The Sixteen (13 page)

As we talked, Spot and Chalky were now training nearby and it struck me just how indistinguishable from one another they were. It was impossible to differentiate the actions of the two men now training from those of Spot and Dynamo when I’d arrived. They all seemed to thrive on what they did and appeared to have limitless amounts of energy.

Dynamo was talking again. ‘This is what it is all about. We take the seemingly impossible and make it possible and we do most of it by using the equipment you have already seen. We’ve been doing this type of operation for a long time now and as I said no one has any idea that we exist and that’s how we intend it to stay, and that’s how it’s going to be! Anything else before we get on?’

‘Well, yes, just one more thing. I’ve never once heard any of you guys raise your voices, yell or swear at one another like they do all the time back at camp. Why’s that?’

‘It’s simple, we don’t need to be bullied into what we do, and
we do it willingly and with pride. Besides we have nothing to fear, that’s why.’

‘What’s that got to do with shouting?’

‘Well,’ he said, leaning back in his chair and crossing one leg over the other. ‘Let’s put it this way, Geordie. Not having the ability to cope with a situation results in a lack of confidence and this in turn leads to fear and then panic. Shouting and swearing acts as a substitute for courage; it gives false courage. People who are trained under those conditions don’t know any better and resort to shouting and swearing themselves because that is all they know; it generally means that they have something to cover up and that something is usually fear. They use it in the hope that because it scares them they believe it will scare others or the enemy.

‘If you have the confidence, but mostly the ability and skills, to deal with any situation, then you control that situation. And because you are in command of that situation, then you have no fear and you need nothing to back you up. For most of them out there, without gunfire they have nothing to back them up. So I think that speaks for itself doesn’t it, Geordie? Besides, old boy, swearing is best kept for when you bash your thumb with a hammer, don’t you think?’

He paused smiling, then drained his cup. ‘One other thing, we don’t need either gung-ho brawn or educated idiots in our unit. The sort of people we have here are like-minded and quick thinking, athletic and persistent. They have the ability to learn quickly and act as an integral part of a team and, most importantly, have common sense. We don’t drink, have never drunk, we don’t need it because we don’t have a problem, so we can do without the Dutch courage! We always need to be in control. We have no room here for armchair commandos,’ he said, then laughed and winked before continuing:

‘Yeah, of course, we knew you’d say yes! We’ve already got a damn good idea of how you’re going to turn out! Remember that with us, Geordie, you’re part of a team of highly skilled men, not just a number. You might not feel that yet but, judging by what we’ve seen so far, you soon will once you’ve completed your training. Nowhere in the world are soldiers trained like this, you can be sure of that! This is what gives us the edge and as long as our skills are unknown to others, we will always have that edge!

‘We have to be trained in these particular skills because we’re on our own. I’m afraid no one will ever come to our rescue. You see, because our operations are covert and most take us right into the heart of enemy territory, we can have no backup from other forces. No one will come to our aid if we were to get into difficulties, how could they? Remember we do not exist!

‘No matter what country we may have to go into we try to dress, and look, as much like the locals as we possibly can, we don’t go in uniform, armed to the teeth with huge packs on our backs. For a start, I rather think that might defeat the object of the exercise and give us away, don’t you?’ He laughed, shaking his head. ‘And, if you are carrying a rifle or a backpack, not only do you stand out like a sore thumb but you lose the ability to move quickly, they make you clumsy. Besides, there is just no way you can carry enough ammo with you for a rifle so, once you’ve used up what you can carry, it’s totally useless to you. No, that kind of stuff is best left with an army on the battlefield, not for the kind of jobs we do. Whatever we want we locate in the region we’re in, so we either buy it, or find it and “borrow” it!

‘That is why it is vital that we have only the kind of people who can quickly and clearly assess a situation, weigh up the various options and adapt easily to a totally different set of circumstances.’

