The driver gulped on a can of Minute Maid with such relish it made me feel thirsty. But there was no icebox in this wagon. There wasn"t even body armour on the doors, just sandbags on the floor.
We drove through the gate and turned right. The Tigris was to our left and the sandbagged sangar at the checkpoint was about two hundred metres ahead and on the river side of the road. Beyond that was the main drag, crossing the river via a big metal bridge.
The sangar looked like a square igloo built from hundreds of sandbags. As we approached I could see the rear entrance more clearly. Inside, three, maybe four soldiers were hurrying to put their belt-kit back on. They were supposed to keep it on at all times but that was a real pain in the a.r.s.e. They probably just grabbed it whenever they saw a wagon coming; I"d done the same enough times.
Traffic boomed across the bridge. Trucks, cars, motorbikes stuck behind a military convoy, everyone hooting. They knew better than to try to overtake.
Awatchtower rose maybe fifty feet in the air just short of the sangar. It looked like something out of The Great Escape The Great Escape: four wooden pillars with crossed bracing and a little pillbox on top. Whoever was on stag up there wasn"t protected by sandbags, which seemed strange. They"d be a sitting target for any line-of-sight weapon, whether it was an AK or an RPG.
The Hummer kicked up the dust and rattled and groaned its way from pot-hole to pot-hole, so the first I knew of the attack were the dull thuds as three or four rounds slammed into the side of the cabin.
The radio crackled. "Contact, contact, contact!"
49.We swerved and everybody ducked. I hoped Davers wasn"t ducking as much as the rest of us when he hit the gas.
Frankenmeyer fumbled about, getting his helmet on. "Get to the checkpoint!"
Seconds later the wagon screeched to a halt by the sangar. I opened the door and pushed myself out on to the hot tarmac, checking for Jerry. "Get inside!"
The fire was coming in from the other side of the river. Soldiers poured out of the sangar, heading for the bank. Jerry slowed up and tried to pull the camera out of his b.u.mbag.
"For f.u.c.k"s sake, come on!"
The Americans opened up from behind a three-foot-thick wall as more rounds poured in from across the water, maybe three hundred metres away; long, sustained bursts, then individual shots. I could make out the distinctive heavy crack of the AKs" 7.62, but couldn"t see any muzzle flashes coming from the jumble of six- or seven-storey tower blocks and concrete squares.
Jerry was still f.u.c.king about behind me, trying to get his camera working. I ran back, grabbed him and dragged him into the sangar. I saw immediately why the boys had needed to get out into the open: unbelievably, the place had been built without firing ports overlooking the water. They only covered the road to the bridge with a .50 cal.
For some reason, the floor was sandbagged. We threw ourselves flat as a couple of rounds thumped into the ones around the entrance. I looked out at the chaos along our side of the riverbank. The squaddie who"d been at the top of the watchtower was dropping down like a submariner from a conning tower. If there"d been a fireman"s pole they"d have been on it.
Frankenmeyer was trying to take control. "Can you see "em? Can you see "em?"
It didn"t matter: everybody seemed to be cabbying away regardless. The squaddie reached the bottom of the ladder. Frankenmeyer shouted, pointing to the sangar, "Get the fifty! Get the fifty!"
Jerry had his b.u.mbag open. "b.a.s.t.a.r.ds! They"ve taken my memory cards!" He scrabbled in his jeans for replacements as more rounds thwacked into the sandbags. The .50 cal was above him, its barrel facing the main, with the legs of the tripod straddling the firing port. It would have been useless even if it had been pointing the right way. The tripod was unsupported; it should have been weighted down with sandbags. If they started firing it, it would bounce all over the place and fall off the sill.
The soldier from the watchtower was coming full pelt towards the sangar, head down, M16 in hand. Her brown hair was long and had been up in a bun, but had now mostly fallen across her face and neck. There was a guy, a zit-faced nineteen-year-old, hot on her heels. I moved out of their way as they plunged through the entrance, pouring sweat, kicking Jerry"s camera out of his hands, as more bursts. .h.i.t the sangar and the Hummer. She yelled at Zit-face as they tried to lift the .50 cal at the same time as shouldering their own weapons. It wasn"t going to happen: the slings weren"t slack enough to fit over their helmets.
I wanted these two out of here. They were flapping; their barrels banged together as they f.u.c.ked about and there were too many made-ready weapons flying about in this tight s.p.a.ce for my liking. "Cradle your weapons, hold the fifty by the tripod. Get the f.u.c.king thing out there!"
