Chapter 8

We spent the morning filling our mags and cleaning our weapons and just chatting shit. Around lunch time we headed over to the Yank canteen. After a long lunch, of burgers and fries, washed down with ice-cold cokes, we all headed over to the range. Our weapons had taken a serious beating during the attack on the Taliban camp. We all Zeroed them in. Sacka had to change his rifle, it had a serious dent in it. He went over to the Armoury and came back with a new one fresh out of the box and who does not love that new gun smell?

I made sure that the UCIW and the L96A1 were both in good order and firing as straight as a die. Once we were all happy, we took our kit back to our quarters.

Then we got coffee and headed over to the intel tent. Both of the Majors, the Yank, and the Brit, were in the intel tent. They gave us a standard debrief, something we had all gone through after every mission we undertook. They asked about weapons, numbers, and stuff like that.

We had been going for about an hour when the Para officer we had met in the Taliban camp walked in. he scowled at us as he walked past us.

“Right, I have some serious intel for you,” the office said interrupting the Yank Major in mid-flow.

“Okay, what is it?” The British major said, not even trying to hide his contempt for the arrogance of the man.

“We need to clear the tent” he said looking at us.

We all laughed and his face was a picture.

“Seriously?” The Yank major asked.

“Do I look like I am joking?” The Para officer.

“Guys, sorry to ask but can you do us a favour?” he asked. We could hear the embarrassment in his voice.

We got up and all gave the para major a look that told him what we thought of him. We headed over to Yank canteen and stood in line for coffee and cheesecake. It was a full hour and two coffee runs later before we were called back in to see the intel guys.

“Sorry about that para officer lads, he is a bit of cunt to be fair,” said the Brit intel major. We all laughed in agreement and at the way the major blushed as he dropped the C-bomb.

“Anything we need to worry about?” Ship asked but the two intel guys looked at each other and shook their heads.

“No, it’s all in hand guys!” the Yank major said and shot the Brit major a look that told us they had bought into the plot.

We continued our debrief. When the intel guys had had enough of questioning us, they dismissed us and we all went over to the canteen the paras were using. The two sergeants were in there scoffing on sausage, egg, and chips. We sat down with them and they looked around before saying anything.

“So, our officer said they seemed to buy the story” Phil the Brummie said, and Dave nodded his agreement.

“Yes, and the two intel guys seemed to have taken it seriously, so seriously they didn’t mention it to us,” Ship said.

“We really laid it in thick and he said they were both making notes, they must be going to do something about it,” Dave said and shook his head,” but how does this prove which one is the spy?”

We all looked at each other and then Dave held his hand up.

“Don’t tell me, I am sure you guys know what you are doing!”

Ship smiled at him, “Right lads when the Intel guys send you out on a patrol, please let us know.”

“Will do lads!” Big Phil said. Then we all bumped fists and then we left the lads and went back to our quarters. Ship and I slipped out of the camp at around 04.00 hours. We slipped past the yank guards without them seeing us. let’s face it as in the SAS, it is what we do...

We got to the little stand of rocks fifty yards off the road that led north out of the camp. We set the trap and then tried to hide it using bits of a bush and some smaller rocks. We made it look as much like an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) as we could. Then we brushed away our footprints as best we could and headed down to the road and piled up some rocks, it was a marker for the IED.

We then jogged over to the camp. We slipped in, again without being seen, and got into our quarters. Sacka and Band-Aid were waiting for us.

We told them how it had gone as we stripped off our kit.

The following morning, we all did our PT together, a series of exercises and then two laps of the camp. Then we hit the showers before heading over for breakfast. It was just a waiting game now.

We spent the day talking, eating, and sleeping. Phil the Brummie sergeant came over at 016.00 hours to tell us that a patrol was going out at dawn the next morning. We thanked him and when he had left, we went over to the Yank canteen and got some scoff. It was decided it was time to tell the head shed in Herford what was going on.

We went back to our tent and Ship called the boss. He chatted for ten minutes before he hung up.

“Right the boss said to do what we have to do, he did say it’s weird, as if it is one of the intel guys why has the other not spoken out about the IED?” Sack asked.

It was a bloody good question and we banded it about for a few minutes. The only answer we could come up with was that they were both working for the enemy. It did not make sense but hey if they were they would soon be found out. We hit our bunks early that night.

At around 0300 hours we slipped out of camp. Sacka and I went around the left-hand flank and Ship and Band-Aid when right. We took our time and got into position. I had my L96A1 Sniper Rifle ready to go. I only had one mag for it, it was all I would need. Sacka had his M16 and we both had Glocks on our hips.