‘’Nancy to Maryam: I am in position and ready.’’
‘’Understood. I will need another minute to finish positioning our girls.’’
‘’Okay! Advise me when ready. Remember: semi-automatic fire only and aimed shots, to conserve our ammunition. I will take care of the machine gunners on the roof of the house.’’
After some tense waiting, Nancy finally got the word from Maryam that she was ready to open fire. Acknowledging that, Nancy then turned on the headlights of her pickup truck, switching them as well to high beam. The Taliban fighters behind the house, now bathed in intense white light, instinctively covered their eyes or turned their heads away at first, frozen in place like a group of deers caught in the beams of an oncoming car while crossing a road. Now presented with perfect targets at less than forty meters of distance, the 31 women of the patrol opened fire with one massive volley on the fourteen Taliban standing behind the house. While some of the women still managed to miss their intended targets, all of the extremists went down with that volley. At the same time as the policewomen opened fire, Nancy got out of the pickup truck and aimed her rifle at the four Taliban on the house roof, who were partially illuminated, using her holographic sight. Placing the red reticule of the holographic sight on the chest of one of the machine gunners, who was getting up to see what was happening, she fired once, dropping the man. She then fired three more bullets in quick succession, killing or wounding the four men on the roof. In the meantime, the patrolwomen fired a second volley, aiming at the Taliban fighters who were still moving on the ground and finishing them off without mercy. With all the extremists now down, Nancy reached again inside the truck she was leaning against and closed its headlights before speaking on her radio.
‘’Enemy all down! Run to the house and secure the grounds.’’
She then went herself at a run towards the house, but went towards one pickup truck parked alongside the rear wall of the building, using it like a stepping platform to jump on the rooftop in three steps. She found two of her targets still moving and crying in pain.
Without remorse, she finished them with bullets to the head: with lots more Taliban to fight, the patrol could not afford to get encumbered with prisoners at this stage of the fight. Looking around the rooftop, she saw two PKM Russian-made medium machineguns resting on their bipods along the western parapet of the roof, with many 141
ammunition boxes near them and more boxes, empty, discarded on the roof. That pleased Nancy, as the PKM was a good, dependable weapon capable of providing heavy, sustained support fire that could become crucial for the police patrol in this fight.
She thus grabbed the two machineguns by their carrying handles and brought them to the eastern edge of the rooftop, where the patrolwomen could grab them after climbing in the back of the parked truck. She did a few more trips to carry as well the still full ammunition boxes, then searched the four dead gunners, taking their rifle magazines and their grenades. With her pockets full, Nancy returned to the eastern edge and jumped in the back of the truck pulled alongside the house, then transferred the captured machineguns and ammunition down from the roof. As discussed previously with Nancy, Maryam and her policewomen were also busy gathering the captured enemy weapons and ammunition, filling at the same time their pockets with AK-47 rifle magazines and all the grenades they could find. Maryam, in a happy mood, came to see Nancy as the latter was stepping down from the pickup truck with a PKM.
‘’Your plan worked perfectly, Nancy. We did not suffer any casualties. I also believe that we killed somebody important. Come with me.’’
Following Maryam, Nancy soon was looking down at the bodies of what she had taken to be a command group. Using a flashlight, she examined the dead faces of the two men armed with AKSU-74 sub-compact rifles, then smiled with contentment.
‘’Well well well, isn’t this that old bastard of Mullah Hayatullah Khan, the Taliban military commander for the Farah province? And besides him is that old fart of Mullah Sultan, the ex-Taliban governor of the province.’’
‘’Are you sure?’’ Asked Maryam, not believing their luck. Nancy nodded slowly her head.