He got up from the table and helped himself to more tea. ‘Want
another?’ But before I could answer, he’d filled my cup too and sat down again.

‘Right, where were we, oh yes! There is nothing new in the idea of operating in disguise, the main problem is getting caught under those circumstances, as obviously we would be classed as spies and shot. More than likely, after being tortured to find out why we were there. These are the facts, Geordie.

‘If for some reason we were to find ourselves in the position of possibly being discovered, if it looked as though that were inevitable, we would simply take control of the situation and allow it to happen.

‘By not being dressed as soldiers or carrying any visible weapons, we lessen the possibility of being fired on immediately. They are more likely to approach you, warily of course, if you look like them. They will probably want to know what you are up to first and it is then, when they get close enough to realise that you are not what you first appeared to be, that your life is at its greatest risk.

‘Being dressed like the enemy enables us to get very close to them, to move among them even, but the problem with this is that on close inspection, especially in an Arab country, it becomes obvious very quickly that we are not who we seem to be. It is at this point that we must immediately decide what action to take. The people in this area in particular, are extremely excitable, they panic easily and are very trigger-happy. We cannot afford to take any chances, they could shoot us straight away, and as we have no way of knowing this, we must take them out. Are you with me so far?’

‘Yes, I understand.’ It was all becoming clearer to me now; Dynamo was answering a lot of the questions I’d been dying to ask.

He pushed back his chair and lightly sprang to his feet. ‘You still have a lot to learn, Geordie, and there’s no time like the present, so let’s get started. Follow me!’

I did as he asked and we went over to where Spot and Chalky had continued to practise while we talked. Dynamo pointed towards them.

‘This is not basic unarmed combat, Geordie, it is a science! Let me explain. You, or rather we, have to have the ability to get out of any scenario in which we might find ourselves and this type of combat, in conjunction with our weapons, is what makes that possible. The four of us have to work together in such a way that if we are confronted with one, two, or even ten, armed men we know we have the ability to take them out. But to do that we have to draw them in, we need for them to be only inches away to execute what we need to do.

‘What makes this possible is that we have the element of surprise, we will not be dressed like soldiers, we will not appear to be armed – ten heavily armed men surrounding four unarmed men would feel under no threat and totally in control of the situation. They will relax and have no idea that the four men they think are their prisoners actually have the ability to dispose of them all. Still with me?’ he asked, but raised his hand to silence me before I could interrupt by asking questions.

I nodded and he went on: ‘Although we might allow ourselves to appear to be captured, and let our “captors” believe they have the upper hand, we can’t afford, under any circumstances, to allow ourselves to be tied up. Once that happens they might start beating you or just blow your bloody brains out and we can’t take the risk of that happening. If it appears that this is what is about to take place, then that is the point when we take them out. There is no other option, we cannot allow them to get rough or physically
damage us in any way because once hit you become weakened and can lose the ability to fight back.

‘So, any indication that one of them might be going to get violent, or make a move to use a rifle butt, punch, hit or kick us then that is the time we take them out. And what makes this possible is The Machine. It’s all about controlling a situation that appears to be controlled by someone else – remember it’s one thing to be surrounded by just a few men but that situation can only get worse and the next thing you know you’re in prison or surrounded by an army.

‘The full range of moves that we are going to teach you cover every form of attack whether this is with knives, batons, rifles, pistols, revolvers whatever. I know this will seem totally impossible to you right now. But for example, take someone coming at you with a knife,’ he said, picking up a nearby bayonet. ‘If the guy tries to slash your face then suddenly changes direction and aims for your stomach instead, you have no way of knowing that is what he intends to do until he actually moves. His whole action takes merely a fraction of a second, but your recognition of what he is about to do takes a fraction of a second longer, by that time your guts will be hanging out!’

To demonstrate what he was saying, Dynamo swiftly brought the bayonet in his right hand up towards the left side of my face. Instinctively, I raised my hands to prevent him and leaned backwards away from the blade. But I was too late – the bayonet was already touching my cheek.

