The driver shouted commands to the other man in the cab, who grabbed his rifle and leaned out of the window, trying to curl his gun arm around the transporter’s front.
Eddie flattened himself against the bull bars as a bullet cracked past him. The soldier stretched further out. The Yorkshireman hurriedly climbed sideways. There was a gap in the middle of the hefty metal bumper to accommodate a winch. He dropped into the space as another round whipped by. A third shot clanged against the bumper just above him. He tried to squeeze deeper into the recess, a protruding lever jabbing painfully against his chest—
It moved — and the winch whirred, a hefty hook lowering on a heavy-duty steel cable. It hit the road and was immediately snatched backwards to bang noisily against the cab’s underside. Eddie considered replicating a famous stunt from Raiders of the Lost Ark by grabbing the cable and letting himself be dragged along beneath the transporter, but instantly dismissed the idea as suicide; on the curving road, he would be crushed by the massive wheels.
Instead he shoved the lever back to the stop position before taking hold of the winch assembly itself and dangling from it. His position was precarious in the extreme, but he was as shielded as he could possibly be from the soldier’s bullets.
As if to make the point, another round ricocheted off the bumper above him. The North Korean shouted angrily, then withdrew.
Eddie was about to pull himself back up when he heard a bang. The soldier had climbed out on to the cab’s ladder-like steps, slamming the door behind him so he could reach the truck’s front… for a clear shot.
A long dangling line from the microlight’s wrecked wing flicked at Nina’s face. She ducked away from it, continuing towards the transporter’s rear. The rocket rattled and squealed against its restraints above her.
Her wounded arm was slowing her. The Korean soldier closed in, thrusting the knife. She tried to dodge — but the blade slashed the back of her shoulder.
She screamed, almost losing her grip. The soldier smiled, the headlights of the jeep approaching from behind revealing dirty, crooked teeth. He waved the knife at her, taunting, enjoying the moment before he got the rare privilege of killing a foreign spy…
The hanging line slapped against the back of his head. Startled by the unexpected touch, he jerked around to see if someone was behind him. Nobody there. He looked back—
Nina seized the line and snapped it like a lasso to loop it around his throat.
The man let out a choked yelp as she pulled it as hard as she could, swinging the wing outwards from the clamp above. It caught the slipstream — and broke free.
The wing acted like a braking parachute. The soldier was about to hack the line with his knife when he was abruptly yanked from the transporter by his neck. He landed in front of the jeep, taking the 4x4’s solid metal bumper to his face with a gruesome smack.
Nina regained her hold and climbed back on to the cradle. The missile juddered alarmingly above her, rivets straining and tearing—
The TEL lurched sideways. There was a nauseating moment as it teetered on the brink, then wallowed back upright. With the rocket drawing ever closer to the vertical, the transporter was now massively top-heavy… and threatening to tip over at any second.
The driver realised the danger and stamped on the brake pedal. Kang had ordered the convoy not to stop out of fear of American saboteurs, but the threat of the transporter capsizing was infinitely more tangible. The speedometer needle plunged.
The sudden deceleration swung Eddie outwards from his cover. One hand lost its grip on the winch. The other held, but he twisted uncontrollably as he dropped back, the jutting lever hitting his ribs.
He cried out, looking up — to see the soldier lean around the cab and take aim.
Nina had been thrown off her feet as the TEL braked, sliding forward and hitting the hydraulic ram. She grabbed it to save herself from falling over the side, only to face a new threat. The jeep started to overtake the transporter as it went around a right-hand bend, the passengers bringing up their rifles. With the missile elevated, they were free to shoot without the risk of hitting it—
More rivets tore free with gunshot snaps, panels buckling as the rocket ground against the clamp — then with a screech of shearing metal the claws broke apart…
And the weapon toppled like a felled tree.
Nina screamed—
The missile clashed against the erector arm above her as the TEL turned, rolling over it — on to the jeep.
The 4x4 and the men inside were pounded into the road as the missile landed on top of them. It rolled crazily back across the road behind the transporter, tumbling over the edge into the trees below. The fuel tanks burst open, kerosene and chemical-laced nitric acid splashing together—
Another colossal fireball lit up the night as the missile blew apart. The blast shredded trees into splinters and tore a crater out of the hillside, a stretch of road a hundred feet long sliding into the inferno in the transporter’s wake.
The rocket’s fall threw the already unstable TEL wildly off balance, slamming the soldier clinging to its front against the cab. He dropped his rifle, the Type 58 bouncing along the road — then the transporter lurched violently back upright. The Korean was flung into the blazing forest. Toppling trees smashed down on top of him.
The driver’s foot was still jammed on the brake. The reeling transporter skidded, slewing sideways before juddering to a halt just short of another bend.
The lurch finally cost Eddie his hold on the winch. He fell, landing hard and bowling towards the drop—
He caught a white marker stone, stopping with his legs hanging over the precipice. Aching, winded, he lay still for several seconds as his dizziness subsided.
The crackle of burning trees and the thrum of the transporter’s idling engine masked another sound until it was almost upon him. He looked up at a crunch of grit — to see a pair of combat boots just a few feet away.
One of them swung at him—
He jerked up an arm to protect his head. The kick caught his elbow with punishing force, knocking him backwards over the edge. He clawed at the dirty ground, fingers closing around a stone embedded in the earth just before he fell.
The TEL’s driver loomed over him, silhouetted by the truck’s lights. He had a pistol in one hand, but although he could have simply shot the defenceless Englishman, he had a more sadistic fate in mind.
His foot came down upon Eddie’s knuckles.
Eddie gasped at the pain, the driver shifting ever more weight on to his hand. Then suddenly it was gone, but he knew the relief was just the briefest prelude before the man’s boot stamped down again—
‘Hey! Drop it!’
The shout came from behind the soldier. Nina had jumped from the transporter and retrieved the rifle, aiming it at the Korean.
The man whirled—
She shot him before he could even raise his gun. He fell past Eddie and disappeared down the hillside below.
‘Eddie!’ Nina ran to him, dropping the gun and pulling him up. ‘Oh God, oh my God! I thought I’d lost you.’ She held him tightly, tears running down her cheeks with the sudden release of emotion. ‘Idiot! Jumping from a plane…’
Eddie managed a strained laugh as he hugged her. ‘Yeah, okay, it could’ve gone better. But you weren’t exactly Mrs Sensible either.’ He looked over her shoulder at the TEL, the empty crane now fully elevated. Beyond it, the night sky was aglow with the light of the burning forest. ‘Why did you raise the missile? That’s insane!’
‘It was an accident! I was trying to lower those jacks to stop the truck.’