“Watch it!”
Too late. They fell upon him.
Dahl knew, in essence, that they were headed to Romania. That was good. It was the half-hour-long drive that might kill them before they got there.
He fought the Chinese and the guards, kicked them back and found they jumped up, wanting more. The Chinese slipped around his guard, hitting with force, and twice almost skewering him with their wicked blades. More guards surrounded him. Hayden resorted to flinging them off the truck until their numbers wilted.
At the rear, Kenzie dispatched the last of her enemies. The machine gun was empty, the katana dripping red. She stalked back up the flatbed, now narrowing her eyes as two Chinese came at her together, stabbing with knives. She parried, stepping around. They pulled guns. She leapt into their faces, surprising them. A shot went under her arm, glancing off the nuke. She found herself next to one of the chocks with a handgun pointed at her face.
“Crap.”
The only way was up. She kicked the arm that held the gun, flinging it away, and then scrambled up the chock and onto the body of the nuke. She reached the top, found it was simply a gentle curve up there, but hazardous to balance. Instead, she sat astride the nuke, katana in hand.
“Come and fucking get me!” she screamed. “If you dare.”
They went up fast, perfectly balanced. Kenzie stood on top of the warhead, twirling her sword and they came at her with knives. A thrust and a swipe. She parried, but they drew blood. It spattered onto the missile. The truck jounced at thirty miles per hour. The Chinese adjusted supremely. Kenzie lost her balance, slipped, and once again fell astride the missile.
“Ow.”
The wind gusted through her hair, cold as a freezer. A knife came down at her. She switched the katana to the other hand, caught the wrist between her fingers and then jerked harshly to the side. The wrist broke, the knife fell. She wrenched the body that way too, and saw it fly headfirst from the truck. The second man was already attacking. Kenzie threw the katana back to her right hand and let him run right into the point. He hung for a moment until Kenzie cast him aside.
Then she looked down from her perch atop the nuke, katana blade dripping blood onto those that battled below.
“Two Chinese down. Three to go.”
Alicia was looking over at her from her won truck, having watched the battle atop the warhead. “That looked so friggin’ awesome,” she said. “I do believe I have an erection.”
Dahl stared up at her from his own truck. “Me too.”
But then the warhead began to shift.
CHAPTER FORTY ONE
Dahl noticed the shift immediately, saw the two straps they’d managed to unfasten flapping in the wind and then a third — twanging apart like the world’s craziest rubber band, slapping viciously against the nuke and the bottom of the flatbed. On its first powerful snap-back it struck a guard in the pit of the stomach, sending him flying, arms and legs akimbo, straight off the side of the truck and point blank into the rear wheels of the one traveling alongside. Dahl winced at the result.
The nuke shifted again. Dahl felt a red mist fall over him as Kenzie struggled on top, and Hayden fought right underneath its shadow with no idea what was coming. He shouted, bellowed, to no avail. The tire roar, the screaming, the focus required to do combat; it all hampered their hearing. He jumped on the comms.
“Move. The nuke’s about to go!”
Kenzie stared down. “Go where? You mean take off?”
“Nooo!”
At the end of his tether, the Swede ran like a madman, close to Hayden, and put his shoulder against the incredible missile’s bulk. “The nuke’s coming down!”
Hayden rolled fast, the guard too. The warhead slithered another inch. Dahl hefted it with every ounce of strength he’d ever mustered, every muscle shrieking.
A heavy thud sounded next to him.
Crap.
But it was Kenzie, still holding the katana and with a sarcastic smile across her face. “Damn, you are one crazy motherfucking hero. You really think you can hold that even for a second?”
“Ummm, no. Not really.”
“Then move.”
The Mad Swede dived clear.
Drake and Alicia managed to snatch a second to share the spectacle.
“What the hell is Dahl doing?” Alicia asked. “Is he hugging the goddam nuke?”
“Don’t be a fool,” Drake snapped with a shake of the head. “Clearly he’s snogging it.”
Drake then leapt aside to help the SAS boys, pulling a SEAL away from a younger man and hurling him against the nuke. The man’s entire frame shuddered. Punches were exchanged and then the SEAL was lying unconscious, prone but alive. Drake intended to keep him so.
Another SEAL died and then an SAS soldier, both stabbed at close range. Cambridge and the young man were all that remained. They teamed up with Drake to face the last SEAL. At the same time, Alicia and Mai joined them. The truck thundered along the dirt road, touching the one beside it once and careening off. The collision managed to stabilize Dahl’s nuke, jamming it down onto its outsize chocks. As one, the three vehicles smashed through the exit gate and continued on, heading for Romania. Steel and concrete were utterly destroyed, bursting to and fro. By now the choppers had lifted off and were flying alongside the trucks, men with heavy artillery leaning out of the doors and focused on the drivers.
Drake stayed the attack on the SEAL. “Wait. You’re Special Ops. American. Why would you try to kill us?”
In truth, he’d never expected an answer, but in response, the man attacked. He felled Cambridge and then winded Drake. The young SAS man fell to the side. The SEAL was tough and without mercy, delivering blow after crushing blow. But then Mai faced up to him.
Eight seconds later and the fight was over. Again, they let him live, groaning in a heap, disarmed.
Drake turned to Cambridge. “I can’t say how much we appreciate your help, Major. I’m so sorry for the loss of your men. But please, if you would, let these men live, they were only following orders.”
The two surviving SEALs looked up, surprised and perhaps wondering.
Cambridge nodded. “I understand and agree with you, Drake. In the end, we’re all pawns.”
Drake made a face. “Well, not anymore. The American government just tried to kill us. I don’t see a way back from that.”
Cambridge shrugged. “Strike back.”
Drake smiled grimly. “A man after my own heart. It was good to meet you, Major Cambridge.”
“And you, Matt Drake.”
He nodded at Mai and Alicia then headed precariously toward the back of the truck. Drake stared after him, checking the stability of the warhead at the same time. All looked well.
“You know they’re gonna jog back and nick the sword?” Alicia prompted him.
“Yeah, but you know what? I don’t give a fuck. The Sword of Mars is the least of our problems.” He keyed the comms. “Hayden? Dahl? How you doing over there?”
“Good,” Hayden came back. “The last of the Chinese just jumped off. Going for the sword.”
Kenzie cackled. “No, they saw me in action.”
“Didn’t we all.” Drake smiled. “I ain’t gonna forget that sight in a while.”
Alicia slammed him right on the shoulder. “Cool off, soldier boy. Next you’ll be wanting me to stick a nuke between my legs.”
“Nah, don’t worry,” Drake said as he turned away. “I’ll do that for you later.”
The choppers bullied and threatened and cajoled the drivers to slow their vehicles. Of course, at first it didn’t work, but after somebody put a large caliber round through one of the windshields, the men that thought themselves untouchable suddenly began to doubt. Three minutes later, the trucks slowed, hands came out of the windows, and all motion stopped.