Make sure your patrol knows! Once the buildings are secure I want Andy's team to clear the work hut and then go up to the helipad. If you move in once it's secure, we'll centralize all the boys, get them down, and I'll call Gar in with the aircraft, so I want you, Andy, to take the comms with you. Once Gar comes in we'll get back to the bergens and sort ourselves out."

"That's that, then," said Tony. "We'd better get the sitrep off to Gar and make sure he knows when we're going in, then sort the boys out and get our heads down."

The sitrep stated what we were going to do, what time the camp attack was going in, the way we were going to do it, and how we wanted the helicopters brought in, which was on orange smoke. We said that we'd open up the net the following morning to get a confirmation that everything was okay before we went in. We wouldn't move until 0900 hours to the final RP, and from there we'd go ahead with our plaa.

We went to our own individual patrols and started explainiqg what we wanted them to do. "When we get to the FRP tomorrow morning," I said, pointing to One of-three-Joses, "you will take Tony and Rod to the camp and show them the edge and where the two buildings are. It's a very important job. If they want to see anything else, show them where it is, then come back to us.

Is that all right?"

He grinned and nodded, proud to shoulder the responsibility.

"When he comes back," I said, "we're going to wait there all night, back to back, and wait for first light.

We'll then move forward; it's our job to make sure everybody else is protected while they're going into the position. What I want you to do is follow me; I'll put you in the position and show you where the rest are coming in and where to be looking. If you see anything, I don't want you to shoot, I just want you to tell me, and I'll decide if you shoot or not. If you hear me shooting, you shoot. Is that okay?"

They nodded; they were happy with that because there wasn't much to think about. I really wanted to labor this point because I didn't want them flapping and landing up shooting one of our blokes as they were coming in. "When we get into position, you will see our people coming from your right-hand side, going towards those buildings.

Anything else could be the enemy. But I don't want you to shoot unless I shoot or tell you to.

"Once the attack has happened we'll then have to do two other things.

We'll have to move to the long building here, check the storeroom, and go to the helipad. But I'll tell you where to go and when. Keep nice and calm, and if you see something, shout: 'Get down!

Get down!" If they shoot at you, you shoot back. You must be very careful. You'll hear lots of explosions and maybe other gunfire.

Don't worry about that. You just keep looking at your job."

I looked at each of them in turn. "Rodriguez, any problems?"

"No."

"Nino?"

"No."

"Gonz?"

"No."

"One-of-three-Joses?" 'No."

"Good. Tomorrow Gar comes in with helicopters and more men. We put our bergens on and fly out. Thenparty time!"

Rodriguez whispered, "Yee-hah! " and everybody gave a low laugh.

I liked these guys. I enjoyed talking to them; they had a really good sense of humor. We were very much on the same wavelength; all they wanted to do was get the job done and then get back and have some fun.

They were very much into dancing and whiskey; me, I couldn't dance, but I did like Famous Grouse.

The blokes in charge of the a.s.sault groups had a harder job getting across what they wanted their-boys to do. Looking over from our position, I saw Rod's group standing in a line, as if there was a door; he had them walking in and practicing their moves, all in slow time and very quiet. It was still raining, and their drenched uniforms were clinging to them. Some had packed their issue sombreros with them, and now I saw why; they were perfect for keeping the rain off their faces.

It was getting to last light. We stood to and then put the hammocks up.

I lay in my hammock, eating cold bangers and beans. For pudding, I'd swapped some of my food for a can of condensed milk, which I poured over some hardtack biscuits. It made me think of Tiswas, where Lenny Henry played a reggae bloke called Winston; he used to eat condensed milk sandwiches. I thought about other kids' shows, and then I thought about Kate and how much having a child had changed my life.

In my early days I'd have been relishing the task and looking forward to a lifetime in the Regiment; I used to take the p.i.s.s out of people on jobs who talked about their kids or said, "My boy's got his piano exam tomorrow, I hope he's okay." Now I could see their point.

Such apparently trivial things were in fact very important. Kate was walking, talking, and being stupid, and I was missing quite a bit of it.

I decided that when I got back, the three of us would go off on a holiday. And this time I meant it.

It had stopped raining by first light. I told my group to make sure their weapons were oiled up and a round in the chamber. I checked for rattles amid lots of thumbs up and winking.

The Regiment blokes met up, and we got, the radio out. As soon as Gar had confirmed, we could go in.

It came up: "Yes, go ahead. The helicopter reaction time will be about one hour. It will come in on your orange smoke. If there's no sitrep sent by ten hundred hours on the morning of the attack, we will come in anyway to take it."

We were going to move off half an hour later for the final RP.

The order of march was my patrol, then the cutoff group, and finally the two a.s.sault groups. There was an air of excitement and acceptance that finally the show was on the road.

I told Rodriguez that he was going to be lead scout for the whole troop, and that sparked him up into being very official and important.

Everybody was leaning on his weapon, bergen on, ready to go.

