Blindside (11 page)

‘But it doesn’t help us much,’ Raines went on. ‘When we call in fast air support to drop a couple of five-hundred pounders on a suspected Taliban compound and go in to clean up the mess only to find children’s body parts and screaming women.’

The lieutenant’s eyes narrowed
.

‘That’s what happens in a war,’ Raines went on. ‘We can’t avoid civilian casualties. How do you explain that to their mothers and fathers?’

‘We can only do what we can. But we still have to try. Or don’t you believe that?’

Raines turned from her and saw that Johnson was watching their exchange intensely
.

‘I wanted to know what you thought of it,’ Raines said
.

He looked back at the lieutenant, saw that she was staring at him, trying to figure out if he was testing her
.

‘It’s a pity your tour is up so soon, Sergeant,’ she said
.

‘Why is that?’

‘I think maybe I’d enjoy debating the finer points of our strategy with the local population some more.’

Raines saw a smile twitch at her lips
.

‘She got you there, Sarge,’ Horn said, laughing
.

He turned to speak to Horn and the front of the Land Rover disappeared, metal screeching as the IED in the road detonated under the vehicle
.

Raines had a split second to see Horn’s right leg torn from him just above the knee and then everything went dark
.

3

Raines picked up the phone from his desk and dialled a number for a house back in Denver. It rang for a while and he waited, aware that it could take some time for the owner of the house to answer.

‘Yeah,’ the answer came eventually.

‘I met the guy today. You know the one?’

‘How did it go?’

‘He’s getting the full tour.’

‘You’re still up there, then?’

‘Yes.’

‘I don’t like the idea of working with this guy.’

‘So you said. We’re not in this to make friends. I told you that already.’

‘But it’s not necessary. I mean, for what we want to achieve. You haven’t lost sight of that, have you?’

Raines hated the pleading quality he heard in the man’s voice.

‘I haven’t lost sight of anything. I can see for miles. And this is the way we’re going, so quit whining about it already. You think there’s some other way, something more noble?’

The man on the other end of the line was quiet. Raines pinched the bridge of his nose between his fingers.

‘I don’t want to have this conversation again,’ Raines said, angry now. ‘We’ve done it more than once.’

‘Sorry. It’s just that—’

‘Just nothing,’ Raines snapped. ‘This is the way it is. We get this guy on board and we do what’s necessary. After that, we’re outta here. And I’m never coming back to this goddamned country.’

There was a pause on the other end of the line.

‘Is this what they’ve done to us?’ the man asked. ‘To you.’

‘You can get out any time you like. Just say the word.’

‘What happens to me then, Seth? Tell me that. The same thing that happened to Johnson?’

Raines didn’t need to tell him.

‘That’s what I thought.’

Raines wasn’t sure that he could trust the man any more. Wondered if he would have to do something about that.

‘Come see me when you get back, okay?’ the man said.

Raines said that he would and ended the call. He sat quietly for a moment, looking at the framed photograph on his desk. It was a shot of Charlie Company the day after they had arrived in Afghanistan.

He picked the photograph up and looked at the faces of the young men who had been in his charge. He counted, for what seemed like the thousandth time, the faces of those who had not come back.

He stopped when he got to Matt Horn’s face – closed his eyes and remembered.

He’s back in that British Land Rover, opening his eyes and choking on the smoke billowing from the ruined front section of the vehicle. The two British soldiers who had been there were gone
.

Something sticky clogged up his eyes. He wiped at them, looking down at his hands and seeing his own blood there
.

He felt panic start to rise in him, patted himself down and felt that everything was intact. His head throbbed from the concussive blast of the explosion. Didn’t know how long he’d been unconscious
.

He figured the device must have been a mine triggered by the front tyre of the vehicle on Matt Horn’s side. It was the only explanation why Raines had survived intact
.

He looked at Horn. Not so lucky
.

Tonk-tonk-tonk

Bullets impacted the armour of the Land Rover
.

