Part 29 (2/2)
But then he saw the road behind him and a look of total despair fell across his face.
His enemy's reinforcements had arrived......in the form of six American Apache helicopters thundering low over the highway from the direction of Abu Simbel, blasting through the heat haze. Beneath them was another armada of military vehicles, this time American vehicles.
”I guess we know who's paying now,” he breathed as the lead chopper loosed two h.e.l.lfire missiles in his direction. ”Sky Monster-!”
Sky Monster charged into the c.o.c.kpit of theHalicarna.s.sus and slid into the captain's chair, hitting LOADING RAMP OPEN as he did so.
The rear loading ramp of theHali instantly lowered, kicking up sparks as it hit the fast moving roadway.
Then Jack's voice exploded in his ear:”Sky Monster! Deploy decoys, now, now, now!”
Sky Monster hit a b.u.t.ton markedCHAFF DECOYS -and immediately two firecracker like objects shot out from theHali 's tail, springing up into the air.
The first h.e.l.lfire missile hit one of the decoys and exploded harmlessly high above the speedingHalicarna.s.sus.
The second missile-confused by the decoys, but not completely suckered-shot right past them and slammed into the roadway next to the 747's right wing-causing the entire plane to shudder wildly and almost taking out the two Egyptian special forces coaches laying siege to that wing.
It was chaos. Total chaos.
And in the midst of all this mayhem, the plane and its chasers took a final bend in the road and swung onto the last straight stretch of highway in Egypt.
THINGS WERE happening everywhere now.
Sky Monster yelled into his radio: ”People, whatever you're gonna do, do it soon, because we're about to run out of road!”
As his bus took the final bend behind theHalicarna.s.sus, Stretch saw a third Egyptian bus swing unseen beneath the plane's left wing with men on its roof.
”Pooh Bear!” he called to the Freelander behind him. ”You'll have to make your run for the ramp by yourself! I have to get that bus!”
”Got it!”Pooh Bear replied.
Stretch peeled off to the left, powering forward, leaving Pooh's Freelander thirty yards directly behind the nowopen loading ramp of theHalicarna.s.sus.
Speeding wildly, Stretch's bus rammed into his opponent, causing it to fishtail wildly, the enemy bus's tires slipping off the bitumen and onto the rubble shoulder, where it lost all grip and control, and it flipped horribly...and rolled...an entire bustumbling over and over in a great cloud of dust and smoke and sand.
Pooh Bear gunned his Freelander-with Zoe and Alby still in it with him-accelerating hard, his eyes fixed on the loading ramp of theHali.
The little Freelander skimmed along the highway, gaining on the plane, when suddenly Alby called, ”Look out!” and Pooh yanked on the steering wheel just in time to avoid a kamikazestyle lunge from an enemy Humvee on the right.
The Humvee missed them by inches and went careering off the road, bouncing away into the dust.
”Thanks, young man!” Pooh shouted.
At that moment, Zoe's cell phone rang. Thinking it'd be Wizard or one of the others, she answered it with a yell, ”Yeah!”
”Oh, h.e.l.lo,”a soft female voice said pleasantly from the other end.”Is that you, Zoe? This is Lois Calvin, Alby's mother. I was just calling to see how everything was going there on the farm.”
Zoe blanched. ”Lois! Er...hi! Things are going...great...”
”Is Alby there?”
”Wha-huh?” Zoe stammered, trying to process the weirdness of receiving this call at this moment. In the end, she just handed the phone to Alby. ”It's your mother. Please be discreet.”
A missile whooshed by overhead.
”Mom...” Alby said Zoe didn't hear the other end of the conversation, only Alby saying, ”We're out in the east paddock in a jeep...I'm having a great time...oh yeah, we're keeping busy all right...Lily's good...I will...yes, Mom...yes,Mom...okay, Mom, bye!”
He hung up and handed the cell phone back.
”Nice talkin', kid,” Zoe said.
”My mom'd have kittens if she knew where I was now,” Alby said.
”So would my mother,” Pooh Bear growled as he pulled the Freelander right in behind the Halicarna.s.sus and readied to zoom up its ramp when-bamthey were hit with terrible force from the left, by another Humvee that none of them had seen.
The Freelander was thrown violently to the right, out of alignment with theHali 's ramp, and it slammed up against the broad flank of one of the two Egyptian buses attacking the plane's starboard wing, pinned against it by the Humvee.
”Blast!” Pooh Bear shouted.
On the right wing of theHalicarna.s.sus, Jack was still doing battle with the oncoming Egyptian forces-firing hard, with Horus hovering nearby-when he saw the Freelander bounce into view from underneath the tail of the speeding 747, the little 4WD being squeezed up against one of the Egyptian buses by a far bigger Humvee.
His first thought, strangely, was of Alby-Lily's friend Lily's loyal little friend-and how he was still in the Freelander, and suddenly in a strange disconnected corner of his mind, Jack knew that Alby's destiny was connected to Lily's, that he somehow sustained her, gave her strength, and in that moment Jack knew that he couldn't let anything happen to the boy. Zoe and Pooh Bear, they could take care of themselves, but not Alby.
And so he acted.
”See you later, bird,” he said to Horus. ”Any cover you can provide would be appreciated.”
Just then two more Egyptian troopers tried to mount the starboard wing-both of them bearing riot s.h.i.+elds-at the exact same moment that Jack charged out from his coveronto the wing, shot both of them through their eye slits and in one clean move, scooped up one of the dead men's s.h.i.+elds and leapeddown... onto the roof of the first Egyptian bus driving along beneath the wing!
There he was met by no less than seven Egyptian special forces troops, momentarily shocked to see him, one lone man, attackingthem.
At which point Horus rushed into their midst, talons slas.h.i.+ng, slicing three deep claw marks across the first soldier's face and unbalancing the second.
It gave Jack the moment he needed, for he wasn't planning on staying on that roof for long.
Holding the riot s.h.i.+eld in one hand, he pivoted quickly and dropped off the bus's leading edge, dropping down in front of its winds.h.i.+eld-attaching the grappling hook of Astro's Maghook to the forward edge of the roof as he fell.
He swung down in front of the speeding bus's winds.h.i.+eld-completely shocking its driver-but continued downward, dropping the Kevlar s.h.i.+eld underneath him as he hit the speeding roadway, using it as a bodyboard anddisappearing under the b.u.mper of the big coach!
Down the length of the bus Jack slid-underit-lying on his back on the riot s.h.i.+eld, using the Maghook's rope to control his slide.
As he went, he grabbed his Desert Eagle and fired it into every vital mechanical part he could see: axles, electronics, brake cables, fluid hoses-so that just as he popped out from underneath its rear b.u.mper, the Egyptian bus started to veer wildly, out of control, off the highway and away from the plane.
But Jack's wild slide wasn't finished yet.
The second Egyptian bus-the one Pooh's Freelander was pinned against-was tailing the first one, so underthat bus Jack went, still sliding on his s.h.i.+eld.
<script>