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instructed. ‘Final check, then let’s get the hell out of here and on the blower back to base.’
    They knew what he meant. Each man removed the IR filter from his torch, filling the cave with white light once again, then delivered final headshots to each of the corpses. Nobody wanted any of the targets doing a Lazarus on them.
    When the unit was satisfied that they were all dead, they didn’t look back. They just returned swiftly to the mouth of the cave, where Fly and Dunc were waiting for them.
    ‘Zero Alpha, this is Delta Five One. Over.’
    ‘Zero Alpha, send.’
    Jack spoke clearly into the sat phone. ‘Targets down, location secured.’
    ‘Roger that. Nice work, Jack. The bird’s leaving base now.’
    Jack gave a quick double-click on the pressel to indicate that he’d understood, then looked at his watch. 04.24 hrs. First light in thirty-five minutes. It would take the Chinook fifteen minutes to get here, which only gave them twenty minutes until the sun peeped above the horizon and they’d be lit up for anyone with a pair of eyes. He just hoped that their guest – whoever it was – wouldn’t want to stick around.
    Each member of the unit had taken up a position around the mouth of the cave, pointing their weapons out into the darkness. The cover of night gave them a certain amount of protection, but it also obscured any enemy who might decide to attack.
    Jack was on one knee, his weapon engaged as he scanned the desert in front of him. Nothing moved – at least nothing that he could see. He heard Red whisper to one side of him. ‘Looks like the Taliban are still sleeping soundly. Perhaps they had a nice cup of Ovaltine before they hit the sack.’
    Jack inclined his head. Sometimes silence could be more ominous than noise. After all, if he were trying to sneak up on someone, they wouldn’t know he was there until they were dead.
    ‘It’s quiet for now,’ he said. ‘Another chopper landing on their turf might be a nice little alarm call for them, though.’ His eyes continued to cast left to right, right to left, moving out in concentric circles as he scanned for anything that might indicate a threat: movement, shadow, silhouettes.
    But all he saw was stillness. And all he heard was silence. The kind of thick, impenetrable silence that arrives just before dawn. And then, very faintly at first, but getting gradually louder, the unmistakable buzz of a Chinook in the distance.
    They didn’t see it until it had practically landed, then they felt it as the force of the twin rotary blades billowed clouds of sand into the air, stinging their faces and catching in the back of their throats. Jack looked up into the sky through the lenses of his NV. Against the stars he saw the faint, flickering shadow of what he knew to be an Apache attack helicopter escorting the Chinook and threatening with its Hellfires anyone who wanted to take a potshot at that workhorse of a chopper. If the sight of a Chinook encouraged the enemy to grab their surface-to-air weaponry, the sight of an Apache encouraged them to run like hell.
    Fly and Dunc ran towards the Chinook while the rest of the unit covered them from the cave mouth. The tailgate opened and through the dust storm Jack saw a figure emerge from inside. Fly and Dunc grabbed one arm each and hustled the newcomer towards the cave, just as the tailgate closed up again. By the time they had reached the cave mouth, the Chinook was already in the air again.
    The figure spoke. ‘Which one of you is Jack Harker?’ It was a brusque voice, full of authority. It was also a female voice.
    Jesus, Jack thought, thinking of the female he’d just nailed back in the cave. It’s turning into the fucking Women’s Institute out here.
    The new arrival wore desert camo and full body armour. The standard-issue helmet didn’t disguise the fact that she was strikingly good-looking, even here. Pale skin, high cheekbones and little strands of auburn hair peeking from underneath her