Last Night Another Soldier Read Free Page A

knew that was what he wanted to hear. ‘All I could hear was Toki yelling, “Pistol. Pistol.” I was flapping so much I’d forgotten about it. So I reached down to my leg holster and jammed my pistol into hisnut and slotted him. Job done. Cheers, Toki.’
    ‘No biggy. I’d have done it for you if I’d been able to get near enough. You were too close to him for me to be able to fire from that far away. Anyway, you did well. Have a dig about for his laptop lead, will you, Briggsy? It might be in with all that stuff in your bin liner.’
    I dug around in my sack and pulled out the only lead that looked as if it might work. Si kept looking in my direction, waiting for more of my story. When he realized that was it, he gave me a big thumbs up with both hands.
    ‘Good one, mate. Like you said, job done. Big time!’ He beamed at the three of us like he was over the moon I’d killed someone, but maybe he was just pleased that he’d finally burst his zit.
    I hoped that would be the end of the conversation, but I should have known he wouldn’t leave it there. ‘Mate, just think what would’ve happened if they had, you know, got you? We’d be watching you online getting your head cut off.’ Si slid his index finger across his throat. ‘Cos you know they’ll get one of us one day, don’t you? They keep trying. I just hope it ain’t me.’
    It went quiet for a bit as we all thought about what would happen if one of us got taken by the Talis.
    ‘Hey, Briggsy.’ Si still wasn’t done. ‘You think they’ll, you know, give you one before cutting you up?’
    Flash lowered the bluey he’d been opening and rolled his eyes. ‘You’ve been watching too much TV, mate.’
    Then I remembered something I’d seen on Dave TV about Afghanistan. ‘I watched a thing about them playing rugby, but on horses using human heads instead of balls.’
    Flash pointed the bluey at me like a school teacher with a ruler. ‘It’s called buzkashi and it’s a game like polo. They usually use a dead goat instead of a ball, but they decided to use Russian squaddies’ heads when they were at war with them back in the eighties.’
    Si gave a low whistle. ‘See, Briggsy, you’re lucky.’
    I thought Toki would shut them all up at this point. It wasn’t really something I wanted to think about. But Toki stopped what he was doing and looked towards the tent flap as if he was going to tell us something he didn’t want anyone else to hear.
    ‘They won’t stop until they do get one of us alive. If I get cornered, I’m going down fighting. No way are my parents going to see me ripped apart on a computer screen.’
    We all looked at the tent flap, too, mostly because we didn’t know what to say to that. As usual, it was Si who broke the silence. ‘Hey, Briggsy, you gotta keep that as living history.’ He jabbed a nicotine-stained finger in my direction. I hadn’t a clue what he was on about.
    He pointed again. ‘Mate, your shirt. You’re covered in Tali blood. You got to keep it as a memento.’
    I looked down, dropping my bin liner and spilling its contents all over the plastic floorboards that kept out the dust. The right sleeve of my shirt was stained a sticky brown where the Tali’s blood had soaked into it. I tugged at my cuff to get it away from my arm, to get the man off me. I don’t know how I hadn’t noticed it before. I felt sick.
    ‘Jesus!’
    I started to rip the thing off my back when Sergeant MacKenzie stuck his head through the flap.
    ‘No, not Jesus. Sergeant MacKenzie to you. But I like your thinking, Briggsy.’
    All I wanted to do was get into the shower and scrub the blood off, but I knew there were no showers until just before evening scoff that night. So I was stuck with it. ‘Yes, Sergeant.’
    I saw MacKenzie look down at my shirt, so Itried a pathetic joke to make myself feel better. ‘Better his blood than mine, eh, Sergeant?’
    Sergeant MacKenzie didn’t miss a beat. ‘I’d say there’s still some