Authors: Keith Hoare
“Of course I want to go home. I just don’t relish dying in the process. But if you’re hell-bent on doing this stupid thing, I’ll come with you. But don’t blame me if he kills you.”
“And how can I do that if I’m dead?” Karen mocked.
“You know what I mean, Karen. I’ll get my jacket,” she replied grinning.
Annette took out a leather bomber jacket from the wardrobe and slipped her shoes on. At the same time Karen had gone to the door opening it gingerly. She was worried; Halif hadn’t come up the stairs. There weren’t any sounds, apart from what was going on outside. This could, as Annette had said, be a trap. She swung her AK47 round, set the output to maximum and with the strap over her shoulder she held it firmly in one hand, in the other of course was the grenade. They both went to the top of the stairs ready to go down, when Karen came to an abrupt halt. Four men, all carrying handguns, were stood in the hall below. Halif was on his knees, a man had a gun pointed at his head.
“It’s about time you came out of Annette’s room, we’ve been waiting ages,” one of the men said. “Why don’t you come down and join us?”
Karen looked around the hall, then the landing and the closed doors. She was expecting others to be hidden inside some of the rooms, but couldn’t detect any movement from the doors.
“Stay well back to the wall and shout if you see someone coming up behind me. Can you do that?” Karen whispered.
Annette gave her a withering look. “Of course I can, but that’s Lomax standing down there, which means you’re dead anyway, so what’s the use? I may as well go and wait in my room.”
Karen knew the girl was right, this was the end, she’d failed but at least some of the girls would get home. However, she was not going to admit that to Annette. “Stop wishing me dead all the time?” Karen answered back. “I’m not dead till I’m dead. So will you do that little thing for me and just maybe I can be confident enough to know someone’s watching my back.”
Annette never replied but backed off leaning against the landing wall. She pulled out a packet of cigarettes from her pocket and lighting one, she took a long draw. It was as if the girl was waiting to see Karen killed, before returning to her room.
While Karen had been talking to Annette, Lomax had been studying her. He’d expected a girl, perhaps in jeans and maybe holding a handgun, but stood there was no civilian, no conscript, but a fully armed British soldier, protected with a bulletproof jacket and carrying a formidable arsenal of weapons. He would have to be very careful with her, with the bulletproof vest the chances of an instant kill was remote and barring a very accurate hit to the head, he could only hope to injure her before she brought her own weapon to bear on them.
“I presume you’re Karen, Sirec’s girl?”
“I am, what’s it to you?”
“Nothing really, except Sirec seems to have the intention of taking my girl. So I thought I might just take Sirec’s girl instead. After all, get rid of that military gear you’re wearing and you’d probably not be a bad looking kid. Besides it would piss Sirec off to know his girl’s with me now, and I still have my own.”
“Think a lot of yourself don’t you? Apart from which, you’re hardly in any position to even have a hope in hell of getting close to me, before I blow your brains across the hall.”
“Aggressive aren’t we? Do you really believe you can escape from here? There’s close on thirty men outside, all with guns. I only have to say one word and you’ll die in a hail of bullets. Do you want that?”
Karen grinned. “So; we all have to die sometime, personally I couldn’t care less, but you can be sure a few and maybe even you, will go with me.”
Lomax nodded his head up and down slowly. “Yes whatever little girl. Anyway enough talking, it gets us nowhere. Just put the gun on the floor and come down, or your boyfriend’s right-hand man is dead. Then try to explain to Sirec how you let him die,” he replied softly.
She shrugged indifferently. “You think I’m disarming for him? Do what you want; I’ve no allegiance to the hired help. I’m leaving with Annette. Perhaps, if you’ve the guts, you’ll come after me, and then we’ll see what sort of man you really are. At the moment you’re all looking pretty pathetic holding peashooters against my AK47.”
A man at Lomax’s side moved a little closer. “I can take her out, Lomax.”
Lomax glared at him. “How the fuck do you expect to do that? She’s got a bulletproof vest on and if that gun’s set to max, which if she’s any sense it is, we are all fucking dead,” he hissed.
The man moved away, he’d not known her jacket was bulletproof, thinking before Lomax had told him about the jacket that he could have fallen to the floor, reduced her target on him and let go eight rounds at her very fast.
Outside the gunfire had suddenly fallen silent, and a man ran through into the hall stopping dead when he realised he was between a girl holding a gun at the top of the stairs and Lomax.
“What the fuck do you want?” Lomax demanded.
“Sirec’s men have surrendered, Lomax, we’re in control.”
Lomax grinned, then turned and shot Halif in the head. He fell forward silently, blood beginning to spread across the floor.
“You hear that, Karen? We’ve won, Halif is dead and you’re alone, so let’s call it a day shall we, put the gun down carefully and I promise you won’t be hurt?”
Karen was still trying to decide her next move, when Annette spoke. “What are you going to do, Karen, do you want me to go back to my room?”
Karen stood silently, it had shaken her to see Lomax just shoot Halif in the head. However, in her book a man who could do that so callously, after he’d won, wasn’t to be trusted to keep his word to her.
“I seem to have a tiny problem here. In fact when the shooting starts I’ll be lucky to get out alive. You’d better go back to your room, Annette, if you want to live?”
Annette didn’t need telling twice, she was already scared, if they started shooting she was stood directly behind Karen and would more than likely get hit.
“Sorry, Karen, good luck. But I did warn you it was a trap,” she said and ran back down the landing slamming her door.
Lomax watched his girl go; now he was more relaxed, at least she was safe. “Okay, Karen, put the gun into safety, remove your belt, and then throw them down the stairs.”
