Gray Genesis Read online

  Gray grabbed her by the hair and pushed her towards the door, just as the sound of an AK-47 reached his ears. It was quickly followed by the familiar clack of a suppressed Browning Hi-Power. Gray shoved Dagher to the side and peered out the door in time to see Sonny pacing towards him.

  ‘They fired through the door,’ Sonny explained, with no need to add what the result of that had been.

  ‘You’ve got company,’ Balmer told them. ‘Five… no, six heading your way from the east. Hold on… two more from the west. They’re currently two houses over and closing fast.’

  ‘Shit’s about to get real,’ Gray told Smart, who’d also heard the news. ‘You and Sonny go right, I’ll take the left.’ He pushed Dagher towards Levine. ‘Cuff her and keep her safe.’

  The three men ran to the gate just as the first of the armed Taliban reached the house. He was cut down immediately by Smart, which brought a fierce response from his fellow countrymen. Rounds slammed into the wall Gray was taking cover behind, sending razor-like shards flying through the air. Gray tossed a grenade out into the street and the moment it exploded he added a few bursts from his rifle. Another Afghan fell, three bloody holes in his chest, but his friends continued to advance

  ‘Bravo One, you need to punch a way out of there. You’ve got another three heading your way.’

  ‘Working on it,’ Gray told Balmer as one of Sonny’s grenades took out two more Taliban. Gray ejected his empty mag and slapped a new one home, then chambered a round in his underslung M203 grenade launcher and fired at the car two Afghans were using as cover. The vehicle jumped in the air as the explosive hit the petrol tank, reducing the enemy number to seven. That could change at any moment, though. Reinforcements would be called in to protect such a high-value prize like Dagher, and the longer Gray and his team remained in place, the less chance there was of getting her out alive.

  ‘Alpha One, tell the guys in the sky to hit anyone outside the wall. We can’t bring the target out through this.’ Gray fired another burst, his rounds striking a wall rather than flesh.

  ‘Roger that. Get back in the house and find cover. This could get noisy.’

  Gray didn’t have to tell the others. The trio ran back inside the building and told Levine and Dagher to hit the floor.

  Less than a minute later, the battle was over. Thousands of 20mm rounds spat down from the M61 Vulcan rotary cannon on board the orbiting AC-130, tearing up the street and anyone in it. It was another minute before the aerial bombardment ended, and Gray was given the all-clear.

  ‘Let’s go.’

  Gray took the lead as they left the house for a second time, and the devastation was hard to comprehend—even for a seasoned soldier like Gray. Balmer’s warning had been spot on, as a couple of hundred bullets found their way into the garden. The wall Gray had been using as cover was almost completely destroyed. Two trees that earlier stood proud had been reduced to jagged stumps. Out in the street, it was carnage. Gray couldn’t make out how many people had been caught in the thunderous fire, but there were body parts everywhere.

  Sonny looked up at the night sky as they trotted back to the LUP. ‘Glad those guys are on our side,’ he muttered.

  ‘Bravo One, Alpha Two is at your twelve o’clock, one hundred yards.’

  ‘Acknowledged.’

  As planned, two of Balmer’s team, along with Levine and Sonny, would remain in the vicinity until the evacuation was complete, then make their own way back to the rendezvous point to pick up their transport to base. The priority was to get Dagher back safely, and they couldn’t guarantee that if they all got on the incoming chopper. Someone had to stay behind and keep any remaining Taliban occupied until the bird was out of range.

  Balmer had already called the bird in, and it landed a kilometre from the village. Dagher didn’t mutter a single word as she was quick-marched onto the helicopter. He noticed that she avoided eye contact, too. Whether that was through guilt, fear, or both, he didn’t particularly care.

  Balmer sat directly opposite Dagher, and Gray took a seat next to him. Smart and Lomax flanked the prisoner.

  The chopper leapt into the air, and Dagher turned her head to watch the desert floor disappear in the darkness.

  ‘Can you please close the door?’ she asked. ‘It’s cold.’

  ‘Maybe.’ Balmer said. ‘First I have to decide if we’re gonna throw you out.’

