TWENTY

Even though the signal was being dragged down from a distant satellite, the reception was crystal clear. Porter folded his legs under him, and looked up at the screen as the Sky News logo flashed across it. This was the ten o’clock news, which, since Beirut time was two hours later than London time, meant that it was midnight here.

Saturday morning, Porter reflected. The day set for Katie Dartmouth’s execution.

And probably my own. It’s forty blokes against one. How can any man survive odds like that?

Porter could feel an icy shiver down his spine. He’d thought about the death plenty of times – any soldier had – but he had never felt it so close as he had over the past forty-eight hours. It was so near, he could almost reach out and touch it. Embrace it, he told himself. Show no fear. That’s the only way to handle it.

‘KATIE DARTMOUTH, MINUS TWENTY-TWO HOURS’ beamed the headline on Sky News.

Porter glanced around the room. Most of the men had stopped eating and were looking up at the screen. Some of them were talking feverishly, but Porter couldn’t make out a word they were saying: obviously they didn’t talk in English, but they seemed to understand it well enough on the television. He could smell their mood, however: the unmistakable, triumphal aroma of soldiers who believe they are winning the battle.

‘With twenty-two hours left before the scheduled time for the beheading of the Sky News reporter Katie Dartmouth, we’ll bring you the latest on the story,’ said the newsreader. ‘The PM makes a last-minute appeal for calm. Sir Perry Collinson is already in Beirut to mastermind the hunt for Katie. Thousands gather in Trafalgar Square for an all-night vigil for peace. Stop the War protestors plan a mass rally tomorrow through London calling for British troops to be brought home. And we’ll be live in Katie Dartmouth’s home village getting the latest reactions from friends and family.’

On the screen, Porter could see the familiar figure of the PM standing on the steps outside Downing Street. ‘I just want to say this,’ he began. ‘I know people have many different views on the war in Iraq, and I respect that, but in the end we’re there to do a job, and we have to stay there until the job is done. So I say to the kidnappers of Katie Dartmouth, we have offered you talks, I have said I am willing to fly to the Middle East, to bring all the sides together, so that we can find a way of stopping the bloodshed. I am willing to meet the leaders of Hezbollah to discuss a way forward. But we can’t start moving soldiers out of a country just because one group or faction wants us to. We are willing to talk, but we are not willing to surrender. So delay this terrible act by at least a few days, so that we can start discussions.’