The tailing truck jerked suddenly to the right at the same time Tommy’s truck started slow down. The combination of his truck’s momentum change and the target moving rapidly caused the shot to zip by, missing by a foot. A moment later Tommy saw what the other driver was dodging as a body rolled by on the road.
He looked back through the cracked rear window and saw Sean in the driver’s seat next to the other corpse.
“Would you mind holding it steady?” Tommy shouted. “I’m trying to save our necks!”
More rounds pounded the back of the truck.
“Sure, I can give them an easier target if you’d like!” He yanked the wheel to the right and back to the left.
Tommy wavered one direction and then the other before he stabilized himself with one hand on the end of the truck bed as he crouched low to keep out of view. “Come on, man! Give me one second here!”
“Hurry up and finish them off then!”
Tommy snorted. He positioned himself on one knee and popped up from the floor. He looked down the barrel and immediately located the gunman, the driver, and another larger target. The sights locked on the front of the truck, and Tommy fired. It only took him a split second to bring the weapon back to level and fire again. The two rounds pierced the truck’s grill and ripped through the radiator. Steam instantly spewed out of the hood.
The driver panicked and jerked the pickup left and right to see past the smoke. It slowed to a stop, completely engulfed in steam pouring out of the engine block. The two occupants got out to assess the damage. But Tommy wasn’t through. He took aim one last time and squeezed the trigger. The front right tire ruptured, and the corner of the truck dropped in seconds. The men scattered, running behind the truck to take cover.
By the time they stepped out from hiding to return fire, the truck with the Americans in it was gone.
Sean glanced back in the mirror to make sure the other vehicle was out of sight. Satisfied they’d been left behind, he slowed to a stop.
“Hurry; get up here!” he shouted.
Tommy didn’t need to be told twice. He kicked a few shell casings as he hopped over the side of the truck and onto the ground. When he opened the door, the passenger’s body fell out onto the road.
“Ugh,” he said and stepped over the man.
Before the door closed, Sean stepped on the gas again. “We gotta catch up with those other trucks. If we lose them… ”
“I know. We lose the missiles for good. You said that already.”
Sean glanced over at his friend with a smirk. “You know, you’re pretty good at this spy stuff. I could put in a good word with my boss if you’re interested in joining.”
Tommy laughed and set the assault rifle between his legs. “No thanks. I’m good.”
“Just as well. We only keep, like, eleven agents active at any given time, and we’re full.”
“Sounds like you’re worried I’d take your job.”
Sean let out a loud “Ha!”
“No, but that was some good shooting back there. Well done.”
“Thank you. Now let’s hurry up and finish this before my crew starts to worry. Besides, we’ve got a gold statue to extract.”
“We?” Sean shot him a curious look.
“Yeah. It’s the least you can do for me saving your butt from Toli. And for taking out that truck back there.”
He wasn’t wrong. And Sean knew it. “Let’s just say I’ll take a little more time off to hang around. First things first. I need to call the office.”
22
To Sean’s surprise, the convoy ended up going south to the city of Songea. The town was larger than expected. He figured there must have been a few hundred thousand people in the immediate area, though it was hard to gauge. Most of the city was rundown, like many cities in that part of the world. While growth had been fast, development had been slow.
Roads were in disrepair, and the majority of the buildings reminded both Sean and Tommy of a shanty town in South Africa.
“Have you ever been to Cape Town?” Tommy asked.
“No,” Sean shook his head. He’d followed the truck in front at a safe distance just in case they took a closer look in the mirrors. Before they’d arrived in the city, Tommy grabbed some rags out of the truck bed, and the two men wrapped them around their faces and heads to help conceal their identities. Those would only work for so long, though.
“It looks a lot like the slums there,” Tommy went on.
Signs of poverty were everywhere. Some of the roads were dirt and split off the main street into little collections of multicolored homes that were barely better than mud huts.
“I wonder why they picked this place,” Tommy rattled.
“Probably because it’s obscure. Whoever is behind all this has done a good job of throwing us off the trail. At least so far. This is just one more move in keeping with that plan. And I have to say, I’m impressed.”
The last line wasn’t a lie. Sean hadn’t expected the mission to go this far. He figured they’d go in, take out Toli, and liberate the hostages along with a few hundred kids. Apparently, no one knew how far the rabbit hole actually went. Intelligence had given him nothing about someone else pulling the strings. So as far as the government and his agency was concerned, he was flying with both eyes closed.
The truck in front sped up as the convoy neared the outer edge of the city. Sean increased his speed as well, carefully navigating the throngs of pedestrian traffic, motorcycles, and mopeds that were so prevalent in the burgeoning town. The streets were lined with sagging trees that reminded the two Americans of weeping willows back home in the South.
Lifeless faces passed by, staring at the truck as it rolled through. The city’s citizens appeared malnourished and tired, all of them. If there was a nicer part of town, Sean hadn’t seen it.
The number of homes and people grew more and more sparse until there were only occasional houses in the middle of fields. The sidewalks ended and were replaced by tall grass growing out of control along the side of the road.
Tommy figured out where they were going at almost the exact same time as Sean. He saw the outline of a few airplane hangars in the distance, though no planes were taking off or landing at the moment. The airport terminal was nothing more than a beige, one-story building with a dark green roof. Songea Airport was painted on the roof in bold white letters. A midsized white plane with twin turbo-prop engines was sitting in front of one of the hangars. There was a collection of other smaller planes parked in various spots close to the runway. All of them looked like they’d seen better years a long time ago.
Then something caught the Americans’ eyes on the other side of the airfield. A large cargo plane was sitting out in front of an open hangar. Parked next to it were four transport trucks. And more were turning onto the airport road leading to the airstrip.
Even from several hundred yards away, Sean and Tommy could see people loading the plane, scurrying around both on foot and with loaders to get the cargo in place.
“I don’t mean to put a damper on all this,” Tommy broke the silence, “but don’t you think now might be a good time to start thinking of a plan? I mean, we’re about to jump into the hornet’s nest here.”
One of the transports in their convoy turned off the road and onto the thoroughfare heading to the hangar. A moment later, the next one followed.
Sean said nothing, keeping his hardened gaze steady on the truck in front of them.
Tommy’s head was on a swivel as he looked at his friend for a response and then watched the line of trucks slow down and turn into the airfield. “Did you hear me? Sean? I said we need a plan. You’re not actually going to drive in there? They’ll kill us within ten seconds.”