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.