‘’I did two previous tours in Afghanistan as a military intelligence officer and have seen numerous times the wanted list of top Taliban commanders, Maryam. These are Mullah Khan and Mullah Sultan alright. Their presence here tonight makes sense, in view of the unprecedented scale of this Taliban attack. The Taliban were probably aiming to seize back control of this district tonight, profiting from the withdrawal of the American forces from Farah province. We should load those two corpses in a truck, so that no retreating Taliban could make them disappear afterwards. This could be a big propaganda coup against the Taliban, Maryam, and I will make sure that your women will be credited for it…without being named publicly, of course.’’
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Maryam nodded her head at that, reassured. She knew too well what could happen to a policewoman that would be publicly identified…or to her family.
‘’Thank you for thinking about that, Nancy. What do we do next?’’
‘’We should use two or three of those captured trucks and load into them all the ammunition and water we can find here or in other trucks, so that we could bring them afterwards to the police station. The Taliban must have kept their ammo reserves here, with their fire support group. If you find boxes of grenades, keep them close and handy: they could make a big difference in the coming fighting. Remove also the keys from the ignition of the trucks we won’t use and hide them under the rubber carpets of each vehicle, so that the Taliban won’t be able to quickly flee into them. In the meantime, me and Maria will go stand watch on the roof, in case some Taliban start wondering about what happened to their commanders. Oh, you better hold on to this as well.’’
Nancy, bending down, grabbed a handheld radio that had been hooked to Mullah Khan’s web gear and gave it to Maryam.
‘’By listening on the enemy command frequency, you may be able to know in advance what to expect, Maryam.’’
‘’A good idea again, Nancy. Decidedly, you think of everything, don’t you?’’
Nancy smiled in the darkness, showing the white of her teeth.
‘’Let’s say that I have seen a lot of wars in my life. Well, you better get your girls to work: the Taliban attacking the fort may react soon to us.’’
‘’Right!’’
As Maryam gathered her policewomen to pass her orders, Nancy signaled to Maria Garibaldi to approach her. The Italian, who had just fought her first ever battle, was still flush with excitement.
‘’This did go even better than I hoped, Nancy. What do we do next?’’
‘’We both go on the rooftop to watch the Taliban while Maryam’s girls gather the captured ammunition in two trucks. I suspect that the extremists attacking the police station will soon wonder why they are not receiving orders by radio anymore.’’
Using the parked truck as a stepping platform, Nancy and Maria went to take lying positions along the western edge of the roof and used their night vision goggles to observe the battle around the police station, 600 meters away. While it was evident that the policemen inside the station were still resisting, the Taliban fire had slackened noticeably, prompting a remark from Nancy.
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‘’The enemy must be wondering what happened here. We probably can expect soon a large patrol or even a counter-attack force to head this way. You watch the road while I watch the houses bordering the road on its northern side.’’
‘’Got it!’’
About ten minutes later, Maryam’s voice came on the patrol radio frequency.
‘’Nancy, this is Maryam: a Taliban commander has just ordered one of his subordinates to come check out our position.’’
‘’Understood, Maryam. Keep most of your girls working on the loading and transfer of ammunition and water, but send Sergeant Kaker and five girls take position along the main road with the two captured machineguns. Me and Maria will stay on the rooftop and snipe at the enemy and fire illumination flares as needed to help our machine gunners.’’
Nancy then resumed her watch with Maria. It took another fourteen minutes before she saw some movement behind houses bordering the northern side of the road, about 250
meters away.
‘’I see them, Maria. A group is advancing behind the cover of the houses on the north side of the road, 250 meters to our front. They will now have to advance in the open, however: there are no more houses between them and us. I will advise Maryam, then fire a paraflare.’’
