The missile head penetrated the rock, and then exploded a moment later.
The driver of the Mercedes swerved, but he was too late, and the blast shockwave threw the car on its side, where it rolled several times and then came to a stop on its roof.
Sam’s father slammed on the brakes, coming to a stop just beside the destroyed Mercedes.
Tom looked down at the wreckage. “I don’t know Sam; I think Aliana’s still going to be pretty pissed at you.”
Sam grabbed the heavy M60 like it was a toy, and said, “Come on, before they realize what’s happened,” and jumped off the back of the Utility’s cargo tray.
He opened the front door, and had the weapon pointed at the driver’s head an instant later. Sam recognized the man as being the engineer named Byron. He looked confused, and there was more than a trickle of blood coming out the man’s ears as he looked up. A quick scan of the inside of the vehicle showed that the man was alone.
Sam dragged him out, and away from the burning car, “Where is she? Where does he have Aliana?” The man didn’t say a word.
Sam punched him in the gut, careful to avoid accidentally killing him in anger before he got what he wanted. Byron then vomited blood, but said nothing. He was either too injured to speak or was refusing. Either way, the man was useless to him.
Sam didn’t have time to deal with him — he needed answers.
“The Merc’s empty and there’s nothing that suggests where the other one went,” Tom said.
“All right, they must have taken multiple cars. Let’s keep following the tracks and…” Sam stopped talking, as he spotted a Mercedes coming at him at full speed.
He and Tom both pulled out their M9 machine guns and started firing at the driver. The bullets appeared to disappear into the truck’s outer shell harmlessly.
Rodriguez had obviously paid top dollar for military grade armor.
Sam recognized the driver as Frank, the dwarf-like miner who’d helped him locate the fake Mahogany Ship. The man looked crazy as he drove towards them, a sense of invincibility radiating as the rapid fire bullets raked his windscreen.
Frank’s intention was clear — he was going to run them both down.
Sam looked about, only to realize that they had left it too late, and had nowhere to take cover.
The truck came hurtling towards them.
They dropped their weapons as they began running towards the Holden. Behind them, they heard the crunch as the truck drove straight through Byron, who had been too confused to know what was going to happen to him.
Sam expected his own bones to crunch in a split second.
Then he saw the flash and turned.
The tank piercing M9 rocket had burned its way inside the Mercedes’s engine block. A split second later the entire thing erupted in a ball of fire and shrapnel.
Behind him, James, put the bazooka down and said, “Boom — look at that thing explode!”
Sam wasted no time trying to plan his next move. With the remains of both six-wheelers still burning, the three men got back into the Holden and continued to follow the trail.
Picking up his cell, Sam called Elise.
“Hello, Sam.” The voice sounded younger than he’d imagined. More like a girl in her early twenties than a woman. He’d never actually spoken to her. In fact, he’d often wondered whether Elise was simply an alias. In the years that he’d used her services, he’d always done so through a secure internet connection at her direction. “You must be in trouble.” she said.
She had intentionally kept their relationship untraceable, but given him the number to call, if he ever became desperate.
Now was one of those times.
“You were right. Rodriguez is an asshole, and he’s taken Aliana. I need you to find him before he leaves the country.”
“Okay. Where was he last seen?” she asked. Sam could hear her feverishly tapping away at her keyboard, most likely accessing a number of overhead satellites.
“He was driving a grey six-wheel Mercedes, somewhere near our current location, about half an hour ago. I’ll just read you my GPS coordinates.”
“Don’t bother, I’ve already acquired them from your cell phone.”
Sam gripped the edge of the car for stability, as his father swung around another corner.
“Oh, Sam, what have you been doing?” Elise said, as if she were admonishing a child. “You’ve left two burning trucks, and at least one dead person… there’ll be an investigation, you know.”
“We can deal with that later. Right now, I need to know where Rodriguez has gone — can’t you track Aliana’s cell phone or something?”
“No, it’s signal disappeared about twenty miles to the north, presumably where she was captured, perhaps? Hang on, I’m trying something else… okay, got it.”
“Where?”
“Someone’s started warming up the engines on his jet at Bendigo airport…”
“But is Aliana there?”
“No, but if its engines are turning over, they must be expecting him. I’ll run a search within fifty miles of the airport.”
James turned on to the blacktop and headed towards Bendigo. The speedometer, Sam noticed, was creeping upwards, and was reaching for a hundred miles per hour.
“Okay, found him. He’s thirty miles out of Bendigo.”
Sam pulled out the GPS on his phone. “We’re 80 miles away. There’s no way we’re going to make it in time. Can you stall the plane’s takeoff?”
Elise laughed, “I appreciate the vote of confidence, Sam, but there’s nothing I can do to convince a privately own A380 that it doesn’t want to take off.”
“What about the police? Can you send them a false terrorist threat or something?”
“That could be arranged, not that it would do much good. The airport is empty and the nearest police are 80 miles away.”
The Holden started to shudder with vibrations as it reached the 100 mile-per-hour mark.
“All right, we’ll try our best. Can you find if they’ve lodged a flight plan, maybe we can cut him off at his destination?”
“Sorry, nothing logged yet.”
“Okay, thanks Elise, call me back as soon as you know anything.”
“Will do.”
Forty-five minutes later, they arrived at the back runway of the Bendigo airport.
At the far end of the airport, the gigantic, specialized, A380 looked unnatural in its surroundings. In fact, had it been the standard, commercial model, the plane would have had nowhere near enough runway to take off, but Rodriguez had obviously had it built specifically to decrease its takeoff distance.
“There!” Sam pointed it out before they’d even driven into the grounds of the airport.
James turned the car and drove straight through the wired fence designed to keep wildlife off the runway, “I see them.”
Giant dust spirals, fifty feet high, were forming, behind the airbus.
“They’re getting ready to take off!” James said.
And then it started moving towards them.
Sam reached for his machine gun, and pointed it towards the front of the plane.
The plane began picking up speed.
His finger began squeezing the trigger.
Tom pulled it downward, and a number of bullets sprayed the ground ahead. “It’s started the takeoff. Anything you do now will just get her killed!”
James, pulled the car off to the side of the runway, as the nose of the plane left the runway.
Sam swore and punched the dashboard. “We lost her!”
He felt Tom’s hand on his shoulder. “It’s all right, we’ll find out where they’re headed, and then someone will be waiting for them when they land.”
Two hours later, Sam received a call from Elise.
“Have you got their destination?” he asked, immediately.