ACV's 1 Operation Black Gold (48 page)

I took up position beside Davie and watched the pictures appear on screen.  The shuttle buzzed and clicked as it moved around the framework under Davies’s skilled direction.  He pointed out anomalies as they appeared.  He made Grigor turn over to make sure he hadn’t missed anything.  ‘That’ll do it.’  The kit was packed away carefully.

‘May I get down now?’

‘You can get yourself into the duty bed there.’  Davie pointed.

‘Why?  I am fine.’

‘Oh no, you’re not.’

‘I am always in pain, it is nothing anymore.’

‘Yes but the pain’s been getting worse though, hasn’t it?’

‘Yes, but I was told that years ago.  Soon I may not be able to walk, that is why I must come now.  I come meet you.  Have a few drinks then go home while I still can.’

‘The only place you’ll be going is hospital.’

‘No I cannot, I did afford the insurance.’

‘Don’t argue with the doctor Grigor, listen to him first,’ I interrupted.

‘I am sorry, I will listen.’

‘Good, now I’m going to get a printout of the problem to help me explain it to you.’  He held up a disc and waved it at Reginald.  ‘Give me a hand with that damned machine of yours will you?’

‘Yes sir.’

‘So Grigor, how did you manage to get in tow with our little lady friendly?’

He ended up telling us the whole story of how he came to be here.  ‘I think she was not your friend, no?’

‘You can say that again,’ Gig’s jumped in.

‘It was very strange but she never heard of the battle of Bertrovich.’

‘There’s nothing really strange about it, you see, here, no-one knows of our participation in the battle.’

‘How can that be, are you not heroes, were you not given medals for your courage?’

‘All we got was a fit in the arse,’ Ali told him.

‘I do not understand, in my land we sing songs about you, it is confusing.’  So we told him the whole story of what happened to us afterwards, even Reginald sat in silence and listened as we opened our hearts to this brave man.

*

Gail pulled into a lay bye a mile down the road and checked her face in the mirror.  There was no mark, yet she could still feel where his finger had burned a channel along her cheek.  For a moment, she wondered how a killer could be so gentle, but shook the thought off angrily.  When she felt calm enough to drive, she continued back to the office.

‘Where the hell have you been, I’ve had Roy on the phone three times?’

‘Sit down boss; I’m going to blow your socks off with this one.’  She launched into her story, but he soon stopped her and called in the sub editor.  So she started again and both men remained silent until she was finished.

The sub editor came off the wall where he’d been leaning.  ‘This is the commander of that new ACV unit you’re talking about isn’t it?’

‘Yes that’s right sub.’

‘He’s the one that totally refuses to give an interview with the media?’

‘Yes that’s right.’

‘Christ, no wonder the bastard’s camera shy.’

‘This is brilliant Gail; can we stop the press, sub?’

‘Believe it.’

‘Then do it, Gail get straight on it.’

‘But what about that Sergeant, they’ve got him now?’

‘Don’t worry about that, where there’s one eyewitness we can always buy plenty more.  Oh and keep a lid on this both of you.  I want no leaks before going to press.’

*

Our story was finished and he told us his.  It was a lot worse than ours was.  He’d lost his whole family in the war, all except for his youngest son, whom he was struggling to put through university.

‘If you hadn’t stopped us that day the war may have gone on for years and I may have lost him to.  For his life and the lives of the children of my friends, I thank you.’

Nommy was looking rather puzzled.  ‘How does that one work Jim?’

‘I suppose at the end of the day it’s fairly easy to work out.  If they’d broken through us and made it to the capital, the legitimate government would probably have made it out and gone into exile.  Then they would have started to build up forces to retake the country, they in effect would have become the new rebels.

The conflict could have gone on for years and years.  As it was, we stopped them dead in their tracks and that gave the negotiators time to get in there and do their jobs.  They managed to get both sides to agree to a democratically elected government with no repercussions for the losers.  The losers who were in government at the time actually formed a very effective opposition party under councillors from the Security Council.  Is that close enough Grigor?’

‘Yes that is how it was.’

Nommy looked at me cockeyed.  ‘A wee bit deep for me.’

There were one or two nods, but I couldn’t be arsed trying to make it easier.  They’d think it through and get it soon enough.  ‘You do realise Grigor that our only concern that day was for our own lives and that of our comrades?’

‘Of course.’

‘Well that’s enough war stories for the moment.’  Davie sat down on the edge of the bed and showed him the print outs of his leg.  ‘Do you know you still carry a lot of shrapnel around inside you?’

‘Yes, I set off all the alarms at airports, it is quite funny actually.’  We thought so too.  ‘It is written on my passport though, which saves a lot of questions.’

‘If you’ll look here, this is why your leg is turning black.  Do you see this line here?’

‘Yes.’

‘That’s a main artery in your leg; do you see how it narrows here?’

‘Yes.’

‘That’s caused by this object here.  By the look of it a piece of shrapnel from a grenade.’

‘Yes that would be right.’

‘Do you see this white area around it?’

‘Yes.’

‘Well what’s happening is this; your body’s natural defences are attacking it all the time.  Every year it lays another layer of tissue around it, like a cyst, do you follow me?’

‘Yes I do.’

‘Over the years the tissue that has grown around it has slowly began to push against the artery closing it off.  Your leg is being starved of blood and is dying.’

‘Good, maybe they can cut it off then.  It would be a blessing.  I have friends with no legs who get around easier than I do.’

