State of Siege - Tom Clancy [10]
The guard in the truck reacted immediately. "Emergency!" he said into the open microphone. "Two masked men in truck, license 101763, have stopped in front of us. They are armed with rocket launchers." A heartbeat later, the men fired.
There was a faint whoosh as twin spikes of yellow orange flame shot from the rear of the grenade launchers. At the same time, a smooth, steel jacketed, pear-shaped projectile rocketed from the barrel of each tube. The grenades hit the windshield on either side and exploded. The guard in the passenger seat raised his gun.
"The windshield held!" the guard cried triumphantly. The driver looked into the right and left side mirrors. Then he started to nose to the right, into oncoming traffic.., "Attempting evasive maneuver to the north lanes-was he said.
Suddenly, both men screamed.
High-end bulletproof glass, made of plastic laminate, is designed to withstand even close-proximity blasts from hand grenades. It may shatter in a single-hole or web pattern, but it'll hold without fragmentation for one or possibly two assaults. After that, there are no guarantees. Whoever is behind the glass-the driver of an armored car or limousine, the employee at a bank, prison, parking or transit booth, or federal office building-is supposed to call for backup and evacuate the target area if possible. In the case of an armored car, even if the occupants can't drive off, the driver and passenger are both armed. In theory, once the glass is breached, the attackers are equally at risk. But the grenades that had been fired from the truck were two- chambered. The front chamber contained an explosive. The larger back chamber, which was shattered in the blast, contained disulphuric acid.
The windshield had broken the same way in two spots, a sunburst pattern caused by high-velocity fragmentation: a nearly inch-wide crater at the center with filament-thin cracks radiating from it. Some of the acid had been blown through the hole, splattering the driver and passenger in the face and lap. The rest of the acid ate through the cracks by dissolving the non-chemically inert polymers that were a component of the glass.
Etienne Vandal and Reynold Downer slung the grenade launchers over their shoulders. Downer jumped from the back as the armored car slammed into the right rear corner of the truck. The truck skidded to the right, the armored car to the left, and both came to a stop. Vandal and Downer jumped onto the hood of the armored car. All they had to do was kick the windshield to knock it in. It came apart just as Vandal had said it would. The glass was thicker and heavier than Downer had expected, and the acid residue caused the rubber heel of his boot to smoke. But he only had a moment to think about that. The Australian pulled an automatic from a holster he wore on his right hip. He was standing on the passenger's side. As cars in the other lanes slowed and watched and then sped away, Downer fired a single shot into the forehead of the guard. Vandal did the same on the other side.
The lone guard in the sealed cargo compartment called the dispatcher from his own secure radio in the back. Vandal had known he would do that because, after leaving the military with an impeccable record, the lieutenant had easily landed work as a security guard for the Banque de Commerce armored cars. He had served on an armored vehicle just like this one for nearly seven months. Vandal also knew that at this point in the journey, with traffic as heavy as it was, it would take the police emergency response team at least ten minutes to get there, And that was more than enough time to finish the job.
From studying the videotapes, the men had ascertained that the armor used in the cars hadn't changed in the months since Vandal had left his post.