Rodiguez was at the front, checking his compa.s.s. He already knew the way, but it looked good.

We set off, and Rodiguez became the world's best scout. We were stopping every fifteen meters for him to check for movement or sound.

When we got to the area of the FRP, we stopped and everybody knelt down.

When Terry came up, I pointed, "it9s in that direction; that'll take you round the right hand side."

We checked the maps, and he said, "I'll get down to the line of the river and go left, and see where I can get in. Once I see the Geminis, I'll sort myself out from there."

"Right," Rod cut in. I could see the shine on his lips; it was a wonder they didn't stick together with all that grease on. "We'll open up our Motorolas at five o'clock tonight.

We'll keep it open until last light. If we haven't heard anything from you, we'll just take it that you're there and we're not getting the comms. If there's been a change of plan, tomorrow morning, when the attack goes in, just sit tight and there'll be a runner down to get you.

The helis will be in at ten o'clock anyway if we f.u.c.k UP. If I don't see you then mahana, we'll see you at some other time. I take it you'll chuck a right and go down to the road."

My lot and the two a.s.sault groups sat in a large circle, resting against our bergens in the FRP.

Tony turned to me and said, "I suppose we'll be off now. We'd better go and have a look at this place, hadn't we?"

I went over to One-of-three-Joses and said with a thumbs-up, "You ready?"

"I'm ready."

I had a quick check of his kit and that his safety catch was on, and he mooched into the canopy with Tony and Rod. I could see him stopping every six paces, probably to show off to his mates that he was big time now, he was leading a recce patrol. Tony went up to him and pointed in the direction of the camp with a motion of "let's get on with it," and they disappeared from sight.

The aim was to confirm what had been seen. If there was any change, we'd have to rea.s.sess and tell the cutoff that night. If not, too bad, the attack would still go in.

Tony and Rod needed to be on this recce because they needed to know where exactly the two buildings were located. They'd seen models of them, they had an idea of where they were; however, it was a lot easier to see them on the ground, for somebody to point them out and say, "That's your one, and that's yours." The rest of us just sat there for the next five hours, eating biscuits, drinking water, swatting flies, and rubbing on mozzie rep. There was no talking, no smoking, no brewing up. The odd one or two were nodding off. it was a really boring time, as it so often was. My mind drifted to Hereford; for the first time ever in my life I felt pangs of homesickness. I missed family life; I missed our times together.

There were a couple of trees that needed to be chopped down because the roots were going to affect the foundations of our house at some stage, so I was going to have a look at that. I thought about the holiday; then I had a chuckle to myself, thinking about Rod and Tony on their stomachs, puffing and panting, kitten-crawling through the mud and gunge.

It looked as if we were in for a downpour, which wasn't the most exciting prospect, seeing as how it was the equivalent of a night out on belt kit. I told the boys to jet their ponchos out, really nice and slowly, and prepare for the rain. It came, not too hard, but insistent.

The recce patrol came back in at about four-thirty, looking like drowned rats.

"What do you reckon then?" I said.

Rod was drinking some water from a bottle, then pouring it over his head to sweep his hair back. He said, "There's no problems with that. We'll just bung an explosive entry on there. But you will get in position first because we go over that open ground. If we're seen, we're in the s.h.i.t."

"We saw the cook and bottle washer running around in that first hut,"

Tony said. "Then we saw a boy coming out with a Car fifteen [small version of the M16].

And that's all we saw. The generators were going, and there was activity, but not much. Good here, ain't it?"

Rod grinned with a face full of mud and said, "We should be down there on the p.i.s.s with those boys, not sitting here waiting to jump on them.

We're on the wrong b.l.o.o.d.y side here; look at the state of my kit."

We had a little giggle at the thought of Terry; his boys wouldn't even have their ponchos out, they'd be sitting on their bergens, ready to go, probably shivering their c.o.c.ks off.

We got our Motorolas out and put our earpieces in.

At five o'clock we switched on to see if Terry was going to come on the net. We got jack s.h.i.t.

There were no big problems with that. Maybe it was the distance or the weather, or maybe they were all hanging upside down from a tree having their b.o.l.l.o.c.ks tickled. There was nothing we could do about it now. If he was there in the morning, he was there. Nevertheless, we kept the net open.

Just before last light Tony tried again. "Terry, Ton check?" Y5 Nothin. Everybody hunched up in his poncho as the rain fell harder.

Back at the squad. ron HQ there would have been maximum activity going on. Gar would have been getting everybody geared up, and everybody would now be stood to. Gar had said it would take them about sixty minutes' flying time to get to us. He wouldn't have enjoyed having to involve other agencies, but there was no option; we needed the aircraft-especially if the s.h.i.t hit the fan and we needed some casevac aircraft in.

We settled in for the night. We had our belt kits on, we had our weapons, and everybody was just resting against his bergen, getting his head down as best he could, waiting. First light would be as soon as we could see well enough to walk without knocking into one another or the vegetation.

