The Sixteen (31 page)

T
he earlier cloud cover had now passed by and the night became bright and moonlit once again. It was then I saw two very large circular flying objects. Rooted to the spot I called to Chalky. They were moving very slowly at first then they both turned north west and tilted towards me, and as they did so they were lit up by the moonlight, showing them as silvery with a metallic sheen – they also had small blue and green lights at each end, and no sound came from them as they suddenly shot off into
the night! ‘What the hell were those things Chalky?’ I asked. ‘They took off from over there near the target area.’

‘You were mistaken. You saw nothing!’ he quietly told me.

‘But!’ I said, pointing in their direction.

‘But nothing, Geordie. OK?’

‘Yes, OK then,’ I replied a little sullenly.

Not one of the men even looked in my direction, they just kept on walking as though nothing had happened that was remotely breathtaking and I had to just forget it, but I wondered, how do you do that? So I just shook my head and followed the guys; the air grew colder the higher we went but the steep climb up the hill kept us fairly warm. As we neared the rendezvous point, the road began to run around the base of a hill over the top of which we saw a faint glow of lights. Obviously this was coming from the other side. It was time to get away from the road and into the sparse trees on its lower slope.

As we began to climb and neared the summit, the trees increased in concentration until they eventually formed a small thicket interspersed with dense undergrowth and bushes. Our rendezvous point was just over the hill and slightly down the other side and as we made our way towards it, through the trees we could clearly see the garrison in the valley below us, about four hundred yards down the hillside to the left of some small village that looked like it had been demolished.

Just below the brow of the hill, we came across Royston and his lads crouched in the undergrowth so we joined them, just as Reg and the others came through the trees to our right. For some time, we all sat quietly looking through our binoculars, closely observing the scene below, taking everything in.

The garrison was built on a level area in a valley sheltered on three sides by the surrounding hills. The main gate was directly
opposite our position and only yards from the side of the road that we’d followed up through the valley, which now wound its way around the base of the hill we where we sat, past the garrison and continued on through the hills.

The perimeter of the building consisted of a single mesh fence with barbed wire strung along its top. As Spot had pointed out, it looked to be a very flimsy and hastily thrown together affair, which was a surprise as we thought there might have been something far more substantial. Several vehicles and what looked like big boxes were parked in a compound area just inside the fence and behind them was a two-storey building, which looked to be built out of breeze blocks. To the left of this construction was a cluster of smaller huts and outbuildings.

The compound area was well lit by several rows of light bulbs strung across it, suspended from wire.

The main gate was manned by two guards, a further two men were stationed outside of the main entrance to the two-storey building, while a guard with a dog casually patrolled the compound. They all appeared to be fairly relaxed, smoking and chatting to one another, clearly not expecting any trouble.

To the left of the main gate, inside the perimeter fence, stood a small wooden-sided building. It was roughly thirty yards along the fence near to its corner, and about fifteen feet away from it inside the compound. The structure had a two-foot gap right around it between the top of its walls and its corrugated tin roof, with a smaller gap between the bottom of the walls and the ground. This was obviously their toilet block, judging by the number of visits made to it by various soldiers as we watched, all of whom emerged adjusting their clothing.

By now we’d settled more comfortably into our position in the woods, opposite the main gate, from where we could continue to
monitor movement within the compound. There were lights on in several of the rooms in the two-storey building, which made it easy to see what was happening inside each of these through the windows. Most had very little in them; however, there was a lot of activity going on in the last room on the second floor.

This seemed to be large in size, and at the end of a corridor. It had large, wooden double doors on to the corridor, which stood open, and opposite these the rear wall of the room was draped with two flags, although it was difficult to make out exactly what these were. Most of the area was taken up with a huge polished wood table, surrounded by high-backed chairs.

‘I think that looks like the room where the meeting’s scheduled to take place. It would have to be the one at the farthest end of the building,’ Royston grumbled quietly.

‘There isn’t much going on down there at the moment, Royston. I don’t think we’re going to learn too much more just now,’ Dynamo said. ‘I think we should get as comfortable as possible and try to get a couple of hours’ sleep.’

