"Энди Макнаб. День независимости (engl) " - читать интересную книгу автора

few metres away. I got their attention.
"Lotfi, Lotfi! Take a look."
He got on to his knees, then slowly raised his head. Instinctively I
checked that my Makharov was still in place.
I got up and looked over their heads. The vehicle was a civilian 4x4,
heading for the house. The headlights were on full beam and bounced up and
down on the garage doors set in the compound wall. As it got closer to the
building the driver sounded the horn.
Shit, what was happening? My information was that no one would be
moving in or out of the house tonight. George had said that when we hit this
place Zeralda would definitely be in there. He'd assured me the intelligence
was good quality.
The wagon stopped and I could just about hear some rhythmic guitar
music forcing its way out of the open windows. Was the int wrong? Had the
target just arrived, instead of coming in yesterday? Was this another group
of mates come to join in the fun? Or was it just a fresh batch of Czechs or
Romanians with bottle-blonde hair being ferried in for the next session?
Whatever, I wanted to be in the house for no more than half an hour, not
caught up directing a cast of thousands.
I watched as the garage shutter rattled open. I couldn't tell if it had
been operated electronically or manually. Then the vehicle disappeared
inside and the shutter closed.
We got back to business. With the timer unit in my hand and the bergen
on my back, I climbed over the bung, feeling more than a little relieved.
The other two were still attacking the wall and Hubba-Hubba seemed to
lose patience, kicking it with the flat of his foot to free a stubborn
block.
I opened the top of the timer unit and gave it one more check.
Basically it consisted of a fifteen-metre length of double-stranded electric
flex coming out of a hole drilled in its side. Attached to the other end was
a flash det, a small aluminium cylinder about the size of a third of a
cigarette, that fitted over the fuse instantaneous. To keep it in one piece
in transit, I had rolled up the flex and put an elastic band around it.
Inside the box there was a twelve-volt battery beside the Parkway timer, the
small rectangular type with the positive and negative terminals on top and
next to each other. Both items were glued to the bottom of the box.
Soldered flat on to the timer unit was a small panel pin, protruding
like a minute hand beyond the dial of the Parkway. It was no more than half
an inch long, and had been roughened with emery cloth to make a good
electrical contact. Also soldered on to it was one of the two strands of
flex that came into the box. Another panel pin, which had also been emery
clothed, was sticking out from the bottom of the box, between the Parkway
timer and the battery at the 0 on the Parkway dial. That, too, had a small
length of wire soldered on to it, leading to the negative terminal of the
battery. The other strand of flex was soldered directly to the positive.
The Parkway wasn't set, so I'd pushed a wedge of rubber eraser down
over the vertical pin to stop the two making contact. If they did, it would
complete the circuit and initiate the flash det.
I lay there for another ten minutes or so until the other two had
finished. It would have been a bit quicker if I'd gone and helped, but you