Authors: Keith Hoare
“I will, Lieutenant, we all had a fantastic night as well, and you did teach us one thing. Next time we pluck a girl off a moor we’ll not rib the girl like we did you. But seriously from all of us, take care wherever you’re going, and whatever you’re doing, and remember our offer to come and visit our camp in Canada was very genuine. We’d love to see you there and show you our country.”
Karen nodded, she couldn’t reply, she was close to tears and very frightened. Then she saluted him, looked towards the other soldiers watching and climbed up the steps. Moments later the huge helicopter rose in the air, turning south, taking Karen on the first leg of her return journey, to the Lebanon.
On the flight to Cyprus Karen had been joined by the Captain of the group going in. The Captain’s briefing on the operation, before meeting Karen, made no mention that she was a civilian. In fact great store had been made of her being a Lieutenant and although she would not be giving any direct orders to any of the team, she did have her own agenda in the interrogation of suspects, and his team must respect her rank.
Karen was also told this, before her meeting with the Captain, at a briefing on the helicopter flight from the training camp to the airport.
“This is essential, Karen,” the briefing officer had told her. “We cannot have even the slightest suspicion you are a civilian, and not a ranking officer, although they will accept you’re not SAS trained.”
“I understand,” she replied. “Have you had any news of the girls?”
“Nothing, that’s why it’s been decided to bring the operation forward. The government is under enormous pressure to make a statement. They of course know nothing of this operation, believing it is still in the hands of diplomats putting pressure on various governments.”
“We are staying in the country if we find the other girls’ locations?” Karen asked. “We’re not just bringing Angela out are we?”
“Of course, except we’re not even sure if Angela is still alive; or where she is. We do have one serious problem, and that is there’s some sort of local uprising between two factions of the military in the area. It’s a very volatile situation so we don’t really have intelligence as to how widespread the uprising is.”
She shrugged. “I suppose then there’s a chance they’ll be so busy with their own fight we may not really matter.”
He shook his head. “I’d like to agree, but I don’t think so, Karen. Any country, even in a civil war, tends to unite when there’s a foreign power intrusion. Just try and avoid any possible contact with either side. I’ve also told the Captain this.”
The rest of the briefing covered timings and more importantly for Karen, how she would get back out of the country, if she became detached from the main force.
By the end of her private briefing they’d arrived at the airport and she joined others on a military chartered flight, operated by a commercial airline, to Cyprus.
Karen had been sitting alone. Still tired from the last few days she’d fallen asleep, only wakened with the sounds of light refreshments being handed out, from a trolley being pushed down the aisle.
“So you’ve already seen action in the area we’re going to, Lieutenant?” the Captain asked.
He had taken the seat opposite her on the other side of the aisle some time ago but hadn’t disturbed her while she slept.
“Yes, I became involved with an operation to take out the local warehouses of a gunrunner.”
“What sort of opposition was there?”
“Mainly conscripts, not very organised. But there are a few who head these forces, and they are very good. We should avoid them though, as they don’t often come into the towns.”
“I was thinking about that, Lieutenant, you haven’t given an exact address, more a woolly sort of location. Are you sure you can get us to the house?”
“Of course, but my landmarks are based around the streets near the house, I didn’t see the overall locations based around survey maps. I had none and so I rely on visual landmarks.”
He fell silent. In some ways he didn’t want a girl with them. He didn’t rate them in highly trained combat forces having to live on their wits. A girl was a distraction as it is, but this one seemed not even able to convert her memories to locations on a simple map. However, he didn’t voice his thoughts, mainly because he’d been passed over a number of times for an active operation and believed he was destined to a desk job. Then the telephone call came a week ago. He had an interview and the next thing he had the command.
Their conversation continued, mainly about the operation. However, the more he spoke the more she worried if she was in his eyes, not really an asset to the operation, more of a hindrance? But she didn’t have time to pursue this avenue, as the fasten seat-belt sign came on, as they were approaching the military airport on Cyprus.
Sir Peter was waiting on the tarmac as the plane came to a halt. Karen was whisked away in a car along with Sir Peter, but not the Captain.
“Good flight, Karen?” Sir Peter asked.
“Yes, I even managed to get some sleep. I think the moor took it out of me and what with such a lot happening on the Saturday night and then the Remembrance Service I was completely knackered.”
“Well you look fit enough, certainly a great deal better than the girl I spoke to in the conservatory.”
“I feel better, Peter, even my nightmares have stopped. I suppose after a gruelling training day I’ve no chance of dreaming anyway. I used to just flop down on my bed and fall asleep instantly.”
“What do you think of the Captain?”
“The truth?” she asked.
“Of course.”
“I don’t like him. He doesn’t seem to have much time for women, particularly me.”
“I can understand that, Karen, you see it’s still not the norm to train women for use in this sort of operation. There are high enough risks anyway and to have a woman with the group adds to the group feeling they need to look after her. But this Captain is very professional, has seen action in the past with operations in Iraq, so he is very suitable.”
She sighed. “Well we can only see, can’t we? What time do I move on to the carrier?”
“You and I leave in forty minutes, but I need you to attend the medical facility first. I want them to give you a final health check, the blood results after you came off the moor showed a few problems. The doctor thinks it was possibly a build-up of toxins in your body, with lack of food and exhaustion, so he’s asked to see you. But you know what they’re like, they worry about everything? After your tests, they will brief you on Angela’s illness and the symptoms you need to look for. I’ve decided on you knowing this as well as the medic in the group, it’s possible the girl might have been very badly abused and not trust men in any respect.”
