Ice Station - Matthew Reilly [117]
Renshaw was stunned. He jammed the hovercraft back into high gear.
‘Holy shit,’ he said. ‘I did it. I did it!’
‘Congratulations, Mr Renshaw,’ Schofield’s voice said in Renshaw’s ear. ‘I’ve seen kids on snowbikes do better slingshots than that. Now, if you don’t mind, would you kindly shut up and get your ass over here. Rebound needs our help.’
Schofield’s hovercraft came alongside Rebound’s.
Both hovercrafts looked like hell. Rebound’s was pockmarked all over with bulletholes. Schofield’s had no front windshield.
The three remaining British hovercrafts circled all around them, cut across in front of them, swung in behind them.
Schofield brought his hovercraft closer to Rebound’s, so that his open left-side door was directly opposite Rebound’s open right-side door.
Schofield yelled, ‘Okay! Send two of your passengers over to me! Renshaw’ll be over in a second! He can take two more!’
‘Ten-four, Scarecrow,’ Rebound’s voice replied.
Schofield hit the cruise control button on his dashboard and hurried back into the cabin of the hovercraft. He came to the open side door and looked across the gap between the two speeding hovercrafts. He saw Book standing in the doorway of the speeding white hovercraft, eight feet away. He had Kirsty with him.
‘Okay!’ Schofield yelled into his helmet mike as Rebound brought his hovercraft closer. ‘Send her over!’
Book edged out onto the skirt of his hovercraft, gently bringing Kirsty with him. The little girl looked scared to death as she stepped out into the freezing, speeding wind.
Schofield ventured out onto his own skirt, his arms outstretched.
‘Come on, honey!’ he called. ‘You can do it!’
Kirsty tentatively stepped forward.
The ground raced by beneath them.
‘Reach out! Reach out! And jump now!’ Schofield yelled. ‘I’ll catch you!’
Kirsty jumped.
A timid, little girl’s jump.
Schofield lunged forward and clutched hold of her parka and pulled her inside the cabin of his speeding black hovercraft.
Once they were safely inside, he asked, ‘Are you okay?’
As Kirsty opened her mouth to answer him, the whole hovercraft was rocked by a ferocious impact. Schofield and Kirsty were both thrown against the frame of the open doorway. Kirsty screamed as she fell out through the doorway, but Schofield threw out his hand and snatched her gloved hand just in time.
They’d been rammed from the right. Schofield snapped round to see what had hit them.
Another British hovercraft.
Schofield pulled Kirsty back inside the cabin, and braced himself for the next impact.
It never came.
Instead, the whole right-hand side of his hovercraft’s cabin simply exploded inwards.
Kirsty screamed and Schofield dived on top of her, shielding her from the flying debris. Schofield tried to peer out through the smoke to see where the British hovercraft was, to see what its owners were doing.
But Schofield couldn’t see the hovercraft.
He just saw smoke and haze.
And then, after a moment, Schofield heard the thud of feet landing on the skirt of his hovercraft and he felt a knot tighten in his stomach as he saw two wraith-like figures emerge from the smoke and enter his cabin with their guns raised.
The two SAS commandos emerged from the smoky haze. Schofield was on the ground, covering Kirsty, totally exposed.
‘Scarecrow! Duck!’ Book’s voice shouted loudly in Schofield’s ear.
Schofield ducked and immediately heard the sharp whoosh! whoosh! of two bullets flying low over his head and the first SAS man dropped like a stone – shot by Book, from the other hovercraft.
The second SAS commando was momentarily startled and that was all Schofield needed. He sprang to his feet like a cat and tackled the SAS man and both men went flying against the dashboard of the hovercraft.
The ensuing hand-to-hand fight was all one-way traffic.