Free Severed by Simon Kernick Page A

between the stricken APC and the hostile machine-gun fire.
    A second later, the doors flew open and the men inside were disgorged onto the tarmac. The first one I saw was our OC, Major Leo Ryan. He was striding towards me, shouting into a radio and barking orders at the rest of the men, half of whom were following him while the other half took up positions by their own APC,facing in the direction the heavy machine-gun fire had been coming from.
    Just the sight of the major filled me with a sense of confidence. You need leaders who inspire you in adverse circumstances, and there were few men better at it than Leo Ryan. He was a tough little bastard with a prematurely silver Bart Simpson-style buzz cut and a pockmarked, scarred face that looked like it had been hewn out of rock by a blind man - the result of some serious grenade shrapnel injuries he'd received as a young lieutenant in the Falklands conflict, during the battle of Goose Green. Even though the grenade blast temporarily blinded him, he still managed to get two of his more seriously wounded men to safety under heavy enemy fire, before rejoining the fighting and making three confirmed enemy kills. He later got the Military Cross for his bravery.
    Even with the first APC on fire, and one of his men clearly dead in the road, the major's expression remained utterly calm. His eyes met mine and he yelled something at me. Something that chilled the blood in my veins.
    'Out of there! Secondary device!'
    Secondary device. The classic terrorist tacticof planting a second bomb that could be detonated while members of the security forces dealt with the first. They'd done that down the road in Warrenpoint in August 1979 in a dual attack that had killed eighteen paratroopers - the biggest single military loss of life during the Troubles. It's easy and effective. And what better place to plant it than in the soft earth of a flooded ditch where survivors of the attack were bound to take shelter?
    My heart jumped. Was something down there beneath the water? A mine? A few pounds of Semtex? If there was, in all likelihood it would be detonated by remote control rather than a timer in order to maximize casualties, and with the ambush pretty much at an end and the enemy thinking of making good their escape, that meant any second now.
    I flung the assault rifle over my shoulder and turned round fast. Lucas was still on his hands and knees, so I grabbed him by the shoulders and pulled him out of the muddy water.
    'Secondary device,' I snapped. 'We've got to move.'
    He stumbled into the ditch wall and I couldsee that his eyes weren't focusing properly. All my instincts told me just to jump out and get the hell out of there, that in situations like this it's every man for himself, but I couldn't leave him. He was my mate. So I bent down, put a hand between his legs and pushed him up and over the edge. Lucas seemed to realize the urgency of the situation and managed to get to his feet and stagger blindly in the direction of the other APC, while I clambered out after him.
    One of the other men came forward to grab him while Major Ryan and the others rushed over to the back of our vehicle. The men took hold of Snowy and Rafo while the major leaned in the double doors, trying to help out whoever was still inside. I started to run over to them, remembering that I hadn't seen Jimmy McCabe come out of there.
    Which was the moment there was a loud bang behind me, like a very old car backfiring, and I was sent hurtling forward, crashing and somersaulting over the tarmac like a rag doll, every part of my body feeling like it was on fire. I just had time to think that the major was dead right, there had been a secondary device, before I lost consciousness.
    That day was ten years ago, but I will never forget it. I sustained sixteen separate shrapnel injuries, spent three weeks in a military hospital in Belfast, and had to take two months off work. It cost four other men their lives, and gave the IRA a