Raines looked back, saw that the soldiers in the vehicles behind them were out and returning fire, using their own vehicles for cover. Dirt kicked up around them where bullets hit the ground
.

Horn had lost most of his right leg and was bleeding heavily from the wound. His right arm hung limp by his side, the sleeve of his uniform in tatters and blood staining what little cloth was left
.

His left foot was a mangled mess
.

Horn watched Raines, his eyes blinking and breaths coming in short gasps
.

Andy Johnson was in shock beside Horn, his eyes wide: staring at the female lieutenant opposite him
.

Raines turned to look at her and saw that her helmet had been split in two by a piece of shrapnel. Maybe a part of the vehicle shorn loose by the explosion. The shrapnel had done the same to her head. Raines looked away
.

Tonk-tonk-tonk-tonk

Have to get out of here
.

Raines got up and went to the rear door. Couldn’t get it open. The armour had warped in the blast preventing the doors from opening. He kicked at them, made a little daylight. Kicked again
.

He heard the whoosh of a rocket-propelled grenade, flinched instinctively. The explosion was loud and he saw that it had landed twenty metres in front of the Snatch immediately behind them
.

He grabbed his rifle, forced the butt into the gap between the door and the frame of the vehicle and used his weight to lever it. The door resisted and then burst open. Raines staggered forward, almost falling out. Dirt kicked up in the ground and he heard the crackle and fizz of bullets in the air
.

Johnson was still staring at the lieutenant so Raines stepped in front of him and grabbed his face with both hands
.

‘We need to move, soldier,’ he shouted. ‘Now.’

Johnson looked at Raines. Looked out the open rear door at the soldiers behind them
.

He turned back to Raines, nodded and grabbed his rifle
.

‘Give me cover fire while I get Horn out of here, okay?’

Raines realised that he was shouting everything at the top of his voice to be heard over the din
.

Johnson stepped down out of the Land Rover, turned to go around it to get cover, and started firing
.

Raines shuffled back to Horn, grabbed him by his body armour under both arms and heaved him to the back door. When he got there, one of the soldiers from the other vehicles ran up and helped take the weight as Raines pulled Horn free. Raines knew that they were exposed to the enemy now but there was no choice. He couldn’t leave Horn in there
.

They managed to get Horn around behind the vehicle and sat him on the road, his blood leaking out rapidly and staining the ground
.

Raines pulled his belt free and wrapped it around what was left of Horn’s right thigh in a makeshift tourniquet. Horn’s eyes fluttered and he shouted out in pain. Raines pulled the belt as tight as he could and was pleased to see the flow of blood ease. Still, he knew that they needed a medevac as soon as possible if the boy was to have any chance of surviving
.

‘Where’s the support?’ Raines shouted at Johnson as another RPG whooshed above them and exploded in the desert
.

‘There’s an Apache on its way,’ Johnson replied, still firing. ‘It’ll torch those fuckers.’

Raines reached into one of the pockets in his trousers, pulled out his morphine needle and stuck it into Horn. He motioned for Johnson to give him his morphine too and gave Horn the second dose. Horn’s face muscles slackened as the drug took effect
.

Raines stood, went to where Johnson was standing and joined him in firing at the enemy position
.

An Apache gunship swooped overhead and its thirty-millimetre cannon roared. The pilot of the helicopter fired two missiles at the enemy position and sprayed them again with his cannon. Raines stopped firing his weapon and watched in awe at the devastation the Apache wreaked
.

A bullet ripped into his combat trousers and went straight through the flesh and muscle of his leg, clipping his shin bone on the way
.

Raines fell, more bullets thudding into the dirt around him
.

Above, the Apache’s cannon continued to roar
.

4

Raines was quiet on the drive back from the compound and his passenger seemed content to watch the scenery pass by.

‘When do you leave?’ Raines asked finally as they passed the first sign for Denver.

