Andy McDermott - The Midas Legacy

‘Well?’ snapped Kang after the co-pilot had gabbled a report.

Petrov gave him a disbelieving look. ‘We are… pulling it behind us.’

‘Pulling what ?’

‘The truck, the truck that was chasing us! They must have got a cable around the landing gear.’

‘Then close it, cut the cable!’

‘ The landing gear is damaged ,’ the Russian repeated with impatient contempt. ‘It won’t close. We have to turn back and land again — it is too dangerous to fly like this.’

‘No!’ said Kang. ‘We do not go back, we must—’

‘Are you a pilot? Can you fly a plane? No? Then shut up and let me fly this one!’ The pilot turned back angrily to the controls, leaving the colonel fuming impotently.

A voice came through the crew’s headsets: the control tower at the airbase. Even without being able to hear the exchange, Kang could tell from its urgency that the situation was about to get worse. Both men in the front seats peered down at the ground, regarding the runway with growing concern as the Antonov made a wide circle over the airfield. ‘We… we can’t land,’ Petrov told the Korean. ‘The runway is blocked, there is wreckage on it. But we can’t reach another airfield if we are pulling the truck; it will make the plane too hard to fly.’

‘Then we stop pulling it,’ Kang snapped. He glanced at a monitor screen at one of the crew stations, which showed CCTV images of the huge hold below them. The lone missile rocked uneasily in its cradle, only a few of the straps meant to secure it actually in place. But it was the other items of cargo that caught his interest. ‘Can the plane fly with the rear ramp down?’

‘Yes, it was designed so paratroopers could jump from it. But—’

‘Then open it. Now!’ He reverted to his native language as he addressed Sek. ‘The weapons you were assigned — they’re all in the hold, yes?’

‘Yes, sir,’ Sek replied.

‘Good. Then we’ll break out a rocket launcher — and blow up the transporter!’

Nina braced herself in the footwell, holding on to the now-useless steering wheel and one of the door handles as the transporter swayed through the sky behind the Antonov. The freighter still had its landing gear extended as it circled the military base. Was it going to land again? If the plane returned to the ground, she and Eddie would be killed. There was no way the broken-backed TEL would touch down neatly on its remaining wheels…

Movement on the plane — the clamshell doors cracking apart. Light flooded through the widening gap, spotlights inside illuminating the bare ribbed framework of the fuselage and the giant loading ramp blocking the rear of the hold. What were they doing?

She shouted to Eddie, pointing to alert him of the new development. He twisted painfully to look. ‘Shit!’ he shouted, the glass muffling his voice. ‘The winch — wind it in!’

‘Why?’

‘The only reason they’d open the back door in flight is to jump out from it — or shoot at us!’

She hurriedly shifted position to push the larger lever forward. She was almost surprised when the winch started, convinced that the punishment it had endured would have destroyed the mechanism. But it began to take up the steel cable again, albeit with a protesting whine.

Eddie looked back at the Antonov. The clamshell doors opened fully. A moment later, the ramp laboriously began to lower. He knew what — or rather who — would be waiting behind it. ‘Get a gun!’ he called to Nina. ‘Soon as that ramp comes down, they’ll start shooting — you need to get ’em first!’

‘I can’t open the door!’ she protested as she retrieved a rifle from the footwell, where it had ended up during the truck’s wild ride.

‘Then shoot out the window!’

Nina reluctantly pointed the Type 58 at the driver’s door, turning the fire selector to what she hoped was single-shot mode. ‘I’d normally say this is a terrible idea,’ she muttered, ‘but compared to every other one we’ve had today, it barely moves the needle…’

She cringed — and pulled the trigger.

The noise of the gunshot was excruciating in the cab’s confines — but it was nothing against the sudden roar from outside. The bullet itself had only made a coin-sized hole in the glass, but a fraction of a second later the entire pane disintegrated, to be sucked out into the void. The cabin turned into a whirlwind as loose items were snatched up by the vortex.

Eddie stared at her with a what the hell? expression. ‘I meant shoot out of the window — after you wind it down!’

‘No, you said— Oh God damn it!’ Nina shielded her eyes as grit and papers and even the spent bullet cartridge swatted at her face, then squinted past her husband. The Antonov was drawing closer, running lights illuminating its operator’s logo on the towering tailfin. Beneath it were the gaping rear doors, the ramp slowly unfolding to reveal the hold beyond.

Kang left Sek in the cockpit to watch the pilots, not trusting the Russians not to lock him and his men out should they be left unattended, while he went with the other soldier and the aircraft’s loadmaster to deal with the transporter.

Even though only one missile had been loaded aboard, cradles were in place for all three, so the forward ladder to the hold couldn’t be lowered. Instead, the men had to go back down the length of the upper deck, past the little crew cabins and galley and through a small passenger section where the other soldiers anxiously awaited news of what was happening. Their commander didn’t deign to inform them, instead continuing onwards until they reached the steep rear ladder. A cold wind gusted up from below.

‘Get an RPG, quick,’ Kang ordered the soldier. ‘Meet me at the ramp.’ The young man saluted and scurried down the ladder. The colonel turned to the loadmaster. ‘You, come down with me. I want to see what is happening.’

‘This very bad idea, you know?’ protested the Russian as he descended into the hold. ‘Rocket not secure, plane not steady — many bad things can happen! If ramp open, then if plane go up, we all fall out!’

‘Then hold on,’ Kang growled as he followed him down. By the time he reached the bottom, the soldier had run to the front of the hold and was opening a case containing an RPG-7 rocket launcher. Looking the other way, he saw that the ramp was still only about halfway down. He glared at the loadmaster. ‘Make it go faster!’

‘I… I can’t,’ the startled man replied.

‘Idiot,’ Kang snarled. He stalked to the rear of the hold, pausing to maintain his footing as the plane swayed. It had its flaps fully extended for maximum lift at the low speed that was all Petrov dared risk, but even an aircraft as large as the An-124 was susceptible to turbulence, and the pendulous weight of the truck swinging behind it only made the movement more unpredictable. He took hold of one of the ribs running up the hold’s wall and peered out through the slowly widening gap.

At first he saw nothing but darkness, but then a flash from one of the Antonov’s navigation lights picked out something nearby. He waited a few seconds until it came again. A line in the sky, running back from the plane’s starboard underside…

He tilted his head, looking around the obstructive ramp — and was startled to see headlights shining back at him. The missile transporter was indeed being hauled behind the An-124, bobbing and weaving like a kite.

Wait — it was getting closer! It took him a moment to realise how: the TELs were fitted with a winch in case they became stuck in muddy ground. But it couldn’t be operated remotely, which meant…

Astonishment was followed by a sadistic smile as he saw that the man and woman who had destroyed Facility 17 — and almost certainly his career with it — were still in the vehicle. No, not in: on ! The bald man, Chase, was clinging to the front of the cab, his clothing flapping madly in the wind. Behind him, interior lights picked out the red hair of his wife.