Blood Money by Johnny "Two Combs" Howard

Author:Johnny "Two Combs" Howard
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: McBooks Press
Published: 2022-05-16T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Toby Flowers moved fast, but he had a serious problem. His signals to the men spread out on their various tasks had put them on alert for a possible move to concentrate for a special operation, but that was all. There was no way he could justify doing any more until Frank Buckhart radioed in that he had a positive fix on the hostages. Flowers did have a helicopter full of fuel and a location that he should be able to spot from the air about twenty minutes’ flight time away, but no more than the men of his HQ section with which to mount an attack. These tended to be the least able soldiers in any unit, what in his old regiment had been labelled the REMFs: rear echelon motherfuckers. There was no way that would be enough, so he put out a flash radio message to get a wheel-bound rescue party on the road at once, with a rendezvous map reference where he could pick them up. Then it was a scramble for kit, weapons and the kind of ammo they would need before they could take off. That meant a time on target of at least thirty-five minutes.

Buckhart had figured that out for himself. He knew the situation didn’t look rosy, but he’d been there before, caught in the old Vietnamese City of Hue during the Tet offensive. It had been buildings there, it was bush here, but the job was the same. Apart from dragging him about to keep him from getting shot he’d paid little attention to Tumbu, but in the brief interlude before they would move he decided to check him out. He was pleased by the pistol in his hand, but amazed to see the colonel still wearing his peaked hat. He was tempted to ask how the fuck he’d managed to keep it on when a burst of machine gunfire ripped through the trees to his left.

‘Move!’

The corporal knew to go first, a darting run that took him no more than three to five yards before he crouched down to give covering fire to the man coming after him. Buckhart and Tumbu were next, going together, with the mercenary on the security chief’s left, the direction from which the fire was most likely to come. The other pair of Gurkhas brought up the rear. The manoeuvre was repeated twice before they ran into trouble, fire so heavy that Buckhart knew his decision on direction hadn’t worked out. If anything, they were up against more rebels heading west than they would have faced falling back east.

They immediately returned fire, moving into position to form a fire base, but they lacked the weaponry to make any impression. The only option was to use fire and manoeuvre to break contact. All they had in their favour was the primary growth bush that gave them cover from view, though not cover from fire. But they were harried, under almost continuous gunfire, and that was coming from more than one direction.

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