More rounds thudded into the sandbags and they flinched as they dragged out the heavy weapon, one holding the barrel, the other the tripod. They half ran, half stumbled with it towards the riverbank, the belt of thirty or so rounds on the weapon dragging behind them in the sand.
The command radio in the sangar was going apes.h.i.t. Everybody was being stood to. Jerry was still reloading, cursing the guys who"d dared to confiscate his precious cards.
I watched them rigging the .50 cal. Hadn"t they ever fired one of these things? They"d done their usual trick with the tripod legs straddling the wall.
I turned to Jerry as another barrage of rounds headed our way. He was lying on his side, camera pointing across the river like a weapon.
"Keep an eye on the .50. When that f.u.c.ker starts firing you"re going to get a great picture!"
50.A stream of tracer shot high over our heads. Now and again I saw a weapon flash inside a building.
The .50 cal responded with short bursts, its one-in-four tracer rounds curving just slightly over the river before making splash marks on the concrete and spinning away. The Humvee took another couple of rounds and so did the sangar. Whoever was manning the .50 cal was screaming and shouting, the voice so high-pitched I couldn"t tell if it was male or female. "f.u.c.k you, f.u.c.k you, f.u.c.k you!"
The bursts got longer and the tracer started to clear the lower buildings. The tripod was moving backwards and the barrel was getting higher and higher. The gunner didn"t seem to notice. He or she was too far gone.
Jerry kept his finger on the b.u.t.ton. There was nothing I could do and, besides, this wasn"t a war I was getting paid to join. I looked around and spotted a white polystyrene cool-box. Small half-litre bottles of water floated in melting ice. I took two and held one out for Jerry. He waved it away. He had bigger things on his mind. He got to his feet and crouched in the sangar entrance, as if he was about to make a run for it. I grabbed hold of him. Tracked vehicles rumbled out of the camp gate. "Whoa, whoa. We"re not here for that. We"re off to Turkey tonight, remember?"
Any reply he might have made was drowned by the roar of rotor blades, very low, coming from the bridge.
The .50 fired again, and so did an AFV moving up the road. Its turret gunner had a more stable platform and was getting rounds on target.
I watched the helicopter swoop towards the riverbank, heading straight over the precariously balanced .50.
"It"s going to get hit! Get the picture!"
The .50 fired and there was a groaning sound, like the rolling of ma.s.sive chains on a drum. The helicopter must have been at its very limits as the pilot took evasive action.
I looked out of the firing port. It had banked hard right, back over the bridge. Traffic was still crossing. The .50 cal was still firing, at least seventy degrees into the air. The gunner probably didn"t have a clue how close he"d come to f.u.c.king up big-time.
Frankenmeyer was running around the team, screaming at the top of his voice. "Stop, stop, stop!"
The radio burst back into life. "Red Dragon four-one, we"ve got one hundred and fifty in contact. Repeat, that"s one-five-zero hajis hajis!"
Same as gooks for the Viet Cong, I supposed. It never took an army long to get derogatory about their enemies.
Jerry spun round. "Let"s get over there and have a look!"
I threw the water bottle at him. "d.i.c.khead, do you really think there"s a hundred and fifty over there?"
He gulped from the bottle, letting the water pour down the side of his mouth. His eyes were glued to the chaos outside.
The attack seemed to have stopped. The loudest noises now came from the traffic and the command radio.
I looked out through the door. The soldiers behind the wall were getting to their feet, cheering with relief that no one had been hit. Now they could concentrate their energies on honing it into a good war story to tell the folks back home.
I took a swig of water. It was boiling in here and the sweat poured down my face. No wonder the guys had taken their belt-kit off.
There was a box of muesli energy bars in the corner and I helped myself to a hot, soggy blueberry one as about a dozen AFVs thundered past at warp speed to get over the bridge and in among the AK guys. They would have melted into the city by now.
I munched as Jerry put away his camera and zipped up the b.u.mbag, then tipped the rest of his water over his head and down the back of his neck.
"You weren"t serious about heading north, were you?"
The soldiers outside were shouting their versions of the contact to each other now, all claiming they"d made hits. Jerry dropped his empty bottle on to the sandbags. I stared at him as he packed his camera. "You soft in the head or something? Those boys back there weren"t f.u.c.king about. This isn"t one you can stick your fingers up at. f.u.c.k the pictures. Let"s just bin it, and get to Turkey. All right?"