‘’I am ready for them, Nancy.’’ Replied the Italian woman, pointing her Beretta SC-70/90 and looking through its night sight. On her part, Nancy called Maryam by radio and alerted her about the advancing Taliban force, then waited two more minutes, time for the Taliban group of about fifty fighters to be completely in the open, before preparing a parachute flare. Opening both ends of the thin tube and pointing it up at a 45 degree angle, she pulled on the launch chord, firing off the small rocket with a loud
‘POP’. Maria then fired her first shot in the still dark night, downing the Taliban fighter at the tail of the enemy column. Three seconds later, an intense point of white light lit up high in the sky, just above and slightly behind the advancing Taliban. Now well silhouetted in open terrain, the Taliban fighters found themselves suddenly the targets of a withering machinegun crossfire. Over a half dozen Taliban fell under the hail of bullets, the others then hastily going down in the dirt to find any cover available. Their response fire proved however totally ineffective, not seeing where precisely the machinegun fire came from. Nancy then joined the firefight, taking calm, slow aim at a 144
Taliban and killing him with a bullet to the head. She and Maria had time to kill or wound four more extremists, while Sergeant Kaker’s two machineguns shot down another eight Taliban, before the paraflare burned out, returning the area to obscurity. Nancy waited until the surviving Taliban fighters decided to withdraw and got back up to run away, then fired a second paraflare. The extremists threw themselves to the ground again, but not quickly enough to avoid another machinegun burst that downed four of them. Nancy and Maria then resumed their sniping fire, while the PKMs kept firing short bursts to keep the Taliban fighters down. With their numbers dwindling steadily, some of the Taliban panicked and got up to sprint towards the cover of the nearest houses, only to be shot down by the machinegun fire. The second paraflare then burned out but no Taliban dared get up this time, staying in the shallow ditch alongside the main road.
A minute later, Maryam’s voice came back on the radio.
‘’Maryam to Nancy. That Taliban reconnaissance party just called for help from their main force. The Taliban commander near the police station is going to send a strong force in a hook around our right flank, staying behind the cover of the houses along our flank. I am now going to reposition my girls to cover that flank.’’
‘’A good move, Maryam. Have them take position as much as possible on rooftops, from where they will have better fields of fire and can better throw grenades at the enemy. Make sure they have plenty of grenades with them. Me and Maria will reposition ourselves as well.’’
Once this was said, Nancy got up from her prone position on the rooftop and signaled Maria to follow her.
‘’The enemy is going to attempt a right flank attack against us in a few minutes.
We are moving out to new positions. You’re okay, Maria?’’
‘’I’m fine, Nancy. I now have a total of six Taliban fighters on my score sheet.
And you?’’
‘’I stopped counting a long time ago.’’ Replied Nancy. ‘’Follow me!’’
Coming down from their rooftop, the two women then ran in a crouch towards the main road, invisible to the Taliban in the obscurity. Stopping first by the position occupied by Sergeant Kaker and her two machineguns, Nancy patted the shoulder of the Afghan NCO.
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‘’Well done, Sergeant. We are going to take position on our right flank but will continue to watch your front and fire paraflares as needed. Your job is to cover this road and stop any Taliban advance along its axis.’’
‘’Understood, Captain Laplante.’’
Leaving the six policewomen, Nancy crossed the road with Maria, soon finding Maryam Shirzai as the latter was busy placing her policewomen on the rooftops of the houses on their right flank, where they would be able to cover the 200 meters of open terrain separating them from the next row of mud houses.
‘’Ah, Nancy! Where are you going to put yourself this time?’’
‘’Where the enemy will not expect us, Maryam: on the roof of one of those houses across from these open fields. From there, we will be able to snipe at the enemy and, hopefully, catch him in the rear as he tries to assault your force. I would need four of your girls to accompany us, with as many grenades as they can carry.’’
‘’You got them!’’ Replied Maryam before turning around and raising her voice.
‘’Sergeant Noori, send me four women with two crates of grenades.’’
Maryam then smiled at Nancy.
‘’As you had predicted, the parked trucks contained the ammunition, water and food reserves of the Taliban, including dozens of crates full of grenades and dozens of RPG rockets. We will have enough to create a nasty rain for those Taliban bastards.’’
‘’That’s the spirit, Maryam.’’ Replied Nancy, smiling as well.