Karen made to begin to take the gun off her shoulder, but at the same time was moving her thumb and slipping the pin out from the grenade hidden in her other hand, allowing the catch to release. Then she began counting. “Here; catch this, while I slip the safety on my gun,” she said casually, before throwing the grenade underarm towards them.
One man, next to Lomax, went to catch what Karen had thrown. Lomax had relaxed a little when she said those words, convinced she’d realised the futility of holding out against so many. Then his mouth dropped open as he recognised what she’d thrown; flying towards them, spinning as it came. There was nowhere to run, the doors shut and locked to prevent her escape except the front door ten feet away which was too far to reach.
“She’s thrown a fucking grenade, hit the floor,” Lomax shouted.
The man who’d moved forward to catch what she’d thrown stopped dead staring at it coming towards him. The next moment it exploded, still feet from the ground. The noise, the percussion effect of the airborne explosion, besides the shattered pieces of the grenade itself, killed some instantly, mortally wounding others.
Karen had also hit the floor, her hands over her ears, but this was a very modern grenade, unlike the type used in earlier wars, designed to stun besides kill very efficiently, and Karen was not immune, being in the same confined area as the shrapnel flew everywhere, the noise unbelievable. Her ears were ringing, she felt disorientated, but tried to pull herself together, the threat still very real until she could be sure everyone below was either dead, or no longer able to retaliate. But the place was full of smoke and dust, she could see nothing.
Finally, still with the ringing in her ears the dust cleared to a point where she could see what had happened. Karen stared in disbelief, she felt sick inside. The four people who were downstairs were all obviously dead, body parts from some missing. The others badly disfigured.
Scrambling up she heard a sound behind, and spun round, her gun ready. It was Annette.
“What the hell happened?” she whispered.
Karen shrugged, trying to act indifferent. “I threw a grenade; it seems to have done quite a lot of damage though. Well more than I thought it would anyway.”
Annette looked down, feeling decidedly sick at what she saw. “Seems, Karen? You’ve blown everyone into little bits.”
“Yes, I can see that as well. Besides, I didn’t know it’d do so much damage. Anyway are you ready to go. I’ve got a feeling we’d better get out of here fast.”
The two girls ran down the stairs, trying to ignore the carnage. The kitchen door originally locked by Lomax had been blown open by the blast, so they ran through the kitchen and outside.
“Where now?” Annette gasped looking down at two men lying dead, shot earlier by Halif.
“Can you use a gun?”
“Excuse me, how would I have learnt to do that, it’s not on the school curriculum you know?” she replied.
“No matter, you’ll soon learn, like I had to. Take his gun,” she said pointing to one of the guards, “and we’ll make our escape over the back wall, come on I’ll give you a leg up and then you pull me over.”
They both scrambled over the wall, jumped down and ran for their lives. Taking a wide arc round and up a quite a steep hill, they followed the track away from the house. Karen had come this way with Halif originally and knew the direction to take. The two of them came to a halt looking down at what was going on.
They could see people stood some distance from the main house, already six of the gunmen who’d come with Karen lay face down on the ground with their hands on their heads.
“It’s pointless hanging around here, Halif’s men have lost. Mind you, now your boyfriend’s dead, they might wonder where the wages are going to come from. So with luck, maybe they’ll ransack the house for valuables and forget us,” Karen said,
“He wasn’t my bloody boyfriend. I don’t go out with slimy gets. I bet when your arse was up against the wall, you’d let anyone shag you?”
Karen grinned; perhaps she’d used the wrong word calling Lomax her boyfriend? “Don’t be so touchy, I was only kidding you know, trying to lighten the position we’re in.”
“Yes well, I’d prefer the kidding not to be directed at me having to put up with some scumbag, who raped me every night, referred to as a boyfriend, thank you. And while we’re talking about the position we’re in, perhaps next time you come and rescue me, the others should come inside the bloody house with you. That might have reduced the risk of having to blow the bloody place up with a hand-grenade, while I’m still in there. My ears are ringing even now.”
Karen began laughing. “Tell you what Annette, why don’t you just go back, then when they actually give me a small army to help, plus transport, I’ll come for you again?”
Annette’s face changed. “I was joking, Karen. Anyway where are they?” she asked quietly.
“Where are who?”
“The troops, the British SAS, whoever you came with.”
Karen’s face fell. “I don’t have anyone with me, British that is, Annette. Even Halif is dead and his men are captured. Now we’ve a long way to go in hostile territory. That’s before I can get you to a place where the British forces can collect you.”
She stared at Karen, open-mouthed. “I don’t believe this, it’s another of your jokes; isn’t it? You’re dressed as a British soldier; they must be here with you?”
Karen shook her head. “It’s no joke. I was with the SAS; I split up from them two days ago, after we’d collected two of the girls. I came on alone with Sirec’s men. You’re the last to be rescued. Three are on their way home and another two including a younger girl, who apparently was just along for the ride to the desert camp, I’ve already collected. They’re waiting for us about a mile or so away.”
“But you’re just eighteen, like me, how in hell have you managed to do this?”
Karen shrugged, trying to look indifferent. “Luck I suppose, like with Lomax. He believed I’d crumble seeing Sirec’s man with a gun at his head. Personally it meant nothing to me, it can’t. You see for me to give my gun up means being forced into a life far worse than what you’ve had. So I live or die by the gun, there’s no surrender, no alternative, for me that is.”
Annette sighed. “You’re no Rambo, Karen. Have you looked at yourself? You look like someone from one of those spaghetti movies; they used to have an ammunition belt strung across them as well. Anyway, just because you’re dolled up with weapons and dressed in an army uniform, you can hardly take on the bloody world. This is as real as it gets. It’s not a film, where we all go home after. Now your actions have probably put us in a position, if we’re caught, of being sold again to god knows what sort of man this time, or even worse killed.”