The Midas Legacy

43

The men in the trailing jeep could hear the microlight still shadowing them, but couldn’t see it — until it overflew the transporter ahead. They opened fire as it continued across the valley.

Eddie’s leap threw the little aircraft wildly off balance, sending it into a steep climb as it banked drunkenly to the right. Nina, clambering into the front seat, screamed as she was almost pitched after her husband. Bracing herself, she pushed the stick to the left, levelling out with a lurch — only for more bullets to lance up at her.

The wing took several hits, fabric tearing. She looked up to see a yard-long rent in the dark material, its edges flapping furiously. The microlight rolled again. ‘Oh shit, shit!’ she panted as it veered back towards the road.

The convoy reappeared below, growing larger as the plane lost height. She was past the third transporter, heading for the second as another burst of fire came from the jeep. The wing puckered again, the engine taking more hammerblow impacts — and stuttering.

She tried to swing away from the looming TEL, but the controls felt as if they were submerged in molasses. The nose pitched upwards, too slowly. Glaring red tail lights swelled before her like devilish eyes—

The little plane finally banked, but too late.

The wingtip clipped the missile, swinging the microlight sharply back around. It crashed against the rocket’s left side, its wing snagging on the great hydraulic clamp securing the weapon for transport.

The fuselage tore loose. Nina was almost flung on to the road, just catching one of the ladder rungs running along the length of the missile’s erector arm. The broken bodywork hit the road below her, breaking apart.

Eddie hauled himself up on to the third transporter, crouching on a narrow footplate beside the missile. The gunfire from the trailing jeep had stopped — he guessed they were afraid of hitting the rocket — but he could no longer hear the microlight’s engine. Hopefully Nina had got clear—

The reason for the aircraft’s silence was frighteningly revealed as its mangled remains bowled past. The propeller clanged off the TEL’s side just beneath him, slashing a foot-long tear in the sheet metal. The jeep swerved to avoid the debris, falling back.

Nina hadn’t been in the wreckage. He looked ahead, desperate for any clue to his wife’s fate. The road curved, bringing the rest of the convoy back into view — and revealing her hanging from the second transporter’s side.

The TEL’s wheels whirled beneath Nina. Above the long blank slab of the transporter’s side the ripped wing flapped like a flag, the lines that had secured it to its frame now whipping in the wind.

Shock giving way to fear, she pulled herself up. Arms straining, she swung and tried to hook a foot over the edge of the bodywork—

Lights flashed behind her. The third transporter had pulled out, the driver waving furiously from his side window.

Warning the soldiers in her own vehicle that she was there.

Another message crackled over the SUV’s radio. Kang listened with growing disbelief, then shouted an order into the mic. ‘They are still alive!’ he snarled to his passengers. ‘They are on the transporters!’

‘Perhaps we should stop so your men can get a clear shot,’ said Mikkelsson icily. ‘They seem to have trouble with moving targets.’

The colonel glared at him. ‘We will not stop! Two people cannot have destroyed the entire facility — they must have had help from the American special forces you warned us about. If they take the warheads or the plutonium, it will be a disaster for my country!’

‘And for you,’ Sarah said quietly, her face expressionless.

Kang regarded his companions with fury. ‘We will not stop.’ He bellowed more commands into the radio. ‘I want those spies dead before we reach the airbase! Do not stop for any reason! If they damage the missiles, I’ll have you all shot as collaborators!’ His voice rose to a spittle-flecked screech. ‘Kill them, right now!’

The jeep pulled out to overtake Eddie’s TEL, the huge vehicle obligingly shifting to the right of the road to make room. As it drew alongside, the soldier in the front passenger seat stood and grabbed the ladder rungs, pulling himself aboard the transporter. The man behind him followed suit, the jeep dropping back once both were clear.

Eddie scrambled forward. The Koreans still couldn’t risk shooting at him, but the first man had drawn a knife or bayonet, and his companion was doubtless doing the same. He rounded the clamp locking the missile in place and headed for the cab. The soldier was rapidly gaining on him, driven by the fearlessness of youth or the terror of being blamed for failure.

The rungs ended at the base of the rocket’s nosecone. With the warhead not fitted, the truncated tip stopped a few feet short of the transporter’s cab. Eddie clambered on to the flat deck beneath it, ducking underneath the missile as if to start back down its other side — then halted.

The pursuing Korean reached the nose—

A brutal uppercut smashed against his jaw. He staggered — and Eddie clamped both hands around the rocket’s support arm to pull his feet up and kick the soldier hard in the chest.

The man flew off the transporter’s side with a winded scream. He hit the road with a harsh snap of breaking bones — and the jeep ran him over with a deeper, wetter crunch. The impact flung the vehicle off course. It hurtled out over the valley, arcing down to an explosive landing a hundred feet below.