As soon as the four women selected by Sergeant Noori had joined them, carrying between them two wooden crates, Nancy led her small team across the open ground, using an irrigation ditch as cover. As they were approaching the next row of houses, Maria spoke up with alarm.
‘’Nancy, I can see with my goggles some movement to our left, about 200 meters away. The enemy is already advancing along this row of houses.’’
‘’The bastards reacted quickly enough, I have to give them that.’’ Said Nancy while still advancing in a crouch. ‘’Let’s pick up the pace a bit, so that we could take position before they are here.’’
Hurrying up, she covered the last thirty meters before the first house, followed closely by the five other women. She however ignored that house and walked to the next one, which was the most westerly of this group of houses. Once at that mud house, Nancy made one of the policewomen go down on her hands and knees, while another 146
policewoman was told to lean with her back to the mud wall and to join her hands in front of her belly. Nancy stepped on the first woman’s back, then put one foot in the joined hands of the second woman before climbing on her right shoulder and reach the roof, pulling herself up. Once on the roof, she offered her hand down.
‘’Your
turn,
Maria.’’
Maria followed her example and was soon besides Nancy on the rooftop. Both then grabbed in succession the two crates of grenades and the four Afghan policewomen, pulling them up to the rooftop. Nancy then hurried to the western edge of the roof, in time to see in her night vision goggles a long column of Taliban fighters approaching cautiously along the rows of houses.
‘’Damn! They are already less than 150 meters away. Let’s open these crates of grenades as quietly as possible.’’
That was less easily said than done, the crates being secured by sturdy steel wires twisted and sealed together. Nancy had barely the time to distribute grenades to the four Afghan policewomen while giving them quick instructions before they had to lay prone and be silent in order not to be located. Covering her mouth and radio microphone with one hand, she spoke in a low voice while activating her radio set.
‘’Nancy to Maryam. The enemy is already at the foot of the house we are using.
My group will first throw grenades, then I will fire a paraflare when I will judge the enemy to be in an ideal position for us to shoot.’’
‘’Got it! Good luck, Nancy.’’
Nancy did not reply to that, instead cautiously raising her head to look with her night vision goggles above the parapet. Her heart accelerated at the sight of the swarm of Taliban fighters now massing right under her, with a Taliban chieftain giving orders to his men and sending them forward along two irrigation ditches. That Taliban however stayed in hiding near the house, keeping as well with him a group of four men armed with RPG-7 anti-tank grenade launchers, plus one man armed with a light machinegun.
Careful not to make any noise, Nancy backed off from the parapet and joined Maria and the four Afghan women, whispering instructions to them in Dari, then in Italian.
‘’Bibi, Zakia, you get ready to throw grenades at the two columns that have started advancing towards the main road. Carmela, Lailoma, you will throw grenades on my command at the Taliban on my side of the roof. Maria will then start sniping in the back of the advancing columns while I fire a paraflare. Don’t be cheap with the 147
grenades, unless I tell you to stop throwing them away. Any questions? No? Then take positions along the parapets.’’
The six women then cautiously crawled back in two separate groups to the parapets, bringing along their crates of grenades. Once back in position, Nancy prepared in advance for launch a paraflare and laid two grenades in front of her, then raised her head to check on the enemy. The Taliban assault columns were now well on their way along the ditches, their tail already ten meters away from the house, while the RPGs and light machinegun group had taken position behind a low earthen wall maybe five meters from the house. Meanwhile, the noise and flashes from the fight around the police station continued. She then looked at Carmelia and Lailoma, speaking to them in a whisper.
‘’Two grenades each in succession, to our front and five meters away. Pull the pins out but hold on to the spoons until you see me let go my own grenade spoon, then throw your grenades.’’
