Maverick One by David Blakeley

Author:David Blakeley [Blakeley, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781409144144
Publisher: Orion Books
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

As the blades turned ever faster I could feel the powerful blasts of hot air hitting my face, the downdraught roaring in through the open ramp. I couldnt hear a thing any more, for the noise was overpowering. To either side of us, row upon row of blokes from 1 PARA were surging into their own aircraft, as we prepared to get some 600 crack fighting men airborne.

But all of a sudden I noticed a change in the pitch of the turbines, as the pilot started to ease off the power. I wondered if the Chinook had suffered a last-minute fault, and whether wed have to cross-deck into another airframe. Gradually, the rotors came to a thwooping stop. It was then that I could hear that all around us other aircraft were also powering down.

I locked eyes with Douggie. Neither of us had a clue what was going on, and there was no way I could make radio contact with Jacko from where we were cooped up in the helos interior. Presumably we must have been delayed for some reason, or worse still the mission was getting stood down.

I unbuckled my safety and hurried across to the open ramp. Douggie and I stared out into the sunlit glare. The last of the helos were shutting down, their rotors decelerating from a whirling blur and the individual blades slowly becoming visible.

We jumped down from the ramp. Douggie sparked up a ciggie and offered me a drag. I didnt smoke much as a rule, but I did when on operations. At moments of high tension it helped to calm the nerves, and I sure as hell needed it now.

As I sucked in a blast of nicotine, I saw a figure hurrying across towards us. It was Jackos runner.

Were getting stood down, he yelled, just as soon as he was within shouting distance. Get your men and head back to the harbour area.

I felt an immediate sense of deflation, as if someone had just popped my bubble and all the adrenaline was gone. That was all the runner had for us, and he moved off directly to the next aircraft. I had no idea why wed been stood down. Had the mission been postponed, or had it been canned? I very much suspected the latter. With the Russians racing for the airport, if we werent going now we very likely werent going at all.

We trekked back to the woodland and settled down to have a brew. I was supping my tea and wondering what exactly had happened, when a buzz went around that was almost as shocking as a mission such as this getting called off at the last minute.

Cloughy had picked it up on the radio. Fuck me, boss, did you hear? Private Woods refused to get on the helo. The blades were turning and he just wouldnt get on . . .

Jesus. Youre shitting me.

No, boss, not Jesus: Private Woods.

That was a typical Cloughy wisecrack. Ha, ha. Seriously: Woodsy refused to get on?

Thats what Im hearing, boss .

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