He didn"t look up at me, just over-concentrated on packing his kit. "I"m staying. It"s really important to get to Nuhanovic. I mean, this guy"s so cool, everywhere he walks there"s a draught."
The zip got closed on his b.u.mbag.
"Come on, Nick, there must be a million things you want to ask him. I know there are, you"re interested in him. Your face told me back in DC. I knew you were going to come. Seriously. Think about it. Wouldn"t you want to ask him stuff?"
I threw my empty bottle at him. "You"re talking b.o.l.l.o.c.ks. But I"ll stay with you."
He grinned.
"We"ll have to disappear, like Nuhanovic and the boys the other side of the river."
"Booking yourself a few rapid tanning treatments?"
"No need." I started to pull myself up off the sandbags. "There"s Rob."
51.It took a while, but Jerry eventually managed to flag down a rusting Pa.s.sat taxi on the main. The driver was in his fifties and spoke perfect English. He said he used to be a chemist until the sanctions bit and the economy started to collapse.
The al-Hamra was only a ten-minute ride away, and would be easy to spot from the main. Stark white and six or seven storeys high, it had a billboard on the roof that was big enough to read from several blocks away.
We turned off the dual carriageway and down a side road, past neat, concrete middle-cla.s.s homes set in small green gardens. Security was more lax here than round the Palestine. A steel barrier blocked our route, manned by a solitary Iraqi with an AK in one hand and a cigarette in the other. Kids did wheelies on their bikes or ran in and out of the surrounding houses. A shop opposite sold fruit, bottles of water, buckets and mops.
The guard sauntered across and held the barrier open as we drove through. The pot-holed drive ran in a semicircle to the front of the hotel, which was surrounded by a high concrete wall. White soldiers with Australian flags on their uniforms patrolled in its shade, their Steyr a.s.sault weapons looking like something out of a sci-fi movie. I didn"t have a clue what they were doing here, and they probably didn"t either. They watched from behind their Oakleys as we got out of the cab.
A few fixers hung around outside the main entrance, ha.s.sling what I guessed was a news crew unloading alloy boxes and rolls of cables from three 4x4s. Inside the wagons I could see mixing consoles, laptops and satellite-phone sets. Two of the crew had been injured. One had fresh bandages around his arm. Another, the German gun stud, had one round his head. A wounded reporter? He was going to score big-time when he got back home.
Jerry gave the driver a five-dollar bill and we walked through the gla.s.s doors into reception. The lobby area was a lot smaller than the Palestine"s, the ceilings lower. Wood veneer was still king, however, and a gla.s.s cabinet displayed the same kind of goods for sale, everything from packs of cards of the fifty-two most wanted, to Saddam watches and toothbrushes.
Jerry kept out of the way while I went up to the desk, which was manned by an Iraqi who smelt heavily of cologne and seemed more interested in his ledger than asking me if I needed help. A young woman was sorting out room keys behind him. I wondered if they were related. This had the feeling of a family hotel; they certainly had the same nose and eyes combo.
The news crew came in with their gear and headed straight for the lift, talking low and slow German. Just beyond, a pair of gla.s.s doors opened out on to a concrete terrace and I caught a glimpse of the end of a swimming-pool. Sunlight danced on the water. Danny Connor would have liked it here.
The young woman finished with the keys and looked up, her face creased by a big smile. She had long black shiny hair, parted in the centre, dark red lipstick and black eye-liner. "Good day. Can I help you?" Her English was perfect; in fact, better than mine.
"I hope you can. I"m looking for Mr Robert Newman. He"s staying here."
She smiled and looked down at the book. They did have a PC but what was the point of using it when the power kept shutting down?
"He may be with a smaller man with thick black hair," I added. "He"s a tall white guy with dark wavy hair and a big nose. Checked in yesterday?"
She flicked a page, trying not to smile too much at my powers of description. She looked beautiful in her crisp white blouse and black trousers, and it made me think of the bride. I wondered if she was still alive.
"Please, one moment." She picked up a phone and tapped three digits. The Germans were back for a second load.
She put the phone down. "Mr Newman is not in his room."
"Never mind. We"ll wait by the pool, if that"s all right. Could you send someone to tell me when he comes in, or can you tell him someone"s here for him?"
"Of course, of course."
I headed for the doors near the lift. Jerry followed, and as we stepped outside we were slapped in the face again by a wall of heat.
