Free Bravo two zero by Andy McNab

because my mind was going at a hundred miles an hour.
        It was people's lives I was playing with here, my own included. The squadron OC had given the plan his approval, but that didn't stop me wondering if there was a better way of going about it. Were other people just nodding and agreeing with what I said? Probably not, since they all had a vested interest in our success and they were outspoken individuals. Was there anything I'd left out or forgotten? But you reach the point where you have to press on regardless. You could spend the rest of your life thinking about the different options.
        I got up and made a brew. Legs had just finished sorting out the signals kit, and he came over and joined me. There was no sign of Stan or Dinger. Those two could sleep on a chicken's lip.
        "The signals Head Shed have just given me our call sign," Legs said.
        "It's Bravo Two Zero. Sounds good to me."
        We had a bit of a chat about possible shortages. As I watched him head back to his bed, I wondered if he was thinking about home. He was a strong family man, with a second child that was just five months old. My mind drifted to Jilly. I hoped she wasn't getting upset by anything she was reading in the media.
        There was the constant noise of kit being lugged and blokes mooching around sorting themselves out. I put my Walkman on and listened to Madness. I wasn't really listening because my mind was screaming in so many directions, but I must have nodded off at about three, because at six, when I woke, the lead singer had dropped two octaves and they were just about grinding to a halt.
        It was quite a frenzy that morning. We checked that we still knew how to activate the distress signals on the small TACBE radios and use them one-to-one so we could actually talk line of sight on them.
        Vince had collected the 5.56 ammunition for the Armalites and as many 40mm bombs for the grenade launchers as he could get his hands on. We had a lot of shortages on these bombs because the grenade launcher is such a formidable, excellent weapon. The bombs are quite a commodity; when you've got them, you hoard them. I explained the problem to a mate in A Squadron, and he poached about and got us some more.
        All the 5.56 had to be put into magazines, and the magazines checked to make sure they were working. The magazines are as important as the weapon itself, because if the springs don't push the round into position, the working parts can't push the round into the breech. So you check and recheck all your mags, and then recheck them a third time.
        The Armalite magazine normally takes 30 rounds, but many of us choose to put in just 29, which gives a little bit of extra push in the spring.
        It's easier and quicker to put on a new mag than to clear a stoppage.
        We checked the 203 bombs and explosives. PE4 doesn't smell and feels very much like plasticine. It's surprisingly inert. You can even light a stick of it and watch it burn like a frenzied candle. The only trouble with PE4 is that when it's cold, it's quite brittle and hard to mold into shapes. You have to make it pliable by working it in your hands.
        We checked and rechecked all the detonators. The nonelectric ones that we'd be using for the compromise device are initiated by the safety fuse burning into them, and cannot be tested. Electric dets can be put on a circuit tester. If the electric circuit is going through the det, we can be sure that the electric pulse will set off the explosive inside and, in turn, detonate the charge. Fortunately, misfires are very rare.
        It takes quite a while to test the timers. You have to set the time delay and check that it's working. If it works for one hour, it will work for forty-eight hours. Then you time the device and see if it is working correctly. In theory, if it is more than five seconds early or late, you exchange it for another. In practice, I bin any