Soldier's Daughters (38 page)

‘How far do you think we’ve walked?’

‘Five, six miles, maybe.’

‘Is that all?’

‘It’s difficult to tell.’

‘I suppose…’ She paused and turned her head towards him. ‘Look, this is daft.’

‘What is?’

‘Both of us pussy-footing around each other, like this. If I call you Luke I still absolutely respect your abilities as a soldier and an NCO, and if you call me Sam the world isn’t going to end.’

‘I dunno, boss…’

‘Sam.’

‘It’s against all my training.’

‘Supposing I told you it was an order?’

‘Supposing I told you to sling your hook? With all due respect… ma’am.’

Sam snorted. ‘Well, I’m going to call you Luke, anyway. What are you going to do about it? Who are you going to complain to?’

‘OK… Sam.’

‘You see? The sky hasn’t fallen in.’

Silence fell. Or it fell for about a minute and then, in the darkness, came a rumble. They both froze and Sam felt her heart go into overdrive as a gallon of adrenalin washed through her system.

‘What the hell…?’ she whispered. She wished they had their night-vision goggles but they had been mounted on their helmets and, along with Luke’s SA80, a hundred rounds of ammo and their vehicle itself, the two NVGs were now the property of the poachers.

‘Stay still,’ Luke whispered back.

The rumble came again and then there was a low animal growl.

Sam felt in her pocket and found her head-torch. She pulled it out and flicked the switch. A bright beam of light shone into the bush, which she used like a mini-searchlight. As the beam swept across the monochrome vegetation it suddenly caught a pair of bright circles – eyes caught in the light – staring back, only about thirty or so yards away. The eyes were wide apart, divided by a broad sandy-coloured nose. There was another low rumble, more threatening this time, as the eyes stared back at them, unblinking and unafraid.

‘Fuck,’ Luke breathed.

‘Lion,’ whispered Sam.

The animal kept staring steadily at the light.

Sam slipped the torch on her head, making the light dance wildly over the scrub and bushes for a couple of seconds. Momentarily the eyes disappeared and Sam was terrified she wouldn’t be able to find them again, but she swept the light from side to side in front of her and there they were, unwavering, staring, scary. She opened her holster and in a fluid movement she pulled out the gun, cocked it and then shot into the air. As the reverberation of the shot died away they could hear something crashing through the undergrowth into the distance.

Sam swept her head-torch around the area to be sure the lion had gone. It was then she found she couldn’t hold things together and she sank down onto her haunches and then to her knees as her trembling legs refused to hold her up any longer. She tried to put her gun back in her holster but she was shaking so badly she couldn’t so she laid it on the ground in front of her instead.

Luke knelt down beside her. ‘Hey, hey, it’s all right. It’s gone.’ She felt him put a hand on her shoulder.

She turned her ashen face towards him. ‘Was that the right thing to do?’

‘Of course it was. The bugger high-tailed it, didn’t he?’

‘But supposing he comes back – you know – with reinforcements.’

Luke exploded with laughter.

Sam watched him, unamused.

Slowly Luke regained his composure. ‘Sorry,’ he said, wiping his eyes.

‘I don’t see what on earth is so funny,’ she said tartly.

‘Sam, it’s a lion, not a member of the Taliban.’

‘So? Lions hunt in packs.’

‘Prides.’

‘Don’t you fucking correct me, Blake. I don’t care what their gangs are called, it may come back with the rest of the family.’

‘Sam, generally it’s the female lions—’

‘Lionesses,’ she snapped.

‘That’s better.’

Sam glared at him and then shook her head, bewildered. ‘What’s better?’

‘The fact you’re fighting back is good. You’re getting your mojo back.’

‘Don’t you psychoanalyse me.’ She glared at him. Luke just grinned at her. ‘You’re impossible, do you know that?’ she said.

He nodded. ‘Anyway, as I was saying, if that male was hunting, then it was probably a lone male – one that’s been thrown out of the pride because he’s a threat to the alpha male’s domination of his harem. He’s biding his time till he can return and stage a coup and in the meantime he has to fend for himself.’

‘Poor old Billy-No-Mates.’

‘I wouldn’t waste your sympathy on him. He wouldn’t waste any on you.’

‘No… maybe not.’ She turned and looked at him. ‘I’m glad I’m not out here on my own. I’m glad I’ve got you for company.’