‘Oh there’s no need for that, with modern medicine the way it is and some skilled surgery, oh I don’t know, what would you say to being completely fit and healthy again in say, a year.’

‘What, with the leg?’

‘Yes.’

‘No pain, no limp?’

‘There’s no guarantee, but if you work hard in physiotherapy there shouldn’t be.’

‘But I cannot pay for this and I won’t get it in Albania.’

‘You leave it to me,’ Davie headed back into the office.

‘But.’

‘It was you wasn’t it?’  Buff interrupted fiercely turning on me.  ‘He’s the bastard that wouldn’t stay down isn’t he?’

I had to grin.  ‘Aye I think so.’

‘I’m sorry?’  Grigor seemed bemused by the exchange.

Buff turned on him.  ‘You almost had us didn’t you?’

‘Yes I got very close, but someone bagged my ass as they say, I’m not sure if it was you or one of my own.’

‘It was us,’ Buff admitted.  ‘Jim here pinned ye down and worked out your next piece of cover; then Gigs over there,’ Gigs waved, ‘threw a grenade into it.  You almost landed on top of it.’

‘No wonder I never saw it coming.’  He looked stunned.  We had a good laugh at his expense but he took it in good stead.

‘So you were the man behind the machine gun?’

‘Yes that was me.’  I braced myself.

‘Tell me why did you not shoot me like you did the others?’

There was a bit of feet shuffling while I considered the question.  ‘You were lying in the open; you had no weapon near at hand.  I also thought you dead.’

‘But you considered it, you should have.’

‘Yes.  Can I just say your courage touched me and leave it at that?’

‘Yes we can leave it at that.’

Davie had called in reinforcements in the form of General Lamb.  We were thrown out of the office for half an hour.  I was called back in, Buff trailed along.  The General had decided to kill two birds with one stone and inspect us.  I called Fritz in as it was his stores.  I found myself being interrogated.

‘David says most of your kit you designed yourselves.’

‘The carrying cases and stretchers are totally ours, we even hold the patents on them, but almost everything else is already in service somewhere in the world, mostly third world countries.’

‘Is that the lightweight stuff David’s been telling me about?’

‘That’ll be it.’

‘Is it hard to come by, will you have trouble with supplies?’

‘No, most of it’s made here in Britain.’

‘I see.’

‘As for most of the electrical stuff we’ve invented or should I say reinvented.’

‘Reinvented?’

‘Aye, one of our lads is an electrician, there’s very little he can’t do with solar panels or batteries.  Davie told us what he needed we found the stuff and Ali fixed it up.  You’ll soon see what I mean although if you want a technical explanation you’ll have to ask him or Davie.’

Davie made us put on gloves and masks.  ‘Do you always take these precautions?’

‘Only if we’re going to be opening the packs, in the field of course it will be different, but this way we make sure we don’t carry anything nasty out with us.  When we return from the field, everything is unpacked, sterilized, repacked, then sealed.’

He seemed impressed by our procedures.  ‘And these are?’

‘These are our surgical packs, we can at a push carry everything, but that’s unrealistic.’  Davie went on to explain the reporting system we had developed with the SAS.  He liked it.  ‘This is our standard surgical pack.’  Davie opened the contour shaped backpack and the Generals eyes lit up as if he had just been handed an early Christmas present.

‘By necessity some of the instruments are metal, but on the whole, we’ve found plastic equivalents.’  He moved on.  ‘This is the head injury unit, Heart and Lungs.’  Davie took him through every pack.  He was clearly puzzled.

‘Where did all this equipment come from?  I certainly didn’t approve it or fund it.’

I had kept quiet until then, ‘no ye didn’t, did ye?’

‘Jim,’ Davie rebuked me sharply.  I walked away.  ‘We have two other pieces of equipment you might be interested in.  The first is a heart and lung machine, but the company who are developing it for us won’t let us have it.’

‘Are you trying to tell me you’ve developed a heart lung machine that’s man portable?’

‘That’s right sir.’

‘But that’s impossible, these thing’s take years of development, researching and testing.’

That’s why they won’t let us have it.’

‘I don’t blame them; I would find it hard to trust a patient’s life to something so new.’

‘It bloody works OK,’ I snapped.

‘Jim!’  Davie growled.  ‘We’ve been through this; it’s got to be tested thoroughly.’

‘Aye fine fair enough Davie, six weeks I understand, six months even but six years.  We don’t have that long.  Christ you’ll be lucky if any of us are still alive in six months’ time.’

‘That can’t be helped.’

‘Bollocks, I understand the risks bit you’ve said it yourself often enough, the men that will need that machine will have no chance without it.’  He let out an exasperated sigh; we’d been over this one hundred times.  My eyes locked onto General Lambs.  ‘You told me once you could phone the Prime Minister, did ye mean it?’

‘Jim.’

My cold eyes flicked across to Davie, ‘shut it; well did ye?’

‘Yes I did.’

‘Then why don’t you do something helpful for a change, get on the phone and ask him to give Medi-tec a boot in the arse for us.’

‘Oh for god’s sake.’  Davie had reverted to hiding behind his hands.

The General seemed a bit stunned.  ‘Ah yes well I would have to see it before I could endorse it.’

‘No problem, I’ll set up a pass for you at any time you wish, actually I’ll get you a permanent pass, although you’ll only be able to view the things they’re developing for us.’

‘Ah, yes, yes, that would be fine thank you.’