Red Notice by Andy McNab Read Free Book Online Page B

stomach. The wound was big, wet and bloody, but Davy had thought he was looking too good as they flew back into the Green Zone. Tom had watched him give the boy a couple of kicks so the pain would show in the pictures he was taking for the squadron office. They now had pride of place dead centre of the photo board.
    Tom unloaded his ARWEN and the Sig 9mm pistol on his belt and slid them, with their unspent rounds, into his ready-bag, alongside the party gear that made up his assault kit.
    The others followed suit, changing into civvies for the driveback to Hereford. They compared notes on the operation and subjected each other to the usual merciless banter.
    Tom peeled off his jacket and shirt and tore open his body armour. The rip of Velcro straps sounded like a chorus of jungle frogs.
    ‘I dropped him.’ Keenan stretched out his arm and drew an imaginary sight picture on a tree beyond the holding area. ‘Sweet.’
    ‘Yeah, yeah, tidy darts, mate.’ Bryce was checking that the MOE (method of entry) kit had all been loaded onto the white Transit. ‘But Tom gets tonight’s star prize – for giving one to the Barbie.’
    ‘Yeah . . .’ Vatu, a huge Fijian with a flamboyant moustache, was inside the vehicle, stowing boxes. ‘If she’d detonated that belly-rig, Tom would have been asking God for the name of his tailor, and the rest of us would have been picking her pubes out of our teeth for weeks.’
    Jockey’s team had just entered the holding area. ‘A needle’s the only thing Tom gets to stick into girls.’ The trademark Glaswegian growl made even the most innocent remark sound like a threat. Especially when his red, sweat-covered face looked like it’d just spent a week in a sauna.
    Tom laughed. ‘You’d know all about needles, Jockey. Drugging them’s the only way you get any.’
    ‘Yes, and I won't give you the benefit of my expertise unless you sing it for me. Come on, you know you love it.’
    Right on cue, Tom’s mobile phone sparked up inside his ready-bag, its ringtone the chorus of ‘The Eton Boating Song’ that Jockey kept downloading onto it whenever he got the chance. Tom held it towards the Scotsman, conducting the ringtone choir expansively with his other hand. He checked the number and moved a little away from the others to take the call.
    ‘Delphine . . . We’re just wrapping up now. We’ve been on a job.’
    ‘I know. I ’ave just seen the news.’ Her French accent still blew him away. ‘They said there was a massive gas explosionon the Heath, but I saw the Range Rovers. Are you still there?’
    Eighteen months they’d been going out, and even hearing her on a mobile made him go weak at the knees. ‘You know I can’t answer that, don’t you?’
    ‘Not even that? How could that possibly be a secret? This drives me mad.’ There was an echoing silence at the end of the line. ‘I love you, Tom. But I hate you.’
    ‘Fun, though, isn’t it?’
    ‘No, not any more,’ she said wearily. ‘It was once, but not any more. Are you not even allowed to tell me if you’re OK? That’s why I called. Or is that a state secret too?’
    ‘No, I’m fine.’
    ‘And will you be back soon?’
    ‘Yeah. I’ll drive to Hereford, sort the kit, quick debrief and shower. I should be ready by about eight.’ He dropped his voice and switched to French. ‘Delphine, you know I can’t wait to see you. And I’ll make it up to you, I promise.’
    His mates nudged each other and inched towards him, trying to overhear what he was saying.
    ‘We will see.’ She paused before switching back to English. He heard her voice soften. ‘I’ll be with you in a minute.’
    ‘What? I wish . . .’
    ‘Not you.’ Her voice was still smooth and welcoming. ‘I was talking to a guest. I have to go now, but you will be here, won’t you? You promise? I need to talk to you. It is important.’
    ‘I promise.’
    ‘I promise,’ Jockey said, mincing around with his hand on his hip.
    ‘Don’t believe him,