Authors: Matthew Reilly
'They're leaving!' Doogie shouted.
“There!” Van Lewen said, spotting three abandoned Jet Raiders lying
on the riverbank not far from the waterfall— left there, no doubt,
by the members of the Nazi demolition team.
'Come on,' Van Lewen said.
The six of them raced for the three Jet Raiders.
The river's surface raced by beneath them.
The three stolen Jet Raiders kicked up spectacular sprays of white
behind them as they raced side by side across the water in pursuit
of the Nazi armada.
Race rode double with Van Lewen. He drove while the Green Beret sat
behind him like a pillion passenger on a motorcycle, with one hand
wrapped around Race's waist, the other holding his M-16 ready to
fire.
Doogie Kennedy skimmed across the water to their right, riding
double with the German paratrooper Molke, while Ren6e and Schroeder
shot along the river's surface to their left—Ren6e driving,
Schroeder riding shotgun.
The Nazi armada was about three hundred yards ahead of them,
powering quickly along the wide brown river—looking a lot like a
carrier battle group, with the big command boat in the centre,
surrounded by Rigid Raiders and Pibbers.
The three helipad barges trailed behind the other boats, bringing
up the rear, while the little Jet Raiders just ducked and weaved
madly in between all the larger boats like flies around a rubbish
heap.
Race rode hard, wind and water pounding against his face. Out of
the corner of his eye he saw the trees along the river's edge
racing past him in a blur of green, saw the odd stray log floating
on the surface next to him.
Don't hit the logs, Will. Don't hit the logs…
And then he realised.
They weren't logs.
They were caimans.
Don't hit the caimans, Will. Don't hit the caimans…
“Van Lewen!' he yelled above the roaring wind. 'What's the
plan?'
'Easy! We take the command boat, we get the idol, then
we hold the boat until the air support arrives!'
'We take the command boat…'
“Once we get it, we can hold it.'
'Whatever you say,' Race yelled.
Up ahead, the Nazi armada rounded a bend in the river and
disappeared from Race's view. From above, the Alto Purus River
looked like the undulating body of a snake, a neverending series of
twisting bends and turns.
'All right, everybody,' Van Lewen said into his throat mike. 'See
those trees up ahead. That's where we're going.'
Race looked forward and saw that the bend in the river that the
Nazis had just rounded was comprised of a thick outcropping of
trees. As he looked at the outcropping more closely, however, he
noticed something odd about it—there was no dirt or soil at the
base of the trees situated there. It looked as if the trees simply
rose up out of the water.
Then he realised. It was the rainy season, and with the advent of
the annual rains, the water levels of the rivers in the Amazon
Basin rose dramatically. The land upon which that outcropping of
trees stood was deeply submerged—a flooded forest.
Which meant that someone travelling on a small river- craft like a
Jet Raider might be able to wend their way through the trees,
rather than going around the natural bend in the river.
Doogie's Jet Raider shot into the treeline—Race's right behind
it—Ren6e's close behind.
Tree trunks whipped past them on either side, blurring with
motion.
The three Jet Raiders shot through the maze of thick dark
trees—banking left, leaning right, skimming lightly across the
waves, their long flat hulls barely even touching the surface while
off to their left, through the flashing wall of tree trunks,
they could make out the Nazi armada as it powered around the bend
in the river.
Race tried desperately to concentrate as he drove. The
speed at which they were travelling was utterly frightening.
It was so fast. So incredibly, incredibly fast!
Tree trunks whooshed past him at phenomenal speed.
Wavelets streaked underneath the bow of his riverbike. So quickly
were they travelling—so lightly and smoothly on the surface of the
water—that he barely had to touch the handlebars of his bike in
order to bank it left or right.
Race was sitting high in the saddle of his Jet Raider as he sped
along behind Doogie's riverbike when suddenly he saw Doogie and
Molke duck for apparently no reason. And then abruptly he saw why
and he yelled, 'Van Lewen!
Duck!' and the two of them yanked their bodies down just
as a low-hanging branch whistled by over their heads.
'Thanks!' Van Lewen yelled.
'No problem!'
And then through the lattice of dark tree trunks ahead of him he
saw daylight. Heavy, grey, late-afternoon daylight.
'All right, everyone,' Van Lewen said. 'Arrowhead for- rnation.
Doogie and Molke, you take the lead. Agents Schroeder and Becker,
you've got the left. Professor Race and I will cover the right.
