Chapter 34

When the C17 landed at Kandahar the four made their way to Operations to report in. There was a message to Robert to meet Wing Commander Gorman at 1400 hours. He just had time to shower and change before the meeting. Steve was there along with Mike Conway, after the usual pleasantries Steve began. “I’m afraid that I’m the reason for your change of orders Robbie, you’ll understand in a moment. It’s no secret that we failed last year to locate the main base of the opium, consequently it got out, and the Taliban’s war chest is now in credit, so you can expect them to be more active this year. That’s the bad news; the good news is we may have a good lead for this year’s harvest.”

Mike took up the briefing. “Last year the Taliban made a serious error; they raped a farmer’s thirteen year old daughter. The farmer could do nothing about it, not with an AK47 stuck in his face, he had to stand and watch. The girl subsequently died in childbirth, along with the child. Now the farmer has six other children so he’s not likely to refuse to grow poppies, not with the cash coming in from the Taliban. But once he’s been paid he doesn’t care what happens to the opium resin. Now his farm is the hub for the local growers, the resin is picked up from there in small batches of 2- or 3-kilo bundles. He’s agreed, for a cash sum, to insert one of these.” Mike produced a small metal disk about the size of a large button. “Deep into those bundles, it’s a tracker relay with a range of about a mile dependent on terrain. The life of the cell is around a month, and he has four of them.”

Steve took over, “The idea is that when the Taliban pick up the bundles we can track them using a Predator UFV (unmanned flying vehicle). They’re almost undetectable and have a forty hour endurance. We can keep one in constant contact with the opium, without having any ground assets that may tip them off. Once we have the main storage location, that’s when your boys take it out. Off course that’s only the bones of the plan, we’ll add flesh to it as we receive more information. The main thing Robbie is that this has to be your main priority; when we call you’ve got to be there.”

“When do you expect the harvest to take place?” Robert asked.

“It’s been a mild winter,” Mike replied “so the experts are saying late May early June. They won’t hang on to it long, but try to get it over the border to Pakistan as soon as possible.”

“We are supposed to end the tour in July, let’s hope it happens before then.” Robert replied.

Once back at Camp Bastion Robert gathered the other three pilots into his office, and explained what Steve and Mike had told him. He finished by emphasizing that if the orders came through it would be their top priority to take down the storage base. He’d arranged with Steve that one of the four would report to him each week for any update face to face, rather than depend on radio communication, thereby keeping security to maximum. This also meant that they would have to overnight in Kandahar, enabling them to contact their girl.

During the rest of March and April, things were reasonably quiet regarding Taliban activity, most of their missions were the usual, escorting Chinooks or the ground convoys re-supplying base camps.

The information he was getting from Steve indicated that the Taliban were helping the farmers with the poppy crop. He had managed to contact Terry once over that period; she had just arrived back from Barbados with her family. They had talked of this and that and she had informed him she was pressing the recording company to start the new album so it could be completed before he returned. He was due to return to Kandahar on the third week of May, but the week before Tim told him on his return that some of the fields were being harvested according to Steve.

On his arrival at Kandahar he was asked to report to Wing Commander Gorman’s office as soon as possible.

He’d changed when he knocked on Steve’s door, on entering he noticed a large map table had been set up inside. The table was covered with maps and aerial photographs that Mike Conway was studying with Steve.

Steve got down to business right away. “The first package of opium resin has been sent out we’ve been tracking it for the past four days,” he motioned for Robert to join him at the map table. “At the moment it’s here, and it hasn’t moved in the last twenty four hours.”

Robert looked at the place Steve indicated, the South-East, the lines almost converging at the end of the valley.

“As you can see,” Mike added, “it’s a valley, but at the end the cliffs almost close it. The area was checked out a couple of years ago by ground troops. Apparently there’s only a narrow pathway at the end. Only enough room for, say, a donkey, but the interesting thing is that there are caves at that end.”

Steve showed him some aerial shots of the end of the valley. Robert looked at Steve who smiled, “I know what you’re going to say - you couldn’t take it out if it’s in there.” Robert nodded.

Steve continued, “Well we still need more confirmation that it is the main storage area, although it all fits. There are three more trackers to be sent out, the farmer has been instructed to put the last tracker in the final package. When that sets off we know we have at least three days to get set.”

Mike took over, “It’s less than thirty miles from that end of the gorge to the border, but to reach it they have to travel almost twenty miles across the open valley floor before hitting the next mountain range that separates them from the border. There’s a road of sorts from the gorge to the border. The RAF intelligence experts have studied the aerials and have detected tire tracks.”

“Robbie,” Steve said, “our best chance of destroying the opium is when it’s on that twenty mile stretch of track. What do you think?”

Robert hesitated looking at the map. “I think it’s our only chance,” he replied, “but it will require careful planning, if it means that much to the Taliban then they are bound to take precautions. They’ll need to know that all our air assets are engaged somewhere else before making the run to the border.”

“Our thinking too,” replied Mike. “Can you devise a plan with your chaps and we’ll meet again in two days’ time.”

Robert, was looking down on the map, gauging the terrain, mentally working out timetables. Finally he spoke.

“There’s one other thing,” Robert said “the LAC who gives the word has to understand what an A10 can and can’t do. This mission is too important for any foul-ups, so I’ll be taking over as LAC for the mission.”