Read Online ACV's 1 Operation Black Gold by J Murison, Jeannie Michaud - Free Book Online

with a case of beer we had pulled some beds round, plonked the beer in the middle and sat round swapping stories.  When we’d heard the fire doors crash inwards accompanied by a lot of howling and screaming it was fairly obvious as we were the only one’s down here that we were going to receive a visit.  We had pulled the mattresses off the beds and waited until they were halfway down the room.  Then we had picked the beds up and charged.  The men at the front had tried to turn back; the ones at the back had kept going.  We drove straight through the middle of them.  The result carnage.  We finished them off with the weapons they had intended to use on us and dumped them in the corridor, threw a locker down behind the door and went back to our drinking.
     
    ‘So that’s how you did it.’  He nodded as if mesmerized.
    ‘Yup.’
    Buff was still grumbling in the background. 
    ‘Oh shut up, ye should ken better than annoy me before I’ve had a coffee in the morning.’  I growled back.
    The young officer was taking note of the carnage caused by the previous evening’s battle.  Deep scores ran across the once highly polished floor, congealed blood and scuffmarks finished the job.  ‘This place is a bit of a mess.’
    ‘Your problem,’ I told him.
    He winced.  ‘You don’t seem very happy to be here?’
    ‘Is there some reason I should be?’
    ‘I don’t understand, why can’t you be like everyone else, it is only for a few weeks, relax, treat it like a holiday, enjoy yourself.’
    My laugh was somewhat bitter.  ‘Because I don’t think like everyone else, that’s why.  Tell me how long is it until the big parades, 6-7 week?’
    ‘Yes, I think so; then you can all go home.’
    I approached, ‘you don’t see anything strange or coincidental about that?’
    ‘No.’ He shook his head. 
    ‘OK fine, let’s leave it then.’  I grabbed my cigarettes off the bed and lit up, but I wasn’t going to get away with it.
     
    It was Ali that stepped forward, ‘Jim thinks there’s going to be a war.’
    ‘Thank you Ali, but that’s not exactly what I was saying.’
    ‘Aye it is.’
    ‘No, I said it is a possibility we canna discount.’
    ‘Same thing to you.’
    ‘No, its no.’
    He decided to push it, ‘is to you, we ken you, ye bastard, you wouldn’t even mention it, if ye didn’t think it was going to happen.’
    I clicked onto what Ali was up to.  He was going to take advantage of the fact that there was a professional soldier at hand, and an officer to boot, someone who was in a damn site better position than me to speculate.
     
    The young Mr. D’Ord butted in.  ‘Excuse me, but may I ask why you think there is going to be a war?’
    ‘I never said that,’ I snapped.  I’ve always talked with my hands and they were beginning to get restless with my agitation.
    ‘I’m sorry let me rephrase that, why don’t you think it is something we should discount.’  He pulled himself up onto the table and crossed his arms.  I look round at the faces of my friends; they were set.  Now they were ready to listen.  I was trapped.
    ‘OK if that’s what you want, trouble is where to start.’
    ‘Why don’t you start with strange coincidences,’ he offered.
    ‘All right how many men were called up yesterday?’
    He thought it over for a moment, ‘I’m not sure, maybe fifty to a hundred thousand.’
    ‘That’s a lot of men to put up a few marquees.’
    ‘Yes but there is a lot more to it than that,’ He launched into a detailed explanation.
     
    I soon got bored with it and stopped him.  ‘Wait, the men who have important jobs have already gone, I watched a man report in yesterday.  He worked in a power plant, his book was stamped, taken off him and he was sent home immediately.  These important people as you put it have already gone.’
    ‘Are you sure?’
    ‘Positive.  Let me ask you another question what was the average age of the common British soldier during the