explosives detonate. Then we'll push them forward and out of the cave system before our Taliban friends know what hit them."
Jackson began stuffing C4 into crevices in the rock, dodging the enemy bullets as he was forced to work in the open. He’d almost finished when a heavy Kalashnikov round punched him in the chest. He cried out and fell to the ground. Buchmann and Guy reached out, took a leg each, and dragged him out of the gunfire. He was stunned but unwounded. His ballistic vest had taken the shock of the impact. He threw off their helping hands and forced himself to his feet.
"No, I have to finish. I'm nearly there."
There was a break between bursts as the enemy stopped to change ammunition clips, and before they could stop him, he dashed out and rammed the detonator into his plastique. Then he catapulted back behind cover, just before the gunfire recommenced.
Talley looked further along the tunnel. Thirty meters ahead, the tunnel doglegged to the right. It would give them some protection from the blast. He looked at Drew. He was on his knees, gasping for air after the shock of the bullet and his mad rush across the tunnel.
"Wait until we get around that bend, then start the timer. We'll set up a defensive position to stop them if they try to reach the explosives."
As he finished speaking, the enemy gunfire died away again, just as Roy Reynolds and Nikki Toussaint ran up with the Minimis. Talley pointed straight down the tunnel.
"Let ‘em have it."
Both men opened fire, and the lethal storm of bullets saturated the narrow tunnel with hot steel. Buchmann drew his HK grenade pistol in a flashy movement and fired a grenade, closely followed by another. Talley couldn’t wait any longer.
"Now go! Get them out of here, around that corner, and flat on the floor. Cover them from the blast as best you can. Jackson, do it!"
He covered them as they ran past and disappeared around the sharp bend in the tunnel. He gestured, and Buchmann ran next, followed by the two machine gunners. It was just him and Guy. He smiled.
"Get out of here, Sergeant Welland. I'll be right behind you."
The former SAS man was already racing along the dark passage. Talley was aware they were up against two critical time factors. The amount of time left before the charges detonated, and the time it took for the hostiles to recover. It wasn’t much, but if the enemy were fast, they could do plenty of damage before Jackson's explosives turned their cave fortress into a tomb. Another burst of gunfire chewed up the rock inches in front of him.
The bastards are too damn accurate!
He dived to the ground but kept crawling forward. He was less than ten meters from the sharp bend in the tunnel that would give him some protection, when Jackson poked his head around the corner and shouted, "Five seconds, Boss! Hurry!"
Fuck! I’m not going to make it. I can see that. Will it be best to turn and fire at the enemy, take some of them with me?
But the decision was taken for him. Roy Reynolds and Nikki Toussaint threw themselves to the ground and opened fire. The enemy gunfire ceased abruptly, and he heard a scream. It cut down the odds, but not the time.
"Three seconds!"
He shouted urgently, “Roy, Nikki, get under cover, now!”
As he spat out the order, Guy ran out and hustled him into a narrow niche in the tunnel wall, one he hadn’t noticed in the confusion of the underground battle. He shouted at the Minimi gunners to follow, and the two men leapt into the cramped cavern.
"One second! Fire in the…"
The earth trembled as the explosives detonated. Lumps of rock rained down over them, and for a moment he feared the roof would cave in on them all. The blast wave was shocking in its intensity, as it smashed into their bodies like steam hammers. The air was thick with choking dust, and something else, the mixture of high explosive and broken, burned bodies that was an inevitable part of the battlefield. Talley shook his head and tried to wipe