They heard the doors slam shut, and with a shock of realization the implication of what was happening dawned on Clarkson. 'Vortex!' he shouted, pushing himself up to his knees. But his eyes were full of blood and he could barely see, let alone do anything about what was happening. And as he scrabbled around in the dirt, a billow of exhaust fumes blew into his face, causing him to cough and splutter.
'Stop them!' he heard Hildred shouting.
'Stop them!'
But it was too late. The engine of the truck had roared into life, and by the time either of them could see again, it had already driven off, and was speeding into the distance.
Ben was no expert at driving a truck, but after his exploits in the Congo he was good enough. The gears crunched noisily as he shifted them up as quickly as possible and sped away from the two soldiers they had just overcome, completely against the odds. They sped along the road in anxious silence. There was nothing to say — they both knew the stakes. The soldiers whose places they had taken most likely had mobile phones on them; they would already have been in touch with Lucian's people, and the chase would be on. Ben and Annie's hastily cobbled together plan was falling apart at the seams.
The truck hit a bump in the road, shaking them about and causing something to fall off the dashboard.
'What was that?' Ben asked tensely, keeping his eye on the road ahead and not daring to look in the side mirrors to see if anyone was following them.
'Just a packet of cigarettes,' Annie replied. 'And a lighter.'
Ben blinked. A lighter. An idea began to form in his mind. 'Hold on,' he told his cousin, before clenching his jaw and turning the steering wheel into a sharp left turn. The truck left the road and juddered across country a little distance before he slammed down the brakes and brought them to an abrupt stop. The engine shuddered, and then stalled.
'What are we doing?' Annie asked.
'Get out,' Ben told her. 'And bring the lighter.'
They jumped out of the cab and ran round to the back of the truck, which Ben opened. Vortex was still there, safely entombed in its metal flight case and still tied to the truck with ropes.
'We can't open the flight case,' Ben said, thinking out loud. 'We already tried that, and it's useless without the key. It's too heavy for us to carry it anywhere, and they'll already have sent someone after us. We've only got one option, and that's to destroy the thing here and now.'
'How, Ben? It's a metal flight case. You're not going to set fire to it with a plastic lighter.'
Ben shook his head. 'I've got another idea. Here, give me a hand.'
They climbed up into the back of the truck.
'Undo the rope,' he said. 'We need the longest piece we can find.'
Annie looked panicked and confused, but she had no option other than to do what Ben said. The knots that fastened the flight case to the side of the truck were large, thick and difficult to untie; and the fact that they were rushing meant it seemed to take even longer to loosen them. Eventually, however, they did untie them. Unravelling the rope, they managed to unwind a piece that was at least ten metres long. Ben looked at it unenthusiastically. 'It'll have to do,' he murmured to himself.
'What do you mean, it'll have to do?' Annie demanded. 'What's going on, Ben?'
But there was no time to explain. They jumped down, then Ben grabbed the keys that were still in the ignition and unlocked the fuel cap at the back of the truck. 'Give me the rope,' he told Annie.
She handed it to him, and he carefully started to thread it into the fuel tank. 'We need to get it saturated,' he said tensely.
'Ben!' Annie warned. 'Look!'
He glanced in the direction that she was pointing. In the distance were two more trucks coming towards them. It was clear that they were moving very quickly.
Half the rope had been fed into the fuel tank by now, so Ben pulled it out, then started to insert the other end.
'They're getting nearer, Ben! I don't know what you've got planned but it had better work — these people have already tried to kill us once today.'
'Just a few more seconds.' His hands were covered in stinking diesel as he continued to feed in the rope.
'Hurry!'
It was done. The whole rope was saturated. Ben started to pull it out, leaving a little of the diesel-soaked rope hanging inside the fuel tank; the rest of it he laid out on the ground, pulling it in a straight line so that the end was as far away from the truck as possible.
'Give me the lighter, Annie,' he said quietly.
Annie's eyes widened as she realized what he was planning to do. 'It's too dangerous,' she said. 'We're too close.'
'Get away from the truck.'
She stood firm.
'Annie, you heard what Joseph said. If we don't destroy this thing, thousands of people could die. This is a real Code Red situation. Now get away from the truck.'
'No,' she replied.
'Annie, they'll be here in a couple of minutes. Give me the lighter — it's the only chance we've got.'
'No, Ben,' she said. 'Look at your hands — they're covered with fuel. If you spark up that lighter, you might go up in flames yourself.'
'I'm going to have to risk it.'
'No you're not, Ben.' She held out her arms. 'My hands are clean. I can do it.'
'Annie!' he said urgently. 'We haven't got time to argue.'
'Then you'd better do what I say.' She stared defiantly at him — one of those stares that Ben knew he couldn't argue against.
'All right,' he said quietly. 'But I'm staying with you. The moment the flame touches the end of the rope, we run — OK?'
Annie nodded. They could hear the engines of the approaching trucks now; there wasn't a single second to lose. 'Ready?'
'Ready. Good luck, Annie.' He clasped hold of her free hand as she bent down and sparked the cigarette lighter into flame.
'Annie,' Ben said. 'I'm sorry I dragged you into this. I'm sorry I forced you to come into Spadeadam.'
His cousin looked at him. 'Don't be silly, Ben. Do you really think I wanted to be left behind?'
A slow grin spread over Ben's face. 'Not really,' he said.
They both looked back down and held their breath. 'Ready?'
'Ready!'
Annie lit the rope.
'Run!'
Ben shouted. Hand in hand they sprinted as fast as they could away from the truck.
It was a matter of seconds before it exploded. Ben and Annie were thrown to the ground by an intense blast of burning air, and they covered their heads with their arms to shield themselves from the chunks of burning shrapnel that flew all around them. As the explosion subsided, there was a flaming crackle, and Ben turned over onto his back to see the vehicle burning, a thick black stream of smoke rising up into the air.
'We did it!' Annie said breathlessly. 'We destroyed it.'
But Ben didn't answer. Instead he squinted his eyes and looked through the flames into the wavering distance beyond. The vehicles that had been following him were there, and three soldiers had climbed down. They looked at the burning truck with unconcealed horror, and Ben realized that what they saw was not a burning weapon, but the piles of money they were expecting to get paid, all going up in smoke. In an instant they all started shouting at each other.
'That's right,' Ben whispered to himself. 'Keep arguing. Keep arguing, then get back in your trucks and drive away.'
It was a vain hope. From the midst of their increasingly heated discussion, one of the soldiers happened to look past the flames. His eyes widened as he saw Ben and Annie lying there.
'Look!' they heard him shout as he pointed in their direction. His colleagues stopped arguing and glanced over. And then, without hesitation, they sprinted towards them.
Ben and Annie moved as one. They jumped to their feet and started running through the high grass away from the soldiers.