Eddie lowered himself. One soldier down, but where was the other?

A flash of movement in his peripheral vision — and he spun to see the answer in the form of a glinting blade. The second man had climbed over the missile to come along its other side behind him!

Nina finally found secure footing. Panting with exertion and fear, she saw that she was about a third of the way along from the missile’s foot. The microlight wing entangled on the clamp obstructed her way forward. A glance back. No sign of Eddie on the side of the last transporter, but nor was there any trace of the jeep following it.

She had no time to wonder what had happened to either. The second jeep was falling back towards her, the transporters moving over to let it by. A soldier in its rear raised his rifle—

Fearful adrenalin forced her into motion. She clambered back towards the missile’s tail, expecting shots to come at any moment. But none did. Of course: if the missiles were unfuelled, the Saudis wouldn’t pay hard currency for one with bullet holes in the side, and if they were fuelled, it might explode.

That would not protect her for long, though. The jeep matched speed with the transporter, the man in the back reaching up to pull her to her death—

Nina kicked at him, knocking him back. Angered, he tried again, but by now she had reached the TEL’s rear, passing the erector system’s fulcrum. Jutting out behind the missile was its launch stand, a hefty metal framework some eight feet deep that would lower to the ground as the rocket was raised vertically for firing. She climbed up on to it as the soldier made another lunge. He caught her ankle, but a swipe from her boot broke his grip and nearly did the same to his fingers. He let out a shrill cry and retreated.

She negotiated one of the stand’s feet to come around the transporter’s rear. The gaping bell of the rocket engine loomed menacingly behind the framework. Another soldier in the jeep stood to climb after her—

A bullet clanged off a beam inches from her head.

A private in the cab of the last transporter leaned further out of the passenger-side window. ‘I almost got her!’ he crowed, adjusting his rifle’s aim. ‘This time I’ll—’

Another shot came — but not from his gun. The driver, a lieutenant, had drawn his sidearm and fired across the broad cab. The bullet hit the soldier in the temple, the other side of his skull exploding outwards. He collapsed, his twitching corpse hanging limply out of the window. His gun rattled against the door on its shoulder strap.

The other members of the transporter’s crew reacted with shock. ‘You heard Colonel Kang!’ the young officer yelled at them. ‘If anything happens to the rockets, we’re all dead!’

‘Yes, sir!’ gulped a cowed soldier. ‘But… but what about the spy?’

The lieutenant looked ahead. The men in the jeep had ducked at the rifle shot, but were now raising their heads again. ‘They’ll catch her. We’ve got a spy of our own to—’

Something thumped on to the cab roof above them.

Eddie grabbed the soldier’s hand as the knife stabbed at him. The two men struggled, the Yorkshireman slowly forcing the blade upwards — then slamming the Korean’s wrist against the missile’s truncated nosecone. One hit, two, and the man cried out, losing his hold on the weapon. It landed near his feet. Eddie shifted position so he could kick it away, sure he could easily take down his opponent in a contest of raw strength.

The soldier also realised he was physically outmatched. In desperation, he used a large pump mounted on top of one of the vehicle’s enormous fuel tanks as a springboard to hurl himself at Eddie. The Englishman fell backwards on to the cab roof, the Korean landing on top of him.

Eddie punched him, but couldn’t deliver the blow with full force. The soldier responded with a screaming barrage of flailing fists. The Yorkshireman managed a partial roll to force the smaller man off him, then sent another punch at his face. This one hit home, the Korean shrieking as he lost a couple of front teeth. Eddie shoved him away—

The soldier reacted to something ahead, eyes popping wide. He grabbed a spotlight on the cab’s front edge. Eddie followed his gaze — and saw that the transporter was approaching a hairpin bend. Fast.

The TEL lurched as the driver threw it into the corner. Six of its eight axles were steerable, giving it a much tighter turning circle than a conventional articulated truck, but the tyres still tore into the broken road as the mammoth vehicle started to skid. The soldier clung more tightly to his handhold, but Eddie had nothing to grip. He slithered across the roof, his head jarring against the cab’s rear edge as he dropped back on to the deck behind it. Coloured stars flared before his eyes.

They cleared just in time to reveal a steep drop looming below—

He threw out his arms, one hand catching the fuel pump as he went over the edge.

The remaining jeep had been forced to brake hard as the second transporter went through the hairpin, dropping behind it to avoid being barged off the road. The soldier in the rear looked back at the third TEL, reacting in shock at the sight of two men on its roof: a soldier of the People’s Army and a bald foreigner in a leather jacket. ‘Look, behind us!’ The other passenger turned, equally startled by the sight. ‘We’ve got to help him!’

