Temple (36 page)

Race saw the chance instantly, and without so much as a blink, he
quickly leapt out through the shattered forward windshield of the
wheelhouse and climbed up onto its roof.
Then, just as Doogie's Goose swept past his Pibber, Race leapt
across onto the wing of the moving seaplane and danced across its
length!
It was an amazing sight. The Goose seaplane, speeding along in
between the Nazi command boat and the Pibber, with the tiny figure
of William Race—in his saturated jeans and T-shirt and his New York
Yankees baseball cap—running across its wings, his body bent
forward, braced against the battering wind.
Race ran hard, his feet moving quickly but surely across the
fifty-foot wingspan of the Goose.
He saw the command boat looming in front of him; saw
the world streaking laterally beyOnd it; saw RenOe up neat its bow
holding off the three Nai at the other end of the passageway; saw
the i0ne Na2i up On the big catamaran's roof, closing in on her
position;
And then, like a racing car oveftakin it rival, the Goose came
alongside the COrnrnand boat and Raee hit the edge of
the left wing at full stride and leapt off
—and flew through the ai
—and landed, catqike On both fet; On the roof of the command boat,
right next to th@ Na2i who had been sneak ing up on RenOe!
Race didn't miss a beat, Gunih; he just hurled himself at the man,
slammed ifit0 him; ending both of them flying forward, off the roof
of the C0rnrnand boat.
They landed in a heap on the foredeck of the catamaran not far from
where RenOe was hunkered down at the for ward end of the starboard
passageway.
Disoriented, Race rolled clear of where they had faiien and looked
up in horror to see that the Nazi was already on his feet.
In a fleeting instant, Race saw the mans face, it was with out a
doubt one of the ugliest faces he had ever seen—loNg and lopsided
and heavily cratered with pockmarks it was also the picture of
anger—the picture of pure unadulterated
f.ury.
But it was only to be a fleeting giimpse, for in the next flashing
instant, his view of the Nazi;s hideously ugly Was replaced by the
sight of the butt of the man's AK47 assaUlt rifle rushing toward
his face and then smack! he saw nothing but black;
RenOe whirled around just in time to see Race's head snap violently
backwards with the blow. His body dropped to the deck, hitting it
hard, out cold;
RenOe saw the ugly Nazi standing over Race's body— saw him suddenly
snap to look up at her.
Then she saw him raise his gun and smile.
The Goose seaplane shot out in front of the Command boat, into the
open wate ahead of the fleet.
Doogie was pushirig forward on the th0fle, trying to get the little
seaplane lap to take-off speed, whef suddenly there came a loud
bang! from somewhere to hi left. AbrUptly he felt the whole plane
ilarch drarnaticaiiy and he looked out to see that there was now
nohing in the place where his left- hand stabiiising pOntOOn should
have been.
Not a second later; a pai of Nazi Rigid Raiders zoomed across his
bow from either side ¢iss-¢rossing in front of hirn the commando on
th@if decks spattering his windshield with heavy machiriegan
fite
Doogie ducked. His wiridshield cracked into spider- webs;
Then he looked up to se one of the Nazis on the right- hand Rigid
Raider heft an M72A2 man-portable rocket
launcher onto his shoulder and aim it right at the Goose!
'Oh, rnan,, ;' Doogie breathed, The Nazi fired,
A puff of smoke issued from the barrel of th rocket launcher at
exactly the same rn0fn@nt as Doogie yanked his steeing yoke hard to
th left.
The Goose banked wildly—s0 wildly in fact that the tip Of its
pontoon-less left wing actually toched the water, kicking Up a
spectacular shower of spray!
As a resUlt, the rnissii from the oket launcher shot right
underneath Doogie's eivated right irig, missing it by
inches before shooting off into the treeline and biagting
unfortunate tree trunk to heii,
Doogie's little Goose continued to careen across the river's
surfacc: racing along on its belly and its one .emain: ing
pontoon.
Just then the last Mosquito attack chopper roared in from out of
nowhere, loosing a devastating burst of carmonfire that raked the
Water all around the little seaplane,
'God damn itP Doogie yelled as he ducked bereath the dashboard
again. 'could this situation get any worse?'
It was then that he heard an ominous, but very fafniiiaL
sound.
Poof .r
He spun in his seat,
Just in time to see one of the t.,o remaining Nazi Pibbeg swing in
behind him and iaunh a torpedo frown itg gide; mounted pod.
The torpedo splashed into the water, shot forwaid under the
surface.
Doogie ged
The two Rigid Raiders were now speeding along on either side of
hirn off the tips of his win boing him in.