For a second their eyes locked, before Sam busied herself by picking up her gun and putting it back in its holster.

Immi gazed at her leg. When she’d woken up, the first thing she’d been aware of as she’d come to had been the shooting pain in her shin. And now she was dressed and had had a drink of water it was still giving her gyp. It was a worrying mess. The puncture marks were bright red with a wet-looking crust on the top and around each hole, the skin was angry and tender… and raised, like mini-volcanoes. Tentatively she pressed one of the volcano-like eruptions on her skin and a fat gobbet of yellow matter trickled down her leg. No, that really wasn’t right. She decided she needed to ask for advice.

She limped around the camp until she found Jack.

‘Hi, Immi,’ he said. He looked genuinely pleased to see her. ‘How you doing?’

For some completely inexplicable reason Immi found herself very close to tears. ‘That’s the thing, Jack.’ She pulled up her trouser leg.

‘Fucking hell, Immi.’ Jack knelt down in front of her. ‘That’s what you did yesterday, isn’t it?’

She nodded.

‘We need to get that seen to. Does it hurt?’

‘A little bit,’ she lied. It sodding caned.

‘Would a sweetie make it better?’

She smiled at him. ‘Think it’s a bit far gone for that. You could try kissing it better.’

Jack kissed her knee, sending a shiver through Immi despite everything and then he gently touched the skin on her shin. Immi leapt. He looked at her. ‘It more than hurts a bit, doesn’t it? Why don’t you say so, you silly moo?’ He put a reassuring hand on her arm. ‘I’m going to find the troop commander and if they haven’t got the antibios here to sort this out, I’m going to insist you get casevaced.’

Immi nodded, blinking back tears. She might have been a bit worried about her leg before but now she was shitting it. How bad did Jack think it was?

Andy Bailey found his commanding officer in his tent at Archers Post, where most of the battalion had moved to the day before. All the troops were now preparing to move out from the staging area during the course of the day, into the bush, up to their positions on their respective start lines, ready to cross them and get going with the exercise. In about eight hours, just before sundown, it was all going to kick off and frankly Andy couldn’t wait. The build-up had been intense. The admin, the orders, the logistics had seemed never-ending but it would all be worthwhile when they got down to some real soldiering. In the meantime, as always, there were a couple of last-minute hitches. And both of them, this time, were potentially serious.

‘Sir, sir,’ he said as he stuck his head through the flap.

The colonel looked up. ‘What’s up, Andy?’

‘Bit of a crisis, Colonel. Well, probably not a crisis but problems that we really don’t need at this stage in the game.’

The CO narrowed his eyes. ‘Such as?’

‘Sam Lewis and her driver haven’t reported in to the sappers’ camp where the bridge-building exercise is going on.’

‘Why did they have to go all the way up there?’

Andy explained about the generator. ‘It was a really straight-forward mission; all they had to do was drive down the main supply route through the range area, detour north over the next bridge crossing and then carry on to the sappers, drop off the new genny, kip for the night and bring the dud back. It should have been foolproof.’

‘So where are they? I mean, they couldn’t get lost off the MSR and then there’s only one route to the sappers after the river crossing. They’ve got to be somewhere obvious.’

Andy shook his head. ‘No, that’s just it, Colonel, they aren’t. It doesn’t make sense. There’s no report of a broken-down Land Rover, Lewis hasn’t radioed in, but they’ve vanished.’

The colonel stared at his adjutant. ‘So they’ve taken a detour, they’ve stopped off somewhere else.’

‘Where?’

The commanding officer stared at his right-hand man. ‘I don’t know! Finding out that sort of stuff is your job, not mine.’

Andy knew it was worry making the CO so terse. ‘Yes, Colonel.’

‘Sam’s not very experienced, though, is she? She hasn’t been out here before, has she?’

‘No, Colonel. But her driver is an old hand.’

‘Who is it?’

‘Corporal Blake.’

The CO’s brow furrowed. ‘I don’t think I know him.’

‘Bit of an oddball by all accounts but very bright and this is his third time here. He knows the ropes. Between the pair of them they should be all right. The ASM said they went off with plenty of fuel and water.’ The ASM had also made some comments about his lack of faith in Captain Lewis’s map-reading and his sympathy for Blake at being landed with a woman to wet-nurse. Andy had told Mr Williams he was out of order but he didn’t think this was the moment to burden his CO with the knowledge that one of their warrant officers was verging on being a sexist misogynist.

