“When the other team had cleared a dead family out of a house, in one of the back streets, John had stumbled. He went straight through one of the walls. That’s where he found the safe. He took a few pictures of the room with his phone.” Bob passed them around.
They spent the rest of the night speculating as to what the safe contained; gold, money, even the head of a goat (that was Harry’s input), or maybe a lost copy of a Harry Potter novel. But whatever was in there, it got the team’s imaginations going.
Bob suggested they did an internet search. “We can use the computers over in the main building.”
“Hey, Bob. Look at this,” Steve said.
“What you got, Steve?”
“It might be easier if you read it, it’s quite long.”
They crowded around the small terminal, and for the next few minutes, it was just a jumbled sound of mumbling as they took it all in.
The safe was made in London, back in the early eighteen fifties and was one of John Tann’s fireproof safes. The one John had stumbled on had been displayed at Crystal Palace, in eighteen fifty-one.
“How it ended up out here, hidden in an old house in the desert, is a mystery,” Steve added.
“I’ll do some digging later,” Bob said. “I’ll try to find out how long the building had been there.”
In Bob’s room the next day.
“Sit down, lads,” Bob invited. “I’ve got some news for you. Thirty years ago, it used to belong to a local man, a jeweller. He was killed one night, supposedly by a gang of youths. A series of shots were heard coming from his house, but because of the war at the time, no one wanted to risk helping him. It was also rumoured he was helping the Americans eliminate certain individuals, so another reason for not helping. His body was never found, nor was his money!”
They all looked at each other.
“Let’s go and take a look,” Steve suggested.
“There’s something else you need to know as well,” Bob said, looking at them. “I heard about a secret British military mission that had gone wrong around that time. All the soldiers were killed, never found. So we might have stumbled across their remains.”
“What were they after?”
“No idea, Harry. It was secret,” Bob smiled.
“When can we go?” Steve asked.
“Tonight. Before the police decide to finally take a look at it.”
They looked around at each other and smiled.
9
As this was an unofficial trip, they had to get hold of their own transport, so they “borrowed” a jeep from one of the local businesses - the owner wasn’t around when they took it, so technically, they nicked it.
It was nearly midnight when they got to the outskirts of Baghdad. It would then take twenty minutes to walk to the house with the safe.
They parked the jeep in a ditch, next to a tree, then set off on foot.
They’d been on the move for less than ten minutes when suddenly, Steve’s little box of tricks started to buzz. They looked at him, as he shouted, “Take cover!”
As they hit the deck, there was a huge explosion about eight hundred metres behind them. The whole area was lit up by the flash, turning everything as white as a snowman’s belly, as the shockwave bounced over them at supersonic speed, covering them with sand and bits of timber, then they felt the heat.
“Shit! Not again,” Dave shuddered, as he closed his eyes. He immediately thought about the last time he was caught in a blast. His army training kicked in, and he got up and went to cover. As he ran, he spotted the others running for the trees and shrubs as well.
Dave got down behind a tree and looked back in the direction of the explosion, a huge glowing orange ball of cloud was curling up into the night sky. Everything around the team had an orangey, shadowy outline whilst the cloud burnt itself out. At the same time, tracer bullets erupted from buildings all around, flying upwards, towards where the people on the ground thought, the aircraft that delivered the attack was. Unknown to them, it was probably a Laser Guided Bomb tossed from five kilometres away, guided in by a two-man SAS team on the ground - somewhere within the line of sight of the target. It didn’t stop people shooting anywhere in the up direction though.
Bob shouted, “They hit the mosque. Dave, Harry, Steve, check in!”
Harry was first to respond, “Okay.”
Dave confirmed as well, and they waited for Steve to answer. There was a pause before Bob signalled for Harry and Dave to go take a look for Steve.
They scoped the area for people, especially the crazies shooting at anything that moved. When they were happy it was clear, they pulled themselves up and began to shuffle back to where they were blown over.
Dave radioed Bob, “Steve is still down on the ground.”
As he went forward, he froze, before turning and heading back undercover. “Shit!” he coughed down the radio, “Steve’s dead. His head’s missing!”
“Over there,” Dave pointed, as Bob caught them up.
All three of them stared at Steve’s body lying on the ground.
“Shit, shit, shit!” Bob shouted. He paused for a moment, then said, “Okay, turn back or go on?”
Harry and Dave looked at each other, and then at Steve.
“Go on,” Harry said.
Dave nodded, “Agreed.”
Bob pulled a body-bag out of his medical kit, had a quick look around, and went forward and covered Steve up. When he came back, he said, “We’ll get him on the way back.”
The three of them turned and took another look at Steve, and pushed on.
As they moved off, Bob noticed Dave starting to hesitate. Dave was flashing back, reliving the day he’d been caught in the so-called, “Friendly Fire Incident”. As Dave started to follow the others, he began to get a cold sweat, his mouth dried up and he could feel everything closing in on him.
“You alright, mate?” Bob asked, staring at Dave’s eyes.
“Yeah, just thinking that’s all.” Dave looked at him and shook his head.