Grabbing a grenade, Nancy rolled on her back and raised high her hand holding the grenade as a signal to the three other women to get ready. When six arms were up with grenades, Nancy made a deliberate move and pulled the safety pin out, then let fly the spoon and threw away her grenade, imitated by the others. As the first grenades were still flying in the air, Nancy grabbed quickly her second grenade, pulling out its pin and throwing it. The first grenade was exploding below her as she grabbed her paraflare tube and pointed it skyward at a slight southward angle. The ‘POP’ of the launch was nearly inaudible in the middle of the grenade explosions and the screams from men being mauled by the blasts and fragments. As the four policewomen kept priming and throwing grenades, Nancy raised her rifle and shot the nearest Taliban still up when her paraflare lit up the sky. Maryam and the rest of the patrol then opened fire as well, targeting the two advancing columns of Taliban, which were now caught in the open and plainly visible. Enemy losses climbed quickly under the deluge of bullets and grenades, with the Taliban unable on their part to locate exactly the positions of the police patrol in the dark. Many of them didn’t understand that Nancy’s group was in their back until the detonations from Maria’s assault rifle were heard. Nancy’s suppressed rifle was for its part much harder to locate, giving her a deadly edge over the Taliban fighters. After emptying a first magazine in semi-automatic mode and reloading quickly, Nancy could not see any more surviving Taliban on her side of the house, where the ground was strewn with dead or gravely wounded men. She thus told Carmelia and Lailoma to 148
follow her at a crouch to the southern parapet, where Maria, Bibi and Zakia were engaged in a ferocious fight with the tail of the two Taliban assault columns. Seeing that her paraflare was about to die out, Nancy prepared and launched a second paraflare, while Carmelia and Lailoma started using their rifles, saving the grenades they still had left for the moment. With bullets being fired haphazardly in their direction by the trapped Taliban fighters, Nancy used again her rifle to reply, using her holographic sight and concentrating on any extremist that tried to flee by leaving the ditches and running across the field.
The patrol suffered its first casualty a minute later, when Bibi Nayebaba got up to be able to thrown her grenades farther and was hit just after throwing a grenade. Nancy was however engaged at that moment in a mad firefight with a group of Taliban trying to rush back towards the mud house and could not help the policewoman. A flash followed by a loud explosion against the wall of the house then told her that a RPG gunner was now targeting them. Looking in the direction the flash had come from, she soon found the said gunner, who was frantically reloading his rocket launcher. A carefully aimed shot killed the man at a distance of a hundred meters. Then another Taliban ran to the rocket launcher, intent on using it. Nancy shot him as well, along with the two men who also tried to grab the RPG-7. The second paraflare then died out, returning the field of battle to obscurity. Nancy was however out of paraflares. Flipping down her night vision goggles, she shouted an order in Dari to the Afghan policewomen of her group, followed by words in Italian.
‘’GO BACK TO THROWING GRENADES, LADIES. ME AND MARIA WILL DO
THE RIFLE SHOOTING. MARIA, USE YOUR NIGHT SIGHT FROM NOW ON.’’
Giving the example, Nancy switched on her infra-red laser dot sight, which projected a green dot invisible to the naked eye but very much visible through her light intensification goggles. Then lining up the green dot on a Taliban running towards the house, she shot him in the chest, dropping him. The next minutes went on for seemingly an eternity, with Nancy tense as a steel bar and ignoring the bullets flying past her head while shooting Taliban after Taliban. On her side, Maria was no slouch either, her night sight having more range and accuracy than Nancy’s laser dot sight and allowing her more distant shots. The Italian woman had just shot down her eight enemy when two pairs of vehicle headlights appeared at the southern end of the field, where Maryam and her patrol were, 149
and switched to high beam, illuminating again the Taliban caught in the middle of the field. Maria understood at once who it was and shouted with joy.
‘’WELL DONE, AZIZA!’’
