MIRABAD VALLEY
‘How much further, Ahmed?’ Dahwood Wardak had volunteered to carry the heaviest of the equipment. At six feet two inches, he was a lot taller than Ahmed, and very strong as a result of years tending his opium crops. One of Dahwood’s talents was to blend in with the locals. He looked like a poor simple farmer, but he could pull out a PKM machine gun that had been hidden in a bush, fire off a long burst, and then be ploughing the field again in the space of a minute. He was very handy and Ahmed was glad for his help.
Dahwood tried to adjust the heavy load on his back; the evening’s work had taken its toll, even on someone with his strength. The two twenty-kilo containers of homemade explosives shifted awkwardly, forcing him down onto one knee. ‘I’m not sure I can carry these much further,’ he said. ‘It feels like we have been out here all night.’
‘See that tree, Dahwood – the one on the edge of the small creek bed? We will put the surprise in there. These are the last two, and then we are done. My family has a small farm not far from here; we can rest there and then walk back to the car in the morning.’
‘How do you know where to put these, Ahmed?’ Dahwood asked. ‘We have been all over the dasht and placed these containers everywhere, but not one of them is buried on a road.’ Dahwood resumed walking, focusing on where to place his feet.
‘Brother Dahwood, you must be blind – the infidel don’t use the roads anymore, my friend. Not unless they are hard black roads. It would be a waste of our time to put these on dirt tracks.’
‘That’s true. I noticed they don’t use the tracks much these days. Sometimes they even drive through my new fields.’
‘Yes, and digging under a real road is dangerous.’ Ahmed dropped down into the creek line and started to count out his paces. ‘Fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen – this is it.’ Ahmed dropped to his knees and scraped at the ground with his small shovel.
‘How can you be so sure?’ Dahwood lowered the yellow water containers full of the explosive.
‘I have seen them walk through here. There’s no track but they all come together from the open to cross this small wadi at this narrow place. If we bury the explosives here, I can use that tree to judge when the right person is down near the surprise then use my phone to activate it. Now, let’s dig this hole. Both of these containers need to be completely hidden, so it might take a while.’
The two men continued to dig the hole in complete darkness.
‘Ahmed, I have another question,’ Dahwood said eventually.
‘Yes, brother, what is it?’
‘Why did you choose tonight to do this?’
Ahmed gave a little laugh and stopped digging. He looked over at his friend. Dahwood had never been that bright but he was very loyal. In the infidel’s lair he had given a particularly good account of himself. He was one of the last to climb the ladder out of the vehicle yard. He had stood at the bottom and fought till the last minute, encouraging the others to escape before him.
‘Do you hear that, Dahwood?’
‘Hear what?’
‘The helicopters?’
‘No, I can’t hear anything at all – it’s very quiet tonight.’
‘Hmm, well, can you see the moon?’ Ahmed went back to his digging while waiting for his friend’s response.
‘Yes.’ Standing up, Dahwood looked at the horizon. ‘It is almost down now. It was full earlier tonight, I could see a long way.’
‘That’s right, Dahwood. The infidel doesn’t seem to come out when the moon is this bright. No helicopters or planes. They like to move when it is down or when it is not there at all. I’m not sure why, but there is a pattern. When the moon has fully disappeared our targets will come.’
‘I think they might fit now, Ahmed.’ Dahwood took the first container, placed it in the hole at his feet, then put the second one next to it.
‘So what now? I know how to do the pressure plate but not this.’
Ahmed emptied the sack he had been carrying and arranged the various parts next to the hole in the order that they would be connected.
‘Place these two squibs into each container, Dahwood. These will set off the explosives. You see the wires coming out of the back of the squibs?’
‘Yes, I see them.’
‘Good, braid them together.’
Ahmed watched as Dahwood deftly braided the four wires.
‘Now we connect them to these two spikes in the receiving box. It turns this into an electrical firing circuit. This motorbike battery is the power source: it goes into the hole and we connect the receiving box to the battery.’
‘Ah, I see.’ Dahwood squatted by the containers. He was enjoying the lesson.
‘This wire is the antenna for the remote control. Connect it to the box and then it is live.’
‘Where is the remote?’ Dahwood’s face reflected the immediate concern he felt for his own safety.