Bob said, “Don’t think, Dave. Just do what your training taught you. Put it out of your mind. These things happen, especially with what we do. You’ll have plenty of time to do the worrying stuff later, Okay?”
“He’s right,” Dave thought. “I’m going to get one of us killed. Get a grip Dave,” he cursed to himself. He looked at Bob, “I’ll be okay, thanks, Bob.”
“No problem, mate.” He slapped Dave on the shoulder, and said, “Now get moving, soldier.”
The three of them stopped for an update, behind a wall, a two-hundred meter, in-line-of-sight from where the house stood. They had a good look at the surrounding area before deciding what to do.
Dave looked back in the direction of the explosion and saw a huge fire now raging. Balls of billowing cloud, covering every colour in the visible spectrum, rolled up into the night sky. Explosion popped off every few seconds, sending trails arcing through the darkness, as the fire spread through the complex that was hit.
“Whatever’s exploding in there,” Harry said, “isn’t going to stop anytime soon, not with the heat coming off the fire.”
The three of them were well over a kilometre away, but they could still feel the heat from the raging inferno, and this increased whenever there was another pop and the clouds swelled upwards.
All around them, people were screaming, babies were crying and dogs were barking.
“Can you see what got hit, Bob?” Harry asked. “Was it the Mosque?”
“If it did hit the Mosque, and they had a stockpile in there, then there won’t be much left in the morning. But it does look like a fuel and munitions cache judging by the shrapnel trails. That’s probably what hit Steve.”
They stared at the fire in silence for a few moments.
“Okay, guys,” Bob said. “We’ve got a job to do, let’s move.”
Staying tight, hugging walls, and using the shadows whenever they could, they worked their way up to the house, pausing before cros
sing street junctions, senses on high alert. People were running and shooting at anything that moved.
“It’ll be just our luck to get knocked off by one of those idiots,” Bob gasped. “Stay tight in and keep low, guys.”
They worked their way up a dark alley that ran towards the house, climbing over walls that crumbled underfoot and skimming around holes that were filled with stinking water. Burnt-out cars and the odd truck littered the road just down the hill.
“Shit!” Dave cursed, looking at Bob. “If only they knew,” Dave thought. Inside, he was trembling. “There’s no way I want to end up in a hospital again, no way!” he cursed.
“Dave. Remember your training,” Bob mouthed.
“I just didn’t think it would’ve affected me as much as this, mate.”
“I’ve seen some tough nuts crack in lesser situations than this. You’re doing great. Trust me. Okay?”
Dave nodded and carried on.
As they scurried, Harry taking the lead, it seemed every other street they crossed they ran into someone sitting up against a wall. A lot of them were just staring straight ahead, their eyes open wide, fear and dread written all over their faces.
“Poor bastards!” Dave thought.
10
They stopped and scanned the area in front of them before approaching the house from the side, taking shelter behind the remains of the neighbouring house’s wall.
The house that stood in front of them, more of a lean than a stand, was basically a shell - partial roof and only one complete wall. They could make out the house structure from the rubble laying around. They marvelled at the exquisite floor tiles that once covered the concrete floor of the small house, now broken and shattered.
Dave said, “It’d be just our luck that some other bastard got here before us.”
“Hope not, for Steve’s sake,” Bob said, as he scoped the rubble for any IED’s.
Harry and Dave waited for him to work out how he wanted to play it.
After a few moments, the explosions still sounding off from the bombing, Bob signalled for Harry and Dave to go around the outside of the house. Harry went one way, Dave the other, crossing paths half way round, before meeting back at the start point. Harry looked at Bob and signalled the all clear. Bob had another check of the area before raising his hand and motioning for them to go in.
Dave went first, Harry followed shortly after.
When they were both in the small room John had stumbled across, Harry signalled for Bob.
Crouched, Dave and Harry’s torches lighting up the front of the safe, Harry whistled.
“Not too loud, Harry. We don’t want anyone coming over to see what we’re doing,” Bob prompted.
The safe looked the same as the picture on the internet. A gold anchor embossed on the door with a chain wrapped around it, with the words, John Tann, welded across the front. Two large hinges dominated the side to hold the door on.
“John wasn’t wrong about it filling the room,” Harry smiled. “That’ll take some blowing!”
“Who said anything about blowing it?” Bob frowned.
“What are we going to do, pick the lock?” Harry gasped.
“Yep!”
Harry and Dave both looked at him, and then at the safe.
“You’ve got to be kidding. I for one have never picked a safe,” Dave said.
“Me neither,” Harry added.
“I’ve had a go at picking a few safes in my time, so I’ll go first. If I can’t do it, Harry can take the door off, okay?” Bob smiled.
Ten minutes later, Bob sat back and looked at Harry.
“Right, I’ll get the gear strapped on, then, bang, we’re in!” Harry smiled.
Bob and Dave looked at him and together, said, “Bugger!”
Bob added, “We want to be able to pull, whatever's in there, out of there. Not have to search all over this shit hole to find it, okay?”
Harry just shrugged.
“Just try to blow the hinges off first, okay?” Bob scoffed.
“Bugger off!” Harry smirked, letting out a little laugh. “You command, I blow stuff up. So let me get on with my business, okay?”