With the light now provided by the two trucks brought forward by Sergeant Kaker and one of her policewomen, Maryam Shirzai’s group was able to resume accurate fire on the back of the Taliban. Their fire was then dramatically augmented by the two PKM
machineguns of Sergeant Kaker’s section, which were firing from the back of the two pickup trucks driven to the edge of the field. Their situation now an impossible one, trapped in the open from two sides, the Taliban survivors gave up the fight and started fleeing left and right in utter disorder. Neither Nancy nor the Afghan policewomen were however ready to show mercy to men who were willing to mutilate or kill little girls for the supposed crime of attending school. They kept up their fire until they had no more targets in their sights, with only a handful of Taliban escaping their wrath.
With that fight now over, Nancy was free to go check on Bibi, lying in the middle of the rooftop. Checking for a pulse, Nancy closed her eyes when she found none. She was soon joined near Bibi’s body by Maria and the three surviving Afghan policewomen, who could only cry over their dead friend and comrade. They were still grieving when Nancy received a radio call from Maryam Shirzai.
‘’Maryam to Nancy. The Taliban have fled the field. How are you doing at your end?’’
‘’This is Nancy. We have lost Bibi, but the rest of us are okay. How about your group?’’
There was a moment of silence before Maryam replied in a subdued voice.
‘’We have sustained two wounded at our end, thankfully not critical cases.
However, the police station is still under attack and in danger of falling. I believe that we should go lend more help there, even after this victory here.’’
‘’I concur! However, there is no point in rushing into what could turn into an ambush, without knowing where the enemy is precisely. I am going to send back to you my four remaining women, who will also carry back the body of Bibi. In the meantime, load your women into a few trucks and take with you the trucks full of ammunition and water, along with the bodies of the two dead mullahs, then wait for me to report back by radio. I am going on foot alone to go do a reconnaissance of the area around the police station.’’
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‘’Alone? But, that’s too dangerous, Nancy.’’
‘’On the contrary, Maryam: I will be more effective like that, with my night goggles and sights. Trust me, my friend. I will see you later.’’
Nancy then looked at Maria Garibaldi.
‘’Take Bibi’s body with you and return with Carmela, Zakia and Lailoma to Maryam’s group. She will prepare a truck convoy to go towards the police station, while I go on foot reconnaissance. Please don’t object: I know perfectly what I am doing. I will keep in touch by radio.’’
Nancy then took the time to pocket some extra grenades before jumping off the roof and disappearing into the night in the direction of the police station. Carmelia Ghousdin watched her go with near religious fervor.
‘’What an incredible woman. I hope that she stays safe.’’
Retracing the route taken by the now decimated Taliban counter-attack force, Nancy went at a near run, using to the maximum the advantage given by her night goggles. At one point, one Taliban survivor from the fight actually crossed path with her and, thinking she was another surviving comrade, waited for her, even calling to her in Pashto.
‘’Are any others with you?’’
‘’Just me and judgment day.’’ Replied Nancy before shooting the man dead with her suppressed rifle. She took a few seconds to collect more grenades from the dead man before continuing on towards the police station. Fifteen minutes later, she was approaching the main road, with the police station 200 meters to the West. She had now only a few dispersed farms and the houses lining the main road between her and the station, but she could also tell that she was getting very close to the main enemy force, judging from where the firing came from. She would have to be very cautious from now on, especially when considering that stray fire from the police station would be as dangerous to her as it was to the Taliban. At least, the policemen inside the station were not showing any sign of giving up. Using again her powers of Chosen of The One, Nancy silently levitated up to the rooftop level of the building she was close to, ready to fire on any Taliban that came in sight of her. That roof proved empty. Walking silently across the roof while crouched, she looked cautiously down over the parapet to check the alley between her and the next compound. What she saw there was a group of maybe fifteen Taliban fighters, resting, smoking and drinking water while sheltered from 151
the fire from the police station. Putting down her rifle, Nancy took out two grenades and pulled their safety pins out with her teeth while holding the spoons in place. Letting the spoons fly