Eddie hauled him around, about to throw him off the ramp when he saw Nina skidding helplessly down it — and behind her, the transporter falling away—
The cable snapped taut.
Somehow it held, the truck pounding to a stop as if hitting an invisible wall. The aircraft was thrown off balance by a dozen tons of steel abruptly yanking at it like a dropped anchor. It pitched sharply nose-down, rolling back on to its right side. Both Eddie and Kang were catapulted across the hold.
The Korean landed on top of his opponent. Eddie stifled a scream as his ribs took another punishing impact. Kang slid off him, both men clawing for handholds as the floor tipped further forward.
They found them almost simultaneously, but Kang’s was more secure. He dragged himself upright as Eddie dangled below him, smiling malevolently as he raised his gun again…
A shriek from behind him as Nina flew over the top of the ramp into the hold and rolled down the sloping deck past the two men. Kang glanced at her in surprise—
Eddie swept one leg up to deliver a cartilage-cracking kick to his kneecap.
Kang screeched and tottered backwards — just as the Antonov’s pilot pulled back hard on the control yoke, putting it into a steep climb.
The Korean lost his balance and fell on to the ramp. He groped at the metal surface as he slid down it — finding no holds.
He hurtled into open space, screaming in terror—
The last thing he saw was the glare of the transporter’s headlights — then he hit the truck’s flat front with a gory splat, his innards bursting across it like a bug on a windscreen.
Shrill metallic cracks came from the cable as it started to shear apart, the steel strands snapping one by one…
Sek and his men had been hurrying aft through the upper deck when the Antonov began its crazy roller-coaster ride, hurling them all to the floor. After a stomach-churning age, it finally levelled out. ‘Get up!’ he shouted, struggling to his feet. ‘Get down to the hold! We’ve got to protect the missile, and kill the spies!’
The bruised soldiers doubled their pace towards the plane’s rear.
‘Enjoy your flight!’ Eddie yelled after the departed Kang. He crawled to Nina. ‘How was yours?’
‘It sucked,’ she said dizzily, surprised not just at being aboard the huge aircraft, but simply at being alive. ‘I didn’t even get a bag of peanuts— Oh, you are kidding me!’ she cried as someone shouted in Korean. They both looked up to see a soldier at the top of the ladder on the hold’s starboard side. ‘Why can’t these assholes just leave us alone?’
‘It’d ruin their military Koreas,’ said Eddie. The couple ran forward as Sek and his team clattered down the ladder. ‘Get on the other side of the missile. They won’t dare shoot at it. The whole fucking plane’d blow up!’
The rocket was in a long cradle, empty ones beside it. Stacked beyond the missile at the front of the hold were numerous crates and containers. They would provide cover, but it would not take long for the soldiers to round them. ‘There’s nowhere to go!’ Nina protested.
‘There might be guns in those cases,’ Eddie said, with little confidence.
They ducked behind the missile and scurried up the hold’s port side. Behind them, the soldiers jumped from the ladder. One man brought up his rifle, only for a shrieked order from Sek to stay his trigger finger. By the time some of the others had crossed the hold to get a clear line of sight on their targets, Eddie and Nina had taken cover behind a pair of wooden crates. Like the rest of the boxed cargo, they were held in place by quick-release straps attached to rings set into the deck.
‘Uh-oh,’ said Nina in alarm, recognising something behind them: the metal case containing one of the plutonium spheres. Two identical containers were secured nearby.
‘Those must be the warheads,’ Eddie said, seeing three larger crates accompanying them.
‘Great, so we’re five feet from a nuclear bomb.’
‘Not the first time.’
‘That’s hardly something to be proud of!’
‘At least this one’s not about to explode. Here, give me the—’
He hunched lower as gunfire echoed down the hold. Bullets cracked against the crate shielding them, the wood splintering. Flat metallic clunks came from inside as the rounds hit its contents. One side of the damaged box broke open, spilling gold bars on to the deck with heavy, ringing clunks.
‘At least we’ll die rich,’ said Nina, cringing as another bullet struck the plutonium case — then the shooting stopped.
‘Cease fire, cease fire!’ Sek screamed. ‘You’ll hit the warheads!’
His men hurriedly broke off the assault. ‘What do we do, sir?’ asked one.
The captain glared down the hold. ‘There are only two of them. You three, advance and take them from the front. The rest of us will go around the other side of the missile and attack from their flank.’
The soldiers who had been assigned to the first group were not happy. ‘If we can’t shoot at them, sir,’ said one, ‘what do we do if they shoot at us?’
‘Don’t question my orders, just do it! Go!’ He jabbed a finger at the crates, then led the other troops back around the missile to head down its starboard side. The remaining trio exchanged worried looks, then began their advance. When there was no immediate reaction from behind the gold crate, one man took a gamble and charged at it.
Nina heard his rapid approach. ‘Here they come!’
Eddie sprang upright and hurled a gold bar at the running man.
It was just as effective a blunt instrument as the one in the cellar of Detsen monastery. The twelve-kilogram brick hit the soldier in the face with a dull smack of flattening bone and gristle. He instantly flopped unconscious to the floor.
One of his comrades darted for the cover of a fuselage rib — then hesitated. Eddie knew what he was thinking: if the Englishman had been reduced to hurling lumps of metal, he was unarmed. And if he believed North Korea’s endless propaganda, he would think that all Westerners were cowards who would crumble when faced with the might of his nation’s military forces…
The man drew a combat knife and ran at them.
Eddie rushed out into the open to intercept him, not wanting to be cornered. The soldier stabbed the knife at him. He twisted to dodge it, his battered ribcage protesting with another burst of pain. The North Korean caught his involuntary grimace and realised he was hurt. He slashed at Eddie’s chest to force him back before driving the knife’s point at him once more.
This time it found its target, tearing through the flap of Eddie’s leather jacket. The Yorkshireman jinked aside just enough to keep it from plunging into his heart, but it still cut into his pectoral muscle. He screamed, lurching backwards as blood seeped from the tear in his clothing. The soldier drew back the knife to make a final, fatal strike—
The TEL’s cable snapped.
48
The remains of the truck at last succumbed to gravity and tumbled away. Its release suddenly made the Antonov’s load several tons lighter — and the great plane lurched upwards into a steep climb, the pilots caught off guard.
Both Eddie and the soldier fell to the deck, startled cries coming from the other side of the missile as Sek and his men were also knocked down. The Yorkshireman grabbed the nearest missile cradle. The soldier was less fortunate, scrabbling at the floor as he slid backwards towards the open doors. The unconscious man followed, as did the gold bar that had knocked him out — and its scattered companions from the broken crate.
Nina held on to one of the straps securing the bullion container and looked over its top. More men tumbled screaming towards the ramp from the other side of the hold.