Pathfinder Publishing has opened its doors with our flagship release, Keepers of the Gateway to Hell by Simon Chambers. You can now download the book straight from amazon at the following links. Below you can find an exclusive high tension excerpt from the book. We are happy to announce that the book went on sale early this morning and is already on the best selling list.
Exclusive Excerpt
It was a typical Iraqi village.
We went through a Police checkpoint and got a friendly wave from the two guards. Just passed this point we entered a natural choke point produced by two ten foot high stone walls built into the approach of the plants main gate. I didn’t like this because both walls curved sharply left and right respectively. I could only see part way up the road on the right, as far as the Police checkpoint, but I couldn’t see the left side, as it produced a blind spot. Anything could come around the corner and be on top of us before I could pull the trigger. If we got straight through the gate it wouldn’t be a problem, but of course as soon as I thought this Pete reported there was some sort of problem at the gate.
Shit!
The gates were closed and the guards we were used to seeing here and who knew us were refusing to open the gates. According to Mike in the front vehicle they were acting very nervous.
If we aborted the mission we would have to reverse out as there was not enough room for us to turn around in the entrance. Andy dismounted and went to see what the matter was. Mike came up on the radio to say that there were an unhealthy number of guards just inside the gates. They were all in uniform, but there were at least twenty of them and they seemed to be just milling around. The guards were telling Andy that there was a problem inside, could he wait two minutes while they sorted it out. They were very nervous and seemed intimidated by the large group of guards behind them. Mike also reported more guards coming from the inside of the plant and joining the already gathered throng.
“I don’t like this,” Andy came up on the radio. “There are too many armed guards for this place. They are all in uniform, but it doesn’t smell right. There is a bad atmosphere between the guards who are usually friendly to us and this other bunch. I’m being told we have to wait another five minutes. They have gone for their big boss to get permission to open the gates. He says he didn’t know we were coming.”
“That’s bollocks,” our team leader said. “This is supposed to be a big meeting. I can’t see any other PSD teams inside and we have been out here for ten minutes now, much too long. We make too good a target.”
While all this was taking place at the gate I could see the approach road had gone very quiet. No kids or dogs and the only people I could see were the two guards on the Police checkpoint. One of them had a beard. That’s funny, as the two we passed coming in didn’t have beards. I watched a large thirty seat coach slowly turned out of a side street and came towards us. It carried the markings of the Power Company and showed every intention of driving into the gates behind us. Could have been the normal bus shuttle for the workers, but I didn’t care.
It was not pulling up behind us, as this was our only way out.
I informed Andy I was dismounting to keep our rear clear and as I did so Alf came up on my right. Between the two of us we stopped the coach well short of the turning point so we could still reverse out in a hurry if we had to. The coach driver seemed agitated. All the signs were there that this was a set up.
“Ok, were aborting. This is going pear shaped,” our team leader came up on the air stating the obvious. It was like part of a pre-determined plan, as a second coach tried to turn the corner on the blind side. When I had dismounted I had seen it coming and signalled for the driver to stop. He shouted something I couldn’t hear and kept coming. The SAW was already cocked, but I made it look like I was cocking it for his benefit and put it to the shoulder.
He executed an emergency stop, but seemed very angry.
By now it was obvious to everyone that this was a ploy to block us in at the gate, maybe a possible kidnapping of our principles. If the two coaches had got in behind us we would have been completely immobilised. With the front vehicle facing the main gate and its crew covering the guards with a show of weapons we now walked into the approach road and signalled for the Principles hard car and the gun truck to turn around. Alf covered up the road and I covered down the blind spot. The police guards had disappeared, as had everyone else who up until a few minutes ago made this a busy little village. With all three vehicles turned around Alf and I piled back into our positions in a hurry.
“Go left,” Pete came up on the radio and we turned down the opposite way we had entered. To our right was a narrow lane and beyond it was open desert. Our lead vehicle gambled the bad guys had not got this escape route covered.
If they had we were well and truly fucked.
We bounced through the alley with everyone covering windows, doors and rooftops. It seemed like an eternity before we bounced over the low bank, each vehicles wheels leaving the road momentarily before touching down in a cloud of sand and dust. There was a series of tracks spreading out into the desert in all directions. We picked one track going directly away from the plant and into the desert. Anyone who was laying in ambush might have put in secondary ambushes on the approach and exit roads.
That’s what we would have done.
Hopefully we were doing the unexpected.
I reported that our six was clear and no one had followed us. Our team leader was on the radio informing Operations on what had happened and warning all other PSD teams to keep away until someone could contact the plant and find out what the hell was going on. We drove for about half an hour in different directions hoping to confuse anyone doing a follow up. Nothing came our way and we slowly started to get to the MSR and the safety of the military patrols. I was by now covered from head to foot in sand, as I tried to maintain my grip and aim on the gun and at the same time prevent myself and my equipment bouncing out of the rear of the vehicle. By the time we made it back on the blacktop I was battered and bruised.
Later that day at the debriefing, the excuse from the plant was Industrial action over pay. Friendly intelligence from inside the plant however told us that the Power plant bosses never turned up for work. They cancelled the meeting about half an hour before we got there. At least two PSD teams were already inside the plants inner compound and were forced to stay there for a couple of hours until all the additional guards drifted home and the gates reopened. They had sealed themselves in and held off the guards at gunpoint. They had considered fighting their way out, but when they saw how heavily they were outnumbered and they wisely waited it out.
We didn’t know they were there and they could only guess what was going on outside the compound. Everyone was very lucky that day. The bad guys had not been well organised and any plan they had for holding us and our principles to ransom had badly back fired on them. It was one of those incidents where we were never going to find out the truth, but then this is Iraq and the truth is always hard to come by in this country.
