London Wild (49 page)

‘Want to check everyone’s ready first?’ Michael asked. He closed both his eyes tight for a moment and turned his head back towards the controls.

‘Anyone who isn’t ready gets left behind. Let’s go,’ Charles insisted. And then to question the strange movement Michael had just made he asked, ‘Are you all right?’

‘I thought I was going to sneeze,’ Michael replied
. As he spoke he sounded as if he was still trying to contain the sneeze. ‘I’ll be fine. Let’s go.’

Less than a minute later they were moving into position behind Tank Three and follow
ing the route that Colonel Davis had mapped out for them. The route took them through the center of London, through many streets that would usually be gridlocked even at this early hour. Colonel Davis had seen to it that they would be devoid of civilian traffic today by getting the local police forces to close off the streets to everyone except the convoy until they were through.

Charles hadn’t liked it
. Though he could understand that a lot of time would be saved, it was as good as telling the cats which way they were coming. Colonel Davis was confident the cats wouldn’t be able to lift a finger to stop the convoy even if they knew every aspect of the battle plans. Colonel Davis was also confident that the cats didn’t have a single weapon to harm even the lightest vehicle in the convoy. Colonel Davis was so confident that he had decided not to join the convoy himself, but to follow its progress at a distance via the newspaper.

As the convoy pulled away from its starting position
, there came a loud clump on the left flank of the tank. Charles’ first thought was that the anticipated attack had started, and he looked behind him to where Oliver was perched. As well as having control over the many laser weapons that bristled from the tank, Oliver also had charge of all the defensive devices that the tank was fitted with. It was he who would trigger the smoke, he who would release the chaff, and in situations where the tank was under threat of being boarded, he who could electrify the entire outer shell.

Oliver shook his head at the implied
question. ‘It’s a broadcast unit. They probably think they can get some good pictures sitting on the outside of our tank. It’s nothing to worry about.’

‘Don’t they know we’re going into battle?
’ Charles hissed. He turned back to face the front of the tank and tried to pick up the interlopers on one of his scanners. ‘Triple N again. Won’t they leave me alone?’

‘I think they think they own you.’ Oliver’s comment sounded a little amused. ‘They probably think they made you into the hero you are today with their story
, and they’re looking for some sort of payback.’

‘Once we get into action we’ll lose them one way or another. I’d rather they survived, but we can’t really be blamed for their stupidity if they are killed
,’ Michael commented, still sounding like a sneeze was brewing.

‘You just watch them,’ Charles replied. He sighed, ‘
We prepared a press truck especially for the reporters to travel in, and instead they insist on sitting on the outside of our vehicle where they’ll be sitting ducks.’

‘I could activate the anti-boarder field anyway,’ Oliver commented, ‘just a low setting, enough to give them the message that we don’t want them there.’

‘That’d make them very unhappy with us. And that could lead to very unfavorable reporting. I don’t think the Colonel would be too happy with any of us if we get bad press on this excursion. No, we can’t afford to deliberately upset a network by doing something like that. We’ll have to grin and bear it and hope they leave before they get themselves killed.’

‘I’m not sure I understand why they’re sending living people into the battle zone,’ Gloria commented
. ‘Don’t they have robots for this sort of situation?’

‘I wondered about that too,’ Charles confessed.

‘They do,’ Oliver replied; ‘however, robots don’t have the instinct that a human reporter team might have. There’s also all the press awards that can be won by reporting on a battle such as today’s. Some of those reporters probably insisted they be allowed to cover this event.’

The trip went fairly quickly
, and other than another pair of snipers taking pot shots at them as they drove by, they passed through London without incident. 

The first real encounter
with any resistance was in the town of Romford, located just to the east of London in the county known as Essex. There were two possible routes that could take them from here on to Upminster and beyond. The most suitable for their needs would have bypassed most of the town itself and taken them straight to Upminster without fuss, but part of this bypass involved a bridge which jumped across a main road serving Romford town center. Indeed, this had been the intended route, having even been closed to the public to allow the convoy to pass.

However
, as they approached the bridge, Michael, who was monitoring the newspaper channels for pertinent stories as well as keeping in touch with the other vehicles of the convoy, came across a local report. ‘I think you should hear this,’ he commented and switched the channel so that Charles could receive it.

A reporter in a long white rain coat was standing in the foreground with the bridge just behind him. There was a lot of activity on the bridge, mainly uniformed soldiers. ‘Last night a group of cats, knowing that Slim’s convoy was intending to bypass Romford by use of the flyover, tried to plant a number of explosives along its length. It’s believed they intended to trigger these bombs when the convoy had gotten halfway across. Fortunately our local forces were on the ball and came by to check the area for just this sort of thing
, catching them in the act.’ There was pride in his voice. ‘These brave local boys got into a vicious gun battle with the evil cats and were able to call up reinforcements from the far side, thus pinning the cats in the center of the bridge. The local authorities aren’t sure how many cats were on the bridge. They have retrieved eight bodies on the flyover itself this morning and two others that appear to have been trying to lower themselves by ropes to the road below in order to escape. It’s feared that if any of the cats did get away, they may still have the ability to trigger the explosives they planted. Even now the police and the army are busy trying to clear the bridge for the imminent arrival of the convoy. It’s feared the convoy might be delayed until the bridge has been thoroughly checked.’

‘We can’t wait,’ Charles responded
; ‘we’ve been delayed enough as it is. We’d better take an alternate route through the town.’

The alternate route went through the center of town, using the main roads and side streets wide enough for them to pass safely. These streets were a lot more suitable for an ambush, though it was hoped that because these roads hadn’t been closed to the public the cats wouldn’t know they intended to use them.

