The important thing was that she had called it right. She had guessed the enemy's intentions and now she was beating this hostile force to the punch. The enemy tracks were faster, that was sure, but her force was ahead and was going to get there first.
And then there would be a killing ground. Retribution.
Fitzduane knew that this would be the last time that Team Rapier would be together, and for a brief moment he felt unaccountably sad and tired but also immensely proud.
There were few things more satisfying than to command a combat unit at its peak, and the people of Team Rapier had been the best, the very best. And now it was almost over, this courageous, audacious adventure, and he felt regret.
The moment passed. The immediate pressed on him.
"Shadow One to all," he said on the unit net, "Shadow Three will remain with me and fight the hostile column to a halt. Shadows Two and Five will head on through the Funnel and will evac. Shadow Three will join if possible.
"Move! Move! Move!"
Cochrane brought Shadow One to a halt and lowered the rear air springs, while Al Lonsdale loaded a six-round clip into the Dilger and aligned the laser sight. After the noise and buffeting of the high-speed advance, to be still and silent on this vast undulating space seemed strange.
Off to the right, Shadow Three advanced toward the column, firing on the move with its. 50 GECAL. Its job was to draw fire while Fitzduane's vehicle killed tanks. Only the Dilger could do that with certainty at this range.
The two other Guntracks sped into the distance. Both vehicles were overloaded and carrying wounded and really in no condition to fight unless there was no other option. Shadow Two carried Chifune, Geronimo Grady, and Dana Felton as crew, together with the wounded Chuck Freeman and the drugged Kathleen and Steve Kent's body. Shadow Five carried Oga, Brick Stephens, and Ross Gallini, with Ernesto Robles and Calvin injured.
Al Lonsdale's night-vision equipment pierced the darkness and aligned the Dilger on the lead tank.
He fired.
A tongue of flame jetted from the muzzle and the whole Guntrack rocked with the recoil.
Two seconds later he fired again, and then kept on firing until he had exhausted a second clip. The second clip.
Twelve rounds. The Dilger was now out of ammunition.
"Move! Move! Move!" said Fitzduane, and Cochrane started raising the air springs and roared away. The springs completed their adjustment on the move.
Two seconds after they had left their firing position, tank shells plowed into the evacuated space, and rock and shale fountained into the air.
There was a crack and Oshima's tank, roaring forward at full speed, suddenly lurched to the left, lost forward momentum, and started rotating on its own axis.
The driver's hatch opened and he leaned over the right side of the tank, then looked up at Reiko Oshima. "We've been hit. The track's gone and we're a sitting target. We'd better get out."
Oshima drew her pistol and shot him in the head, then pointed the gun at the gunner. "Does the tank still work?"
He nodded.
"Well, then stay here and fight the tank or you'll join that coward."
The loader slammed in an HE round and the gunner rotated the turret and fired. Oshima could see the flash of the impact explosion in the distance.
The infrared searchlight shattered as machine-gun rounds hit it. A further burst spanged off the armor.
Oshima hauled herself out of the turret and looked for a replacement tank. She was appalled at what she saw. The powerful column of nineteen armored vehicles that had followed her was now strewn with flaming and exploding vehicles, and as she watched, there was a row of small explosions in the ground as if a machine gun was being hosed onto a target and then an armored personnel carrier in the direct line of fire blew up.
Burning figures ran into the darkness and collapsed, and the air was rent with screams.
A hundred meters away, a T55 fired its main gun and then reversed. She ran after it, waving.
An armored personnel carrier was spraying the darkness with its heavy machine gun. The gunner could see nothing because his infrared searchlight had been shot out, but he fired steadily until the ammunition box ran out. Incoming machine-gun fire caught him as he was attempting a barrel change and blew out his throat.
A black shape shot out of the darkness and there was an enormous explosion from the armored carrier, and a huge hole appeared in its side as if it had been hit by an artillery shell.
Two tanks maneuvering in opposite directions collided, then the commander's hatches opened and the two commanders started swearing at each other.
An explosive grenade hit one commander and blew his torso into pieces, showering the second man with blood and body parts. He dropped back into his cupola, banged the hatch shut, and reversed rapidly.
The air seemed to be full of flying metal. Oshima had never seen anything like it. This was not conventional machine-gun and cannon fire but some other, much more lethal, system.
Now she was beginning to understand how her base, with all its armor and security, had been overcome so quickly.
A tank roared past her, tracks churning, and she fell back, terrified. The stars were fading. It would be dawn soon.
She heard the heavy throb of an armored personnel carrier and looked up. The vehicle stopped and the commander looked down.
Somehow he looked familiar. A red map light illuminated his face from below. That was ironic. The face was that of Major Khalifa Sherrif, the ‘hero’ who could not navigate. Life, she thought, was a joke; a sick joke. It was a pity she had not understood this sooner.
The Major looked away and shouted a command.
The Major's armored personnel carrier accelerated, leaving Oshima alone in the desert.
The evacuating Guntracks roared through the Funnel and on to the airstrip.
Behind them there was the sound and fury of the firefight, and each person's thoughts were with the rear guard as they battled.
Ten minutes later, Shadow Three disengaged on Fitzduane's instructions and joined the two other Guntracks. Less than a minute later, alerted by radio, Kilmara's C130 Combat Talon swooped in and taxied to a halt, the ramp already almost down.
Immediately, the three Guntracks drove on board and the Combat Talon, with the ramp still open, took off and headed out of Tecuno-controlled airspace at contour-following height, electronic-warfare systems fully operational. Tecuno wavebands were a mass of activity, and they could hear jet fighters being vectored into the search area. Timing was critical. They would have more than eighty minutes' exposure before the fighter threat would be over.
Kilmara hated the abrupt departure with Fitzduane and the crew of Shadow One still on the ground, but every second spent in the area increased the chance of detection and his first priority was the safety of the aircraft and crew and passengers.
It was now up to the guts and ingenuity of Fitzduane and his remaining team on the ground, the flying skills of Eagle Friend, and a quite extraordinary device known as Skyhook or the Fulton Rescue System.
And there were also the moves of the enemy to consider.
Shadow One had been located, and the noose would be tightening by the second.
Fitzduane felt dazed and disoriented, and he could not see and he felt rising panic.