pushes the combined wreck into the ball of flame created by the exploding ’Q’ truck. The explosion was so violent the field vehicle Peters had been on is blown over the side into the canyon. The ball of flame expands when the fuel in the other trucks catches fire with a lot more explosions when the ammunition in them goes off in the fires. Banners smiles. He figures somewhere between fifty and seventy insurgents are now dead, and it’ll be a couple of hours before the insurgents left alive will get the fire out and the wreckage cleared. They won’t catch them again. He’s sad about losing the Captain who is one of the best officers he ever served with, and the Captain will be missed by all who knew him. It’s all the fault of that stupid lieutenant.

Kabul

Four and a half hours after leaving the southern base the column reaches Kabul and it takes all of the injured to the hospital for treatment. Sergeants Banners and Mathis go to the command headquarters to lodge their reports.

Three days later a patrol is in the canyon looking for Captain Peters’ body. They find the wrecked field vehicle but they can’t find his body. They do find a set of body armour that’s been perforated with two long bursts of fire from a M16, the tie down straps on the left side were shot apart too. They figure the body armour must have come off his body and the body got washed away by the river. They also figure it’s not likely he survived the eighty metre fall, especially after being hit with two long bursts of fire and losing the body armour. He’s officially listed as MIA (missing in action) and probably KIA (killed in action), but they can’t make an official listing of KIA without his body or dog-tags being recovered. His next of kin are notified of the events.

Due to the testimonies of both sergeants and some political pressure by Lieutenant Jackson’s father, a US Senator, Jackson leaves the service without either an honourable discharge or a dishonourable discharge. The members of both platoons, and many other combat troops, are disgusted with the fact he doesn’t have to face a court martial. They accept the compromise reached by the General only because Jackson’s father bought the dropping of the charges by changing his position on the military appropriations bill he was holding up in committee. One useless fool in exchange for much needed equipment and funding, not the best way to run an Army, but it’s accepted as part of the politics in today’s government.

Back in Australia Captain Peters’ two daughters are very saddened by the report of his loss in combat.

Australia

Mid November 2007 in a New South Wales rural town of just over 5,000 people the locals are concerned because an eleven year old girl has gone missing while on her way home from a local primary school. She had one kilometre to walk and vanished without a trace in the short distance. No one saw her from when she left the school grounds after her sports group was dismissed for the day. Most of the students went back inside to shower while Mandy decided to hurry home and have a long bath instead as this is what she usually did each week.

Mandy is a striking young girl with long blond hair and brilliant blue eyes. A bright, cheerful, fun loving, and helpful girl. Eleven years of age, a bit tall for her age, and a bit more mature than her classmates, the effects of puberty are just starting to show their effects on her body.

People are very concerned because two girls had been kidnapped and suffered vicious sexual abuse in a city that’s only forty minutes drive away. That happened just last month. Now Mandy is missing, and she’s not the type to run away or just wander off without leaving a note. So many parents are now rearranging their work and other activities to be at the school to pick up their children because they’re afraid the trouble has moved here from the city. A very safe town suddenly feels very unsafe. Every afternoon the police patrol near the schools with a much higher than usual regularity as all of the other duties are being given a lower priority while they watch over the schools and the children as best as they can with the limited resources they have available to them.

The Friday afternoon following the disappearance Senior Constable Walters is patrolling by Mandy’s school when he spots a man sitting on the grass opposite the school, the man is leaning back against a curved ramp the kids play on with their skateboards. The man is wearing old and dirty clothes in a brown and tan army camouflage pattern. After pulling over to park Walters exits his car and looks up to see the man is not in sight at all. Looking up and down both the streets that create this intersection he can’t see the man. He wonders how he could have vanished so fast. The nearest place to go is a nearby hotel, so Walters walks in to check the people in the pub. The man isn’t there and the publican is sure no one has entered for over half an hour. Returning to his car Senior Constable Walters gets in it and he continues his patrol. During the weekend he sees someone who looks like the same man in the distance, but he always vanishes before Walters can get much closer.

The following Monday Walters is patrolling in an unmarked vehicle with Constable Harris, who’s a newly posted in officer and being shown around by Walters. When they near the school Walters sees the mystery man again and he parks at the far end of the school to observe him. Walters explains to Harris what he’s doing and why. It’s obvious the man being observed is paying very close attention to the school, the children, and those around the school: this is very suspicious behaviour in the current situation. Walters is thinking about moving in to question the man when Harris says, “You know, I’ve been sitting here trying to work out what’s wrong with his clothes, and I just worked it out.” Walters turns to him, “Those clothes aren’t surplus. They’re the new desert camo pattern. The Army hasn’t finished issuing them to all of the active Army units because they can’t get enough of them due to a glitch in the supply system. That lot looks to be well worn, so they must have been part of the first issue, and that was done back in 2002 to the troops heading to Afghanistan. All issues since then have been to troops heading to the Middle East. I wonder what he’s doing here in them?” So is Walters!

Walters says, “Let’s go and ask him.” Just as he starts the car the radio comes alive and they also hear the sound of a speeding car with an approaching siren. A stolen car is being chased along the road running beside the school and it’s fast approaching the school from the other end of the long street. Two young girls are crossing the road and they stop in the middle of the road while they stare up the road to their left. Walters and Harris can’t see up the road because of buildings in the way, they need to go to the corner and turn left to be able to see up the road. When they pull out away from the gutter the man they’re watching bursts up and out of his seat like a cheetah taking off after its prey. They can’t believe the speed with which he crosses the road as he’s like a tan blur.

Walters swears while he watches the man grab both girls and run to the far side of the road. The man is just off the road when a speeding car goes through the space the girls had been in. Walters drives to the intersection and pulls up at the gutter. When he and Harris get out of the car they hear the man saying, “It’s all right, girls. Everything’s OK. You’ve just had a bit of a fright. The police or your teachers will see you get home safe.” Walters arrives just as one of the teachers does, as she’d seen the whole thing from the school grounds and come over. The man says, “They’re OK, just a little frightened. They just need a cuddle and some comfort.”

Walters and Harris check the girls and promise to drive them home. Luckily for them all Walters knows both girls well, so they’re quick to agree to him taking them home, which is just up the street. When he stands to thank the man Walters can’t see him anywhere as he’s vanished again. However, he’s not so sure this guy is a problem. Although he tried, he didn’t get a good look at the man as his hat was pulled down, his collar was up, he had a scarf around his lower face, and was wearing thin leather gloves. He sure looks suspicious and acts like he wants to hide his face. But his actions speak loudly of him not being of concern to the police in the current situation.

Sports Day

The next Wednesday sports day, a full week since Mandy went missing, another girl, Janice, is heading home after sport while everyone else is heading for the showers. When she walks along the street away from the school she notices a man in odd tan clothing is walking along on the other side of the road but back a bit from her. She’s a bit worried about the man because he seems to be following her. A car pulls up beside her and the driver leans over to open the door while he says, “Excuse me, can you tell me how to get to Main Street?” Janice leans toward the car as she starts to point at the next street on the right while she tells him the couple of turns he needs to make. In a flash the driver grabs her arm and drags her into the car. Before she can start to scream he places a gag in her mouth while she struggles, but she’s unable to break free of the man’s hold. She freezes when he holds a knife up before her and says, “Hold still or I’ll stab you.” She cries when he starts to tie her wrists together.