Assassin by Duncan Falconer

Author:Duncan Falconer
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Fiction / Thrillers
ISBN: 9780748122240
Publisher: Sphere
Published: 2012-07-25T22:00:00+00:00

16

A vehicle started up and pulled onto the road and stopped level with Stratton. It was a standard, dirty, drab-green US Army Humvee with armoured door panels, extended front bumper, long whip antenna and spare wheels on the back with fuel cans and shovel. The woman was at the wheel, looking at him through the narrow opening of the driver’s window. There was no one beside her in the passenger seat.

He wondered if she was about to offer him a lift back to the base. No doubt she’d called in support. The priority for him was the bomb. It was still close. An air asset would be perfect, with an assault team. But by the time they had organised all that the Taliban and the bomb would be long gone.

She was a hard arse, or at least she put on a convincing act. He wondered just how tough she was.

‘I don’t suppose you’d consider lending me your Humvee,’ he said.

She gave him a blank look. He took it to mean ‘Get lost’.

‘Aren’t you interested in pursuing them?’ he asked.

‘That is my directive,’ she said. ‘To ensure the device remains on track.’

‘Directive?’ he muttered to himself. It was time to see how tough she really was. He looked back in the direction of the lights he had seen in the distant sea of blackness. After a few seconds they flickered again. ‘There,’ he said, pointing. ‘That’s them.’ He looked back at her for a reaction. ‘You up for it?’

She looked past Stratton where he had pointed. Then she looked back at him, as though studying him. ‘Get in,’ she said.

It would seem she was up for it, in principle. But he knew saying and doing were two very different things. As was chasing Taliban and then catching them. He walked around the vehicle to the passenger side, opened the heavy door and climbed in. He glanced into the back. Other than some body armour and what looked like weapons boxes, it was empty. He had travelled in Afghanistan on his own but always as a local, and rarely without the support of other operatives not far away. She seemed to be totally alone, in military fatigues, in a US military vehicle. And a woman.

As he slammed the door shut, she shoved the heavy vehicle into gear and it shunted off, its headlights cutting into the darkness.

‘See those tracks,’ he said, pointing at tyre marks leaving the road and going downhill. She followed them. The vehicle jolted heavily as it went over an edge and down a gentle incline. She grabbed a pair of night-vision goggles out of the dashboard and pulled them on. Then the vehicle’s lights went out. For Stratton, everything turned black.

There was another pair of NVGs in the dash. Stratton pulled them on and the ground ahead appeared in a contrast of white and grey. He could make out the tyre tracks but no further sign of lights in the distance. Judging by the marks, the Taliban had been travelling at speed.

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