False Friends Read Online Free PDF Page A

I’m doing. Observing.’
    ‘Get back to the chopper,’ said Croft. He pointed at Henderson. ‘You’re supposed to keep him out of trouble, Guy, and at the moment you’re not doing a great job.’
    ‘This isn’t over,’ said Shepherd. ‘No one told me this was a kil mission. I was told that we were here to capture and remove for interrogation.’
    ‘Yeah, wel , maybe you weren’t in the loop,’ said Croft. ‘Now get back to the chopper. We’re leaving as soon as the body’s bagged.’
    ‘Who authorised you to kil him?’
    Seal Bravo came up behind Shepherd. He elbowed Henderson out of the way and jabbed the barrel of his weapon against the side of Shepherd’s neck. ‘Do as he says and get the fuck out of here,’ he growled. ‘You won’t be the first Brit to get caught in friendly fire.’
    Shepherd slowly turned to face Seal Bravo and stared at him with unblinking eyes. ‘If you want to pul the trigger then you go right ahead,’ he said.
    ‘But, just in case you’re wondering, that hard thing pressing against your leg isn’t my cock, it’s my Glock, and if you do shoot me my gun’s going to go off and blow away your nuts. To be honest, I’d rather be dead than live the rest of my life with no bal s, but maybe you’re okay with that.’
    Seal Bravo took a step back. Shepherd’s MP5 was hanging on its sling and he’d taken his Glock out of its nylon holster and it was now pointing at the soldier’s groin. Shepherd’s finger was tightening on the trigger.
    ‘Stand down!’ shouted Henderson. ‘Both of you.’
    ‘Tel him to take his gun away from my neck or I wil shoot him,’ said Shepherd.
    ‘Eddie, stand down,’ said Henderson.
    Seal Bravo snarled at Shepherd, but he took another step back and lowered his weapon.
    ‘Shepherd, if you’ve got a problem with what happened, you take it up with your bosses,’ said Croft. ‘You’ve no jurisdiction here. You’re an observer, you observed, now get back to the chopper or so help me God I’l leave you here for the Pakistanis to find.’
    Shepherd holstered his Glock and walked out of the room.
    Henderson fol owed him. ‘Dan, you’ve got to watch it with these guys. In a war zone they’re a law unto themselves.’
    ‘So they can get away with murder? Is that what you’re saying?’
    ‘I’m saying this is their mission; you’re a passenger. If you’ve got a problem with anything you’d better stow it until you’re back home.’
    ‘What’s his fucking problem?’ growled Seal Bravo. ‘I thought the SAS were special forces, but he’s behaving like a crybaby.’
    ‘He’s an observer, that’s al ,’ said Croft. ‘The Brits insisted he was on the team because they supplied the intel. I told them it would be like mixing oil and water but the top brass said he was in so he’s in. Doesn’t mean we have to like it.’ He looked at his watch. It had been just thirty-four minutes since they had entered the compound. In al the rehearsals they’d done in North Carolina and Afghanistan they’d been in the air and on their way home within thirty minutes.
    Seal Echo rol ed Bin Laden’s body into the body bag and zipped it up.
    ‘Take it down to the helo,’ said Croft. Seal Echo and Seal Charlie picked up the body and carried it out.
    The Seals by the television had stashed the laptop and the DVDs in their backpacks and were working their way through a stack of magazines and newspapers they’d found in the wooden cupboard.
    ‘Take it al ,’ said Croft. ‘They’l want to know what he was reading; it’l give a clue to what he was planning.’ He nodded at Seal Bravo. ‘Five more minutes and we’re out of here,’ he said, then hurried down the stairs.
    More Seals were searching the bedrooms. The wal s were al concrete and the floors were tiled, which cut down the number of possible hiding places, but they tapped everything with the stocks of the M4s to be sure. They smashed cupboards and tables and used their knives to rip open