Chapter 65
Danielle watched as the cannon fire she’d triggered tore into the second of Kang’s Skycranes, shredding the thin aluminum fuselage and blasting off the tail rotor. The flaming craft came apart and careened into the ground, where it exploded.
“The third one is running,” Ivan said, turning toward it.
“Let it go,” Danielle said. “There are men on the ground.”
“Can you see your friend?” Ivan asked.
The Hind-D had a camera system with a telescopic lens, designed to sight targets visually and help prevent friendly-fire incidents. She scanned the terrain and saw only Kang’s people and the strange mechanical mules.
“No!” she shouted.
“You’re sure he’s not with them?”
Kang’s people were still pursuing something, still making their way toward the top of the mesa. “I don’t think so,” she said. “Why?”
“Because once we pass, there will be nothing left down there.”
“So be it,” she said. “For your brother.”
And with that, Ivan banked the helicopter fifty degrees, finishing the turn and lining up the figures on the ground. He bore down on them relentlessly and Danielle flipped the toggle to arm the cannon.
As they thundered in, the men started turning and firing. Danielle pressed the trigger for the cannon and fired a batch of air-to-ground missiles at the same time. The rotary gun blazed away, loosing three hundred shells in five seconds, missiles streaking out from the left and the right. Explosions rocked the terrain, and parallel balls of fire merged into a rising inferno where the men had once been.
The Hind raced past, pulling up to clear the smoke and flame. Only then did Danielle notice a second group of men.
“On the left,” she said. “Ten o’clock. Look out!”
The second group opened fire as they passed. But the Hind was built for low-level combat. Its armor shook off the rifle bullets as if they were BBs. Not so with the rocket-propelled grenade that exploded above their heads.
The windshield was instantly streaked with oil and fire. Smoke poured in and the helicopter shook like a speeding car that had lost a couple of wheels.
Ivan tried to control it, but the rotors were damaged. “Hang on!” he shouted.
Shuddering wildly, the helicopter lurched to the side, spinning and dropping from the air.
Aboard his personal Skycrane, Kang saw the Russian craft go down. His men had done well. “Turn us around,” he ordered.
“To the men?”
“No, up on the ridge.”
He could see a figure near the far side of the mesa, sprinting across it.
“That’s the one,” he said. “Run him down.”
The pilot turned the helicopter toward the target and accelerated. “We have no weapons,” he warned.
Kang shouted above the noise. “Just get me close. I’ll kill him myself.”
In the darkness of Yucca Mountain, Byron Stecker watched Arnold Moore step out of the trailer carrying his suit jacket awkwardly over his shoulder. His gait was slow, as a beaten man’s should be.
“What’s the word?” Stecker asked, keenly aware that there were less than five minutes to go before the zero state.
“You win,” Moore said. He nodded toward the rocket sled. “Might want to get that thing ready.”
Moore shuffled away, moving toward the big wrecker tow truck that had been used to drag the trailer in.
Stecker grinned and took a moment to soak up the glory of victory. He turned to his staffer. “We have four minutes. Get the sled primed. We’ll need to do this quick.”
He stepped inside the trailer.
The screen inside was still glowing with the president’s image. “About damn time, Stecker.”
“Moore just informed me,” he said. “We’ll destroy the stone immediately.”
“Good. Contact me when it’s done.”
The president cut the line and Stecker switched the screen off. He walked to the lab section and opened the door. The room was dark except for the glow of computer screens.
He stepped toward the viewing platform and nearly slipped.
“What the hell?”
Looking down, he saw a puddle of grape soda. Nathanial Ahiga lay sprawled on the floor, semiconscious, with a large welt across his forehead.
“What the hell happened?” Stecker asked.
Moaning, Ahiga opened his eyes, but before he could even say a word Stecker realized the truth. He rushed to the observation stand and looked into the vault. The stone was gone.
Without stopping to help Ahiga, he ran out of the lab and burst through the trailer door, into the tunnel.
The box truck was rumbling away with Moore inside it.
“Stop the truck!” he shouted. “Moore has the stone!”