Mid-morning, Major Nathan Connor and his team arrived in their modified GMV at the outskirts of Kandahar’s old town. It was chaos. Dozens of armoured vehicles were parked up close together. Groups of ANA soldiers stood around at road junctions, while others pulled razor wire across the road to form a barricade. Black Hawk helicopters roared overhead, circling at low altitude. In the searing heat, dozens of US marines in body armour and full kit were standing around clutching their weapons, sweating and waiting nervously to move out; others were running to and fro as final preparations were made. General Patterson’s parting orders rang in Connor’s ears — find Jabir and this time I don’t give a damn whether you kill or capture him! Connor jumped out of the GMV and headed over to Sergeant Baxter from Alpha Company, US Marines, who was holding a map and yelling orders.
“What’s happening?” asked Connor.
Baxter saluted. “Major, we’re preparing to go in. All platoon leaders have been issued with hand-held fingerprint scanners linked to the ISAF prisoner database. Our orders are to check every adult male. If they’re in there, we’ll find them.”
Nodding, Connor snatched the map and studied it. The ancient old town occupied a rectangle covering over a square kilometre. The area was divided by four main streets converging at a central square. Low-rise brick and concrete houses were crammed in with shops and bazaars.
“Where’s Colonel Khalid?” Connor asked Baxter.
The sergeant shrugged. “Not seen him, sir. I’d heard he’s already gone in with a small ANA team. Something about receiving a tip-off and wanting his unit to have the glory of recapturing Jabir Hassani themselves.”
“Just like Khalid,” Connor muttered. “It’s bound to be a trap. Jabir’s no fool. I figure he’ll be long gone by now. OK, carry on. But when you move out, for God’s sake keep your wits about you and make sure CENTCOM gives you constant aerial updates from our drones.”
“Yes, sir.” Baxter strode off, got his men into line, and then moved beyond the barricade.
While travelling into town from Camp Delta, Connor had texted some of his contacts, unscrupulous shopkeepers in the bazaar who sold the most precious and expensive of goods — information. Replies confirmed his suspicions that Jabir had most likely fled the city. But to where? None of his contacts knew. Connor had only one option left — to hang around in the hope that Baxter located one of Jabir’s men who might have the answers they needed.
Connor returned to his GMV and climbed into the front passenger seat. He took a swig of water from a bottle as Baxter’s men left the first building empty-handed.
Lieutenant Jacko Alvarez rested his arms on the steering wheel and groaned resignedly. “Major, I think we’re in for a long day.”
Connor nodded. “Sparks, see if you can get hold of Colonel Khalid on the radio. I think he’s hellbent on becoming a hero.”
“Yes, sir.”
A deafening explosion rocked the street. Jacko leaned forward and gazed straight ahead at the cloud of smoke rising over the old town. “Quite possibly a dead hero, sir.”
“That’s what’s worrying me. Sparks, any luck?”
“I’m through, sir,” Sergeant Sparks announced from the back of the vehicle. “Khalid’s alive and in the central square. A car bomb’s taken out four of his men and the rest are pinned down by Taliban snipers. His personnel carrier’s out of action, too. Took a hit from an RPG. I’ll get CENTCOM to patch through a visual feed to us.”
Connor and his team studied the small screen on Spark’s comms gear. Amid rising, acrid smoke from burning vehicles they could see Khalid and two of his men crouching behind a low wall.
“Hell! There’s no time to mess around. We’d better go get them.” Connor leaned out and yelled at a sentry. “Move that wire barricade, marine.”
“I have a bad feeling about this, sir,” said Jacko as he started up their GMV. “We could be walking into a trap as well. We all heard Jabir Hassani swear he’d get his revenge against us that day we captured him.”
“Just drive, lieutenant… Danny, you’re up top. Point that M2 at anything that breathes… Sparks, tell Khalid to sit tight. And see if you can get air support to lay down some suppressing fire around the square. Those snipers need distracting… Ben and Sam, keep your eyes peeled. Knowing Jabir’s men, I bet these streets are littered with IEDs.” Connor swung round his M4 carbine and released the safety catch. “OK, guys, time to go hunting.”