Mission to Argentina by David Monnery

Author:David Monnery
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780008155100
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2015-10-19T16:24:34.094000+00:00

6

Aboard the Resource they had received word that the operation was to begin shortly before midnight on Saturday 15 May. The eleven men most concerned were told first thing the next morning, and a frantic day’s preparations ensued. The supplies and signalling equipment were checked through once more; the weaponry given a final test fire from the ship’s rails. Last-minute letters were composed, decisions on personal gear taken and retaken, nerves kept under control by the constant banter.

That morning the eight men of the two patrols – ‘North’ under Docherty, ‘South’ under Brookes – were introduced to the Sea King crewmen: Lieutenants Billings and Hatchard, and Petty-Officer Crabtree. This threesome seemed to be under the impression that they were going on a fortnight’s camping holiday in Chile, and Hatchard asked the others what they thought about taking a hamper with them for the inevitable picnics. All three of them, the SAS men decided, were ‘OK for the Navy’.

Docherty remembered the hamper as he stepped out onto the rolling deck shortly after ten-thirty that evening, and smiled to himself. The Resource was still making good headway into the west, and seemed to be showing fewer lights than usual. With all the modern detection equipment available, Docherty knew, it still counted for something to be hard to see in the dark. It was probably his imagination, but he felt he could feel the tension aboard the ship, accompanying this dark, silent voyage towards the enemy coast.

They might still be in the self-proclaimed exclusion zone, but they were a long way from help, and the moment the helicopter was airborne the Resource would be heading back towards the relative safety of the Task Force with all the speed its engines could muster.

The Sea King HC4 was waiting for them on the flight deck, its newly acquired extra fuel tanks adding to the ungainliness of its silhouette. Inside it had been stripped of all but the essentials, and maybe a few of those.

‘It looks like a burglar’s been in,’ Razor observed.

‘They’ve even taken the seats out,’ Stanley complained.

‘We have a normal range of 480 kilometres,’ Lieutenant Billings announced, ‘and we’re probably travelling 700. I’m afraid we can’t even carry your normal supply of bullshit.’

‘They get testy when you complain,’ Hedge noticed.

‘Probably his time of the month,’ Wacko murmured, and found himself thinking about Anne.

‘It would have been more comfortable if they’d fired us at Argentina from a cannon,’ Stanley said, grabbing a piece of fuselage floor to park himself on.

‘They’ll probably send us back that way,’ Hedge said.

The nervous chatter continued until the door slid shut, whereupon a brief interlude of silence accompanied the helicopter’s ascent from the moving deck. According to the weather report the low-hanging bank of clouds above them extended all the way to the Argentinian coast, and would at least reduce the chances of their being spotted by the naked eye. There was also a stiff wind blowing out of the west, buffeting the helicopter and ensuring a far from easy ride.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.