‘Yes, I think you’re right,’ Royston agreed. ‘Spread out a bit lads and get yourselves something to eat.’

A couple of the lads stayed on guard, while the rest of us settled down as best we could.

We awoke to a truly breathtaking view. The early morning sun was shining on Mount Hermon in the distance to our north, tinging the snow-capped peaks and slopes a soft, pink-edged gold. It was a beautiful and unforgettable sight.

‘Well, it’s your show mate, how are you going to tackle it?’ Dynamo asked Royston, as we sat eating our meagre breakfast of dry biscuits and water.

‘Well, it’s obvious that the security here stinks, the place is lit up like a Christmas tree,’ Royston said in disgust. ‘There’s no one
checking the hills overlooking their compound, it can’t possibly be a military base, it’s got to be some kind of old storage depot. Have you seen the gear that’s lying about! The two military guys won’t be here until later this evening and the only activity going on appears to be that lot going to the bog. There’s another toilet block further back, which looks as though it’s probably for officers’ use only.’

Chalky had been watching the building through his binoculars. ‘Take a look at this lot, the lucky swine,’ he said. ‘I bet they’re not having what we’re having!’

Several civilians had entered one of the smaller rooms and were either sitting around in comfortable-looking armchairs or at a table laid out with food – they were obviously having their breakfast, too!

‘Never mind the “Last Supper”, this is going to be their last breakfast!’ Spot joked.

‘OK,’ Royston said. ‘From what I can see it looks as though we need to get into that big room at the end on the second floor without anyone suspecting anything. The lads have had a look around and can’t see another way in or out of that building, except for that one main door where the guards are, so no one should be able to sneak out the back if any trouble starts.’

Greg agreed with him. ‘We can’t wait until they’re leaving the compound because they could be in there for a couple of days; besides, they may not all leave together, and it’s not just them we are after, it’s what they have too.’

‘So what is that then?’ I asked.

‘You don’t need to know,’ Greg told me. ‘There are two of us who know what it is and it will stay that way just now.’

‘How do you now it’s in there?’ I whispered.

‘Oh it’s in there all right, it was delivered by express delivery last night!’

‘Do you mean those two I saw in the car brought it?’

‘No more questions. Forget it, Geordie we know it’s there. So we’ll have to take them out while they’re having their meeting and they’re all in one place!’

‘Right lads. This is what we’ve come up with,’ Royston continued. ‘Greg and I have been studying their movements and as I said they all seem to be using this bog over to the left on a fairly regular basis. So, we’ve decided that I’m going to be the one to go in; I need to get into that bog and then if I can make them believe I’m one of their guys, I should be able to get into that room on my own. But I’ll need everyone’s help, including theirs!’

‘What do you mean? How are you going to do that?’ Dynamo asked.

‘Well, this is the idea,’ Royston began. ‘As I said, they’re using that toilet block really frequently and most of the guys using it are coming from those huts in the background. Some of them go straight back to the huts again, but I’ve noticed a few of them are going into the large building and the guards don’t seem to be taking very much notice of them. Now, before I make a move I need to know when the VIPs are all in that end room because I need them all together, I don’t want to have to look around for any of them. Greg and I are going to make our way down near to the corner of the fence over there at the rear of the toilet block. We’ll put a hole in it under cover of dark and then I’ll go through.

‘Once we know all the Brass are in that office, I’ll get into the toilets from the back by using one of those vents in the top. From there I won’t be able to see if anyone approaches the bog, but Greg will be in a nearby position where he’ll be able let me know if someone’s coming. Actually, it would be better if someone does come when I’m in there, because the guards will then be expecting someone to leave. But I don’t think it’ll matter too much; they only
seem to look in this direction if someone leaving the bog makes a noise with the damn doors. If somebody does come in, then I’ll take him out. When I leave I’ll let my rifle drag on the ground and fasten my trousers up as I walk across the compound towards the guards, so that you’ll all know it’s me.

