Ice Station - Matthew Reilly [122]
Schofield grabbed Renshaw’s Marine helmet and put it on. He keyed the helmet mike. ‘Rebound, you still out there?
‘Yeah.’
‘Is everyone okay?’
‘More or less.’
‘What about the hovercraft?’ Schofield asked.
‘She’s a bit beat up, but she’s okay. We’ve got full power again,’ Rebound’s voice said.
‘Good,’ Schofield said. ‘Good. Listen, if we take care of this last guy, do you think you can get a head start and make it to McMurdo?’
‘We’ll get there.’
‘All right, then,’ Schofield said as he looked down at Kirsty. ‘Stand by. You’re about to get another passenger.’
Schofield got Renshaw to pull his hovercraft alongside Rebound’s transport. He wanted to put Kirsty on the transport and then send it on its way to McMurdo, while he and Renshaw took care of the last British hovercraft.
The two speeding hovercrafts came together.
Both side doors slid open.
Book appeared in the side door of Rebound’s transport craft. Schofield stood with Kirsty in the door of the orange French hovercraft opposite him.
The last British hovercraft hovered ominously behind them, two hundred yards astern.
‘Okay, let’s go,’ Book’s voice said in Schofield’s earpiece.
Schofield said to Kirsty, ‘You ready?’
‘Uh-huh,’ she said.
They stepped out onto the skirt together.
In the cabin of the transport craft, Rebound was keeping a wary eye on the British hovercraft.
It just seemed to sit there, watching them.
‘What are you doing, you son of a bitch?’ Rebound said aloud.
Book yelled, ‘Okay, send her over!’
Schofield and Kirsty edged forward, toward the edge of their hovercraft’s skirt. The wind buffeted them relentlessly.
On the other skirt in front of them, Book reached for Kirsty’s outstretched hands. Schofield held her from behind. The transfer was almost complete –
And then suddenly Rebound’s voice burst across their helmet intercoms, ‘Oh, fuck! It just launched!’
Schofield and Book both snapped around at the same time.
They saw the smoke trail first.
It spiralled through the air. A thin, white, vapour trail.
And in front of it – a missile.
Its source – the last British hovercraft.
It was another Milan anti-tank missile, and it stayed low, close to the ground. It rocketed through the air, covering the distance between them fast, and then suddenly, with shocking intensity, it slammed into the back of Schofield’s orange hovercraft and detonated.
The hovercraft jolted ferociously with the impact and Schofield lost his grip on Kirsty and fell back into his hovercraft’s cabin. As he fell backwards he looked up and the last thing he saw before he hit the floor of the cabin was a fleeting glimpse of Book – lunging forward, off balance – desperately trying to get hold of Kirsty’s hands as she fell down in between the two speeding hovercrafts.
Book and Kirsty fell.
The black rubber skirt of one of the hovercrafts filled Book’s field of vision as he tumbled down between the two hovercrafts.
He held Kirsty by the hand, and as they fell, he pulled her close to his body and rolled in the air so that when they hit the ground, he would take the brunt of the fall.
And then suddenly, concussively, they hit the speeding ground.
‘Book is down! Book is down!’ Rebound’s voice yelled loudly in Schofield’s earpiece. ‘The little girl fell with him!’
Schofield’s hovercraft shot across the ice plain, totally out of control.
The missile’s impact to the rear of the hovercraft had destroyed its rear fan and half its tail rudder, causing the hovercraft to fishtail wildly and shoot left – and head straight for the cliff-edge.
Renshaw grappled desperately with the steering yoke, but with its tail rudder half-destroyed, the hovercraft would only turn left. Renshaw heaved on the steering yoke and gradually, the hovercraft began to turn in a slow, wide arc so that it was now careering across the clifftops back toward Wilkes Ice Station!
‘Rebound!’ Schofield yelled into his helmet mike, ignoring Renshaw’s efforts to keep control of the hovercraft.
‘What?’
‘Get out of here!’
‘What!