The car drew up at the military hospital and they went inside. Immediately Karen was shown to a small room, her blood was taken besides the normal tests of blood pressure, breathing and urine. Ten minutes later she was sat with another doctor who went through Angela’s problems. Then Karen was back with her own doctor.
“You test out fine, Karen, in fact surprisingly good. Your body has put itself back to normal very quickly. I do however have a few concerns as to your ability to cope with going back so soon. I’m going to give you some tablets to take if you begin to feel tension and stress. Don’t use them for nothing, they will slow your reactions down and put you at risk, but I think it’s essential that you have them just in case.”
She looked at him for a moment then smiled. “There was nothing wrong with my blood, taken at the training camp, was there, doctor?”
He smiled. “You’re very astute, Karen, but you’re right, although it was good to confirm you are in peak physical condition. I really wanted to talk to you about your possible mental state and give you the appropriate tablets without anyone else knowing. This is a high risk operation and the last thing we want is for any of the team not having confidence in your abilities. Use them only if you feel you can’t cope. Remember though like any drug that suppresses, it can cloud your judgement and ability to operate rationally.”
“Thank you for doing that for me, doctor, you could be right, but I hope not. Are they the same as I had from my own doctor?”
“No, these are very different. They are a new drug, with little or no side effects and the body won’t begin to crave for more, so they can be used as required to calm you.”
She sighed. “Well I hope I don’t need them, I’ve been able to put it all to the back of my mind over the last week.”
He stood and shook her hand. “Good luck, Karen, let’s hope everything goes as planned and the girls including yourself are back safely very soon.”
An hour’s flight landed them on HMS Invincible. Karen was impressed with the size of the ship when they landed, and just how busy it was on the deck. Two MPs were waiting for her and she was accompanied to the galley for an early breakfast. Already the galley was half full, even at this time, as crew came off watch. Following breakfast she was taken to the stores and given her clothes. Her undergarments were army style t-shirt with knickers. Her uniform a close fitting jacket and pants in black, with a number of useful pockets. On top of this she fastened her bulletproof sleeveless jacket, then slipped on light boots. But the boots, although nothing like the normal army heavy issue, were steel capped and waterproof. Her leather waist belt was already fitted with a handgun holster and GPS unit in a pouch with an ammunition belt fitted diagonally across her chest attached front and back to the waist belt. This belt was able to accommodate three grenades and three spare clips for an AK47 gun. She finished off her combat clothes with a black baseball cap. On each arm and her cap was a small Union Jack with the word ‘army’ below. The word Lieutenant was in black on a grey background attached to one of her breast pockets. All the insignias were attached by Velcro allowing, if necessary, that they could be removed. Her backpack was already filled with a change of underclothes, jumper and a pack of personal items such as toothbrush, comb etc. Added to this were her emergency rations, spare ammunition and finally she was handed and signed for the guns and grenades.
The Armaments Officer who handed her the grenades laid them out in front of her. “You have two types Lieutenant. The first two are six second, stun and blast. They send hundreds of tiny shrapnel type bullets out. Nothing will survive, even you, if you don’t get out of the way. This one is your last resort as you requested. As you can see, unlike the others it’s coloured red. The delay time is less than a second, not long enough for anyone to take it from you. Its normal use is booby traps, with trip wire attached. So you can understand a delay would be pointless. It has approx. five metres by five kill area, going out to ten metres for stun. Use it and you’re dead, so it’s last resort as I said.”
She thanked him and clipped the six second grenades in the top pouches with her final solution in the bottom. Once inside the changing room she stood and looked at herself, after finally winding her hair up and trapping it under her baseball cap. To her everything was as she’d requested, which gave her confidence the same as she had last time she was in the Lebanon. Her only problem, which she could never hide, was her slim figure and face, making her always think people believed she’d dressed up for a photo shoot, rather than being a formidable adversary.
Making her way through the maze of corridors, some of the sailors glanced at her, then took another look, before saluting her when they realised she was a Lieutenant. Eventually she came up on deck.
Sir Peter watched her approach, he felt sad to see such a young girl dressed the way she was with the gun slung over her shoulder and that deadly grenade in the pouch on her chest. He prayed she’d not have to use it, this was a very special girl and it would be a disaster to lose her.
“This is it, Karen, they’re waiting for you. Good luck and please don’t take too many risks. I want to see you come back with the girls. I don’t want to lose any one of you,” he said when she was close enough to hear.
“I’ll do my best, Peter.”
“I know you will, Karen. But before you go I have to ask you once more. Are you certain you want to do this? Even at this stage we would understand if you felt we were pushing you into something you didn’t want to do. This is your life, your future you’re risking; it should never be taken lightly.”
She looked away, glancing at the three Apache helicopters, their rotors turning slowly, and through an open door of one she could see troops already aboard.
Then she looked back at him and sighed. “It isn’t a question of me not being scared of having to go back, I really am, Peter. But somehow this nightmare has to be finished one way or another. Saeed’s mother believes I walk with the Angel of Death. After what I’ve seen, you begin to believe it. But if I don’t make it back, it won’t be because I didn’t try. It’ll be because my luck finally ran out, and the Angel came for me.”
She then pulled a letter from her pocket. “I know you have my will, for what use it is, as I’ve nothing anyway. But if I don’t come back, will you see mum and dad get this? I’ve just tried to explain why I had to go, told them I love them so very much and included some photos taken of me last night. I have nothing else to give.”