Temple (35 page)

windshield Of
close range; The forward hi Pib shftred
and a storm of shards rained down all 6v h:
Then sddenly he felt another iurchngthp as the seea and Pibbet
tubbed up against his porbsid fail
He snapped around and saw the Nazi Pibbr io0in large aiofigside his
boat—saw three commandOS (Sfi itg
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±
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deck holding Berettas, readying themselves to board his Pib and
kill him.
He spun, looked the other way, and aw that the gap between his own
boat and the heiipad barge with Do0gie
Was now at least thirty feet wide; Too fa away.
He was on his own now; He drew his SIG.
What are your options Will?
Can;t see many.
The first Nazi leaped over onto hi Pibber.
Race whirled around instantly and dived forward— through his boat's
Shattered windhieid and up onto the Pibber's elevated foredeCk—just
a the Nazi opened i with his pistol, his bullets pinging Off the
windshiid rame inches above Race;s head.
Race Went sprawling on the foredeck o the Pibber, our o the line of
fire, at least for the moment.
He heard the sounds of the other Nazis landing on fhe
deck of his boat.
ShiL
He looked aft and saw the heads of the four Nazi orn rnandos coming
foard, He instinctively tolled away f0rn
them and abruptly something sharp hit his back Race turned.
it was the Pibber's anchor,
The Nazis were still coming forward Do Something!
All right…
Race quickly aimed his SiGSauer at the anhor' 6pe and fired.
The bullet cut the rope just above the anehor and the
tainiess-steel weight instantly dropped fee from it, clat tered
down onto the deck
Race then yanked Off hi Yankee 4ap and wedged it firmly between his
teetK
The first Nazi appeared in the wheelhouse, raised his Beretta and
fired.
Race dived clear of the bullet, 4ooping up the anch0t
rope in his hand a he did so and then, without so much as a second
thought he rolled quickly across the foredeck towards the bow of
the boat.
The steel foredeck around him erupted with bullet holes as he
rolled but the bullets missed their mark.
For at the exact moment that the four Nazis appeared in the
wheelhouse of the Pibber, William Race rolled his body off the bow
of the patrol boat and fell down into the speed ing water
below,
Rhce hit the water hafd—baekfirsL
…. He kicked up a spectacular spray of wash a he bounced idiy on
the speeding surface, skippin over it at phenomOai speG trying
despeateiy to kee hi grip On the anchor rope, Occasionally hi enfie
bod Would pring up off a ave and bang against tho ide of Pibbr' bow
as it carved knife-like through the water beido hi.
i Race bi down flrrniy 0n the Brim of hi cap, held onto the rope as
hard a he 40Uid.
i i It was a rough ride—bruiing, beitifig, battering—but he ew if
he didn't do one more thing, it was about to get a lot
ii He heard the heavy thump-thUmp-thump of Nazi boots on t.he
fofedeek abOve him. if they saw him hanging from the bow, he was a
dead man for sure. They would shoot him
hee h0 hung.
DO it; Will]
All ight, he thought, Let's do it,
Re teeied himself against the spding Wves beneath I; gqueezed his
eyes shut against th gpray that assaulted hig faCe. Then he
adjusted his grip on the aheh0r rope and flffened all of his
muscles at once
i iiAnd then he allowed himself to sink into the Water, under th
peeding bow of the Pibbsr!
iHis ]egs went uhde final
Then his waist, then his stomach, then his chest.
Siowly his shoulders edged under, followed by his neck.
Then, with a final, deep breath, Race allowed his head to go under
the surface.
The World went eerily silent.
There was no roar of outboard motors, no thumping Of choppers, no
clatter of automatic gunfire. Just the conStant vibrating hum of
boat engines echoing across the underwater spectrum.
The steeply-slanted grey hull of the Pibber filled Races field of
vision. Small specks of God-onlyknew-what rushed past his face at a
million miles an hour, disappearing into the murky green darkness
that lay beyond his flailing feet.
Slowly, deliberately hand over hand, Race lowered himself down the
length of the anchor rope, heading aft along the hull of the
Pibber, holding his breath for dear life—while still holding onto
his cap with his teeth!
He was about a third of the way down the length of the hull when
the first reptilian shape materialised from the green
darkness around him.
A caiman.
it swooped in alongside the speeding Pibber, opening its mouth
right next to his flailing feet, and with a rattlesnake- quick
snapping motion, lunged viciously at his sneakers,
Race lifted his legs up just as the caiman's jaws came crunching
together, catching nothing but water, and the big reptile, unable
to keep up with the speeding Pibber, shrank ptizeless into the hazy
green darkness behind him.
Race desperately needed air. His lungs burned. He felt bile
crawling up the back of his throat.
