Part 28 (1/2)
”What about gettingus out of here safely?” Stretch asked.
”Only Lily matters. The rest of us are secondary. If we can't get out ourselves, we have to get her away. She's more important than any of us.” He offered Stretch a wry look.
”Sorry, buddy.”
”Nice to know where I stand in the scheme of things.”
Jack nodded at the scene ahead of them: ”See that last bus in the convoy, the one trailing behind all the others.”
”Yeah...”
”I want it.”
Wizard drove frantically.
He gripped the steering wheel of his stolen Suburban with white knuckles, anxiously swinging his eyes between three sources: the road in front of him, the convoy of pursuers behind him, and the pa.s.senger seat next to him-in which Lily lolled lifelessly, swaying with every b.u.mp in the road, her eyes closed, b.l.o.o.d.y scratches on her face.
The chase cars were catching up, filling his rearview mirror. Two fearsomelooking Humvees with gun turrets on their backs were about to pull up on either side of his Suburban.
”Sky Monster!” he yelled. ”Where are you!”
”Here!”
Voooooom!
Without warning, the enormous black underbelly of theHalicarna.s.sus thundered low over the top of Wizard's car and landed on the highway in front of him, its rear loading ramp folding open as it did so...right in front of Wizard's speeding car.
”OK! I'll slow a little! Bring yourself on board!”Sky Monster's voice called.
The big black 747 rolled along the desert blacktop at a cool 80 mph, its wings stretched out over the dusty shoulder, speeding out in front of the collection of cars on the roadway.
Wizard floored the Suburban.
It leaped forward, heading directly for the yawning rear ramp of the jumbo.
At which point, the two Humvees behind it opened fire.
Bullet sparks exploded all over the Suburban and the plane, even in the hold up inside the loading ramp.
The rear and side windows of the Suburban shattered. Wizard ducked, s.h.i.+elding his face.
But he remained focused on the ramp of theHalicarna.s.sus.
The Suburban began to wobble and slide, but he held her tight and with a final thrust on the gas pedal, he took the plunge and lunged at the ramp...and hit it perfectly...and swooped up into the rear hold of theHali where he slammed full tilt into the forward wall!
The Suburban jolted to a halt, safely inside.
”Oh my goodness, I did it...” Wizard exclaimed.
”Jesus, Wizard, you did it!”Sky Monster said.”Man, I thought you were going to miss by a yard! Nice driving, Fangio...”
Wizard turned to check on Lily, and he saw her eyes open weakly.
”Hi there. Nice to see you awak-”
He was cut off as their car was jolted violently, hit from behind by one of the Egyptian Humvees that had itself charged up the loading ramp after them!
Wizard was thrown forward, then he snapped round and saw the intruder.
Instinct kicked in.
He jammed the Suburban into reverse and hit the gas.
The Suburban lurched backward and slammed into the unsuspecting Humvee, shunting itback down the ramp and out of the plane, back into the suns.h.i.+ne, where the hapless Humvee hit the road and, its brakes locking, jackknifed sideways and tumbled into a roll.
Two chase cars managed to avoid it before a third car-a big troop truck-hit it square in the side and finished both of them off.
”Sky Monster!” Wizard called from the hold. ”Pull up that ramp and go!”
”On it, Wiz!”
TheHali 's engines roared louder, firing up for takeoff. At the same time, the loading ramp came up and through the slowly closing aperture, Wizard saw the chase convoy-an angry body of heavily armed vehicles.
But then just as the ramp was about halfway closed, he saw the convoy split in the middle and allow a Humvee to come to the front: a Humvee with a rocketlauncher pod mounted on its back.
The Humvee fired-a single lethal rocket streaking out of its pod, and Wizard's eyes boggled at the thought that the rocket might shoot inside the hold and go off, but instead the missile banked away to the side, darting out of Wizard's sight.
He sighed with relief. A miss.
Only to realize a sickening moment later that it wasn't a miss at all.
For right then he heard one of theHali 's two starboard engines get hit.
IT WAS A DIRECT HIT-the missile slammed into theHalicarna.s.sus 's outer starboard engine, causing it to blast out in a thousand pieces and spew a thick horizontal column of black smoke.
”f.u.c.k me sideways!”Sky Monster yelled, flicking switches, dumping fuel that could be ignited by the exploded engine and cutting all excess lines so that the fire didn't spread to the tanks inside the wing.
He looked out his starboard c.o.c.kpit window. The engine was a tangled mess of twisted metal and smoke. He'd have to jettison it. Takeoff was still possible, but with only three engines it would be a whole lot harder: they'd need a longer runway.
The damage had been done.
The plane slowed.
And the chase convoy pounced.
It was an incredible sight.
A 747 jumbo jet racing down a vast desert highway, pursued by a horde of military vehicles-Humvees, jeeps, trucks, and coaches-all of them rus.h.i.+ng along at well over sixty miles an hour, like a pack of hyenas chasing down a wounded water buffalo.
When they got in range, the chase convoy attacked.