Part 41 (2/2)

About a hundred yards from the cave, another battle was being waged on the riverbank.

Two Congolese Army pilots were desperately defending a large seaplane from about thirty Neetha warriormonks. The seaplane-or more correctly, ”flying boat”-was a very old model, a Soviet ripoff of the cla.s.sic Boeing 314 ”Clipper.”

Big and bulky, with an upper flight deck and a lower pa.s.senger cabin, it had four wing mounted propeller engines and a huge bulbous belly that sat low in the river. Cheap and old, knockoff Clippers like this one were common in those parts of Africa where the only landing strips were rivers.

Right now this Clipper was literally crawling with Neetha warriors. They were scaling its flanks, jumping on its wings, standing on its nose, and hammering its c.o.c.kpit winds.h.i.+eld with clubs.

Zoe stepped up alongside Wizard, seeing the activity going on all over the big seaplane.

Wizard saw her eyes narrow. ”You're not thinking...”

”You bet I am,” she said, taking the chief's shotgun from him.

Thus while the plane's two Congolese pilots fired their guns wildly, defending their plane against the many Neetha attackers, five figures swam silently and unnoticed around the tail fin of the floating plane, around to its open side and to the entry door there.

Zoe led the way, climbing up out of the water and reaching for the door.

She pulled it open-only to be confronted by a yellowtoothed Neetha warriormonk, looming over her! He whipped up his bow...just as, onehanded, Zoe brought up the shotgun and blasted the monk out of the way.

A minute later, still brandis.h.i.+ng the chief's shotgun, she hustled into the upstairs c.o.c.kpit, just in time to see the plane's Congolese copilot get yanked bodily out of the smashed forward winds.h.i.+eld, screaming as he went.

Two Neetha monks hacked into the poor man right there on the nose of the plane. When they were done, the two murderers crouched to enter the c.o.c.kpit, only to find themselves looking straight down the barrel of Zoe's gun.

Boom! Boom!

The two monks went flying off the nose of the plane, sailing down into the river.

Zoe slid into the pilot's seat while the others piled in behind her. With Ono beside him, Wizard stood guard at the top of the spiral staircase that led down to the lower pa.s.senger deck, covering the stairs with an AK47 he'd picked up downstairs.

”Can you fly this thing?” Lily asked Zoe.

”Sky Monster's been giving me lessons.” Zoe scanned the dizzying array of dials in front of her. ”It's notthat much different from a helicopter...I think.”

She punched the ignition switch.

The big seaplane's four turboprop engines roared to life.

Its remaining pilot-firing vainly from the sh.o.r.eside doorway-was taken completely by surprise as the big Clipper's propellers began to rotate and then blur with speed.

His surprise was his undoing.

For as he turned at the sound, he was struck by six arrows from his Neetha opponents and he fell from the doorway-and as the plane began to move away from the sh.o.r.e, the ten or so remaining Neetha warriormonks a.s.sailing it from the riverbank went rus.h.i.+ng en ma.s.se up the gangway before the gangway itself fell away into the water behind the departing plane.

Wind blasted in through the shattered c.o.c.kpit winds.h.i.+eld as Zoe jammed forward on the collective and felt the plane surge beneath her.

The waves of the river started to rush beneath the bow of the seaplane, getting faster and faster, until suddenly they fell away and Zoe had them airborne.

She smiled with relief. ”Dear G.o.d, I think we made-”

Gunfire from the cabin made her turn.

Wizard was firing his AK47 at the Neetha warriormonks trying to enter the upper deck via the stairs.

They were practically suicidal in their a.s.sault-hurling themselves over their dead, shrieking and screaming, trying to fire arrows if they could.

If she could have seen her plane from the outside, Zoe would have been shocked: several Neetha men were still on its roof, clambering forward on their bellies toward the open c.o.c.kpit.

At the same time, two more warriors on one wing were preparing to-suicidally-throw a thick net into one of the propellers. They threw the net...and with a great mechanical jerk, the thick rope got hopelessly entangled in the propeller...and with a blast of black smoke, that engine seized completely!

The entire airplane banked wildly at the unexpected loss of power and the two Neetha men were thrown off the wing and went plummeting to their deaths.

Zoe spun in her seat just in time to see them flail off the wing. She wrestled the plane back level.

”What is wrong with these people!” she shouted.

Diane Ca.s.sidy answered: ”They guard the location of their realm with rabid fanaticism. If, by his death, a Neetha warrior can prevent an intruder from escaping, then he is a.s.sured a place in heaven.”

”So our escape plane is infested with suicidal fanatics,” Zoe said. ”Wonder-”

Gunfire cut her off. Oddly distant gunshots.

”Wizard!” she called.

”It's not me!” Wizard shouted back from the stairs. ”They've stopped trying to storm the upper deck. A moment ago they all just went downstairs.”

More distant gunshots.

And suddenly Zoe saw another of her wingmounted engines explode with belching black smoke, its propellers stopping.

Then she realized what was going on.

”Oh,Jesus. They're firing at the engines from the side doors. They're going to bring us down that way.”

”If they don't ignite all the fuel in the wings beforehand!” Wizard called.

More distant gunfire.

”s.h.i.+t, s.h.i.+t, s.h.i.+t...” Zoe said.

Gripping the pilot's control yoke, she could feel the plane becoming less responsive.

There's no way out of this,she thought.You can't stop someone intent on bringing your plane down this way.

”We're screwed,” she said aloud.

As if in answer to her comment, her radio abruptly crackled.

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