They were wrong. The convoy was about a third of the way along this new route when the cats struck again. Three parked cars suddenly sprang to life and then sped at their maximum acceleration towards the lead tank. One of the three came from directly ahead of the tank; the other two came careening out of side turnings on opposite sides of the road that the tank had just passed.

The crew of Tank One soon perceived their danger. The turret turned
to aim at the car coming from the front and fired a prolonged burst. The car vanished in an explosion of smoke and metal. The crew of the tank didn’t wait to observe the result of their blast, instead going right on to rotating the turret to the nearest of the other two cars. But the turret could only move so quickly, and though it wasn’t exactly sluggish, the other two cars were moving far too fast and had started from far too close for them to get a shot.

When the cars collided with Tank One
, they seemed to atomize with the strength of the explosion. The windows of the nearby buildings were blown out, and the walls of the nearest buildings on either side of the road they faced were blown in and threatened to topple over into the street. A large number of cars parked nearby jumped violently, and some reached considerable heights before returning to the ground, where they landed at all sorts of odd angles. Tank One was little more than a lump of metal sitting in a large crater amidst the ash of what had once been a pair of cars. It appeared to be in one piece, but it was blackened and charred. Tank Two had been caught in the blast too and had suffered superficial damage to its front, and one of its wheels was slightly misaligned despite the fact that the caterpillar that held it appeared to be untouched.

Ash and other debris was still falling on the convoy as they stopped to take stock of the situation.

‘Car bombs?’ Gloria seemed more than a little surprised.

‘Losses?’ Charles called immediately
.

‘Tank One has been totaled,
and Tank Two needs to make a few minor adjustments to one of its wheel alignments and will be delayed.’

‘Any survivors from One?’ asked Charles.

‘They aren’t responding,’ Michael said, sounding very nasal; ‘if anyone did survive, their communication equipment hasn’t.’

‘Okay,’ Charles said, ‘get a
meat wagon and a Med Unit up here pronto. Tell number Two to pull aside out of the way and conduct their repairs. We aren’t actually in Sou’nd yet, so it should be safe enough for them to do so. Leave them with a contingent of soldiers, though, just in case any more cats are in the area. I wish we had time to be sure. The rest of us are going on. Three is to lead the way. Two is to rejoin us as soon as they are able.’ 

‘We aren’t going to wait to see if anyone survived
, sir?’ Gloria asked.

‘We aren’t,’ Charles confirmed. He tried not to sound cold as he spoke
. ‘The soldiers should be enough to guard them while any rescue is made. We can’t wait while every damaged vehicle is checked for survivors. That’s why we have support vehicles.’

‘There’s a lot of conversation between the various vehicles, including the other tanks, sir,’ Michael reported
, still sounding as if he might sneeze at any moment. ‘I think our men are quite shaken.’

‘That’s why we don’t hang around to dwell on what’s happened,’ Charles told him
. ‘Now, wait until Two has gotten out of the way, and then tell Three to lead on.’

‘I’ll get right on it, sir,’ Michael replied. He finally sneezed as he turned back to the radio.

‘You were out in the rain too long; you need something for that cold,’ Gloria commented. Charles wondered if she was trying to change the subject for their benefit or for her own.

‘I’ll be all right,
’ Michael replied, though he didn’t sound it.

‘Good news
, sir,’ Oliver spoke suddenly. He was peering out of one of the gun scopes, and from the tone of his voice was obviously trying to inject some good humor into the situation. ‘If anything good could come of this.’

‘What’s that?’ Charles asked
. He had just lost one part of his main strike force and was feeling that whatever motives Oliver might have for his joviality, this wasn’t the time for it.

‘That broadcast unit on our tank seems to have decided that they are too exposed to possible danger and have gone. Hopefully they’re going back to the reporters
’ van, though from the look of the convoy most of the broadcast units are scattered along the rear vehicles, trying to get the best view they can of the upcoming action. I think they are trying to keep a safe distance from the front of the convoy, anyway,’ Oliver told him.

‘I can’t see us not losing at least some of them before today is over
, though,’ Michael commented nasally.

‘
The cats will be careful,’ Gloria commented; she didn’t look round to speak. ‘They will want to demoralize the citizens of London as much as they can. To do this they’ll want to destroy the convoy, or at least make us pay heavily for every building we destroy. For the news of our defeat to get back to the people of London, they will want to leave the newspaper people alive. Didn’t you notice? Those snipers could’ve shot the broadcast unit off our tank easily, but instead they aimed for other targets: soldiers.’

‘Yes,’ said Oliver in reply, ‘and didn’t you notice
? They missed everything.’

‘So perhaps they don’t train as we do. But let’s face it; the broadcast unit on our tank would’ve been an easy target for anyone, as would many of the others, considering where they’ve stationed themselves. I’m not saying the cats will worry if they have to kill one of two of the pressmen, but I think they’ll try and avoid doing so.’ Gloria’s attention was caught suddenly as Michael sneezed again.

‘Sir,’ Michael said just before sneezing again and then again. He then waited for a moment, making sure he had finished sneezing, before continuing, ‘Tank Three says there is a large crater in the road, and what’s left of Tank One is right in the middle of it. They say they think there’s enough room to squeeze by the wreckage, but they want to know if they shouldn’t take to the side streets instead. There’s a turning between them and the damaged tank. The turning one of the car bombs came out of.’

‘I’d love to stop the pressmen getting the picture of the burnt
-out tank on their networks, especially as I feel the relatives have a right to know about their loss before it’s told to the country. But we can’t skirt the wreck without them seeing it and taking pictures of it if we stay on this road. However, if we turn off here, the tanks are still going to pass within close proximity to the wreckage and the reporters will see it anyway. I don’t think there’s anything to gain by taking a side street if we can squeeze by.’