He quickened his pace down the rope until, finally, h
found what he was looking for.
be diver's hatch.
Yes!
Race quickly reached up into the hatch and punched
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upwards With his fist, knocking its interior lid off. Then he
Shoved his head tip thrOugh it,
His head broke the sui:fa4e-=inide the lower cabin of the
Pibberi
Race quickly spat his Yankees Cap Out Of his mouth and Sucked in
every ounce of air that he ouid.
Then, when he had got hi breath baek he hauled himseif up through
the boqike hat4h al;d fell in a Clumsy heap onto the floor of the
abin—battered bruised and absolutely breathiess bt glad as hell to
be alive.
Doogie ennedy ran across the 0pn deck of the iastheiipad barge with
a trail of sparks strafing the deck behind him.
As soon as he hd seen Rade go Unde the bow of the Pib- her, he had
opened fire on the fo Na.is in ifs wheelhouse, Now they were retng
his fire as he fnade a beak for the seaplane being towed behind the
big hlipad bage
He came to the stem edge of the barge and quickly uniooped the rope
that secured the Goos to it,
Then he leapt across onto the bow of th eapiane and yanked open the
smai entry hatch situated on top of its nose; He dived head-first
down into the hat4h; riing sev eral econds later inside the cockpit
of the plane,
Doogie punched the ignition switch and the G0Se's two Wing;m0unt@d
propellers immediately kicked into gear, at first otating slowly,
and then abruptly snapping into rapid blurring 4i4ie,
The seaplane pulled away from the heiipad barge, the Nazis' bullets
pining against its bodywork.
in response, Dooi@ rotated the Goose on the river's sur face so
that it p0ifited at the deck of his recently abandoned
Pibber.
Then he jammed don On the igget of his control stick.
Instantly, a deafening bft of 20mm machine-gun fire spewed out from
the Gatiin gun mounted on the side of the Goose,
Three of the Nazis on the Pibb@ dropped immediately— hit square in
their chests by the G6ose's powerful fire.
The fourth one fell too, but of hi Own a0d dpping quickly out Of
the line of fire.
'God, i love these 20-miiiimetre guns,; D00gie said
On the Pibber, Race had been tanding just behind the small metal
doorWay that led back up o he wheelhouse when Doogie's gunfire had
assailed the bat.
When at last the gunfire stopdi ace peered Out fhe doorway to See
that only one of the 6riginai f0r {',lais as still alive—he was
lying on the deck f the Pibber, reloading his Beretta;
It was his chance.
Race took a moment to steel his nerves, Then h fhw open the dOor,
levelled his SlG-Sauer at the srprised Nazi,
and pulled the trigger.
Click!
The SIGs slide was racked back into the rnpy position.
No buiietsi
Race threw the gun down in disgust and :then seeing the Nazi jam a
new magazine it9 te grip Of his on pis- tol-did the only thing he
could think to do
He took three bounding steps f0atd ahd hufiod himself at the
man.
He hit him hard and both men ont slidih along the leck of the
speeding Pibber, owatd ho stefh
They got to their feet quickly, anti fhe Nazi ped at Race
backhanded, but Raee ducked nd tho Nai' fist went sailing over his
head,
And then suddenly Raee was upinthe eoandos face, rushing at him
with an angry fight, Th puneh COnneCted and the Nazi recoiled at
the blow, his h flailing backwards,
Race hit him again and am cl gin—yeiiing with
each punch as the Nazi staggered bkadS.
'Get—'
PuncK “—off—'
Punch.
Punh i
With the final biow the Nfii ied into the stem rail ing of the
Pibber and mbifi fallg off the back of the boaL spiasng down t lg
,
Raee—his chest heaving l::ckles bleeding—stared oUt after he fallen
Nazi arid gfiiied hard After a few momens he saw a famiiia fic
ppies cnverge on the sldief an he mined aa gg B Nfii began to
scream.
Ren6e was ceeping cautiously down fi nfiF3 corridor of
the command boat; iefidin wifh he dfihen all of a
udden she heard voiees eoiog fom F66 to her right.
She stepped fofid ed fiod }h orframe
And saw a ma she oeoied stadi fithe centre of
an uRra-highteeh iabofatory. He ag tiff 6ider man, but huge, obese,
with a fat bii:iiko fiee afid n enormous
girth—his white waghad:Woaf ghift .ag tretched tight
across his eaofmog bells
Ren6e held h breath ag ge gtafed at the ld man
was Odii6 Ehfhardt.
he lead of the Stormff66perg.
one of the feared Nazis of Worid Wa) n.
