Tomorrow 7 - The Other Side Of Dawn Read Free Page A

said: ‘We know these mountains backwards. In fourteen months they’re only the second group of soldiers who’ve been up here. It was totally unpredictable.’
    All that was more or less true, although lately it seemed like the mountains had been swarming with as many enemy soldiers as a World War II movie.
    OK maybe we had been careless. But they must have a lot more resources up here than we’d imagined. After all, not everything’s foreseeable. Not everything that goes wrong has to be someone’s fault. That’s why I stood up to Ryan, and that’s why I felt confident doing it.
    He did gulp a bit. He literally swallowed his next words: I could see his Adam’s apple go up and down. After a pause he said: ‘Well, it’s no good having post-mortems. Let’s decide what we do from here.’
    ‘We have to go on into Hell,’ I said. ‘ Fi and four kids are down there. Kids we’re looking after. I don’t want to leave them any longer, with enemy soldiers running around the mountains.’
    Ryan didn’t look impressed by that either. ‘Four kids? How old are they? Mother of God, it’s a day-care centre. Where did they come from?’
    He didn’t seem like he really wanted an answer, and this wasn’t the time or place anyway.
    After another pause he said: ‘Do you all need to go on to – what do you call it? Hell? Maybe some of us could stay out here. I could go through what I need to and catch the midnight special out again.’
    ‘Is that the deal?’ Homer asked. ‘You’re only here for twenty-four hours?’
    ‘Absolutely. Provided it’s safe for the chopper to come in, I’m gone. I’ve got another hot appointment the next night, and I’m not missing that. If I judge it’s not safe here I’ll use the radio to arrange a new pickup point.’
    There was a sigh around the group. This was getting complicated.
    Homer said: ‘I think we should go on into Hell. Once we’re there we’re safe. That’s our base, it’s where everything is, it’s where we can organise ourselves for the job you want us to do. And it won’t be hard to get in safely.’
    Ryan seemed about to disagree, but he looked around the group, at our faces, and whatever he saw seemed to persuade him. So in the end he just shrugged and said: ‘We’re going to have to be bloody careful.’
    I thought that was one of the dumber comments of the whole war, but occasionally in my life I’ve been smart enough to hold my tongue, and this was one of those times.
    As we set off again I was thinking of all the possible answers I could have given. ‘No, I’ve got a better idea: let’s form a conga line and dance our way to the top.’ ‘Hey, Ryan, have I told you about my diploma in yodelling?’ ‘By the way, guys, isn’t it time for our morning haka?’
    We did a bush-bash to the crest, stopping fifty metres short and sending Homer and Kevin to check it out. We could hardly hold Kevin back. I wondered if Ryan’s presence made the difference. Maybe Kevin was so keen to make a good impression on a professional soldier that he didn’t mind sticking his neck out.
    They were away half an hour. The first I saw of them coming back was a glimpse of Homer in among the rocks at the top of the track. Just a glimpse of his black hair, before he bobbed down again. My stomach did a slow roll, a full 360 degrees, then fell apart. I knew this was bad news. If he was staying in deep cover it must be for a reason. I glanced round at the others. At least they were awake, and watching. I waved them down, like ‘Get out of sight’. A second later they’d all disappeared.
    Ten minutes later I saw Homer much closer, then almost at the same time I saw Kevin coming down the hill on the other side. They were moving like daddy-long-legs, so delicately and carefully. I sneaked up the hill and met Homer behind a boulder. When I put my hand on his forearm I felt he had a thousand volts running through him. If we’d wired him up to the Wirrawee electricity grid they