And Kate was worried. “I don’t know if we’ll make it out the door. If I touch it, even just a little, we could be killed.”
“Then you had better not touch the door. Now fly this thing!”
Almost overwhelmed with the unaccustomed violence, she fumbled with the controls. Turning on the helicopter’s forward light highlighted her fears about starting the helicopter in the hangar. Loose objects, such as paper, were flying around within the confined space, mixed with years of dust and dirt. Even without the two armed men in the cockpit, it was an extremely dangerous situation. She thought, for a split second, she saw someone standing at the doorway to the hangar, but one blink later and the figure was gone. It couldn’t have been Nathan. He’d been knocked unconscious only minutes ago, while still bound to the chair. The blade pressed harder into her neck, any more force and she knew it would break the skin. The passenger beside her screamed again. Kate did her best to ignore him, concentrating on what she had to do. She didn’t know if she could raise the helicopter sufficiently off the dolly, then keep it high enough to clear the hangar floor safely and low enough to pass through the doors. Not only was the height crucial, but to clear the doors without touching the sides with the blades would be a miracle.
Somehow Kate cleared the dolly and maneuvered forward, centering the machine in between the open doors. It was now or never.
Bomani had also seen the figure at the door, and guessed it was the man he had been told about: Matt Lilburn. He had proved to be a worthy opponent, it was only right that the Americans had sent a man of such caliber. He wished he could see his face when they took off into the night sky.
Kate eased the machine forward, concentrating on the doorway. Ten, five yards, steady as she goes. Her hands felt wet and slippery on the controls, perspiration from intense concentration dripping down her back. Kate was now beyond the point of no return, the tips of the rotors pushed out the hangar doors with the widest point of the rotating blades about to align with the doors. Holding her breath she inched forward, not daring to move her head or even her eyes from an imaginary point ahead beyond the light beam. I must be through by now.
Bomani pulled the knife away from the pilot’s neck as she neared the doorway. He sat back in his seat and tensed up, knowing this was make or break time. His life was in the hands of the woman next to him and a little prayer would not go amiss.
Bashir, sitting behind, shut his eyes. Both his hands had a vice-like grip on his seat.
“We’re out. Oh my God… we got through the doors. Oh my God.” Kate felt a rush of exhilaration.
“Now fly high and fast,” roared Bomani.
Kate was in no hurry to gain altitude. Her protest gained her a poke in the neck with the knife; this time it drew blood. Slowly the helicopter began to ascend.
The open doorway was no place to be. Lilburn retreated back to the corner of the building, away from what could become a tangle of iron and helicopter. Instinctively he crouched down as the machine nudged out into the open. Raising his weapon towards the cockpit, his finger was all but applying enough pressure to the trigger to fire. Lilburn hesitated, there was a civilian flying the craft, an innocent. Shit, shit. It was one of those poignant moments — less a decision, more a reaction. A moment where focus is so concentrated nothing else matters. Lilburn watched as the aircraft with the terrorist cell, a pilot and most likely the virus, was within feet of him. As if in slow motion, he watched it all drift away.
They were so close. Lilburn sprang into action. Throwing his carbine to the ground he sprinted for the departing helicopter. The past hour flashed before him, the blood, the lives of his two comrades lost to the bastards in that machine. It made him mad, it made him strong, it made him fast. Lilburn lunged upwards, his feet leaving the ground, his arms outstretched, his hands open and ready to grasp. He touched the nearest skid simultaneously with both hands, locking on with a Herculean grip. The weight of his body was brought to bear on his arms as gravity tried to pry him free and send him falling to the ground. It wasn’t going to happen. Lilburn gritted his teeth, pulled himself straight upwards then brought a leg up to wrap around the skid. The attempt failed and his leg swung back down sending his body in a pendulum swing. Breathing out hard through his mouth he tried again. This time his heel caught… and that was enough to give him sufficient purchase to gain a more secure hold on the skid.
Inside the helicopter, Kate immediately reacted to the unusual lurch to the side as she gained height. It was too dark to see the reason, but whatever it was required counter control measures. She looked over to the older man beside her. He was looking back and down towards the hangar then turned back to her.
“Keep flying, infidel bitch.”
“Listen, asshole — I don’t have registration to fly at night cos I’m not trained for night flying so why the fuck don’t you just jump out now ’cause, you know, there’s a good chance I might crash anyway.”
Bomani lashed out with the back of his hand, catching Kate on the side of her face. She didn’t expect that and the helicopter lurched around until she regained control.
“Akins!” Bashir leaned forward in his seat, realizing the danger of his companion’s actions. “What’s the plan now?”
“They will be watching us. The drone will have picked us up and it will only be a matter of time before they intercept us. The virus. Take the two remaining cans out and get them ready.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hang on, buddy.” The hairs on Kate’s neck rose when she heard mention of a virus. “What the hell’s going on here?”
Bomani lashed out with his fist onto the windscreen thumping it with such a heavy force it startled Bashir. Bomani pulled hard on Kate’s hair, placing the knife blade up against her throat.
But this time Kate was ready. “I wouldn’t do that again, mister, if I were you.”
“I will kill you, woman. I will slit your infidel throat like a bleating sheep if you say another word.”
“Oh yeah? Just remember you’re a thousand feet up in the air. You fly helicopters? No? I didn’t think so, you ugly little bastard.”
Bomani couldn’t stand a woman talking to him like that. He could feel himself losing control and it was a woman who had done it… an infidel woman! She would die. He pulled the knife away, changing his grip on the handle and raised it above her. He would stab through her body, he would do it again and again, stab and stab…
“AKINS NO! NO!” Bashir reached through between the seats as best he could groping for the knife with one straining outstretched hand. “You will kill us. No, Akins.”
Bomani barely registered his cry of anguish through the mist of seething rage. Barely, but enough. The knife hovered over Kate’s body, held back like a spring under pressure. The pressure gradually subsided and the tension reduced. He brought his arm down and sank back into his seat.
Kate couldn’t speak.
“We would have been killed, Akins, we would have plunged to our deaths and our mission would have failed.” The young man gingerly placed a hand on the older man’s shoulder. Bomani returned the gesture, placing a hand over Bashir’s.
“You are right… my brother, once again you are right.”
Lilburn was freezing. The wind chill and the cool night air cut through his clothes, numbing his body. He had managed to lie astride the skid, one foot resting on the skid the other leg hanging down loose, like crossing a suspended rope. A strut provided the support to stop him swinging upside down. Closing his eyes he concentrated, hanging on and wondering how on earth he got himself into this predicament in the first place. It looked so easy in the movies. They lied.