Midnight Runner - Jack Higgins [89]
The train was rocking and Barry was having difficulty keeping his feet under him. He fired wildly, the bullet going several feet to one side of Dillon. He tried to take aim again, then a look of amazement crossed his face.
"Christ, Dillon, it's you."
"God bless all here, Barry," Dillon said, and fired the AK on automatic, driving him back over the front end of the wagon to fall beneath the wheels of the train. A moment later and Billy joined him.
"Dillon, we did it."
"Saved the world again, Billy." Dillon got out his Codex and called up Villiers. "Mission accomplished, Tony. Keenan and his friends are stiffed and all the explosive charges are defused. We're almost at the bridge. Where are you?"
"Two miles the other side, but you'd better keep going. You could have trouble. The Rashid Scorpion passed over me."
"Is that so? Thanks for the warning. See you soon and we'll stop the train then."
Billy said, "Now what?"
"Tony says he just saw the Rashid helicopter, so we keep going hard until we meet up with them. You go down on the footplate with the driver and fireman and keep them at it. I'll talk to them. Get on with it."
Billy did as he was told an dropped down to Ali and Halim, who looked greatly shocked. Dillon shouted down in his bad Arabic. "Everyone else is dead. If you want to live, keep the train moving and do as you're told, otherwise my friend will shoot you."
Ali looked cowed, but Halim, as it sank in, looked angry now. Dillon went back to the roof of the first wagon, got the Codex, and rang Ferguson. There was an almost instant reply.
"Ferguson."
"Dillon. I'm standing on top of a train just about to cross the Bacu Bridge. There've been no nasty explosions, so the oil can continue to flow to an ungrateful world, which will never know how close it came to disaster."
"And Keenan and company?"
"Dead, I'm afraid, gone to that great IRA rest home in the sky."
"As usual, you astonish me."
"God save us, General, I astonish myself sometimes, but I must go. I think I heard the Rashid helicopter approaching."
T hey were on the way in to the bridge, the Scorpion at six hundred feet, when Rupert Dauncey first saw the column of Land Rovers over to the left. Kate Rashid picked up a pair of binoculars and focused on them.
"It's Tony Villiers and the Scouts. What's he doing here?"
"More importantly," her cousin said, "how did he know to be here?"
The Bacu Bridge loomed ahead, an awesome sight, and the train started to cross. "What in hell is going on? It isn't stopping," Kate said.
Dauncey had taken the binoculars from her and focused them. He passed them to her. "Even more interesting is how an old friend of yours happens to be down there dressed in a Special Forces combat uniform."
It was her turn to focus the binoculars. "My God," she whispered. "Dillon, but how?"
As the Scorpion made its pass, Dillon waved cheerfully.
"Damn you," she said.
The train continued to cross, Dillon still waving. It reached the other side and she said, "Abu, shoot him."
"Waste of time, sweetie," Rupert told her. "That's not the way this thing operates."
Abu pulled open the door, leaned forward and fired, but the helicopter bucked and he dropped his rifle and grabbed at a seat belt, almost going headfirst through the door.
On the footplate, Billy looked up at the sound of the shot, and Halim grabbed at Billy's AK, forcing the barrel up. Billy fired, alerting Dillon, but even as he did so, the fireman, with his great strength, hurled Billy backwards out of the engine.
As Dillon shot Halim in the back, too late, driving him also to the side of the track, Dauncey took the binoculars and focused on Billy. "It's young Salter."
Kate Rashid shouted at Carver, "Land beside him. Go on, do it." She turned to Rupert. "Give me your Walther."
"Now look, Kate, Villiers will be here at any moment. Let's get out of here."
"Give me your Walther!"
Abu glared at Dauncey and held his AK ready. Rupert sighed, took out the weapon,