Casca 16: Desert Mercenary by Barry Sadler

Author:Barry Sadler [Sadler, Barry]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2014-04-04T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER NINE

They spent the night in the hangar, Carl and Dominic questioning Sharif Mamud about the mountain. It was an hour after dawn when the Land Rovers showed up. The passengers were heavily coated with Saharan dust. They looked more like ghosts than mercenaries.

Monpelier had them pull the Land Rovers inside the hangar. Carl didn't envy them their journey. It had to have been a ball buster. From the way they moved he knew they had the same opinion.

The stiff legged arrivals accepted Monpelier's invitation and headed for some water cans to rinse off before getting down to business. Among them was Abdul Khanas. He was one Carl had met before, a Sudanese veteran of Indochina, a good, solid man with strong hands and a quick smile. The only other one he knew was Jacques Foche, a Belgian mercenary who had been with nearly all the world's armies at one time or another. He was without conscience or loyalty to anyone or anything except the job he was on at the time.

The rest of the team consisted of two Brits, Felix Martine and Kitchner, an American named Alan Graves, and Saul Voorhees from Pretoria.

It was obvious that some of them had worked together before. Abdul greeted Roman warmly and gave Egon a nod of recognition. Dominic made the rest of the introductions.

Carl told them to rack out for a while. After that ride they were sure to need it and he didn't want anyone falling asleep when he outlined the job.

At four in the afternoon the men had been fed and their coffee poured. They found seats on boxes and crates, and were waiting.

"Some of you know me," Carl began. "We have worked together before. Those of you who have questions about me, go with them to those that have worked with me. I don't have time for individual consultations.

"Monpelier has told you the purpose of the job: to get in, snatch two people, and get back out. Let's try to do it and return with everyone that we started out with. Tomorrow the Land Rovers will move out again with new crews." There was an audible sigh of relief from those who had just driven over 1,000 miles across the desert. "They'll have radios with them so we'll know when they're on site. They are to find a landing zone for the rest of us to set down on. Those in the Land Rovers will have only one rifle and their pistols for personal protection. If they carried any more with them they'd be too tempting a target for bandits. When they are on site they'll signal and we'll move out. Till then everyone is restricted to the strip and this hangar. No one goes into town. If one word leaks out about the job then the whole thing will be blown and someone's definitely going to die." He waited to give them time to digest what he was saying.

"Alright, then. A lot of this is going to have to be played by ear.

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