Okay; you all ready?' The big Green Beret raised his M-16 in one
hand while he held onto Race with the other.
Up ahead, Race saw Dgogie and Molke lift their own M16s.
'Ready,” Doogie's voice came back.
The three Germans called in. 'Ready-Ready-Ready.“
'Professor?'
'As ready as I'll ever be,' Race said.
'Then let's rock,' Van Lewen said.
316
The three American-German Jet Raiders burst out from the treeiine
in a perfect arrowhead formation right alongside the Nazi armada
and in an instant Race found himself shooting across the water in
the midst of four Nazi jet Raiders!
The four Nazis turned as one to see the three AmeriCan rivefbikes,
total surprise in their eyes, They reached for their guns jtast as
Van Lewen called, 'Doogie! Take left!' and the two Green Berets let
fly in both directions with simultaneous bursts of M]6 gunfire. The
four Nazis were blasted off their riverbikeg in an instant as the
three stolen jet Raiders whipped past them.
As he shot by the fallen Nazis, Race turned in his seat to s.ee
several sets of ripples cut a beeline through the water toward
them.
The 4aimans…
And then suddenly a line of 20ram bullet holes raked the water on
either side of his speeding jet Raider and he was intantiy snapped
out of his trance.
He Spun quickly and saw two attack boats—one Rigid Raider and one
Pibber patrol boat—swing in quickly behind them, the Pibber firing
wildly -with its turret-mounted 20mm cannon.
Race gunned the accelerator and his fiverbike surged forward,
Behind him, Van Lewen swivelled around on the Saddle so that he was
now facing backwards, levelled his M-16 and opened fire on their
pursuers;
His volley of mace fire strafed both boats cracking the windshield
of the Pibber and nailing three of the four men on board the Rigid
Raider.
Then, abruptly, the whole fleet veered left as it rounded another
bend in the river;
'Everybody! Bank hard left!' Van Lewen yelled.
'Left?' Race shouted confused.
'Through the trees again! We've got to get to that command
boat!
At that moment, more gunfire rang out all around them as Pvo Nazi
riverbikes swung in behind them.
Bullets flew everhere; whizzed over Race's head, and then
suddeniy—sprack! Race saw a hideous gout of blood splash out from
Doogie'S left shoulder as the young Green Beret was hit.
'Arrrggghhh!” Doogies voice roared over the radio, but somehow he
managed to keep up his speed.
Voom-voom-voom. The three American riverbikes shot into the
treeline—Ren6e and SChroeder first, Doogie and Molke second, Race
and Van Lewen last of all.
They were followed a split second later by the two Nazi
bikes.
Bullets smacked against the tree trunks just above Race's head as
he flew by them at phenomenal speed. Low-hanging branches rushed at
him. Each time he saw one approaching, he yelled at Van Lewen—stili
facing backwards—and ordered 1-rim to duck
Van Lewen was firing hard with his M-16 at the two Nazi riverbikes
close behind them, but the Nazis found cover behind the tees, and
afte an extended burst of fire Van Lewen suddenly went dry.
Seeing the chance the two Nazi Jet Raiders closed in.
One of them pulled up quickly alongside Race and Van Lewen's
riverbike, sped along the water on their right-hand side, and the
Nazi rider iediately drew a Giock from his saddlebag. With nothing
else to call on, Van Lewen swung his empty M-i6 like a baseball
bat, hitting the Nazi's pistol clean out of his hand—just as the
trees all around the two
speeding jet Raiders splintered violently under the weight of a
burst of G-1i gunfire!
Van Lewen and Race ducked instantly as the second Nazi Jet Raider
roared out of the trees to their left and slammed into the side of
their riverbike,
Race was almost jolted out of his seat by the impact but somehow he
managed to hold on. He kept his speed up banked quickly to avoid an
onrushing tree. Then he glanced left; tried get a look at his new
assailant—
and found himself staring into the barrel of a G11
supermachine-gun.
Race looked up from the barrel and saw the face of its holder,
grinning evilly, smiling with delight.
And then—SMACK!—the Nazi was crunched out of sight as his jet
Raider slammed at full speed into the centre of a thick black tree
trunk and his riverbike exploded into a great billowing
fireball
Race's head whipped aound It had happened so fast!
it was as if the tree had just swooped past them and collected the
Nazi on its way by.
The other Nazi—the one immediately to their right snapped round to
look at the explosion too. Van Lewen caught him looking and in one
swift movement, M-16 in hand, he jurnped across onto the man's
speeding let Raider, landing on its saddie right behind him!
