LITMIR.BIZ

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grabbed his shoulder and turned him back. “You got that?” he repeated.

      “I got that,” Darrow told him, eyes hard and expression set. “And I have to tell you, sir, if that’s your attitude, you’ll never get far in this job.”

      “If that’s your attitude,” Chance replied calmly, “then you’re in the wrong job.” He turned to McCain. “You fit?”

      “Ready when you are, boss.”

      “Then let’s save some lives.” Chance glanced at Darrow before adding: “Because ultimately, that’s our job.”

      The temperature fell sharply at night, but John Chance didn’t feel the cold. His entire focus was on the job in hand. Halford and Darrow had set up a mass of squibs and explosives on the far side of the Iraqi installation. The explosives would go off like grenades, while the squibs simulated gunfire.

      “All set?” asked Chance, as Halford returned.

      They had left their cloaks in the Jeep, though they still wore their headscarves. The wind was getting up and sand whipped at their faces. The promised sandstorm wouldn’t be long in coming.

      Halford was nodding. “Going to be a hell of a fireworks show.”

      “Just so long as it draws out the Republican Guards so we can get inside and mine the building.”

      “And the scientists and civilian workers?”

      “Tell them to run for it. Brought your phrasebook?”

      Halford brandished his assault rifle. “I think I can communicate with them. They’ll know to run. You get on all right with those Bedouin, by the way?”

      Chance grinned. “I managed to get the message across. They’ve moved on, so I think they understood.”

      “They might have said thank you,” Halford told him.

      “They did. The head man’s a guy called Kassim. He gave me a baby camel.”

      “You what?!” Halford looked round, as if expecting to see a small camel join them on the mission.

      Chance grinned. “It’s all right. I asked him to look after it for me till I can come back and collect it.”

      After another hour, the wind had picked up and the sand was swirling. Chance decided it was time to make their move. If they waited any longer the sandstorm would be too intense for them to get away.

      On Chance’s signal, Halford set off the diversionary explosions and squibs. The desert erupted with sound and fury. Flashes illuminated frozen images of the swirling sand like photographs. Gunfire seemed to rip through the northern side of the installation.

      Immediately there was answering fire from the Iraqi guards. An armoured car positioned outside the main gates lurched into life and rumbled round to the back of the perimeter wall to engage the apparent attack.

      With the main gates now only guarded by a few nervous soldiers, the SAS team made their move. Silent and swift, shadows in the night, they took down the guards. Chance knocked out two of the soldiers. Halford slammed another into the wall of the guardhouse, where he collapsed unconscious. McCain dealt swiftly with a guard who’d managed to draw his gun, but had no time to fire before McCain’s knife sliced into his leg. Moments later the guard was gagged and bound, his leg strapped up and bandaged to staunch the bleeding.

      Only Darrow had to kill. His automatic rifle, fitted with a silencer, took out three guards on duty on the high perimeter wall. Two dropped where they were standing. The third pitched forwards, falling without making a sound to crunch on the ground at Darrow’s feet. He smiled with cold satisfaction.

      Chance’s whispered instructions were loud and clear in the earphones of his team. “We have access. Time to go to your positions. Ferdy, maintain surveillance and let us know if the guards realise they’ve been conned. Dex, you take the guardhouse and the watch towers. Mark, you’ve got the offices and admin complex as we agreed. I’ll deal with the main lab. Set the charges to blow in twenty minutes from my mark, and make sure you’re back at the Jeep by then. OK?”

      After each of his men had checked in, Chance told them: “Right then. Ten minutes from…Now. Go go go!”

      They moved swiftly and silently through the complex. Like so much of Saddam’s weapons programme, the design for the plant was stolen. Chance had studied the plans of the Russian installation it was based on. He knew exactly where the main lab would be, and the quickest, safest route to get there.

      He didn’t see anyone on his journey through the dimly lit corridors until he was almost at his destination. Then he pressed himself into an alcove to allow a white-coated scientist to pass. The man was carrying something—Chance got only a glimpse, but it was obviously heavy and it seemed to be made of stone. A statue, maybe, about half a metre tall…The scientist looked worried and anxious as he hurried past.

      As soon as the corridor was clear, Chance ran quickly to the security door at the end. There was a numbered keypad beside the heavy, lead-lined door. Chance didn’t waste time trying to work out the code. The door might be strong and the lock might be unbreakable. But the hinges were a weak point.

      Chance took what looked like an oversized tube of toothpaste from his backpack. He squeezed thick grey paste from it, like bathroom sealant, down the edge of the door and over the hinges. Finally, he stuck a small metal pin into the grey paste. The end of the pin glowed red.

      Hurrying back to the alcove, Chance pulled out a small plastic box with a switch on it. He turned away, and pressed the switch.

      The sound of the explosion echoed down the corridor, followed immediately by a cloud of smoke. As the sound and smoke cleared, the high-pitched wail of an alarm kicked in.

      The door was lying sideways on the ground. Chance jumped over it as he ran into the main laboratory. Several technicians and scientists were cowering in a corner in fright. Chance spared them a brief glance.

      “Are you paying attention?” he shouted in the local dialect above the sound of the alarm.

      “Yes,” one of the scientists replied in a quivering voice.

      “Good. Make sure you take the guard trussed up in the gatehouse with you, he’ll have trouble walking on his own. And then you’ve got ten minutes to get the hell out of here before the whole place goes up.” Chance was kneeling on the ground, backpack on the floor in front of him, pulling objects from it. He held one up—you didn’t need to be an expert to guess that the stubby brown cylinder was an explosive.

      “So, what are you waiting for?” said Chance, positioning the first of the high explosive charges against a bank of computer servers. He checked his watch and set the timer.

      When he looked back over his shoulder, the lab was empty.

      Five minutes later, Chance had set explosives at key points around the room. He made sure the vital areas would take the brunt of the blasts: the containment vessels, the centrifuges, the data storage…He took the empty backpack with him—there was no point in leaving behind anything that might identify who had been there. The main reason for using Chance and his team rather than an airstrike was that no one would know for sure who had destroyed the place.

      With the alarms going, the Republican Guards would be hurrying back from the diversion Halford and Darrow had arranged. Assault rifle at the ready and set to deliver continuous automatic fire, Chance ran from the laboratory.

      He had to assume anyone he saw would be hostile. The civilians should be running for their lives. He knew from the regular location and progress updates in his earpiece exactly where all the members of his own team were. Anyone coming back into the facility had to be the enemy. Chance cut down three soldiers in the corridor—taking them out before they even knew he was there.

      Out into the central compound Chance hurled several smoke canisters. It would slow down the returning troops, and it would mask his own escape. A dark shape passed him

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