  Chapter 27

  It was what Miriam Dagher feared most. She’d been steeling herself for a bullet between the eyes the moment the soldier had entered the room, but it hadn’t come. She’d thought that perhaps they were going to bring her out safely, just as her CIA handler had told her they would, but now—shivering in a helicopter with threatening eyes staring at her—she wasn’t so certain.

  ‘What kind of person creates a virus to kill British and American soldiers?’ Gray asked. ‘I just want to know before I give my friend here his wish.’

  Tell them nothing.

  The words from her handler rang loud in her ears, but it was easy to agree to them in the comfort of a warm office in Virginia. Here, on a cold, noisy helicopter speeding over the Afghan desert and facing the prospect of a long drop, self-preservation was her only concern.

  ‘I… can’t tell you about it. It’s classified.’

  She saw the look of confusion on the two men’s faces, but didn’t want to elaborate. She’d been told that they would be instructed not to interrogate her, and she hoped that they followed those orders.

  It wasn’t to be.

  ‘That word’s cropped up a lot during this mission,’ Gray said, ‘and frankly, it’s beginning to piss me off. How can being party to the deaths of our friends and colleagues be classified?’

  Miriam wanted to tell them everything, to assure them that they had her all wrong, but she knew that if she did, she’d be risking her entire future. Then again, that future relied on her getting back to base in one piece, not smeared across the desert floor.

  ‘How do you wanna do this?’ Gray asked Balmer. ‘We can’t say she overpowered us.’

  ‘We could snip her cuffs off and say she jumped,’ the American suggested.

  Gray shrugged. ‘Sounds good to me.’ He got up and took out his knife, a seven-inch beast with a serrated edge, then made a move for Miriam’s seatbelt.

  ‘No!’ she cried. ‘Stop!’

  ‘Too late, lady, you had your chance.’

  Tears began to roll down Miriam’s face. ‘Please! I’ll tell you everything!’

  He stopped fiddling with the clasp, paused, then sat back down again.

  ‘I want to know everything.’

  * * *

  The bird circled, then dropped quickly to the ground. Once it hit, Gray removed her seatbelt and pulled her to her feet.

  ‘I'm going to be rough with you,’ he said. ‘We have to keep up the pretence.’

  He pushed her towards the ramp, where two men were waiting. Once they were on the ground, he shoved her towards one of them, then took out his pistol. He ejected a bullet and tossed it to her new guardian. ‘Do me a favour,’ Gray said. ‘Once you're done interrogating her, put that through her skull.’

  Chapter 28

  Abdul al-Hussain looked at the phone on the table next to him. He was sitting in the garden sipping tea, waiting to hear news about the attack on the base the Americans called Vincent. He’d sent two hundred and fifty men to wipe out the invaders, and it shouldn’t be too long before he received news of their victory.

  It would be the first of many, he was sure. The virus Dagher had given him was truly a gift from Allah himself, and he already had enough to build an unstoppable army. By the end of the year he would have over fifty thousand skilled soldiers at his disposal, enough to drive the Americans and British out of Afghanistan forever. He wouldn’t stop there. Once the Westerners were gone, Kabul would be his next objective. The American puppet masquerading as president would be banished, and the Taliban would rule once more. Until now it had always been
his ambition, but in light of recent events it was no longer just a dream.

  His son, Jamal, brought him another tea and a plate of food, treading carefully in the darkness so as not to spill any.

  ‘You should be in bed,’ al-Hussain told the boy. It was after two in the morning, and normally al-Hussain would have been tucked up, too, if his mind were not racing.

  ‘I’m not tired.’

  ‘Then I’m not working you hard enough.’ Al-Hussain smiled. ‘I will find something for you to do in the morning. Perhaps eight hours digging a drainage ditch will help you sleep.’

  Jamal turned his face to hide his displeasure, but al-Hussain caught it anyway.

  ‘It’s not that. I just… I had a feeling something bad was going to happen.’

  Al-Hussain pulled him closer. ‘Bad things happen all the time,’ he told his son. ‘It is how we react and deal with it that counts. I have seen so many tragedies in my time, yet I am stronger for it. Besides,’ he said, ruffling the child’s hair, ‘you are too young to worry about anything other than your studies.’