I listened to the buzzing of insects and swatted the occasional thing that crawled on my skin. n.o.body was really asleep; I could sense their antic.i.p.ation about the next day. There was the occasional light snore until a pal gave a quick little shake or pinch of the nose, being careful that he didn't wake up with a startled cry.

The temperature dropped a bit, and it was pretty wet and uncomfortable.

I looked at my watch; it was one o'clock. Half an hour I looked again, and it was ten past. I nodded off, woke up, nodded off.

About an hour before first light I nudged Rodriguez and motioned for him to pa.s.s it on. He leaned across to the next and gave him a little shake, and so on around.

I hated peeling off my poncho and getting that first whiff of the coldness, but at least it had stopped raining.

We started sorting ourselves out in our area, plastering the cam cream on top of our own dirt and grime. After so many days in the jungle, we were in s.h.i.t state. I couldn't see the DPM on my trousers because they were caked up with mud. My hair was greasy and flat on my head; I had days of growth on my face and it was thick with cam cream.

No doubt I'd be dezitting with Tony in a few days' time.

As soon as we could see three meters in front of us, we began to move out. The order of march was first the lead scout, One-of-three-Joses; I followed, and behind me were Rodiguez, El Nino, and Gonz. Behind them came Rod's and Tony's a.s.sault groups.

There was no need to communicate with the cutoff group. If there had been a drama during the night, we would have known about it. And regardless of them, this was going to go ahead.

We all knew what to do; there was no need to talk, and there was no banter. It was pretty serious stuff now.

One-of-three-Joses led us to the start line. There Rod and Tony would get hold of their a.s.sault groups and move them forward to the edge of the forest. They wouldn't move toward the huts until my cover group were in position.

I looked at them, pointed, and they nodded. They knew where they were; they knew what they were doing. Then I led my group away.

From now on I was in front because I knew where I wanted to go. I was covert in my movements, but at the same time forceful. I wasn't too worried about disturbing the brush; the attack was going to happen now come what may. The priority was to get to the cover position. My weapon was in my right hand; I was moving the vegetation with my left, looking around all the time. I wasn't even checking that the others were behind me.

I knew that all the commanders had their Motorolas on, waiting for me to get in position. I knew that as soon as I was sorted out, I would push four clicks on my radio. Rod, a.s.sault Group 1, would come back with one click. Tony, a.s.sault Group 2, would come back with two.

Then I would know everybody was ready and would give another four clicks in two sets of two.

Click, click-click, click: "Stand by! Stand by!"

The groups would then start to move forward from the rolling start line; ideally they would be covert right up to the doors. However ' if they were compromised on the way, it would just be s.h.i.t or bust and they'd have to go for it, and it would be time for the cover group to earn their wages.

In my mind's eye I pictured Rod and Tony, each with his patrol behind.

They weren't wearing belt kit; all each had was their rifle, pistol, and ammunition. On their rifles some had mounted a Maglite torch with masking tape around the stock and, between the Maglite and the stock, a little wedge of wood to keep it at the right angle. The Maglite would provide a crude form of zeroing as they went through the door. It was first light; it was going to be dark inside the buildingsAnd with the explosive charge going off there would be clouds of dust and debris; the Maglites might be needed to penetrate it.

The second man in each group would be carrying an explosive charge. I imagined the commander pointing where he wanted the charges to be put.

Everybody else would be covering the windows and the general area, pressed right up flat against the door itself. All it would take was a small dab of P.E with det cord running through it onto a clacker-the same as used on the claymore. At the end of the wire of the clacker there was a detonator, which was clipped on to the det cord. Once the explosive was in position, the figures would move back a couple of feet and turn their backs. The commander held the clacker.

Whoever was doing the firing would have to hold the wire, keep the connector in to the clacker, and squeeze it-or put the wire in and give it a good dose of masking tape. Whatever, but he had to make sure he got that good connection, because it had to go first time.

I imagined the two loud thuds, doors caving in, and the boys disappearing inside.

We got to our area, on the side nearest the processing hut. As I looked forward, I could see no change, except that the ground was wet with a thin film of mud. The trike was missing, but the cardboard box that had contained the tins of condensed milk was still there. The cans had gone.

It was more or less full light now. Within the hole in the canopy I could see it was a beautifully clear day, a deep blue sky without a cloud. It was going to be really hot. Soon the mud would start steaming.

It was quiet; none of the generators was running. As I panned from right to left, I could see the cook's hut and beyond it the roof of the other one. I knew the a.s.sault groups would be lining up on the edge of the canopy, ready to come forward to place the charges. I knew everything was all right; I knew we could cover.

I said quietly, "Here we are going to cover. El Nino, keep your eyes on that building going left towards that track. Understand?"

Everybody nodded. El Nino knelt down, his weapon in the aim.

To the others I said, "I want you, Rodriiguez, to watch from that building to there. If there's shooting, shoot back.

One-of-three-Joses and Gonz, I want you to look for anybody running up towards the heli-" BANG!