‘It’s my phone, brother. But do not worry; the phone has no battery yet. It’s completely pulled apart in my pocket. Once charged I will be able to send an SMS to a special number and it will set off this surprise. Boom!’ Ahmed smiled at Dahwood.
‘It’s time to run the signal wire out. Take this and wind it up the tree. Try and hide it as much as you are able to,’ said Ahmed, handing Dahwood the thin green wire.
‘Yesterday, Faisal and I dug in another three of these into the ground. That vehicle patrol that you warned Faisal about, well, a friend told me where the infidel were going the day before they left. They went up to the Chora Valley and they are slowly making their way back to Tarin Kowt.’
Ahmed got down and laid on the ground watching a faint outline of Dahwood deftly climbing the tree with the wire. He sat back up and looked at his fingers, he could barely make out his hand in the darkness. ‘A few years ago another of the infidel patrols went up that same way. When they came back they crossed into this valley at the bottom. I watched them. They drive up and clear the tracks of mines and then when they come back they are more confident and take less time. That’s when I will arm the mines. There’s an area not very far from here where they drop down into a creek line. They set their tanks up on either side to cover the movement across. Then when it’s clear they line up their tanks on the left of the road to organise themselves. All it takes is one wheel out of many to run over the mine. They’re predictable, Dahwood.’
While Dahwood climbed down Ahmed put all the leftover bits and pieces, including the sack, into the hole then proceeded to shovel dirt back in.
‘Now, let’s finish off. If we walk over the hole and then brush these branches over it, the area will look untouched. Then the locals will start to use the track again. Tomorrow I will instruct Abdullah Afzal Aman to bring the goats through here for a few hours to disguise it even further. If the infidel happen to travel this way, which they will, they won’t see it. It will just look like any creek crossing point.’
‘But how do you know they will ever come out this way? They haven’t been here for many months.’
‘When I am ready, I will send someone to that building back there with one of our Thurayas.’
Dahwood gave Ahmed a confused look.
‘It’s a satellite phone. We have some that we know the infidel like to listen to. Once it’s turned on it won’t take long before they come looking for the phone and we will be watching them. Even if they miss all the bombs out there,’ Ahmed pointed out into the dasht, where the two men had spent the evening placing pressure-plate IEDs, ‘they will come through here, then I will give them a surprise myself.’
‘You are much smarter than they are, brother. Allah will reward you with many infidel deaths, I think.’
‘They believe we are stupid, but what they don’t realise is that they wear the watches, but we have all the time in the world. I sit back and look at them and learn.’
The moon disappeared below the horizon and the valley was plunged into darkness.
‘Do you hear that, Dahwood?’ As if on cue a low hum started far out over the horizon. Slowly the low humming noise increased. ‘Hurry now, Dahwood, we must be inside before they come overhead.’
The two Afghans reached the farm just as the low hum turned into the distinctive roar of four Black Hawk helicopters.
• • •
The helicopters sped across the desert plain, twenty metres above the ground.
Australian SAS troops sat on the edge of the birds, held in by retaining straps as they scanned the dasht with their NVGs. Unseen by the Afghans, giant infrared searchlights lit up the area. The birds dropped down to just ten metres above the desert floor and vectored in towards their target at a hundred and forty knots.
‘Two minutes!’ the loadmaster yelled inside the back of the first aircraft. He held up two Cyalume sticks to ensure the message was seen as well as heard.
‘Two minutes!’ the troops replied in unison as they unfastened their retaining straps, stowing them away in their left-hand cargo pockets. Weapons were checked and NVGs adjusted, last-minute checks of equipment and radios all carried out in grey and green darkness as the wind battered the men in the back of the aircraft.
• • •
The birds screamed across the top of the compound where Ahmed and Dahwood were hiding, four giant grey shapes flashing across the black sky.
‘I wonder where they are going?’ Dahwood asked.
‘It doesn’t really matter, brother – we’re not there, but I suspect it’s your compound in Sorhk Lez, Dahwood.’ Ahmed smiled at his old friend.
‘Huh, I don’t understand?’
‘Where was that vehicle patrol that went past this afternoon?’
‘It was on the next ridgeline from my farm.’
‘That’s right, and where did you call Faisal Khan from to inform him of their movements?’
‘From my compound, Ahmed?’ Dahwood looked down at his feet and screwed up his brow.
‘And where is your phone now? Is it still on? Oh, and how many times have I told you not to call anyone from your home, you silly old fool.’