‘Good, so we needn’t worry too much about them. They probably got delayed and decided not to risk driving at night. They’ve holed up somewhere. I expect they’ll pitch up with the sappers any moment now.’

‘Unless they’ve had an accident.’

The CO stared at Andy. His expression clearly said he didn’t want to entertain such an idea. ‘But if they’d come off the road on the MSR someone would have spotted something.’

‘All the logistic vehicles have been informed to keep an eye out.’

‘So what’ll we give it? Another few hours?’

‘At the most, I reckon. Then, if they’re still missing, we’re going to have to scramble the helicopter.’

The colonel nodded, then noted to look on Andy’s face. ‘There’s something else.’

‘Yes.’

‘It’s about Corporal Cooper.’

The CO sighed. He was the sort of guy who wanted solutions, not problems. ‘The clerk? What’s happened to her? I thought she was babysitting Raven.’

‘She is. Only she’s injured her leg and it looks as if septicaemia might be setting in.’

‘Why are you telling me this?’

‘Because she and Raven are at the sappers’ camp. There is no generator because the one Sam and Blake were taking them hasn’t arrived, they don’t have antibiotics with them there and Raven is getting very antsy.’

‘Why?’

‘Why? Why no antibios or why is Raven getting in a state?’

‘Both, I suppose.’

‘Cock-up as regards the medical equipment. We don’t know what happened but the sappers’ medic wasn’t issued with any, and as for Raven – gawd knows. He’s very insistent she gets casevaced. Maybe he’s sweet on her.’

The CO considered the idea. ‘He could do worse.’

Andy decided not to tell his boss about the various fights down the NAAFI for which Cooper had been the catalyst. She might be a looker but she could also be trouble.

‘So we need to get them out,’ Andy said. ‘Well, her out. Raven can stay put till the sappers have finished if he wants to. Or not. I don’t really care what his agenda is as long as he doesn’t cause trouble.’

‘OK, get hold of the Army Air Corps and organise them to fly in and get Cooper. Tell them to keep an eye out for a lone Land Rover while they’re en route. If they don’t spot anything or if we haven’t heard anything from Lewis by the time we’ve got Cooper back safely then we’re going to have to go into full search-and-rescue mode.’

‘Sir.’

Now there was a plan, Andy felt much more sanguine about both problems. He went to organise the chopper and then he would allow himself some breakfast. He had a feeling it was going to be a long day.

Maddy woke up still not feeling right. Maybe she was going down with some sort of bug. Still half-asleep, she lay in bed, blearily trying to work out if she was really poorly or a bit… bleuch. After a little while she decided it was a case of feeling a bit under the weather rather than anything worse. She hauled herself into a sitting position and rested against the headboard while she ran through things she ought to do. The downstairs needed hoovering and the ironing pile wasn’t getting any smaller – but would it be fair to do that while Jenna was around? Maybe they ought to take Nathan out, do something with the day.

Maddy glanced at the bedside clock and decided that whatever decisions she had to make it would be easier with a cup of tea. It was far too early to make one for Jenna – Maddy reckoned that her guest might well appreciate being brought a morning cuppa but not at six-thirty on a Sunday. Even Nathan was still asleep, although the baby obviously wasn’t and was making its presence felt, big time. Its kicks and wriggles were probably what had woken her up. Well, that and the fact that she’d gone to bed so early she’d had much more than her eight hours’ worth.

Maddy rolled onto her side, swung her feet out from under the duvet and heaved herself out of bed. She’d be glad when this pregnancy was over, she thought. Frankly, she had had enough. She wanted an end to the heartburn, the baby’s somersaulting, the twinges and now this sodding awful backache. She pushed her hands into the small of her back and eased her shoulders. If anything it made it worse. Maddy sighed and plodded down the stairs and then to the kitchen.

She filled the kettle and was about to plug it in when she felt the urge to hurl, like the night before. She thumped the kettle onto the counter and then leaned over the sink while she dry-retched. After about a minute the spasm passed, although the feeling of nausea remained. She leaned against the work surface, her legs shaking, her forehead damp with sweat, while she waited for it to subside. Maybe she didn’t want tea after all, maybe she needed a lie-down instead.