‘What about the woman?’ protested the driver. The redhead was climbing around to the truck’s right-hand side.

‘He’s already killed one of our men!’ The soldier pointed at the body hanging out of the third transporter’s window. ‘He must have taken out the other jeep too — he’s more dangerous! If he sabotages the missile…’

He didn’t need to say more: Kang’s threat had been explicit. The driver braked again, preparing to draw alongside the last transporter as it came out of the turn.

Nina hauled herself around the launch stand and sidestepped along it to reach the fulcrum — realising too late that with the truck having turned almost one hundred and eighty degrees around the hairpin, she was once again on the outside of the road with the steeply sloping valley dropping perilously away below her. ‘God damn it!’

She was about to go back when she saw something different about this side of the vehicle. Partway down the transporter’s otherwise featureless flank was a recess, inside which lights were glowing. A control panel?

There were hefty hydraulic jacks at the TEL’s rear corners, which she guessed stabilised it while the missile was raised for launch. If she could extend them, the metal feet would act as anchors, dragging the transporter to a halt. That would also force the one behind to stop, as there was not enough room for the hulking vehicles to pass one another.

Gripping the rungs, she climbed along the transporter’s side. The valley spread out before her, the SUV and the truck now a long way ahead. The first TEL had also extended its lead over its two siblings.

She quickly reached the recess. It did indeed house a control panel, several red bulbs giving her enough illumination to make out a rank of switches, some gauges and two large twist-grip levers. She hesitated, then started flicking the switches. A motor whined loudly, some of the lights turning green. ‘Okay, whatever I’m doing, it’s something…’

The last bulb changed colour, a hissing thrum joining the sound of the motor — but the powering up of what she assumed were the hydraulic systems had drawn attention. A surprised shout reached her over the noise. She looked forward to see a man glaring out of the cab window at her. He withdrew… then the door opened and he climbed out.

Fingers straining, Eddie clung to the fuel pump as the TEL came around the hairpin. Dirt and stones spat up at his legs. The front wheel was directly below him, the long overhanging cab stretching out ahead with a corpse slumped from the window. The skidding vehicle finally straightened out, swinging him back against its side with a bang. He found purchase on the edge of the deck, dragging himself higher.

The soldier was already back on his feet.

Eddie jerked his hand clear as the man’s boot stamped down. Another strike caught his thumb as he dodged again. He tried to find a new handhold, but the Korean had seen a fresh target: the dangling man’s other hand, gripping the fuel pump. He drew back his leg to strike…

Something caught the moonlight. The knife. It too had skittered across the roof, wedging against a filler cap.

Eddie lunged for it. The soldier saw him move, twisting to kick the weapon away—

The Yorkshireman reached it first.

He drove the blade into the soldier’s Achilles tendon. The Korean screamed, staggering as his leg buckled. Eddie yanked out the knife and rammed it up into his calf muscle, then pulled him forward. The man toppled over the side with a wail that ended suddenly as he hit the road face-first, breaking his neck.

Breathless, Eddie clamped his free hand around the filler cap, then dragged himself back aboard. He didn’t know how many men were still in the cab, but the knife had gone with the soldier, leaving him unarmed again…

A metallic clatter reminded him that there was another weapon to hand. The dead soldier was still hanging from the cab window, his Type 58 rifle dangling on its strap.

Eddie swung down on to the door’s step. One of the soldiers inside saw him and shouted a warning—

It did no good.

The Englishman grabbed the rifle and pointed it through the window, shooting the nearest man. The gun was set to single-shot, but he simply kept pulling the trigger with almost mechanical timing as he swung it towards each new target. The North Koreans screamed and thrashed in their death throes, blood spattering the windscreen.

The driver collapsed over the steering wheel. The transporter slowed as his foot came off the accelerator, but drifted towards the edge of the road — and the steep drop beyond. Eddie hurriedly threw open the door and scrambled inside, stepping over the bodies sprawled across the wide cabin.

White-painted stones flicked through the headlight beams, the huge truck jolting as the front wheel hit the roadside markers—

He shoved the steering wheel to the left. The TEL veered away from the edge. ‘Christ! Too close,’ he muttered.

The driver was not wearing a seat belt. Eddie opened the door and pushed the dead man out before taking his place. The second transporter was pulling away, the jeep having fallen back behind it. Its headlights gave him a glimpse of Nina on the other TEL’s right-hand side — and a soldier making his way down the vehicle towards her.

Jaw set in determination, he declutched and dropped to a lower gear before revving the engine and re-engaging. The truck lurched forward, picking up speed as he raced to aid his wife.