‘Now this is where I’ll need backup and you all come in,’ he went on. ‘When I get to within a few feet of the guards on the door, I’ll need you all to open fire on the building, that way I should be able to get inside while they’ll all be rushing around in confusion.’

‘Don’t waste any ammo,’ Greg added, ‘but it would be useful if you put as many vehicles out of commission as possible.’

‘That’s right,’ Royston continued. ‘It’ll take me about a minute to run up the stairs and get to that room; hopefully by then they’ll have knocked the lights off and in the dark and confusion they’ll just think that I am one of them. As I said, there doesn’t appear to be another exit so I should be able to get to the targets and I can assure you there’ll be no one coming out of that room alive!’ he said emphatically.

‘Besides, by the time they do realise that I’m not one of them, they won’t be in a fit state to do anything about it. So, with a bit of luck, I should be able to walk straight through the building and back out again.’ Royston finished, confidently. ‘It’s a good job their security stinks!’

‘Well, that’s the best plan I’ve heard yet,’ Dynamo said, sitting back on his heels.

‘It’s the only one you’ve heard!’ Royston exclaimed.

‘That’s what I mean,’ Dynamo laughed. ‘Well, it’s your pigeon, old man.’

‘How many do you think there are of them in the building?’ Spot asked. ‘I’ve counted about twenty-five but I think there could be more.’

‘Well, I counted thirty,’ Greg said. ‘But they’ve been in and out of the buildings so many times during the night I think I might have counted some of them twice in the dark!’

‘So, unless the late arrivals bring more, we think there’s between twenty-five to thirty of them,’ agreed Royston.

‘Piece of cake then, isn’t it? Dynamo said. ‘I can’t see a better way of doing it And it’s one way to make sure that whoever is in that room stays there. There isn’t anywhere else they can go, so you can be sure that you’ve got them all together. But when you have taken them out, how will you find it?’

‘Oh that’s easy, I will know where it will be,’ Royston assured him.

‘How do you know that?’ I wanted to know.

‘It’s called inside information Geordie,’ Royston answered with a short laugh.

‘You mean we’ve got someone in there working for us?’

‘Yes not one of us, but one of them. So, let’s hope I don’t blow him away as well,’ he went on with a grin and a slight shake of his head. ‘No, that won’t happen. He knows we are here so he shouldn’t be in the building if he has any sense.’

‘Besides once we all open fire on the compound, they’ll switch the lights off, as Royston said,’ Chalky told me, ‘which means that he has a greater element of surprise because he’s already going to be inside by then.’

Royston’s plans were discussed in more detail, as we finished off our biscuits, and we were all in agreement that there was no other option.

‘We need to immobilise as much of their transport as possible, to lessen the risk of being followed,’ Dynamo said. ‘And take out as many of them as we can in the process.’

‘We also need to keep a sharp look-out for approaching vehicles,’
Chalky pointed out. ‘It looks as though this road is fairly well used and we need to be sure whether it’s them or not.’

‘You’re right,’ Royston agreed. ‘If they drive right up to the main entrance of that building, which they probably will, that truck parked at the side of it is going to block our view of anyone getting out of a car, unless they move it before the targets arrive. If not, we won’t get a good look at anyone entering the building from here.’

‘We won’t be able to make out who’s in the car coming up the road by then either, even with binoculars, it’ll be too dark. Why don’t I go down and hide by the roadside?’ I volunteered. ‘I should be able to see them from there if I can get close enough.’

‘OK, Geordie, make sure you find yourself somewhere reasonably comfortable where you can clearly see that it’s our targets as they pass you,’ Royston told me.

Chalky was sitting nearby. ‘And watch out for the snakes,’ he teased.

‘Aw, man, if it’s not crocs, it’s flamin’ snakes,’ I grumbled, giving him a shove.

Careful to stay well under the cover of the trees, we spread out through the woods to fully check out the whole area. A couple of the guys moved over to more closely observe the far end of the camp near to the bombed-out village, while several others moved through the trees setting booby traps and tagging these so we could all clearly see each location.