Audi’s doors and tyres.
‘Back up the hill!’
I was fighting for air, my clothes soaked with sweat, trying to climb and keep a grip on Benzil at the same time. Nasir was returning fire behind us. ‘Stop! Stop! Stop! Save the rounds! Salkic, where the fuck are you? Tell him to stop firing!’
We carried on climbing. There were no trees, nothing to haul ourselves up on; just mud, grass and rock. I slipped and fell. The AK barrel crashed against the stone, but it would survive. These things were built to be used and abused. I wasn’t so sure about Benzil.
There was still firing from below us, but the tracer was going high. They’d lost us in the dark.
I felt blood leaking down my legs after my tangle with the barbed wire. My throat was parched. I kept my grip on Benzil, kept pulling him upwards.
I yelled across at Jerry. ‘Keep up! We’ve got to keep together.’
Jerry came close, chest heaving and breath rattling in his throat. ‘Where . . . we . . . going?’
‘Fuck knows. Salkic?’
There didn’t seem to be anything leaking out of Jerry apart from sweat. ‘For a second there, I thought you were down for good.’
‘Bastards hit my fanny pack.’
Salkic appeared out of the gloom, fighting for oxygen and so angry he could hardly speak. ‘You are responsible for this! They must have followed me here earlier, and waited.’ He pushed me so hard in the chest I nearly fell over Benzil. ‘You lead them to me!’
Benzil remained in the mud as Salkic started gobbing off to Nasir.
I wasn’t too sure how this was going to play, so pushed down gently on the AK’s safety. Salkic heard the click and so did Nasir. His weapon swung up into the aim. Salkic gently pushed the barrel until it pointed at the mud. ‘God would not have let this happen if it were not for a reason. My job is to take you to Hasan. We serve him, so it will be done.’
I made sure they heard the safety click back where it belonged, then glanced back down at the hill. I could see torchbeams criss-crossing the ground. I waited a second or two for Nasir to calm down. ‘You know what’s the other side of this hill?’
Salkic thought for a second or two. ‘No. Just more hills?’
I checked Baby-G. We had about two hours at the most before first light. If we were caught out in the open in this terrain we’d be fucked.
Benzil was still on his knees, almost sobbing as he gasped for air.
Jerry, too, sank into the mud.
‘Salkic, ask Nasir if he knows.’ It was time to get sorted. ‘OK, I saw one man go down and there’s one by the Audi. Anyone see the other guy? We still got someone out there?’
The one missing would have to fend for himself. I had control of the most important two.
Salkic gobbed off again to Nasir.
I lifted the AK and pushed the magazine catch forward to release the two taped-up mags. I pressed down on the top round in the first mag with my finger. It stopped about two-thirds of the way down: I had about ten rounds left.
Salkic and Nasir were still in dialogue as I turned the mags over and pushed down on the second. It was full, so I slotted it into the mag housing and eased back the cocking handle to check chamber. ‘Anybody else got a weapon?’
Salkic translated. ‘He also has a pistol and two extra magazines. And he says there is a cave the other side of these hills. The aggressors used it to store supplies.’ Salkic took in another couple of gulps of oxygen before continuing. ‘He said that he isn’t sure which valley. It’s been many years since he has attacked it.’
Nasir muttered a few more words to Salkic, who hesitated before translating. ‘Do you know which man you saw dead?’
‘No.’
As Salkic mumbled back to Nasir there was a sudden burst of voice traffic on the radio inside his coat. He pulled it out, maybe hoping it was our missing man.
The radio might have belonged to him, but the gravelly voice that came out of it didn’t. Whoever it was started singing what sounded like a nursery rhyme. Then there was a short, piercing scream. The song continued for a moment, but was interrupted by more screams and the sound of sobbing.
Nasir went apeshit.
Images flashed through my own head of others I’d seen taken prisoner by the Serbs, men strapped to trees who’d choked to death on their own genitals.
Nasir started downhill as the fading screams were replaced by mocking laughter.
‘Salkic, turn that fucking thing off and get him back here!’
I didn’t care what the fuck he wanted to do down there, but now wasn’t the time. We needed a steady pair of hands on a weapon. Salkic ran ahead of him and held up a hand. I saw Nasir’s shoulders heave as Salkic took a step forward and wrapped him in a hug.
For several minutes they talked to each other in gradually gentler tones. The rest of us kept our distance. At least it gave Benzil time to rest.
The torches below us were still on the move. A vehicle emerged from one of the barns, manoeuvred its way past our Audi, and headed back towards Sarajevo.
Salkic still had Nasir in his arms. They mumbled some more to each other. Both men were crying.
At length, they turned and came back up to us. Nasir carried on uphill a little way before kneeling. There was silence; no one spoke.
I stood up, and helped Benzil to his feet. ‘We need to get going and be over this high ground before first light, out of their line of sight.’
Exhausted as he was, Benzil’s only concern was for others. ‘Is Nasir all right?’
‘He will be,’ Salkic said, ‘but give him time. The man they just killed was his youngest brother.’ He paused. ‘And my brother-in-law.’
79
Nasir was lead scout.
Benzil was next. He was in a bad way, but we had to place him up there so we could keep an eye on him and go at his pace. He tried his best; Jerry, Salkic and I took it in turns to hitch his arm round our necks to help keep him upright.
Nasir was a totally steady hand. He was an old sweat, doubling back from time to time to mutter an encouraging word.
Benzil would just nod and agree. ‘Yes, yes. Thank you.’
After ten minutes or so, he had to stop again. ‘I’m so sorry, Nick. I’m so sorry.’
‘Don’t worry about it. Just try and keep going the best you can.’
There was a burst of fire in the valley below us as they cabbied at shadows.
Wind buffeted the summit, clawing at my face, cooling my sweat. At least the plastic coat kept it at bay as we started to slip and slide downhill.
The line was starting to get strung out, and not just because of Benzil. Jerry and Salkic were feeling the pace. Nasir was still up front, slowing down at regular intervals for the rest of us to catch up.
The valley gradually took shape before us as first light seeped into the eastern sky, and what I saw was not good news: next to no cover, just mud and stones. There wasn’t even a road.
I stopped and waited for Salkic to draw level with me.
‘We’re going to be fucked out here on open ground.’ I nodded at Nasir. ‘Ask him how far to the cave.’