  The phone on the table rang, and al-Hussain snatched it up.

  ‘Bed!’ he mouthed to Jamal, who slinked away. Once the boy was walking away, al-Hussain answered but didn’t speak. There was no need. Only a handful people had the number, and he didn’t need to introduce himself to any of them.

  ‘Samir’s house was attacked by the Americans.’ It was Badrawi, one of the men from the village.

  ‘What about our guest?’ al-Hussain asked.

  ‘They took her.’

  Al-Hussain remained silent for a moment, then ended the call. There was nothing else to be said, and the longer he was on the line, the higher the chance of his location being detected. People will have died to protect her, he knew that, but he would find out the details later. What was done was done, and he couldn’t change it.

  Dagher’s loss was a bitter blow to his plans, but it wasn’t a complete tragedy. He still had a vast supply of her virus, and steps were already being taken to find enough recruits to inject it in to. Perhaps he could find another virologist to take up her work, though that wasn’t a priority. She had seen the training camp run by his friend Kamal, so that would have to be moved immediately. The Americans would no doubt try to get information out of the woman, and at her age, it shouldn’t take long.

  He would also have to find out who gave the Americans the woman’s location. Few knew where she had been staying, so it would limit his search. Someone had given her up, probably in return for a handful of American dollars—an act that would prove costly.

  A thought suddenly struck him; why give up the woman and not him? Abdul al-Hussain considered himself a much bigger prize than Miriam Dagher. If one of his men was working with the Americans, why not give them a Taliban leader? Why the woman?

  The thought bounced around his head for a few minutes, but he came up with no answers. Eventually he decided that it couldn’t be someone who knew his movement—few did, and their loyalty was unquestionable. It must be someone lower in the ranks who got a sniff of Dagher’s whereabouts and was tempted by the lure of riches. Well, he would smoke them out and show them the price of disloyalty.

  Al-Hussain dialled a number and spoke as soon as it was answered. ‘We have a problem. You must move the training camp immediately.’

  ‘What happened?’ Kamal asked sleepily.

  ‘I’ll explain later. Get moving, I’ll contact you in two days.’

  Al-Hussain ended the call and put the phone back on the table next to the plate of food Jamal had brought him. Jamal, with his portents of doom. Had he foreseen Dagher’s capture, or was there more to come? An involuntary shiver shook his body, and al-Hussain picked up the glass of hot tea and cupped it in his hands.

  Something told him he would find out soon.

  Chapter 29

  Gray glanced back and watched Durden lead Dagher away.

  ‘What’s going to happen to her?’ he asked his captain.

  ‘Don’t know, don’t care. We’ve got bigger fish to fry. FOB Vincent was hit fifteen minutes ago.’

  Gray stopped and looked at Russell. ‘Again? How many?’

  ‘A couple of hundred at least. The 654th have no support. And to make matters worse, there are roughly fifty civilians at the base. I need you and your team to gear up and get over there now.’

  ‘What about Jeff’s brick?’ Gray asked.

  ‘Already en route, as are the rest of Balmer’s ODA. A chopper’s fuelled and ready to go. You’ve got three minutes.’

  ‘Okay. Let ’em know we’re coming.’

  Gray dashed over to Sonny, Smart and Levine, who were waiting for him. He told them to follow him and filled them in as they jogged to the armoury. Two minutes later, with their ammo replenished, they ran to the HH-60 Pave Hawk that was already winding up. Balmer and his men joined them a minute later, and the bird leapt into the sky as they strapped themselves in.

  The pilot pushed the helicopter to the max, driving every ounce of power out of the engines. The trip had taken twenty minutes in a Chinook on their first visit two weeks earlier, but this time the camp was visible on the horizon in twelve.

  While Balmer contacted his team on the ground, Gray got on the radio to Jeff Campbell and asked for a sit-rep.

  ‘We’re outside the north corner, engaged with thirty-plus. The wall has been breached to the south and west, and there’s at least a hundred of them inside the base. Get down here sharpish.’

