Immediate Action (60 page)

    It has its own generator.

    The one above it is certainly the living accommodation."

    "What makes you think that?" Terry asked, wiping pus on his shirt sleeve.

    "That's where they all were coming out of, and I saw the boy coming out after his wash. The other hut is definitely where they do the business.

    It's low and long; it's only partially walled. There was a lot of movement in and out during the time we were watching.

    There's one other storeroom, but I couldn't make out what was in it."

    I took a swig of Camp coffee and pointed at the model. "As far as I could see, the perimeter isn't protected, but I didn't see jack shit.

    The area was cut out of the forest, and that's it."

    "Whereabouts did you hit the perimeter, mate?" Rod was looking at the model and making more coffee.

    "Here was definitely okay," I sat, pointing. "And here's definitely okay. We then moved around left and went up near the helipad, and that was fine."

    "What's the going like in the camp? Is it well trodden or do we have to start scrambling over shit?" Tony said.

    "I'm fucked after tabbing here yesterday."

    "Well trodden. It's been used for ages. There are no duckboards, but it's old baked mud because it's exposed to the sunlight. It looked like it was cleared and burnt, like the farmers do. There's some stumps around from when it was cleared, but apart from that, it's okay."

    "What are the buildings made of?"

    "They're solid wood, with atap and palm-leaf coverage, over corrugated iron. They're obviously trying to cam it up."

    "What's the walls like and the doors?"

    I explained about the inner and outer doors.

    "We need to make sure we can get into these fuckers," Rod said.

    "We'll go for an explosive entry anyway."

    "Yeah, why not?" Terry took a mouthful of cold coffee and passed the mug around. "That'll fuck) em up."

    Having looked at the camp, we looked at the enemy.

    "What do you reckon their intentions are?" Terry said.

    He couldn't resist it; he had to keep playing with his zit, hoping for more to come out. The thing was bleeding.

    "I don't know," I said. "Basically there's nowhere for them to go. I think they'll take us on. They'll protect it.

    There's a lot of money involved, so they'll look after the produce.

    That's why they've got so many people armed.

    What do you reckon?"

    Rod jumped in. "I agree. All they're going to do is blat off loads of rounds and try to leg it, but they'll retaliate, without a doubt. We might get one or two runners. I think we need to get right on top of these fuckers.

    "We know they've got five fifty-six, and there's a G three running around, so we know we've got that coming down on us. We don't want to take them on, because we don't want to start taking casualties. We want to hit them as early as possible, bang them while they're sleeping. Then let's get the fuck out of here for a few days because I think I have a zit coming up, and we can't have that now." As ever, he looked completely relaxed and there wasn't a hair out of place.

    Now we looked at their relative strengths and capabilities, which were basically that they just killed every fucker. Their tactics, if they were members or ex-members of any narcoguerrilla organization, would be very John Wayne: just loads of rounds going down everywhere.

    Then we looked at the ground-the terrain and vegetation-then "vital ground": If we got a certain bit of ground, would that dominate the whole area? "I had a look around," I said. "There's no vital ground.

    The helipad might have been okay because it was higher than the camp and in theory overlooked it, but in fact I couldn't see Jack shit."

    "So there's nowhere we can put a decent cover group in high ground. The only way it could happen is by its coming into the camp."

    "Andy, tell us how we can get in."

    "When I went down there"-l pointed-"there weren't any obstacles.

    It was quite easy to get to. There's just one small river to the east of it, but that's knee-high and slow-flowing, not a tactical problem.

    I've got an area for the FRP; I've also got an area for the start line.

    I reckon that the cover roup needs to go in with you to be right on target. I don't think I can go anywhere to get the high ground."

    Tony said, "Okay, no drama. So do you reckon we need more'people in, or what?"

    Rod cut in. "I don't think we need it at all. If we hit these fuckers at first light and go for it, we'll get them while they're still in their little old beds."

    Terry nodded. "If we get that explosive entry on, we can sort it out there and then, in two or three minutes," he said.

    "Sounds good to me," I said. "We could get it done, get the reinforcements in, then withdraw and get back for tea and cakes."

    We then had to look at time and space: What was the earliest time we could get the attack in?

    "I don't particularly want to rush this." Rod had made up his mind what he wanted to happen. "I don't want to go in tomorrow morning. I want to spend the day planning; we've got to get our guys sorted out. If we go straight in at first light, it means we've got to move before last light tonight. Let's go in the day after tomorrow."

    Everybody was in agreement.

    "If we move from here to the FRP tomorrow, spend the night at the FRP, and then go and do the attack at first light, then we've cracked it. So we've got tonight and tomorrow to sort our shit out. More nods. "I'll send the. sitrep in a minute. If they want us to move earlier, they'll tell us. But by the time we get an answer, we won't be able to move for first light tomorrow morning."

    "We've got enough P.E and all the kit we need," Rod said. "We don't need anything bringing in apart from Gar and his gang."

    "Easy one," Tony said. "Just- get them straight in on the helipad. We'll get that cleared as soon as we take the camp."

    The last item on the checklist was the assessment of tasks.

    "We've got the two huts people are staying in," I said. "And we've got the river and those boats. I don't know what was down there with the boats, I couldn't see far enough. I don't know if people were staying there, or what. But the only escape route I can see is from the camp down to the river."

    "I think we do need a cutoff group," Rod said. "If there's any fuckers coming down that river and we're mincing around, we've got no early warning and nothing to stop them. We could be in the shit."

    "I agree," said Tony.

    "So one patrol will become a cutoff group down the bottom there."

