The 'Rover was on his tail, right behind him, when Jake saw a flat-topped boulder. He spun to one side and the vehicle skidded and threw up a cloud of dust as its driver hauled the wheel over. Jake knew that if he had failed to get out of the way the 'Rover would have hit him. Not hard enough to kill him, maybe, but hard enough to put him out of business, certainly. This big boulder was his only chance.
Leaping onto the rim of the rock, he scrambled to its flat surface as the Land Rover came to a halt. There were two men in the vehicle; he could think of them as men, anyway. One seemed a little dazed: he must be a recent convert, recruit or thrall. But the other, the driver… that one wore a grin like Satan himself. A lieutenant? Jake couldn't even even hazard a guess. This was Jake's first time. In at the fucking deep end!
The driver was out of the vehicle in a flash, ducking and disappearing beneath the rim of the boulder before Jake could get a bead on him. The other was slower and Jake's first shot hit him in the head. Well, who or whatever he was he wouldn't be getting back up on his feet again. As for Jake:
Even with his record, still he felt sick knowing that he'd killed another man. Except this one hadn't been a man, not any longer. But the sight of the vampire's head exploding like that — the red wet spray, and whatever other colours there had been — just so much black slop in the moonlight…
… And then Jake asked himself, what moonlight? A cloud, just one damn cloud in an otherwise clear night sky, had drifted across the moon's three-quarters grimace. Just as quickly as that, the night was black as pitch, and the 'Rover's headlight beams were pointing the wrong way. Darkness favours the vampire, and Jake knew he must make his move now.
There was room for just two short paces along the flat surface of the boulder. Jake took them, lifted his feet and hurled himself up and outwards towards the 'Rover, his arms stretched forward for balance. But even as he cleared the boulder's rim a powerful arm and hand shot up, grabbed his left foot. Jake's impetus carried him forward, his balled-up body turning like a pendulum at the end of that oh-so-strong arm. And when he hit all the wind was knocked out of him. He felt his nose plugs eject, trailing streamers of gritty snot, as his Browning flew from momentarily nerveless fingers.
Then that nightmare figure was standing over him, leering down at him, going to one knee and reaching for his throat with long, mantrap hands. 'That's it/ the thing that had been a man said. 'The fun and games are over, friend. Well, yours are, for sure/ With which he drew Jake effortlessly to his feet.
'But yours first/' said a small but resolute female voice. The moonlight came back, and Jake saw the vampire's yellow eyes go wide. As Liz stepped closer, the monster snarled and turned his awful head towards her. The muzzle of Liz's tiny weapon was almost in his astonished, gaping mouth when she pulled the trigger. In that same moment Jake turned his face away, but in any case the debris went the other way.
'The.'Rover!' Liz was pale as a ghost, stumbling in the moonlight that picked out her softly feminine curves. She managed to run a few paces, but Jake caught up with her at the vehicle and almost threw her into the passenger seat. He had seen a handful of silent, flame-eyed figures approaching from the direction of the shack. They were the most immediate problem, obviously, but as yet Jake wasn't aware of the lone pursuer tracking Liz. She knew she hadn't lost him, however, and continued to urge Jake: 'Let's go.' Let's g0/',
'Seat belts/ he snapped. 'It's going to be bumpy.'' Then the engine was roaring, the gears grinding, the Land Rover kicking up dirt as it wheeled for the service road. Which was when Liz's lone pursuer came aboard.'
He came from the side, came vaulting into the rear seats in the moment before Jake picked up speed. And, off balance, he staggered there, his eyes like hot coals in the night. Jake and Liz had seen him; Liz twisted her body, tried to fire her Baby Browning point-blank, and heard the click as the firing-pin fell on a dud.' The vampire grinned and reached for her, and Jake cursed, changed down and floored the accelerator. In the back,
the vampire was taken by surprise and thrown off balance again, if only for a moment.
Then, falling to his knees on the back seat, he leaned forward, put his head between theirs, grinned first at Liz, then at Jake — before taking the backs of their necks one in each hand. Which was exactly what Jake had hoped he would do. And:
'Hang on!' Jake yelled, and literally stood on the brakes.
Mercifully Liz had seen it coming; she leaned to the right even as Jake leaned left. And the loathsome thing gurgled, 'Eh? What?' But the explanation was already forthcoming.
As he flew between them, he released their necks, tried to bring his hands forward to protect his face, didn't even nearly make it. With his arms forming a 'V behind him, he hurtled forward and smashed face first through the windshield.
'Godawful — damn — thing!' Jake choked, slamming the 'Rover into first and crunching forward over something that was trying to stand up. They heard its body grinding and thumping, mangled between the 'Rover's underside and the stony rubble of the terrain. Then:
'My God!' Liz gasped. 'I think we might actually make it!'
'Never doubted it/ her partner told her, lying for all he was worth.
Just as they turned onto the service track and headed for the ramp, a light commenced flashing on the dash. 'Radio/ Liz said, reaching under the dash to grab a hidden mike. Thumbing the transmit button, she said, 'Hunter One for Zero. What kept you?'
'This is Zero One/ a gravelly voice answered in a stutter of static to match the sudden throb of a chopper's rotors. 'Is that you mobile down there?' And a searchlight beam swept down from above.
Jake leaned over and spat into the speaker, 'Only fucking just! Zero — Trask, is that you? — we could use some help.'
'Do you have a target?'
'If it's behind us and it's moving, it's a target/ Jake said, I straightening up in time to avoid a pothole. And as the adrenalin began to recede and his skin stopped prickling, he eased up a little so as not to send the Land Rover nosediving off the rim of the ramp.
Then Liz said, 'Stop!' 'Stop?'
'Stop the vehicle. I want to see.'
'Feeling bloodthirsty?' Jake looked at her, frowning as he cautiously applied the brakes.
'Not me.' She shook her head, shuddered her relief as she thumbed her nostrils one after the other to blow out her plugs. Then she half-turned her head, inclined it to indicate the dark shelf of rock that they'd left behind. 'And not them, not after this.' And now her voice was a sigh.
They looked up and back. First at a sleek, black dragonfly shape under the gleaming blur of its fan, a shape that blotted the stars in its passing and turned the night to a whirling dervish dust-devil with its downdraught as it sped overhead, then at the torpedo-shapes that tumbled lazily, — end over end, down from its belly like so many elongated eggs.
'Jesus!' Jake's sigh matched Liz's. And: 'Let there be light!' she said.
And there was light. The napalm hit a little way back from the top of the ramp. It lit up a widening path all the way back to the knoll, roared with the thunder of its all-consuming passion, washed the wall of the outcrop like a tsunami of fire. In the space of a few short seconds the scene might well have been that in the caldera of an active volcano: a small mountain burned in the night, with man-made lava flowing down its flanks.
For long moments there were running, leaping, screaming figures in the roiling smoke, blackly silhouetted against terrible balls of fire that seemed to roll across the shelf of the rocky outcrop with lives of their own. The spidery figures were there… and they were gone, cindered, rolled under…
The unit was made up of two choppers, a giant support truck and various smaller vehicles, mainly 'Rovers. The truck and lesser vehicles wouldn't get here for some time yet. They had miles of rough road to cover.