  ‘Roger that. We’ll form up on you.’ Gray switched to the intercom to speak to the pilot. ‘I need you to put us down two hundred yards north of the camp.’

  ‘Negative. It’s too hot.’

  ‘That wasn’t a request, just fucking do it! We’ll clear the immediate area.’ Gray unstrapped himself and moved over to within earshot of the gunner mounted on the right of the aircraft. ‘When I give the signal, my mate’s gonna pop smoke. When you see it, blast everything within ten yards, nothing more. We don’t want a blue on blue.’

  Gray took his seat once more and contacted Campbell again. ‘Can you pop smoke on the X-rays?’

  ‘Sure, gimme five seconds.’

  ‘Make it twenty, we need to get in position.’

  ‘Roger that.’

  Gray passed on instructions to the pilot and gunner, then put on his NVGs and readied his own weapon. The bird flew down the east wall of the base at an altitude of a thousand feet, AK-47 rounds pinging harmlessly off the undercarriage. When they reached the north-east corner, the pilot turned and dipped the nose and the Pave Hawk dropped like a stone. From his window, Gray could see smoke billowing from just outside the camp.

  ‘There’s your target!’

  The gunner’s GAU-18/A .50 calibre pounded the area, geysers of sand leaping into the air with each round. Gray saw at least fifteen Taliban go down—the rest ran for their lives.

  ‘Put us down!’ Gray told the pilot. And with the immediate threat gone, he did as asked.

  It was a bumpy landing—Gray was almost thrown out of the helicopter when it hit the ground. He got his balance and ran in a crouch to avoid the rotors overhead, throwing himself to the ground.

  ‘At your six, a hundred yards,’ Gray told Campbell.

  ‘Roger that. Go west, see if you can get inside. We’re going after the stragglers.’

  Gray saw Campbell and his three men set off to the left in pursuit of the fleeing Taliban, and he and Balmer took their men right. They ran for three hundred yards before coming to the corner, where debris that had once been the watch tower lay smouldering. Gray stuck his head around the corner and saw the action unfolding four hundred yards away. At least thirty Taliban were engaged with the troops manning the wall, and most of the fire was incoming. The men of the 654th were outnumbered two-to-one, and they had a long perimeter to defend.

  ‘Balmer, we go in here,’ Gray said. He stood with his back to the ten-foot wall and cradled his hands so that the American could climb up. Once Ba
lmer was over and providing cover, Gray helped the other six men over the wall. Lomax and Smart then leaned over it to pull Gray up.

  The scene was utter chaos. Mini firefights had broken out everywhere, several fires were raging and bodies were strewn across the ground. The Taliban were so entrenched in the American lines that air support was out of the question.

  Gray prioritised the safety of the civilians as their first objective, but they would have to fight their way to them. He pointed out the two closest skirmishes and assigned one to Balmer and his men. He took Smart, Sonny and Levine to help three Americans who were pinned down by a dozen Taliban.

  They attacked from the left flank, opening up when they were fifty yards from the enemy. Four fell instantly, and the rest diverted their fire towards Gray’s team who took cover and answered with accurate fire. Two more were hit, but the rest went to ground, scrambling behind piles of timber. Gray and his men kept them pinned down, allowing the three men from the 654th to regroup. They managed to get behind the Afghans and take out another two. Faced with assault from three sides, the remaining Taliban quartet didn’t stand a chance, but they put up a spirited fight to the end. It was only a couple of grenades that silenced them once and for all.

  There was no time to dwell on the victory, though. Gray left the American trio to their own devices and went in search of the next engagement. He found it a hundred yards away, where fifteen Taliban were shooting up some wooden buildings he knew to be the civilian quarters. The men from the infantry were dotted around and inside the hut, mustering what defence they could, but Gray saw three of them gunned down in quick succession.

  Gray told Smart and Sonny to split off and get a better angle on the bad guys, while he and Levine would draw their attention. Gray crouched behind a huge bag of gravel and waited until the other two were in position, then opened fire. He hit his target, and Levine also registered a kill. But it brought a hail of bullets their way, forcing them to take cover. Gray then heard Sonny and Smart open up—giving him an opportunity to stick his head out and take down another Afghan.