    Rod pointed. "Their job is stop any runners, take control of that northern end of the camp, and give us early warning along the river."

    We'd made a guess about how the enemy were going to react to an attack.

    They'd got the weapons, and it wouldn't be the first time they'd used them. The effect of that would be that we might have our own casualties, so we'd got to cater accordingly. We had the patrol medic packs, which for this sort of task mainly contained trauma management packs. We'd got a helipad, so all we had to do was make sure that squadron HQ had a heli stood by to casevac; where it was going, and why it was going there, the pilot wouldn't know yet. All he would know was that his aircraft was stood by.

    The next stage was to summarize all the deductions that we'd come to and to look at the different options open to us; it was a matter of weighing up the advantages and disadvantages and selecting the best course.

    That then became the plan, and from that plan Rod would make orders.

    There were going to be four groups: a cutoff group by the river, two assault groups that were going to take the houses, and a cover group that was going to cover the advance up to the two buildings and dominate the area in case there were runners. On top of that, Gar was organizing everrhing back at the F.O.B. He had helis stood by to bring in a force to burn down the camp and the publicity machine to film it.

    It was now past midday on day five since finding the camp. Rod had to put it in some form of orders that the patrols could understand.

    This was quite difficult because our Spanish was only good enough to get by. We needed to involve them as much as we could, because in the near future they would be doing this themselves.

    Everybody assembled around the sand model with weapons and belt kit.

    Some of the boys were interested in it; other ' rs looked tired and indifferent. Terry spoke the best Spanish, so he did the talking.

    "We have found the camp," he said, 14 and this is what it looks like.

    Tomorrow morning we're all going to leave here, and go to the final RP.

    From there my group will move to the other side of the camp and become the cutoff for the attack. Everyone else will stay at the final RP.

    The following morning the three groups will move to the camp.

    Andy's group will be the cover group; Rod's group will attack this building, and Tony's group will attack this one. Each patrol commander will show you what he wants you to do. In the camp there are about eight armed men. We will go in there early in the morning, when they are asleep. There will be no problems. All you have to do is listen to what your patrol commander is telling you.

    "In a minute, when we've finished, the patrols will get together in their areas and the patrol commander will tell you what he wants done.

    Are there any questions?"

    They all shook their heads and split into their groups.

    The four of us got back together to confirm what would be going on.

    Terry's cutoff team would move to the north of the camp. They would be in position as a cutoff if anyone legged it from the camp to the boats, the only known escape route. It would be no good their going to the helipad; there was nothing there, and it was surrounded by jungle. "I won't bother trying to rig the boats," Terry said, "because of the compromise factor during daylight hours." If anybody found the boats had been tampered with, they'd be suspicious and on the alert.

    The cutoff team's other job was to give an early warning of anything coming down the river. We could be sitting there in the daytime in our FRP, ready to do a first-light attack, and six boatloads of narcoguerrillas could slip quietly into the camp for a big piss-up.

    There'd be twenty of us screaming in there big time, suddenly confronted by a defending force of eighty. Not to be recommended.

    It was now starting to rain, and it was a funny sight watching all the normal activity going on with water dripping off people's noses.

    The cutoff team would take their bergens and belt kits with them because they would be working independently. They would split off from us as soon as possible once we'd reached the FRP, because they needed as much daylight as possible to get there, sort their shit out, and do their recce so they'd know what they had to do and where they had to do it. As they moved into position, the rest of us would be in the FRP, acting as the immediate action; if they were compromised, we'd soon know because we'd hear the shooting and commotion.

    We'd then just have to go for it, straight into the camp and do it there and then.

    "As soon as you're in position, give us a shout on the Motorola channel six," I said. "If we don't hear anything, we'll just carry on as planned, because we might not get the comms."

    All the patrol commanders had Motorola comms that we had brought with us from the UK. They gave us about a kilometer and a half in good open countryside; sometimes we'd get comms in the jungle with them; sometimes we wouldn't. If we didn't get a report from Terry, and hadn't heard any gunfire, we would have to assume that he was okay anyway and carry on.

    One-of-three-Joses would take Tony and Rod down to the camp and show them the start line and the two buildings. Once they came back, we'd wait until first light the next day, when we'd start moving off.

    "Once the camp attack goes in," Rod carried on to say, with the rain still falling and being ignored by everyone, "the cutoff will stay put until it gets the all clear from me. if I can't raise you on the comms, I'll send a runner down.

    Make sure your patrol knows! Once the buildings are secure I want Andy's team to clear the work hut and then go up to the helipad. If you move in once it's secure, we'll centralize all the boys, get them down, and I'll call Gar in with the aircraft, so I want you, Andy, to take the comms with you. Once Gar comes in we'll get back to the bergens and sort ourselves out."

    "That's that, then," said Tony. "We'd better get the sitrep off to Gar and make sure he knows when we're going in, then sort the boys out and get our heads down."

    The sitrep stated what we were going to do, what time the camp attack was going in, the way we were going to do it, and how we wanted the helicopters brought in, which was on orange smoke. We said that we'd open up the net the following morning to get a confirmation that everything was okay before we went in. We wouldn't move until 0900 hours to the final RP, and from there we'd go ahead with our plaa.

    We went to our own individual patrols and started explainiqg what we wanted them to do. "When we get to the FRP tomorrow morning," I said, pointing to One of-three-Joses, "you will take Tony and Rod to the camp and show them the edge and where the two buildings are. It's a very important job. If they want to see anything else, show them where it is, then come back to us.

    Is that all right?"

    He grinned and nodded, proud to shoulder the responsibility.