He gt have beenwhat}seventy-fiv ars old now, u he didfi't look a
day over fifty. His eggicaiiy Aryan features wfe still apparent, if
worn with e. His whie blond hfii as thiing on top, reveaiig eries
of gly btowfi igions. And his blue eyes sparkled; glistened with
madfiegg as he barked orders to his me;
' theft find that genera[or nd utn [ off,bu ibeeiie'
he beiiowd into a radio H jabbed a pdgy fidget at oe of his
4omandos, You Hapfmfht Aistae he@ fight now'
e iaboratoy around the Nazi genal mix of ad Chrom, Ctay P sprcompf
:ld its waii, vaeuum-sad chambers sa o wotkD4es Lab t4-4ians in
white coas ran abof i every di6 coandos
35O
with pistols hustled out u the main glass doors that led
out onto the boat's rear helipad deck.
But RenOe only had eyes for the object that Ehrhardt held
in his left hand,
An object Wrapped inside a ragged purple cloth.
The idol,
At that m0nt, Heinrich AniStaze charged in from the
heiipad deck and stood to attention before Ehrhardt.
'You sent .for me, sir.'
What's going on?' Ehrhardt said.
'They;re everywhere, Herr OberStgruppenffihrer. There
must be dozens of them, maybe more. They appear to have split up,
taking out different sections of the fleet and caus ing sificant
damage,'
Then we leave,' Ehrhardt said, handing the idol to
Anistaze and guiding him back toward the helipad deck.
Quiekly. We will take the idol in the helicopter and get it to the
mine thaf way. Then, if the heads of government haven't esponded 6
ou demands by the time we insert the thyfium into the Supernova, we
-will detonate it.'
From the wheelhose of his newly-recovered Pibber, Race urveyed th
aquatic battlefield around him.
What wa left of the fleet still surged forward along the river, but
it a a hadow of its forrner self.
Three PibBer were tiil afioat but one of them belonged to Race.
Only one heiipad barge rernained, along with three of the Original
five Rigid Raiders—and one of those belonged to Schroeder.
Van Lewens Scarab sped aiofig in front of the fleet, and of course,
there was the last Mosquito chopper—still wreak ing havoc from
above.
About forty yards behind him, Race saw Doogie's Goose seaplane
wheel out of the wash Of the helipad barge in front of it, It
surged out into the river proper in search of a clear stretch of
water from which it could take off.
Race sp to look forward.
About thirty yards ahead d to the left of s Pibber, he saw the
massive Nazi cond boat powering along the rive
At that moment, however, as he watched fhe command boat Race
Suddenly saw men burst our onto its rear deck and dash for the
white Bell jet Ranger helicopter sitting on its stem.
He reeognised one of theiinstantiy—Anistaze.
The other man was considerably older than Anistaze fat with a thick
muscular neck and a semi-bald head. Race didn't know who he was,
but he guessed that he was the man Sehoeder had spoken a0ut
earlier—the Stormtroopers'
leader, Otto Ehrhardt Smething like that Anistaze and Ehrhardt
leapt into the rear compartment of the Bell jet Range and
iraediateiy the otoe blades on
top of the chopper began to borate, And then it hit Race, They ere
taking the idol
Just then, as he was gazing the activity On the stern of the
Command boat Rae a a flash of movement out of the corner of his eye
fl glint of a small shadowy figure hustling down the fboafd
passageway of the command boaL
“
His eyes went wide;
it -was Ren6e
She was ru wifti clown the ide passageway,
heading aft holdin h@ M=6 firrniy a4ro her chest.
She was going afte the id6i;..
By herself.
Race watched in atoni6nt a Ren6e rounded the rear cornet of the
passageway and 6pened fire on the Nazi chopper with he Mq6.
A couple of the Nazi tro0pg standing near the chopper were hit
instantly- and dropped where they sfood, but the others just turned
and fired bak at Ren6e with AK-47s.
Ren6e ducked in the face of their Duffie and fell back
behind the corner as the Nazis on the helicopter deck took off
after her.
Race could only watch in horror as she stumbled backwards up the
starboard-side passageway of the command boat, heading towards the
bow.
She fired wildly with her M-16 as she movedcletetminedly—keeping
the Nazis at the aft end of the passageway pinned down, until at
last she was able to hunker don at the forward end of the
passageway holding her attackers at bay at the other end.
It was at that moment that Race saw him.
A lone Nazi commando. Moving slowly across the wide roof of the
command boat, toward Ren6e's position!
The man held his gun high, and moved with slow deiib erate steps,
out of Ren6e's field of vision, sneaking up on her from
above.
Ren6e had no chance of seeing him. No way of knowing he was
there.
'Shit,' Race said, looking around himself for an option.
His eyes fell upon Doogie's seaplane skipping quickly over the
waves behind his boat, coming alongside it—in between his Pibber
and the command boat—as it dashed forward through the fleet in
search of a clear stretch of water.