The garden was another little oasis in the midst of Baghdad"s chaos. Immediately ahead of us was an eating area with tables and chairs. The pool was down some steps to our left, its water turned blue by the tiling. Plastic sun-loungers, chairs and tables were dotted round the edge, under large blue canvas parasols that had been bleached by the sun.
Australian squaddies were on stag here too. One was in the shade of the perimeter wall. The old-style barbed wire had been unrolled along the top. The other guy was higher up, at the edge of the eating area.
We went down the steps and headed for the far end of the pool. It was still fairly early, and it looked as if there was some decent shade to be had at the tables. A few people were having a swim, the rest were lying under parasols. Most of them were white, but a few Iraqis sat sipping iced tea and ogling the women.
Gunfire rattled in the distance, maybe half a K away. The Australian in the shade got on his radio to report it. We walked past two women stretched out on their loungers, both reading chick-lit paperbacks as they hoovered up their morning dose of skin cancer. I could smell their sun cream.
The Australian was standing against the wall, paying a bit more attention to the sun-worshippers than he was to us. As we pa.s.sed I gave him a big grin. "War"s h.e.l.l, innit?"
I got a big smile back as we took a vacant table, and the moment his mouth opened it was obvious he wore dentures, only not during ops. Maybe he didn"t want them damaged, or he"d sold them to an Iraqi.
We would stay in the shade here until the sun got higher, but there was another reason I wanted my back to the wall. I didn"t want to miss Rob"s turning to.
52.The menu was anch.o.r.ed beneath an ashtray. I picked it up as Jerry got out the phone.
"I"m gonna go and make a call to Renee."
"Thought you called this morning?"
"Yeah, well, I did. But she was totally freaked out. Even more now, if she"s seen the news. I just want to calm her down a little."
"Better make this the last call for a while. The CPA might be waiting to see where that thing gets used again, and we"re supposed to have left."
He walked back to the steps and up on to the terrace. I lost sight of him as he rounded the corner.
People floated in and out of the door to Reception. I kept an eye out for Rob while checking the menu, and waited for the guy in the crumpled white shirt to come over with his little round tray. I wondered if he"d mind if I went in the pool wearing my very smelly and saggy boxers. A few birds competed briefly with the distant rumble of traffic.
Awhite guy in shorts with a towel over his shoulder sauntered past the two sun-worshippers, stopped, went back and settled himself on a chair next to them. He was a big lad, lots of brown hair brushed back. The moment he started speaking I could tell this Brit was a bit pleased with himself. He worked in doc.u.mentaries, apparently. "Yeah, been on a shoot this morning, actually firefight just outside town." He was the cameraman. Been in Baghdad a few days; came here straight from Cape Town. Couldn"t work out which city was hotter. He was going to order a drink did they want one? I didn"t know what was funnier, his chat-up lines or that he"d been holding in his belly the whole time he"d been speaking.
The Australian squaddie looked on enviously. He must have been weighing up the chances of swapping a rifle for a TV camera. I was feeling the same way.
The waiter had been on his way to me but got waylaid by Cecil B. de Mille. I"d never had much restaurant presence, either. Maybe I didn"t look the tipping kind.
I took off my greasy sun-gigs and gave them a wipe as I listened to their conversation or, rather, his monologue. He"d worked with them all, you know Simpson, Adie, Attenborough. He was interrupted when, from maybe a hundred metres away, either a car backfired or there was a single gunshot.
I was thirsty. I spotted another crumpled white shirt up on the terrace and got up. I walked past the Aussie and the two women, who"d abandoned their books to listen to their new friend. s.h.i.t, I wished I could waffle like that. They weren"t good-looking, but that didn"t seem to matter in this town. If you were young, white and had a pulse, you"d be scoring like a supermodel. No wonder the Balkan boys were in town.
I managed to catch the waiter"s eye by waving like a lunatic, showed him where I was sitting, then started back. Jerry soon followed. He didn"t look happy.
"Everything all right, mate?" I held out my hand for the phone as he sort of nodded. "I think I"ll make one."
"She saw the news and got totally hyped about me staying."
Family s.h.i.t: best keep out of it. Back in the shade, I pressed number history, but nothing was stored. Even the last number dialled had been cleared. Good skills.
"I hope you"re clearing the history every time." I did the whole pretend-dialling bit and held it to my ear.
"Yep. I don"t know if those pinheads at the camp checked it, but they"d have got zip."
I closed the phone down. "No answer. Shame. It"s my mum"s birthday."