Page 120 of Hang on St. Christopher

“Tell you what, you cover me. I’ll try and get the bloody doors open,” I said, trying to hand him the revolver back.

“It was my idea.”

“I’m your superior officer, you bloody fool!”

“We’re both part-time reservists!” Crabbie countered. “And you’re the better shot. Cover me in three, two, one.”

Crabbie was not exactly Mr. Adrenaline or Mr. Exuberant, so when he did assume an air of command, it was unexpected and you had to pay attention to it.

He crawled out of the sheugh, and I shot at various muzzle flashes with his revolver and my Glock.

When he got to the Land Rover’s back doors, he tugged on them as the occupants inside kicked on the warped armor plate.

“Hurry up!” I yelled at him.

The doors suddenly gave way, and all three terrified young coppers came piling out.

“Over here!” I screamed. “On your bellies!”

Lawson, DC William Mitchell, and DC Judy McGuire scrambled over to the sheugh, followed by Crabbie. The darkness protected them, and they made it next to me without getting riddled with bullets.

The terrorists’ plan would have been even more effective and deadlier if one of them had thought to bring a couple of starlight flares. Or if they’d had just one guy with a machine gun on the embankment behind us... But you can’t think of everything, and Brendan’s plan was probably going to be good enough.

I patted Crabbie on the back. “Good, work, mate.”

He grunted a response and caught his breath.

“Lawson, Mitchell, McGuire, anyone hurt?”

“I’m okay,” Lawson said. The others were too frightened to speak.

“Triage them, Crabbie. Let me know if anyone’s seriously hurt.”

“Will do.”

“The other Land Rover?” Lawson asked.

“Up the road there, on its side. Don’t know if anyone got out of it or not.”

“How many terrorists?” Lawson asked, all business now.

“I don’t know. Twelve?”

“Did we cross the border?”

“No, we’re still in the Irish Republic.”

Lawson’s pale face looked grim in the moonlight. “So that’s it, then?”

“No, it’s not,” Crabbie said. “We’ll get out of this.”

“Crabbie’s always right. We will get out of this, okay?” I said.

“Okay,” Lawson said, and the other two were still too frightened to speak.

The firing stopped as the IRA men reloaded and regrouped.

“Triage complete. Nobody’s seriously hurt, Sean,” Crabbie said.