CHAPTER 1
Aldershot: 4th April 1982
The pub was packed; mainly soldiers; it was the regimental boozer after all, but also locals keen to say goodbye to their boys. There were a small group of hard nuts who thought that picking a fight with a red beret was a reflection of their own vaunting masculinity. The NCOs could have spent the evening in the comfort of their own mess, as the officers were doing. The Colour Sergeant however was a stickler for tradition and his Company drank in a public bar in England before each foreign deployment. He claimed that it reminded the lads who they were fighting for. Many would remark that a lot of the pub's regulars were hardly worth a single trooper's life.
The NCOs had paid for strippers out of their own pockets. None were real lookers but they were enthusiastic and slipped under the tables, dispensing competent blow jobs. For twenty more the lads could take each one upstairs for something more penetrative. It turned out that nobody was that desperate.
Corporal Smith sat nursing his pint of bitter. He was not a heavy drinker and was a bit of a loner. Women were a serious mystery to him. He was heavily attracted towards them but always ended up blushing and spluttering in female company. He had lost his virginity to a cousin; neither of them had really known what they were doing. He was both excited and anxious at the prospect of going to war but had already received his baptism of fire in the badlands of South Armagh. Smith was not technically a member of the Regiment but was attached like the engineers and gunners. He was a Signaller and was attached to the Headquarters Company. He had done his jump training and wore the distinctive badge and red beret of the Regiment. He had gained a reputation as a safe pair of hands and a good shot. He could hump a heavy radio, full pack and SLR all day and then strip the radio down in the dark.
The Colour Sergeant was queuing at the bar when the temperature fell by ten degrees. The sound level dropped dramatically and the crowd parted as if a ship was passing through a quiet bay. The old soldier sensed her before he saw her. He turned and looked the woman in her flat grey eyes.
"Hello, Sergeant Jackson," the woman spoke in a voice a shade deeper than Marlene Dietrich, her accent hard to place.
"Bitch," spat the sergeant and delivered a jaw breaking slap. His hand was trapped in a vice. He kicked the woman in the shin and delivered an uppercut with his spare hand. It was as if he had struck a piece of granite and his toes and fingers throbbed.
The woman smiled and leaned forward to whisper in the man's ear.
"Don't show yourself up in front of your men. You know you cannot stop me."
Sergeant Jackson swallowed.
"Take me. Let the others go."
The woman cocked her head.
"No, I don't want you."
Sergeant Jackson pleaded.
"What sort of monster are you?"
The woman smiled again.
"You are a warrior. You do your job and I do mine"
Jackson could barely squeeze out the words.
"How many?"
"Two. That is not negotiable by the way. Now get your round in."
The woman gently released her captive and kissed him lightly on the cheek. Her skin smelt of wood smoke and cordite.
The woman continued her progress towards the troopers. Many eyes were fixed upon her. The rear view was almost as arresting as the front. She was over six feet tall. Her corn coloured hair was pulled into a tight French plain which reached down to her magnificent bottom. She was wearing a black leather bomber jacket with very broad shoulders, cowboy boots and tight faded blue jeans, artfully ripped at knees and buttocks. Golden skin signalled through the rips.
The soldiers looked up as the woman approached them. More than one jaw dropped. The woman stopped in front of Corporal Smith and bent at the waist ; a small smile on her pale pink lips.
One of the more inebriated soldiers slapped the woman hard on her bottom. She looked behind her and declared cheerfully,