With that, Mitchell leaned over and placed his hands on the steering wheel as Jackson and Grace scrambled past one another to trade spots in the Rover.
Mitchell spoke into his Motorola. “Okay, Gordon, we’re set, see what you can do about the Hummer in front of us.”
Above, the helicopter edged forward in the sky until it was directly above the Hummer. Leaning out the side door of the helicopter, Cardinal saw his target below. He adjusted his aim for distance and wind and slowly pulled back on the trigger. Less than a second later, a hail of bullets struck the roof of the Hummer right above the driver. Although heavily armored on the sides and the underneath of the vehicle chassis, the armor on the roof was relatively thin.
Inside the Hummer, the driver, hit several times in the neck and hands, jerked in his seat as the bullets tore into his body. Before anyone could react, the doomed man’s hands slipped off the driver’s wheel. The Hummer veered hard right, hitting a massive boulder on the side of the road. With a loud crunch, it bounced off the rock and headed for the steep cliff on the left side off the road. A second later, it was gone.
As they drove past the spot where the Hummer went over the side, Mitchell glanced down and saw it lying on its side a good three hundred meters below.
“Sir, McMasters wants to speak to you,” said Sophie, her voice tense and scared.
Taking the tablet, Houston gruffly said, “Yeah, I know we’ve got trouble. Can you send one of the lead escort vehicles back to deal with the bastards?”
“No can do,” answered McMasters. “The road is just too narrow. Perhaps you should call for backup.”
Houston gripped the tablet until his knuckles turned white. “I’ll do that. Can you at least do something about that damned helicopter?”
“Yeah, that I can.”
“Then do it!” snapped Houston.
Ten minutes ago, Houston had everything going in his favor, but now he estimated that his odds had dropped to about seventy percent. Good odds, but not good enough. He looked over at Sophie and asked her to dial his contact in the Albanian military.
A couple of moments passed before a tired-sounding voice came over the line.
“General, listen and listen closely,” hissed Houston. “I’m under attack. If I don’t make it across the border in the next ten minutes, I’ll make sure that your name gets leaked to the press, and you’ll go down for what just happened at the airfield. Got it?”
“Mister Houston, there’s no need to worry,” said the general, suddenly wide-awake. “I’ll dispatch support to your location right away.”
“Make sure that you do,” replied Houston.
Above the winding mountain road, Yuri kept the massive logging helicopter over the top of Mitchell’s Rover, in case he needed help. He was about to ask Cardinal for an update when Sam reached over and grabbed his arm.
“Look out!” yelled Sam as she pointed at the two lead Hummers.
Yuri looked out of the cockpit as men armed with submachine guns popped the roof hatches on their vehicles and stood up. In less than a second, bullets filled the air as the gunmen tried to bring down the chopper. Instantly applying power to the engines, Yuri brought the helicopter over and higher up in the sky, taking them out of range.
“You okay, little lady?” asked Yuri.
Sam nodded, thankful that Yuri had lightning-fast reflexes when he flew.
“Uh, I’m okay as well, you two,” said Cardinal in their headsets.
“Da,” said Yuri dryly. “Any damage back there?”
“To be honest, with this flying rust bucket, I’m not sure I could tell,” said Cardinal.
“Gauges all look fine to me,” said Yuri as he looked over the control panel. “We’ll be okay for now.”
Sam said, “Gord, can you take out those men?”
“Not from this range with this rusty old AK,” replied Cardinal, wishing that he had his Barrett .50 cal sniper rifle with him.
“I guess they’re on their own for now,” said Sam unhappily.
“Looks that way,” replied Cardinal.
Mitchell fired off a quick burst, shattering the camera mounted on the back of the semi-trailer. With a grin, he tapped Grace on the shoulder. “Okay, it’s time. See if you can approach from the passenger side of the semi-trailer.”
Grace nodded her head and waited for her chance to race up the side of the long trailer.
Even without a camera to see behind him, the truck driver knew that someone was back there. He began to weave back and forth on the road, trying to make it impossible for Grace to pass.
Grace backed off and smiled to herself. She moved to the right slightly and tried to see past the semi-trailer. Up ahead, she saw a straight stretch of road. Immediately, she knew what she had to do; however, it was going to take nerves of steel. Changing gears, Grace made a move to race past the semi-trailer on the driver’s side. As expected, the driver saw the move and swerved to the left, blocking the way. In a flash, she dropped behind the semi, jammed her foot down on the accelerator, changed gears, and then sped down the other side of the truck.
“Get ready, Nate,” called Mitchell over his shoulder.
A split second later, they were beside the semi-trailer’s passenger-side door.
Jackson reached over, took hold of a metal bar running beside the door and, with a prayer on his lips, he swung himself over onto the truck, his feet landing on the slender metal footstep.
Grace never slowed. She kept her foot down hard on the gas pedal. A second later, she shot out in front of the semi-trailer.
Before the guard sitting in the passenger seat knew what was happening, the door was pulled open and a hand reached inside, grabbing him by the collar. With a surprised cry, the thug was hauled from his seat and thrown from the cab.
Without bothering to see where the man landed, Jackson leapt up into the cab, slammed the door closed behind him, and quickly drew his pistol on the stunned driver. He was about to tell the driver to slow down and look for a place to pull off when the totally unexpected happened. The driver, scared out of his mind at the sight of the weapon, threw open his door and jumped.
“Jesus,” muttered Jackson as he scrambled over into the vacant seat. He slipped behind the wheel, closed the driver’s door, and looked down at the dash. He’d never driven a semi-trailer before. How hard could it be, thought Jackson. Trying to slow the speeding eighteen-wheeler, Jackson applied the brakes and tried to change the gear, only to find that he had no idea how to work a double-clutch system. The sound of grinding gears filled the cab. With the semi-trailer somewhat under his control, Jackson cringed as the gearbox loudly protested while he looked for a spot to pull off and await the authorities.
Grace pulled up close behind McMasters’ armored truck, and glanced at Mitchell. “Now what?”
“I don’t know,” replied Mitchell. “I honestly hadn’t thought this far ahead.”
“Wonderful.”
“Just keep close behind the armored truck while I figure something out.”
Sam was growing impatient. She wanted to be on the ground with Mitchell trying to stop the convoy, not sitting in a helicopter safely watching the fight from afar. She leaned out from her seat trying to see what was going on down below, when out of the corner of her eye, she spotted something coming straight at them.
Suddenly, Sam screamed, “Yuri, bank hard left!”
Without asking why, Yuri pushed the helicopter’s joystick over to the left. The helicopter may have been decades old, but in Yuri’s skilled hands it acted as if it were brand new.
As if appearing out of thin air, a fully armed Predator drone flew past the helicopter, missing it by mere meters.