Andy McDermott - The Tomb Of Hercules

“Stopping them from taking off!”

“How? By crashing into them? You’ll kill her!”

Chase knew she was right, but couldn’t think of anything else to do. “I’m not letting him take her!”

“You can’t stop him!” The helicopter was already rising, dust swirling beneath its skids. “We’ll never get there in time!”

“We’d be going faster if you’d dumped the load when I told you!”

“Oh, don’t you start blaming me for this!” Nina snarled.

Yuen’s helicopter cleared the pad and wheeled around, nose dipping as it turned for the airfield. “Shit!” said Chase, banging a fist on the wheel. He watched helplessly as the chopper gained height and flew over the marquee.

“Eddie!” Nina pointed. President Molowe’s helicopter was parked in their path near the tent, its rotors building up speed, and in front of it was a line of soldiers.

Taking aim…

Chase didn’t need to issue a warning for Nina to throw herself flat on the cab floor. He dropped too, leaning almost horizontally to shield himself behind the dashboard as rifle bullets ripped into the cab. The rest of the windshield exploded, fragments cascading over the dash like a crystal wave. Shots punched through the cab’s steel walls, one of the video monitors blowing apart. The accelerator pedal kicked beneath his foot, the mechanism hit somewhere, but the engine kept roaring at full power.

Unable to see, all he could do was hold the wheel steady and keep going-

The firing stopped, the soldiers breaking ranks and running as the truck surged towards them. The helicopter’s main rotor hadn’t quite reached takeoff speed-the aircraft’s occupants jumped out of the cabin and fled in panic, a soldier practically dragging Molowe out of the juggernaut’s path.

The rotor blades sliced into the front of the truck, ripping the stairs to pieces before striking the solid steel framework of the truck’s body and shattering like glass.

An instant later, the Liebherr slammed into the helicopter.

The chopper flipped onto its side, the fuselage disintegrating and the long tail boom snapping off to cartwheel away. Fire bloomed inside the engine compartment. The crushed wreckage was bowled along by the bumper for a moment-

Then it exploded, a dull thump of igniting fuel followed almost instantly by a louder, sharper detonation as the engine blew apart. Debris showered the front of the truck.

“Bloody hell!” Chase gasped as a burning shard of metal bounced off the cab roof and hit his arm. He kept the accelerator pressed down. There was a jolt as one of the wheels ran over the remains of the chopper, then the crushed wreckage was strewn out in their wake. He sat up-and saw something large directly ahead. “Oh, shit!”

Nina had just raised her head when the truck swayed violently, banging her against the cab door as Chase tried to avoid the marquee.

He wasn’t successful. The giant vehicle swept through the VIP end of the tent, tables and champagne bottles shattering beneath the mighty wheels. Nina caught a brief glimpse of the marquee’s interior, waiters fleeing for the exits at the far end, before the tent roof was ripped free and the whole thing collapsed.

Checking the remaining video monitors, Chase saw the crumpled marquee falling behind, and beyond it the burning wreckage of the helicopter. “Great,” he moaned as he aimed the truck back towards the road, “that’s another African leader who wants me dead.” He squinted into the dry wind rushing through the broken windshield. Yuen’s helicopter was still in sight ahead, now descending at the end of its short flight.

Nina levered herself upright. “He might still get the chance.”

“What do you mean?”

“He’s got tanks at that checkpoint, remember?”

Chase made a dismissive noise. “There’s no way they’ll be able to ready them this fast. Besides, they’re just for show.” He brought the truck onto the road to the airfield, hitting the celebratory banner spanning it like a runner breaking the tape at the finish line. The banner was ripped free of its support poles and snagged on the truck’s cab-level walkway, ropes snaking from it as it flapped furiously in the wind.

He turned towards the gate-to see both of the Leopards moving to block the road beyond the checkpoint, turrets swiveling to bring their main guns to bear.

Buggeration and fuckery!” Chase yelled.

“Just for show, huh?” Nina said sarcastically as she ducked back behind the seat.

He didn’t reply, instead pulling frantically at the wheel to turn the truck off the road, trying to put the high fence and the raised dirt berm between himself and the tanks to block their line of fire. A single tank shell hitting the front of the truck would destroy the engine-but that would hardly matter, as both he and Nina would already be dead. He looked out of the side of the cab. One tank had disappeared behind the fence, but the other was still tracking him with its gun-

The shot didn’t come. The tank crews might have been fast enough off the mark to block the road, but hadn’t yet managed to load their guns. It wouldn’t take long, though.

Yuen’s helicopter was now out of sight behind the corrugated fence. Either it had landed or was just about to, and considering the circumstances the pilot of Yuen’s private jet was probably gearing up for a very fast takeoff. There didn’t seem to be any way Chase could rescue Sophia.

But he still had to try …

“How are we going to get out?” Nina asked.

He nodded at the fence on the crest of the sloping wall of earth ahead. “You ever seen The Great Escape?”

“Yes -no,”she gulped, realizing what he had in mind. “No, you’re not seriously going to-”

Chase grimly set his jaw. “Hope we do better than Steve McQueen. You know how you think that pendant of yours is lucky?”

“Yes?”

“Now’d be a good time to use it. Hang on!” He floored the accelerator.

The truck charged forward like a bull, moving at over thirty miles per hour and still gaining speed as it hit the bottom of the berm and shot upwards. Clutching her pendant, Nina screamed-The fence blew into fragments as the truck plowed through it, over six hundred tons of metal and rubber and stone airborne as it jumped over the top of the obstacle…

Then it hit the ground, the force of the impact so huge that the foot-thick tires rippled . A massive spray of dust erupted from beneath the wheels, the shock wave running like a mini-earthquake through the ground strong enough to knock soldiers and security guards off their feet and flip 4×4s parked at the gate onto their sides. Car-size boulders were tossed out of the truck and smashed into the ground like meteorites.

Both Nina and Chase screamed as the front end of the truck bounced back up into the air. It crashed down again, throwing a choking wave of dust and broken stones over the front of the tipper and into the cab. Partially blinded, Chase battled to keep hold of the wheel, turning it in the general direction of the runway.

“Nina! Are you okay?”

“Oh, super fine,” came an angry voice from the floor behind his seat, “except for my shattered pelvis!”

“You’re okay.” The dust blew away as the truck picked up speed once more, the banner flapping in the wind. He could see the airfield ahead. There was TD’s plane parked among the others-

And a sleek private jet, already moving into takeoff position.

Chase had no doubts whose plane it was. “He’s taking off!” Heat plumes flared and rippled from the jet’s engines, dust kicking up behind it.

“You can’t catch up!” Nina yelled. “We’re too far away, we’ll never make it in time!”