"Энди Макнаб. Огненная стена (engl) " - читать интересную книгу автора

in the mid-nineties, disillusioned with the leadership that had let them
lose against the rebels. Both were in their mid-thirties, with dyed blond
hair, very clean shaven and well groomed. If they'd wanted a change of
career they could have become catalog models. They had never been parted
during their military career. As far as I could make out, all they wanted to
do was kill Chechen rebels-and swap admiring glances.
I knew I could trust Sergei, but I still wondered about his selection
procedure. He obviously wanted to keep most of the cash I'd promised him and
had decided not to bring the A team.
It was the most unprofessional job I'd ever been on, and I'd been on a
few. Things had got so bad that I'd even taken to sleeping with my door
barred and my weapon ready. If the team wasn't complaining to him about my
planning, Sergei said, they were moaning about who was earning what and how
they might get ripped off when it came to payday. Carpenter was so
homophobic he made Hitler look like a wet liberal, and it had taken as much
effort keeping the two pairs away from each other as it had preparing for
the job. I did my best to keep out of their way and concentrated on dealing
exclusively with Sergei; he was the one I had to keep happy, because he was
the only one who could help me get the target into Russia. But they'd got me
nervous; people were going to die today, and I didn't want to be one of
them.
I was with a scary crew, against a scary target, with the whole of
Western Europe's leadership due in town, bringing along enough security to
take on China. This wasn't a good day out but, fuck it, desperation makes
people do desperate things.
I blew out another cloud of breath. The digital display on the
dashboard told me another twenty minutes had passed-time for a radio check.
Reaching into my inside jacket pocket, I felt for the send button of my very
yellow Motorola handset, the sort that parents use to keep tabs on their
kids on the ski slopes or in the shopping mall. All six of us had one, each
connected to an earpiece which was hooked in place. With so many people
using headphones
on their mobile phones, we wouldn't be conspicuous wandering around
with them in.
I pressed twice, the squelch sounding off in my ear, then checked with
Sergei. He nodded; I was sending. Jesse and Frank replied with two
squelches, then Carpenter and Nightmare followed with three. If I'd hit the
send button and there was nothing from the Jameses, Carpenter and Nightmare
would have waited thirty seconds and replied anyway. We would have no option
then but to close in on the target and wait for the Meres to arrive not
good, as it exposed us three in the hotel and messed up coordination. There
was radio silence for two reasons. One, I couldn't speak the language, and
two, EU land security would be listening in. With any luck, a few clicks
here and there wouldn't mean a thing. There were many other standby com ms I
could have used, mobile phones for instance, but everything had to be kept
pretty basic for Nightmare and Carpenter. Anything else to remember and they
would have blown up. The old principle of planning keep it simple, stupid
rang true yet again.
While Sergei had gone for the Michelin man look, I was very much the
businessman: single-breasted suit, jacket one size up, dark-gray overcoat,