Crossfire Read Free Page B

was that if you could lift a
weapon you could fire it, so the guys had
massaged the age bands. Terrorists, insurgents,
whatever the government had decided to call
them this week, to the Kingsmen it was
academic. Out here on the ground, politics meant
nothing. Even kids and old men were firing AKs
and RPGs at them, and they were firing back.
    There was never any doubt who was in
command. I could hear Rhett right now, out on
the VCP, giving shit to the platoon.
    It was easy to tell the guys at the sharp end
from the rest of the army, even though they wore
the same uniform. They were in shit state. Their
boots were hammered and fell apart before they
ever got a clean. Their uniforms were dirty and
ragged, their camouflaged helmet covers
and body armour so worn and ripped it was hard
to see the pattern.
    The Challenger wasn't the only one with its
engine running. All three Warriors had theirs
idling so the big square boiling vessels inside
could heat water.
    I pushed the button at the bottom of our BV
and made three brews.
    'Here, mate.'
    Pete took his white, no sugar. Fuck knows why,
but this lot called it a Shirley Temple. I passed the
mug to him round Paul's legs.
    He took it without looking up and settled it on
the steel floor beside him, pausing only to blow
sand off his keyboard.
    The Kingsmen thought Pete was weird for not
taking sugar. 'He worried about his figure or
something?'
    Dom took sugar, but as far as they were concerned
he was still from a completely different
planet, not because he was a Pole but because he
drank only three brews a day.
    To make up the shortfall, I threw Pete a Yorkie
bar from the ration packs. He glanced at the
wrapper and gave a little chuckle. Where it
normally read 'It's Not For Girls', the army ration
pack version had 'It's Not For Civvies'. Now that
he'd been let in on the joke, it never ceased to
amuse him.
    Paul's brew was next. Like the whole of recce
platoon he took it NATO standard: white, two
sugars. Me too. Not because I liked it that way
any more but so I could join the others taking the
piss out of Pete for being a girl.
    I tugged at his trousers and a leather-gloved
hand whisked the plastic mug on to the roof.
    'Cheers, la'.' Pete's accent would always be
more Bermondsey than Scouse, but he needed to
level the score.
    Paul muttered something back and Pete
laughed. The banter had been ricocheting
between them for the last two days.
    Paul's tone changed suddenly. 'I got movement
. . . in the wadi . . . three fifty. They're carrying . . .'
    Radios crackled and another Warrior from
a VCP south of us opened up with its cannon.
    I watched through the rear doors as the ground
round the bodies erupted in clouds of dust. The
small figures scattered.
    Dom grabbed Pete's camera and almost fell
out of the wagon. He was nearest the door and
Pete still had his iBook on his lap.
    Paul got a lead on one of the runners. He
kicked off a short burst and the empty cases
cascaded on to Pete's head as he hunched over
his screen.
    Then Rhett yelled, 'Check fire, check fire!'
    Paul froze.
    'It's kids!'

3
    The radio net went ballistic as everyone was told
to stop firing.
    Rhett paced angrily as the net commanded a
call sign to go and check if any of them had been
hit. 'Little shites!'
    Then he shouted into the camera, a finger
jabbing at the lens with every word as Dom kept
it stable on his shoulder. 'The little bastards
shove a black sock over a water-bottle, put it on
the end of a stick and play RPGs. It might be the
only game they know, but it's going to get them
killed. Or one of my guys, while he's trying to
work out what the fuck's being aimed at him. It
pisses me off. Why don't their parents grip the
little shites?'
    He stormed away to give someone else a
bollocking. Our driver walked past the open rear
door with an SA80 in one hand and a big wheel
wrench in the other. Our Warrior had had two
wheels blown off a fortnight ago by an improvised
explosive device dug into the side of the
road. Now the