‘What will give you the edge and make it possible for you to counter his attack is knowing what he is going to do before he actually does it. This you will learn in time. But by anticipating every move it is possible for him to make with a knife, you then have the knowledge to stop him. You must begin to learn
to know your enemy, how he operates, what he is likely to do in a given situation. You will learn how to recognise from the moves he makes whether he is carrying a knife or a gun, and act accordingly.’

Dynamo smiled. ‘The moves you are about to learn will give you the ability to cover the whole area of your body which is vulnerable to his attack, at one and the same time. It will also give you the ability to turn his attack to your advantage, disarming and disabling him and then using his weapon against him. Judging by what we have seen so far you have the ability to learn the moves so quickly that it’s only going to take a matter of weeks rather than months for you to get to grips with this, which is just as well as we need you to be up to scratch as soon as possible.’

‘Chalky!’ he called out. ‘Take that bayonet and attack me with it in a slashing movement to the left-hand side of my body, either to my face or wherever you want. So that I can demonstrate to Geordie the exact move that stops it.’

Chalky picked up the bayonet and swiftly did just as Dynamo asked. Dynamo’s reactions were unbelievable, he appeared to anticipate Chalky’s move before it was made. Dynamo’s movements seemed almost robotic, yet were carried out with the most incredible speed and precision. He stopped the attack Chalky had aimed at his stomach not his face, with a move that enabled him to block the knife blow from Chalky’s right hand in such an unusual way that he ended up standing behind Chalky, who by now he had disarmed.

‘That is how it is done!’ he said. ‘The reason I did it in this way was to show you how it then becomes possible to use the disarmed person as a shield if there is more than one attacker. In time, we will show you how it is possible to use The Machine to take out other attackers at the same time before they have realised exactly
what has happened. Of course, I knew what Chalky was going to do, because I asked him to do it, but I didn’t know where he was going to attack me, or exactly when. But even if he had changed his mind and attacked in a totally different manner, I, or rather The Machine, would have stopped it.’

‘There are ten to fifteen different ways to stop that particular move,’ Chalky said. ‘Which would enable Dynamo to be in the position he would want to be in if for some reason he was surrounded. It would make no difference whether the attacker was using a gun or a knife. But the really clever stuff is in knowing how to keep your enemy from shooting you straight away, getting him to come close enough to you without alarming him, which then enables you to take him and any others out.’

Dynamo’s actions had really impressed me, what he’d done was brilliant and I was itching to get started.

‘One final thing to remember, Geordie,’ he said. ‘We go in and do the jobs that others cannot be seen to be doing. We succeed where the regular army have failed, or we help them to achieve their objectives without them actually being aware of it, but we do it in such a way that no one country is seen to be responsible for any outcome. When we eliminate someone we have to be able to get back out, so, rather than drawing attention to ourselves and having the whole country chasing after us, we try, wherever possible, to make our jobs look like accidents or suicides. We work in total and utter secrecy. Think about it, that is the whole definition of the word covert!

‘Right, I can see by your face that you understand what I’ve been talking about and I know that you want to get on with it, so let’s get cracking.’

Chalky took me over to a nearby table on which stood one of the canvas bags. He took out two boot-knives, a sash and an MK1.

‘This is it, Geordie. You’re going to have to get used to wearing these so you must train with them on all the time. You’ll find that all of these weapons coincide with the movements of The Machine. Now you’re dressed to kill, let’s teach you to kill!’

The training was incredibly intense. From first thing in the morning to last thing at night we would spend about four to five hours solidly going over something then have a short break, followed by another four to five hours. Although it was stiflingly hot and uncomfortable in the old hut, I just didn’t want to stop. That was the strange thing about it: the more I learned the more I wanted to know, it was addictive. At last, I was really beginning to understand what they meant by The Machine; it was already in me and was raring to go.