Bob looked at him, “Okay, but try to keep it small?”
“I’ll just pop it out of the ground, No worries!”
“Isn’t that what he said about that tree at his uncle’s farm?” Dave mentioned to Bob.
“That’s what I’m worried about,” he frowned, looking around. He tapped Dave on the arm and nodded towards a large boulder, just outside the room.
Ten minutes later the three of them were all crouched down. Bob and Dave praying it was just the hinges that would vaporise in the explosion. Harry’s teeth shone as a grin spread across his face, “Ready?”
Bob and Dave covered their heads and waited for the one remaining wall to dissolve, and a small mushroom cloud to rise into the air.
Pop...!
Bob and Dave looked at each other, then at Harry.
“Told you. No worries,” he smiled.
Bob looked around again before nodding at Harry to go and check the safe.
“Exactly what it said on the tin,” Harry grinned.
Bob patted him on the back, “Nice one, Harry. Now let’s get the door open and see what’s inside.”
Harry bent down and pulled the handle, he looked around at them and smiled, turned back and tried again, grunting as he pulled it. “It won’t budge,” he puffed. “The locking mechanism must still be holding it.”
“Shit!” Bob cursed.
“Okay, let’s have another go!” Harry grinned.
This time he placed a strand, of what looked like a long piece of thick spaghetti, around the two key holes. He ran a fresh piece of wire back behind the boulder. He attached it to the switch, nodded at Bob and Dave to get down, and smiled.
“Oh, Christ!” Dave thought.
Not so much a pop this time, but a huge bloody great crack.
“Shit!” Dave shouted, as bits of the remaining wall collapsed on top of them.
“Jesus, Harry! They’re going to hear that all the way back in bloody Ramadi,” Bob said.
All three of them looked over the top of the boulder, to make sure they didn’t suddenly have any unwanted company and went back into where the safe was. The small room now had an extra window behind the safe.
There was also a hole in the front of the safe door that now allowed you to see into it without having to open the door!
“Harry, you have really got to get a grip on that stuff,” Bob said, shaking his head.
Harry grinned, “Worked didn’t it?”
“Okay, shift!” Bob commanded. “Let’s get the door open, get whatever’s in there, and get the hell out of Dodge!”
The remainder of the door didn’t exactly open, it sort of fell off, as if it had just given up the ghost! When they looked inside, they found a small steel container, a bit like an ammunition box, but painted blue. The three of them frowned when they spotted the lock. “Let’s blow it away from here?” Bob said.
“Out in the desert somewhere!” Harry nodded and grabbed the box, he turned to leave but noticed Bob had gone still.
Bob’s hand went up, signalling Dave and Harry to freeze, then he signalled for them to take cover. Harry gently put the box down, and took up a position against what was left of the wall, Dave crouched behind him, and they waited for Bob to react. A moment later, two men crept in through the gap where the front door used to be, they were waving AK47s around - choice rifle of the people who were fighting: plentiful, durable, strong and very effective, even when wet.
Bob let them enter fully, realising they hadn’t been spotted. He signalled to Dave and Harry, pointing at the men and moving his finger across his throat. Dave and Harry stood and came up behind them, then, in one smooth, practised movement, grabbed them around their mouths and plunged the knives into their backs, using their ribs as a lever block to slice their hearts and puncturing their lungs.
The
y both lowered their man to the ground. Their rifles clattering off the stone floor. Bob took the firing mechanism out and slung them as far as he could so they couldn’t be used again, or at least for a while anyway.
Harry wiped his blade clean on the dead man’s clothes and re-sheathed it.
“Right,” Bob said. “Let’s get going before any of their mates come looking!”
The three of them made their way back towards Steve’s body, hid the box and went to retrieve him.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” Bob cursed. Steve’s body was gone.
“Okay,” Bob scowled, “when we get back to base we’ll decide what we’re going to do, but I’ll tell you now, I’m not going to say anything until I’ve looked in that bloody box.”
11
Once they were back in Bob’s room, they cracked open a beer.
“Probably Taliban!” Harry said.
Bob and Dave looked at him. “What!” Bob frowned. “Where the bloody hell did you get that from?”
“They’re going to display Steve on the TV or something,” he said. “They’re going to say, 'they’re defeating us and we should leave, or they’ll kill each one of us in the name of Allah!'”
“Harry, mate, you’ve been watching too much TV,” Bob said. He looked at Dave, “Did you see any marks on the floor as if Steve had been dragged away?”
“No, but there were other footprints.”
“Shit!” Bob cursed.
“Told you, mate, they’re going to put him on the bloody TV.”
“Shut the fuck up, Harry!” Bob scowled.
The three of them finished their beers and decided to open the box.
“Let’s see if Steve getting killed was worth it,” Harry said.
They drove for twenty minutes, far enough away from the base not to be heard. Finding an empty bit of scrub down in a gulley, they parked up and placed the box in a small dip.
“Hopefully, it won’t attract any attention from passers-by,” Bob said, looking around nervously.
Harry put the container down and looked at it.
Bob asked, “What are you thinking, Harry? Booby trap?”
Harry nodded in agreement.