“Shit,” Doogie said, %hibshitshit/
The torpedo closed in;
He pushed the Googe'g throttle forward
The little seaplane shot aeto the water; Surrounde-d by- enemy
vessels on no less thafi f0uf side by the two Rigi Raiders on both
of its fianks by the Pibbei a hundred yards astern of it, and by
the biaek Mosquito attack chopper shooting through the air above
it.
Doogie looked abeut himself desperately. While his plane struggled
te maintain its pace, the tw gid Raiders sped alongside tiim
easily, their supercharged engines roar; ing, their crews Seeming
to take a perverse kind of pleasfe in watching him struggle.
'Don't smile too soon, you fascist asshoies/Dooie sid aloud. 'it's
not over yet,
The torpedo was within ¢wefity yards of his tail now.
Doogie pushed the thr0tti as fa foard as it would Fifteen yards,
and he hit eighty knots.
Ten—ninety.
Five—a hundred,
Doogie could see the Nazis on the Rigid Raiders laughing at him as
he despeateiy attempted to outrun the torpedo in his hopelessly
outdated Goose,
Two yards—a hundred ahd ten, Top Speed.
The torpedo slid ufiderneath the Goose.
'No!“ Doogie yelled, Core on, babyi Do itfo rae!'
The Goose shot a4ro the river's surface.
The Nazis laughed.
Doogie swore.
And then suddenly, gioiously the little Goose did what fioone ecept
Doogie thought it was still capable of doing
it lifted off the surface.
it Only lifted slightly off the riv's rushing surface—mayb a foot o
two at t&e mostbUt it was enough,
With its initial target lost, th@ torpedo in the water imm@ diateiy
began searching for an0the,
it found it in theRigid Raide to Doogie's right.
NO sooner had the Goose lifted off the surface than that Rigid
Raider was blasted out of the water by the shocking detonation Of
the torpedo,
The Goose touched back down again, kicking up a shower of spray
behind it,
The Mosquito above it saw what had happened and it powered f0aG
ahead of the Goose-tuming laterally in the air as it did Soso that
it now flew backwards in font of the speeding Seapiane unleashing a
savage burst of gunfire at it,
Doogie ducked unde the dashboard. 'Da choppersi; he yelled, 'Let's
see how yoga like this!'
ad with that he yanked his steering yoke had to the left,
The Goose banked sharply—the tip of its pontoon-less left wing
touching the surface again—:utting across the path of the Surviving
Rigid Raider!
The skipper of the Rigid Raider didn't react fast enough.
Like a misiie shooting up into the sky, the Idgid Raider lifted
completely out of the water as it rushed up the steeply- slanted
wing of the Seaplane!
The assault boat raced up the reinforced wings of the Goose, its
exposed silver hull screeching loudly as it shot along the
seaplane's heavily banked wings, using them as a launching amp, and
then—shoom!—the Rigid Raider launched itself off the end of the
right-hand wing and out into the air beyond it where it smashed
into the canopy of the MosqUitO helicopter that was hovering in
front of the sharply-turned Goose!
The Mosquito lurched backwards—reeling like a boxer punched square
in the noseas the Rigid Raider ploughed into its bubble at
incredible speed. Its canopy shattered in an instant and a split
second later, the whole helicopter exploded into an enormous
billowing fireball.
Doogie stared back at the carnage behind ; saw the blackened shell
of the torpedoed Rigid Raider sg slowly into the water; saw the
charred remains of the Mosquito and the other Rigid Raider crash
down into the river with an enormous splash,
'Eat that you Nazi bastards,' he said softly.
)azed, confused and posseged of one hell of a headache, William
.ace was marched at uhpoin[ out onto the rear deck of the Nazi
command boa[
Rene walked along beside ghoved orwafd by t exaotd.afiiy ugly Nazi
Rade No though[ of as *Ctafa,
N sn had h and RenO b@ subdued by Ctatetfa¢ up on th bow th big
Nazi had called opon s om-fads at e o¢ nd of th starboard
passageway o ¢as their fi, en had mar&ed o captives down the
passaway and out onto the rear heiiad whe the ptise wte Bell Jet
Ranger helicopter wa on e vefe of tang off
Ahisiaze saw them instantly, ki4kd oeh the side door of he
helicopter,
'Bring em to m; h shouted.
Van Lewn was racing across the river's urface
of the flet
He at at the helm of the ¢arab, shooting acfos fh@ five wif oly the
eaf third o th boat's buiietShpd tOO4hig fh Water he sound of its
in 40h0fpow egifieg thundering in his
He m ed m his gear to see the white Beii jet Ranger copter lift off
fto the gtem dek of the command boat.
