Andy McDermott - The Tomb Of Hercules

Suddenly the blizzard of broken leaves ceased. The airboat shot out of the reed bed, entering a stagnant marshy lake semi-isolated from the river by mud banks. A few seconds later, the first powerboat burst from the reeds some fifty feet to starboard.

Nina instantly recognized Fang as one of the three men in the boat. He gave her a nasty smile. The smile vanished as she whipped up the gun and fired off the remaining rounds at him. The boat’s driver ducked and turned the vessel sharply away from her.

“Son of a bitch!” Nina snarled as the gun clicked empty. The speedboat swung back around. Fang jabbed an angry finger at her. She displayed a finger of her own, which served only to infuriate him even more.

He brought up an MP-5, as did the other passenger in the backseat, both men aiming at the airboat-

“Shit!” Chase yelled as the second boat drew level on the port side. A man inside it was also aiming a weapon-but this was no submachine gun. It was an American M72 rocket launcher. “RPG!”

Nina didn’t need to know what the initials stood for to realize that they were in serious trouble-the warning in Chase’s voice was enough. She dropped as low as she could into the airboat’s hull, arms covering her head.

The man with the tubular launcher lined up the sight on Chase, braced himself for the recoil…

And fired.

Chase pulled savagely on the steering levers and spun the airboat a full 360 degrees as it skimmed over the turgid water, the rocket missing him by inches as he was whipped out of its path. Its smoke trail streaked past-and hit the security guard in the back of the other speedboat square in his chest.

He was hurled over the side of the boat, the missile’s rocket motor still burning as he hit the water-then it exploded, a bright red waterspout gushing fifty feet into the air, pieces of body spinning within it.

The speedboat’s driver stared slackly at Fang, in shock at his near miss. Chase swerved the airboat sharply to starboard, aiming at their vessel. Fang shouted a warning, but too late.

Chase slammed his craft broadside-on against the speedboat. The driver and Fang were both knocked from their seats, the latter’s MP-5 whirling over the side of the boat and disappearing into the churned-up, bloody water.

The second boat turned to follow as Chase accelerated away. Some distance beyond it, the third boat finally broke through the wall of reeds and rejoined the chase.

Nina lifted her head. “What happened?”

“One-nil to us!”

“One boat?”

“One guy.”

“Is that all?”

Chase scowled. “Okay, let’s not keep score.” He rapidly checked the surrounding area. More reeds on the other side of the lake, and a long, thin island rising slightly above the water, a few twisted trees along its length…

And something else in the water, in front of the island.

He aimed the airboat at the dark objects lurking just under the surface. “What are you doing?” Nina asked. “You’re heading straight for that island!”

“I know!”

“Shouldn’t you, maybe, go around it?”

“Shortcut!” Chase yelled. He could now make out more of the shapes, even the smallest of them as big as the airboat.

Nina saw them too. “What are those?” she demanded anxiously.

“Hippos!”

“What?”

It was indeed a herd of hippos, wallowing in the still waters of the lake, only their eyes and nostrils exposed. Fully grown, an adult hippopotamus weighed more than four tons-and despite its almost comical appearance, possessed a vicious temper. Even the slightest provocation could rile a hippo to a lethal anger.

Which was exactly what Chase needed.

He checked the positions of the other boats. The nearest was twenty yards behind, the late arrival more than a hundred yards farther back. Fang and his driver had only just recovered from the collision, their speedboat coming back to life with a surge of froth from its stern.

“I know I keep saying this,” he shouted to Nina, “but hold on tight!”

She hugged her arms tightly around one of the bench seats. “Why are you driving at hippos? Are you insane?”

Chase couldn’t hold back a smile as he remembered being asked that same question by another woman only a few days before. “It’s been suggested!” He looked for a hippo that was more or less lengthways-on to him, found one, steered the airboat at it-

The enormous animal was only a few inches below the water, less than the airboat’s draft. There was a hollow bang as the prow rode up the hippo’s rump and over its back. Roaring in surprise and fury, the hippo thrust its huge head upwards-just as the airboat’s flat bottom skidded over it. The speeding vessel was thrown out of the water.

Only for a moment, only by inches-but it was just enough for it to clear the lip of the bank. The airboat skidded on its belly across the island, scraping over tree roots and rocks before splashing back down into the river on the other side.

Nina and Chase looked back.

The entire herd had been roused to instant collective rage by their passage, the calm waters erupting as furious hippos burst from their torpor to find a target for their anger.

The lead speedboat, its driver already committed to following Chase and Nina over the crest of the little island, fit the bill perfectly.

A fifteen-foot bull hippo exploded from the water directly beneath the speedboat and batted it into the air as if it were a plastic toy. One of the three men in the boat flew out and plunged screaming into the midst of the rampage to be instantly crushed to death.

His two companions fared no better, the vessel flipping end over end and smashing into a tree. It sheared in two, the forward half shattering against the gnarled trunk along with its occupant, the rear section cartwheeling over the ground-and blowing to pieces in a huge ball of flame.

“Now it’s one-nil!” Chase whooped, pumping a fist.

The two other boats hurriedly changed direction, splitting up to avoid the hippos and pass around each end of the island.

Nina looked ahead as Chase revved the engine and powered away from the island, hoping to take advantage of their brief lead over the speedboats. She couldn’t see much except the deeper water of the river off to the left, and another thick bank of reeds to the right. “Which way do we go now?”

Chase was asking himself the same question. The speedboats could still outpace them on open water, which left him no alternative but to head into the reeds and try to lose them.

But then what? Fang must have worked out by now that they were heading north, so even if they did manage to shake them off by hiding in the mass of vegetation, his two boats could just break off, go upriver and wait for their prey.

Which meant… they had to get rid of Fang and his men. Take out their pursuers. Go on the offensive.

Something of a problem, considering their lack of weapons.

Chase took a moment to survey the contents of the airboat from his vantage point. An oar secured to one side of the hull, the mooring rope, a hook at its end…

An idea came to him. He made a sharp right turn, heading back towards the nearer speedboat. “Chuck me that rope!”

“You’re going towards them!” Nina protested.

“I know! The rope, chuck it up here!”

She did, then dropped as low as she could in the hull as Chase caught the rope and hefted the hook in one hand. The speedboat was approaching rapidly, the three men aboard barely able to believe their luck as their quarry came straight to them.

Chase worked the steering levers to sway the airboat, trying to make himself a harder target. The men on the powerboat realized that he was charging right for them in a suicide run and opened fire. Chase hunched down as bullets whipped past, the boat taking hits. Another piece of grillwork was blown off.