The passenger smiled.

‘I know that you don’t like me,’ he said.

‘Is it that obvious?’

‘It doesn’t matter. We don’t have to be friends.’

‘We won’t be.’

‘I like it that we are able to define our relationship now. So there are no misunderstandings later.’

Raines glanced sideways at him but said nothing.

‘So you’ll do it?’ Raines asked. ‘I mean, we’re in business.’

‘Yes. We are most definitely in business.’

Part Five:

Excursions

1

Logan called Irvine while he waited outside Ellie’s school.

‘I’m leaving tomorrow,’ he told her when she answered.

She didn’t say anything for a moment. He realised that it was probably a confusing opening gambit.

‘I mean, I’m flying to Denver with Alex. The plane crash I told you about. Sam is going to take Ellie.’

‘How long will you be away?’

‘I don’t know. Three or four days maybe.’

‘The timing isn’t such a bad thing. I think this new case of mine is going to keep me busy nights anyway.’

‘I’ll come over tonight for a while. After dinner. Say goodbye properly.’

‘I’d like that. I’ll call you when I get in.’

Logan could tell from the look on Ellie’s face when she saw his car and the brief but excitable discussion with her friends that followed that she wasn’t happy to see him there.

Ah, fatherhood
.

Ellie opened the rear door, threw her bags in heavily and got into the front passenger seat. She made a show of huffing and sighing while she put the seatbelt on and shifted around in her seat in an overt display of petulance.

Logan tried to ignore her and drove off. She waved at her friends from the car.

After a couple of minutes, she rummaged in the door pocket and took out a CD to put in the stereo.

‘You had plans?’ he asked her eventually.

She turned her head slowly to look at him and said yes.

‘Sorry. There’s some stuff we need to talk about.’

‘Sounds serious.’

‘Depends on your perspective.’

Logan used the controls on the steering wheel to lower the volume of the stereo.

‘I have to go away on business for a few days. Maybe even a week.’

‘When?’

‘Tomorrow.’

She turned back to look out of the windscreen. Logan glanced at her, couldn’t read her expression.

‘I’ve got school.’

‘I know, Ellie. You can’t come with me.’

‘I had kind of worked that out.’

She was trying to be sassy. That was her way. But he could tell from the uncertain edge in her voice that the confidence was just for show.

‘I’m going with Alex, and Sam said you can stay at their house.’

Ellie chewed on her bottom lip and squinted as sunlight fell across her face.

‘What do you think?’ Logan asked.

‘Might be kind of cool,’ she said.

‘Right. No dads.’

‘Hmmm.’

‘We’re going over for dinner tonight and you’ll stay there so we need to get you packed this afternoon.’

‘Fine.’

Logan was relieved. Her continuing maturity still surprised him. He reached over and ruffled her hair with his hand to annoy her. She pushed him away and tried to look perturbed, not really succeeding.

When they got home, Ellie went straight to her room and started laying out most of her wardrobe on the bed while Logan got a suitcase from the cupboard in the hall. He put it on the floor in her room, stared at all the clothes and shook his head.

‘It won’t be that long,’ he told her.

‘Just being prepared.’

‘Right. I mean, you are planning on coming back here when I get home? You’re not leaving me.’

She stopped and looked at him – serious now.

‘Don’t say that.’

His heart contracted.

She returned to packing. They didn’t dwell on difficult emotions, preferring to confront them and deal with them in a straightforward way.

He realised she had grown a lot even over the last few months. Maybe in some weird way the death of his cat, Stella, a while back had helped. It was from natural causes. She was an old cat. And Chris Washington’s death too. It had shown Ellie that death is a way of life and that it touches everyone. She wasn’t special, at least not in that way. She hadn’t been singled out for any unique suffering.

‘What about Becky?’ Ellie asked, surveying the clothes on her bed and nodding her head as though she was satisfied with her work.

‘What do you mean?’

She turned to him.