Karl Schroeder was in a world of trouble.
His Rigid Raider was near the back of the fleet, shooting across
the river's surface in between the last two Nazi Pibbers, being
pummelled by their relentless fire.
Schoeder tried desperately to duck their bullets, but they were too
close, too fast.
And then suddenly—smack-smack-smack—a line of btllet holes raked
his Rigid Raider, cutting across his right leg, opening up three
jagged red holes in his thigh.
He fell, clenching his teeth, stifling a scream.
Somehow he managed to get up on one knee and keep driving the boat,
but it was no use, The Nazi Pibbers were all over him.
He looked forward, caught sight of what was left of the fleet—the
command boat, the Scarab, the Goose seaplane and one of the helipad
barges—speeding off into the distance a good hundred yards ahead of
him.
He also saw the white Bell Jet Ranger helicopter as it flew away
from the command boat; Only minutes earlier, he had seen Race and
Ren6e get thrown iito
At that moment, another wave of gunfire assailed Schroeder's boat,
strafing a line of holes across his back, puncturing his
bulletproof vest as if it were made of tissue paper. Schroeder
roared in agony, fell to the deck.
And in that instant he knew he Was going to die.
His wounds burning, his nerve ends screaming, his entire body on
the verge of going into shock, Karl Schroeder looked desperately
about himself for anything he could use to take as many of the
Nazis down with him as he could.
His gaze fell upon the kevlar box that he had seen earlier on the
floor of the Rigid Raider. It was only now, however, thaf he saw
that it had words stencilled on its side in English.
Slowly, Schroeder read the markings on the side of the kevlar
box.
When he had finished reading them, his eyes went wide
Schroeder's Rigid Raider drifted further and further behind what
was left of the fleet, with the two Nazi Pibbers crowd ing in on
either side of it.
Karl Schroeder now lay on his back on the deck of his assault boat,
gazing up at the storm clouds that rolled by overhead, darkening
the late-afternoon sky, the life slowly draining from his
body.
Abruptly, the face of a rather sinister-looking Nazi cut across his
view of the sky and Schroeder realised that one of
the Pibbers had come alongside him.
But he didn't care.
Indeed, as the Nazi calmly raised his AK-47 to his shoul der,
Schroeder just looked up into the barrel of the man's
gun, uninterested, resigned to his fate.
And then, strangely, he smiled.
The Nazi hesitated.
Then he looked slightly to the sidelat the kevlar box
that lay to Schroeder's left.
The box's lid was open.
Inside it, he saw five small chrome-and-plastic vials, each filled
with a small amount of shiny amber liquid. Each vial sat snugly
inside a foam-lined pocket.
The Nazi knew what they were instantly.
M-22 isotopic charges.
But there was a sixth foam-lined pocket in the box.
It lay empty.
The Nazi's eyes snapped left to see the last vial sitting in
Schroeder's bloodsmeared hand.
Schroeder had already broken the rubber seal on top of the charge,
had already uncocked the red safety latch that covered its release
mechanism.
Now he had his thumb pressed down on the release but ton. He held
it down as he gazed calmly into space.
The Nazi's eyes went wide with horror. 'Oh, fuck…'
Schroeder closed his eyes. It would be up to Ren6e and the American
professor now. He hoped they succeeded. He hoped the two American
soldiers were far enough ahead of his boat, out of the blast
radius. He hoped…
Schroeder sighed a final time and as he did so he let go of the
release button and the M22 isotopic charge went off in all its
glory.
The worldi ghook.
Aiiiiivmassive—white-hot explosion blasted out ftOmihhe diNaider
and shot out in every direction.
i ghBifi e trees on either side of the river, cinerat-
i f aninstant, blastg them to nothing,
if d the river's surfacea bubbling, frotg iiffhoofing downwards at
unimagable speed, oiii 6r on contact, killing anytg its path as it
a6flwnards like a speeding comet;
if he sky, high into the sky, flatg white like
th flhbi a camera, an aii-consumg monumental flafhave been visible
from space;
wfii the expanding wail of white-hot light shot aiofiives surface,
chasing after the temader of the
Vaen's Scarab and Doogie's Goose skipped across
the tet the head of the fleetout font of the gar-gan of white light
eating up the iver behd
Toti extent, they'd been lucky. ey had been a go0dtrendred yards
ahead of Schroeder's gid Raierente M-22 charge had gone off.
Tboatsthe last helipad barge, the two rema - g P the command boat
itseifhadn't.
The een closer. d now the expanding wail of wi-h tt just loomed
above them like some iense my(ologi onster, dwarfing them. And then
suddenly,