James Rouch - Sky Strike

The crud, he fucking knew. All that loot, if only he’d kept a bit in his pockets, spread it about a little… Dooley thought, and remembered, He slid down the canted floor of the hull and reached for the jammed door of the safe. Shit, he’d get the damned thing open if he had to tear it apart with his teeth. Through a gaping corner he could see a glint of yellow metal.

As he took a firm grip of the hot metal and started to pull, the interior of the APC was suddenly brilliantly lit as the flames reached the fuel tank and it began to burn in earnest. Dooley felt the heat on his back, and then suddenly there was a searing pain in his foot and he had to beat out the flames on his boot. Fire was all around him and he was forced back, feeling it scorching his face and hands.

The major was the first to reach Cline, and dragged him to the side of the field where Andrea helped fix a tourniquet above the stump of his left leg. Deeply in shock, the bombardier was attempting to make a note of his injuries in his logbook.

Apart from minor wounds caused by fragments from the stray mine Cline had stepped on, all of the others made it. Then Revell looked again, and counted. Libby was missing.

Blazing wreckage and intense mortar fire obscured the minefield, and made returning to it out of the question. He’d last seen Libby staring at the remains of one of the girls, and had thought he’d been with them when they’d run for the shelter of the sunken road.

It wasn’t possible to be certain, perhaps the smoke was playing tricks with his eyes, but briefly he glimpsed what looked like the figure of a man. Unarmed, bareheaded, it was walking back towards the farm, back into the Zone.

A Canadian armoured car stopped alongside. Its commander surveyed the burning APC. ‘There’s a field-dressing station half a mile down the road. Did all your men get out?’

The smoke thickened and Revell didn’t see the figure again. ‘Yes, all those who wanted to.’

General Pakovski had heard the car pull up outside, its doors slam, and now the commotion in the outer office. He had failed, and they were coming for him. Picking up the pistol he checked that a round was chambered. The door burst open and two KGB officers strode in. They paused, then stopped when they saw the pistol

‘You have left it too late for that.’

The senior KGB man reached forward to snatch up the weapon, and died with a bullet through his forehead. The other went down with two through his heart before he’d had time to display a reaction.

It was a pity it was over. Pakovski holstered the pistol and picked up his briefcase. He had enjoyed the power and the trappings that had gone with it. Now there was only one place he could go, only one place where he might be safe. It was his turn to laugh as he stepped over the bodies. He laughed again. In the whole of the war, he was the only man to ever go willingly into the Zone…

HARD TARGET

BLIND FIRE

HUNTER-KILLER

SKY STRIKE

OVERKILL

KILLING GROUND

PLAGUE BOMB

CIVILIAN SLAUGHTER

BODY COUNT

DEATH MARCH

Copyright © 1981 by James Rouch

An Imprint Original Publication, 2005

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without permission of the publishers.

First E-Book Edition 2005

Second IMRPINT April 2007

The characters in this book are the product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to living persons is purely coincidental.

THE ZONE

THE ZONE E-Books are published by

IMPRINT Publications, 3 Magpie Court

High Wycombe, WA 6057. AUSTRALIA.

Produced under licence from the Author, all rights reserved. Created in Australia by Ian Taylor © 2005