‘Look along this road on my TV monitor, Scottie, and you’ll see a lone vehicle at the dogleg bend facing south. That’s a good shooting position, and the car is facing in the escape direction.’
‘How do you know if it’s a threat?’
‘You don’t yet. You need to see if the engine is warm on the thermal camera and to see if anyone is in the car or ready to jump into it.’
I pointed at the screen. The car was stone cold, with no occupants and nobody nearby. Had it been used recently, I would have detected the white heat glow of the engine block, even through its bonnet.
Scottie was quick to chip in. ‘Do we give them the all clear?’
‘No mate, this is what we do.’ I got on the radio again. ‘One Zero Alpha, this is Gazelle Five. I have a white Ford Capri at the dogleg halfway down the road on the left-hand side. It is cold, no occupants and no one hanging around, over.’
‘One Zero Alpha, wait out.’
I turned to Scottie. ‘We don’t know the threat here, buddy. All we can do is let him know what’s around the corner. He decides what to do about it.’
‘How’s that going to help him?’
‘He’ll be talking to base now; they’ll pull a file on all Ford Capris and also check out the colour in case of a respray. If it’s reported stolen, they won’t go anywhere down that road, because it’s likely to have an IED in it.’
‘Gazelle Five, this is One Zero Alpha. That vehicle is registered to the house that it’s parked outside, but thanks anyway. Are we cleared to move, over?’
‘Gazelle Five, I’ve not quite finished looking around. Wait out.’
I looked at Scottie again. ‘Okay, buddy, now that their VP appears clear I need to check the area they’re about to move into.’
At the edge of the town there was a small close, shaped like a sickle, with an alleyway leading off it. The multiple would move past it in the next thirty metres or so.
‘Look into every place a bomb could be left, or where trouble could come from, because you don’t want the multiple split up, Scottie. If you look on the monitor now, you’ll see a known trouble-spot called The Crescent.’
Scottie peered at the screen. ‘There are three kids playing football down there.’
‘What do you think we should do?’
‘Tell the multiple commander. They need to know what’s at the end of the alleyway.’
‘Right. Paint the picture to the guys on the ground, so they’re ready to respond.’ He was picking it up fast.
After they set off, I explained to Scottie that he was responsible for the rear and the periphery of the multiple and should warn me of any vehicles – or anybody, for that matter – approaching from blind positions.
‘Okay, what next?’ he asked.
‘I’m looking into Lismore. There’s a little cul-de-sac down there where they’re scheduled to do a house search.’
I scanned forward, letting the Gazelle’s powerful thermal-imaging camera do its thing. Lismore was just forward of the area the multiple was patrolling. The ability of the camera to stare into people’s living rooms, from this height and far higher, never ceased to amaze me. I let the camera rove through the streets and alleyways. It was a warm, late spring day. Wild flowers bloomed in the neighbouring fields. I could see it all. It was strange, then, that apart from the three kids playing football, no one was around.
A movement at the edge of the screen caught my eye, a curtain billowing in the breeze. The window on the first floor was wide open.
I scanned to the next house and noticed that its windows were open too. It was the same all along the street…
Fuck.
‘One Zero Alpha, this is Gazelle Five. Go firm, go firm now! I have large combat indicators in Lismore, wait out.’
‘What is it, Ed?’
I pointed at the screen. ‘The bins are out in this cul-de-sac, but not in any of the others. They don’t do bin collections in just one street. And take a look at the windows. What do you see?’
‘It is almost summer, Ed.’
‘Do you leave all your windows wide open when you go out to work? Look at the other houses in the area. Only a couple have theirs open.’
‘I know a bin can have an IED in it, but what’s the significance of the windows?’
‘The IRA won’t piss off the locals. They’ll tell them there’s a bomb in a bin. That’s why the place is deserted. The windows are open so the pressure from the blast doesn’t blow them in. I may be wrong, but this stinks of a set-up.
‘It couldn’t be a booby-trap bomb because our guys won’t even touch a twenty-pound note on the floor in Crossmaglen and the IRA know that. The bomb would have to be set off by a command wire or remote control. I couldn’t see any wires, but I didn’t see a living soul down there either, except for the lads and their football. Stand by, Scottie, I’m about to transmit again.’
I told One Zero Alpha the form. There was a pause, then he came back to me; he didn’t want to go near the place, but did want to question the three lads.
I told him how to corner them by moving a brick out onto the Dundalk Road first and another down the alleyway.
Scottie watched One Zero Charlie by the Dundalk Road and I surveyed the three lads as the men of One Zero Alpha moved towards them.
‘One Zero Charlie, this is Gazelle Five. The lads are headed your way.’ I could see them break into a run towards the Dundalk Road.
‘This is One Zero Charlie cutting them off.’ I could hear his breathing quicken as he ran.
I turned to Scottie. ‘And that’s why you need to know where everyone is and what their callsigns are.’
The lads ran back into the cul-de-sac and were promptly confronted by the men of One Zero Alpha.
Zero One Bravo was covering the alleyway and Zero One Charlie the entrance to the Dundalk Road. The three lads were cornered.
‘It’s making sense to me now,’ he said.
‘You don’t need to gawk at our boys,’ I told Scottie, ‘because they’re not going to shoot themselves. You need to be looking ahead of them and on their flanks. That’s where trouble’s going to come from if it’s out there. Take a look, for instance, across the Dundalk Road and across that first field there. There’s an inverted T-shaped tree line. Do you see it?’
‘Got it,’ Scottie said.
‘Keep an eye on that place, buddy, because that’s an awesome sniping position.’
‘Why?’
‘It’s got a good clear shot, cover from above and a great escape route, making it hard for us to follow anyone who bugs out of there.’
‘How do you know this shit, Ed?’
‘Because I’ve been a foot soldier. I see things from up here. But I also see them from down there.’
The radio crackled. ‘Gazelle Five, this is One Zero Alpha. The three lads are local teenagers and the way they’re behaving makes our copper suspect there is an IED in the area. He knows these guys. They’re usually pretty gobby, but today butter wouldn’t fucking melt…Our job’s done, Gazelle Five. We’re heading back out onto the Dundalk Road and back to the station, over.’
‘Wait out.’ I explained to Scottie that we now had to go through the routine all over again, covering them on the journey back.
‘One Zero Alpha, Bravo and Charlie, this is Gazelle Five. Your only threat is from a wood line to the east of One Zero Charlie. It’s across the field on the other side of the Dundalk Road. We’ll keep an eye out for any snipers, over.’