Spider Shepherd 11 - White Lies (43 page)

‘That’s sweet of you to say so,’ said Button. ‘You give Spider my best.’

‘I’ll be sure to do that.’

Yokely went offline and Button sat back and took off her headset. The screen showing the buildings in Peshawar flickered and then went blank. Singh sat back in his seat and cracked his knuckles. ‘I don’t know about you, Amar, but I need a drink,’ said Button. ‘A big one.’

The Chinook touched down gently, the massive twin rotors kicking up a dust storm as it settled on the ground. The rear ramp came down and Croft helped Shepherd out of his seat. Two other SEALs were supporting Raj. ‘Where are we?’ asked Raj.

‘Basra airfield,’ said Shepherd. ‘Not far from Kabul. We can fly back from here to the UK.’

‘When?’

‘It won’t be long,’ said Shepherd. ‘Let me talk to Charlie, we can probably get on a flight later today. But you need to get a shower and some decent food down you. After they’ve taken a look at your leg.’

Drake patted Raj on the shoulder. ‘We’ll get a medic to check you out,’ he said.

‘I just want to get home,’ said Raj.

‘You and me both,’ said Shepherd.

He jumped down off the ramp and on to the ground, then turned and helped Raj down. The rotors slowed and the turbine noise dropped to a low whine.

‘Is that what passes for operational gear in the SAS these days?’ said a soft Southern drawl behind him.

Shepherd turned and grinned when he saw Richard Yokely walking towards the Chinook. ‘I might have known you’d be involved somehow,’ he said.

Yokely was wearing desert camouflage fatigues and a Kevlar vest over his regular clothes and his normally gleaming tasselled shoes were covered with a thick layer of dust. He shook hands with Shepherd, then gave him a hearty bear hug. ‘I promised the lovely Charlotte I’d get you back in one piece. She moved heaven and earth for you.’

‘I’m glad she did,’ Shepherd said. Two medics appeared with a stretcher. They placed it on the ground and helped Raj on to it. His eyes closed as soon he lay down and one of the medics began checking his vital signs as the other ripped his trousers open and went to work on the injured leg.

Drake and Croft both flashed salutes and Yokely returned them. ‘Well done, guys,’ he said. ‘Any casualties?’

‘None, sir,’ said Drake.

‘Outstanding,’ said Yokely.

He looked inside the Chinook and saw two SEALs manhandling a clearly disoriented Akram Al-Farouq out of his seat. ‘He give you any problems?’

Drake shook his head. ‘Good as gold,’ he said.

The SEALs kept a grip on Al-Farouq’s arms as they stepped off the Chinook ramp. They marched him over to Yokely.

‘Pleasure to meet you, Mr Al-Farouq,’ said Yokely. ‘I’ve got an orange jumpsuit that I hope is your size, and a whole load of questions that I’m looking forward to asking you.’ He gestured at a waiting Gulfstream jet. ‘But not here, obviously.’ Yokely nodded at Drake. ‘Load him on to the plane, will you?’

‘Pleasure,’ said Drake.

‘Hooyah,’ grunted Croft.

Yokely and Shepherd watched as Al-Farouq was taken over to the jet.

‘What happens to him now?’ asked Shepherd.

Yokely grinned. ‘Best you don’t know,’ he said. ‘How was it?’

Shepherd shrugged. ‘He caused me a lot of pain, Richard.’

‘Do you want a few minutes with him? Mano a mano?’

Shepherd looked over at Al-Farouq. He was being taken up the stairs into the Gulfstream, his shoulders hunched, a beaten man. Shepherd could only imagine the horrors that lay ahead for him, and there would be no hope of rescue. At the very least he’d spend the rest of his life in a metal box a few metres square with only an occasional glimpse of the sky. He shook his head. ‘Nah,’ he said. ‘I’m good.’

If you enjoy the Spider Shepherd series, why not read Stephen Leather’s

Jack Nightingale
supernatural thriller series

Book One

NIGHTFALL

‘You’re going to hell, Jack Nightingale’: They are words that ended his career as a police negotiator. Now Jack’s a struggling private detective – and the chilling words come back to haunt him.

When Jack inherits a mansion with a priceless library from a man who claims to be his father, it comes with a warning. That Nightingale’s soul was sold at birth and a devil will come to claim it on his thirty-third birthday – just three weeks away. And that if he doesn’t find a way out he’ll be damned in hell for eternity.