The Nazi ider turned in supise, As he did so, however, Van Lewen
looked forward at the iver ahead of them—and his eyes widened—and
then with the reflexes of a cat he ducked just as the Nazi turned
to look forward and caught the full force Of a speeding branch
whipping by at head- height.
The branch ploughed into the bridge of his nose, drilled itself
into the back of his brain, killing the man in an instant, and the
Nazi toppled backwards, over Van Lewen's bent- over body and off
the back of the riverbike.
A few seconds later, Van Lewen and Race now on separate jet
Raiders—pulled alongside Doogie and Molke's speeding riverbike,
Ren6e and Schroeder were up ahead of them, racing along in the
safety of the trees.
'Doogiei You okay?' Van Lewen said into his throat mike.
'I'll be okay. The bullet went right through,“ Doogie's voice came
back.
While Van Lewen checked on Doogie, Race kept watch for more Nazis.
There were no more coming through the trees behind them. But
through the flashing rush of tree trunks to his right, he could see
a couple of the silver Rigid Raider assault boats racing across the
river's surface parallel to them. Armed Nazi commandos lined their
decks, peering into the flooded forest, searching for them, waiting
fo them to emerge again.
Van Lewen said. 'All right, everybody, listen up. Doogie's taken a
hit but he's okay to keep going. Here's the plan. We want that
command boat, okay. The way we're going to get it is thisi you two
BKA guys'—he nodded at Ren6e and Schroedet 'I want you two to grab
one of those Pibbers. If we'e gonna hold that cruiser we're gorma
need some heavy fire support and that means getting our hands on
one of
those 20 turrets. Think you can manage that?'
'We can try,' Schroeder said.
'Good; Doogie. You, me and Molke are gonna go for the command boat,
you up for that?'
'i can handle it,' Doogie grimaced.
'What about me?' Race asked.
'i got a special job for you, Professor/Van Lewen said.
'Owing to your lack of special forces training, i kinda figured you
wouldn't want to go storming any boats.'
'Good thinking.'
'So i thought that, instead, you could run decoy for us.'
Decoy?'
'i want you to scoot around in front of those Nazi gunboats as fast
as you can and draw their fire while we take the command boat and a
Pibber. Once we've got those two boats we'll bring you aboard the
main cruiser.'
320
Race swallowed. 'Okay…'
As he said it, he glanced left and ght Ren6e's eye. She must have
seen the apprehension on his fate nd nodded reassuringiy
“You'll be all right,' she said softly over his eapiece Thanks/he
said.
Then he looked forward and saw that fheir t'ee-lined Sarctuary
e-n—ded about a hundred yards ahead of them af a tand of
half-submerged trees,
Beyond the stand of trees, he could see grey daylight and the river
proper.
in the river, would be the Nazis,
'AlJ right everybody,' Van Lewen said 'Speed up and stay sharp; You
know what you have fo do;'
Race felt his blood rush He couldn't begin to imagine what lay
beyond those trees;
But he didn't have long to dwell on it because a second later, the
six of them hit the edge of the tiee at full throttle and burst out
into daylight.
The Nazis were waiting for them
No sooner had Race and the others blasted out of the tfeeline than
a wave of supermachine-gun fire erupted all aound them,
Look out!'. Doogie yelled, ducking, but Molke was too gi0w A
thunderous barrage of bullets whizzed over Doogie'S head and
slammed into the young German soldier's body, ripping his chest
open, causing Moike to convulse vi0iehtiy before he was thrown off
the back of the speeding
Rade'g @yes went wide as saucers as he saw Molke get shot to bitg
right alongside him. They went wider still when he beheld th@ gight
before him.
Two of the three Mosquito choppers that had previously been
restirig on the helipad barges now hovered in the air above the
water right in front of him and his teafn, while the
rest of the Nazi fleet powered up the river behind them!
Damn it!
A spray of deadly 20mm machine-gun fire gpewed out from the
helicopters' side-mounted cannons, raking the tree
trunks behind Race, strafing the water all around him.
iSpit up] $plit up[' Van Lewen yelled.
The four ,american-German Jet Raiders split up instantly— two going
left, two going right—and suddenly Race found elf facing across the
water alongside Doogie KennedN who was now sitting alone on his
riverbike, his wounded left shouldef caked in blood..
Van Lewen and Ren6e and Schroeder shot off in the other direction,
whipping out of sight behind the flotilla of river boats.