Twelve Hours To Destiny (14 page)

“Patience,” murmured the other. He raised himself from the blankets with an effort. “There is more. Kao Fi Min has been working for two years in an attempt to perfect this terrible weapon of destruction. It is due to be tested for the first time at full power tomorrow. If it is successful, and the indications are that it will be, then they will have in their hands an offensive weapon of terrible potency. You understand the full implications behind this, my friend?”

“I do indeed.” Although Carradine’s knowledge of lasers and such things was severely limited, he knew a little about them. But something that could literally smash a hole in an inch-thick sheet of high-tensile steel within seconds, what havoc could be wrought if the power were stepped up sufficiently; and what of the devilish refinements that had been added? The Chinese were the first to use gunpowder although they hadn’t utilised it for warfare, leaving that to the West. Their talents were doubtless undiminished through the centuries but there was no doubt that their attitudes and ideologies had changed.

Chao Lin seemed to sense something of Carradine’s thoughts. “You see now why I said there was no time to warn London and hope that they might be able to do something. In twelve hours that weapon will be tested. Unfortunately I have no idea what the target will be but as you may know, since the Russians withdrew their anti-aircraft rockets from China, the Americans have been able to fly over the territory with impunity, photographing and recording all that has been taking place. Naturally, the Communist leaders do not like this, although they know that it has been happening. There are also American spy satellites operating over this country. I suppose it would not be amiss to believe that they have predicted the time of passage of one of these satellites and intend to use it as the target.”

Of course! It all begin to fit, all of the little isolated bits of evidence slotting together into a recognisable pattern. No wonder the Red Dragon organisation wanted to be sure that Chao Lin did not talk. They could not be sure just how much he did know, what he had discovered; yet no matter how little it was, he had to be stopped from passing news of this juicy little titbit to the West. Unlike the Chinese nuclear test, this must surely have been one of their best-kept secrets. He had certainly heard nothing whatever about it during his conversations with the Chief and he knew that if the other had even the slightest inkling, he would have said so before sending him on this assignment. The first the Western powers would know of this would be the sudden and unexpected loss of one of their satellites. Only then would they awaken to the unpleasant fact that China was not only a force to be reckoned with in terms of manpower, but also the leader in the art of destruction.

Carradine’s face was suddenly tight and pale.
Twelve
hours
!
Twelve
hours
in
which
to
try
to
change
the
destiny
of
the
world
! He clenched his hands in futility and despair.

*

The time must be about three o’clock, Carradine reflected, glancing up at the sun, already past its zenith and beginning the long slide down the western half of the sky. He pressed himself flat against the roof of the truck, the powerful binoculars against his eyes, staring into the harsh glare of the sunlight. Swiftly, he adjusted the focusing ring. Details sprang into blinding clarity. Slowly, he began to sweep the horizon from left to right. Ahead of him, the wide plain stretched as far as it was possible to see, clear to the sun-hazed horizon. Beyond it, lay the South China Sea with the safety of Hong Kong somewhere in that general direction. How far away it all seemed now. With an effort, he thrust the idea from his mind, concentrated all of his senses into his eyes, alert for any movement, especially where the road led straight across his line of vision, linking the small town of Lungmoonyunhsien with the small cluster of buildings over to his right, the sunlight glinting on a multitude of glass windows. Half an hour before, there had been traffic on that modern stretch of road, but now it appeared deserted.

Even as he absorbed the topography of the valley, eyes probing and searching every dip and hollow for a possible source of danger, his mind was racing back over the events of that morning. After all of the good luck they had had the previous night when they had broken into the Headquarters of the Red Dragon in Canton and rescued Chao Lin from under their very noses; after they had, in the face of all the odds, succeeded in throwing pursuit, it would have been only natural that their luck should change. But fortune had continued to smile on them. Not that it had been easy formulating any plan which had in it the smallest kernel of success. One thing had been blatantly obvious. If anything was to be done, they would have to do it. There was no one else in a position to smash this secret weapon and laboratory which had spawned it. Chao Lin had been certain that the plans for the instrument were still at the laboratory, would remain there until after the test had been carried out and proclaimed a success. Then, perhaps, they would be taken to Peking where they would be put to the people as another example of the greatness of Mao Tse Tung.

They had left Chao Lin with one of the men and the other girl in the troupe—Ts’ai Luan had insisted on coming with them although he had tried to persuade her to remain behind also—and with the indomitable Tai Fan driving, they had made good time along the hill tracks before reaching the spot less than three miles from Lungmoonyunhsien. The journey had been uneventful. They had passed small groups of peasants by the side of the road shortly before midday, and once a line of Army vehicles, heading in the opposite direction had approached, the leading driver beeping hard on his horn. Tai Fan had obediently pulled well over to one side to allow them to pass, but there had been no interference.

Lowering the binoculars, produced for him from the stores kept in the cave, he let them dangle around his neck, rubbing his eyes with his knuckles. He had expected the whole of Southern China to be overrun with soldiers looking for them; yet there had been nothing like that. Was there a trap being built up against them somehow, somewhere; something of which they knew nothing as yet? It seemed distinctly possible, knowing the kind of men they were up against. General Lung Chan was not the kind of man to run the risk of losing his reputation—or his head—over the loss of his most important prisoner, without making every possible effort to recapture him and those responsible for freeing him.

Wriggling to the edge of the track, he dropped down on to the road. Ts’ai Luan glanced up at him.

“There seems to be very little traffic on the road just now,” he said harshly. “I wonder if there is any significance in that?”

The girl looked up at the sun for a moment, slitting her eyes against the light. “They will almost certainly be working around the clock to get everything ready.”

“And we have to get inside somehow before we can do anything. That laboratory will be more closely guarded than any other place in China. It’s out of the question that we could break-in as we did with that other place in Canton.”

“There is only one way to get inside,” Ts’ai Luan said.

“And what is that?”

“While you were up there spying out the land, I have been thinking,” she said indirectly. “I was thinking that if this test they intend to carry out is so important then some top-ranking military men will be there to see it.”

“Yes,” agreed Carradine thoughtfully. “That’s almost certain.”

“And they will certainly not come by the road we did. They will use the main road from Lungmoonyunhsien. So all we have to do is stop one of the staff cars and take their uniforms. It is as simple as that.”

Carradine looked at her in silence for long seconds without speaking, then gave a brief nod. “It is not as simple as that, Ts’ai Luan,” he said softly. “But it is the only way.”

*

The grip on Carradine’s shoulder was tight and urgent. He turned his head sharply. The girl whispered fiercely: “Something coming, Steve!”

Keeping his head well down, he thrust the lenses of the binoculars against his eyes. About a mile away, in the direction of the town, a small cloud of grey dust indicated the approach of some kind of vehicle. A staff car with some important officer inside, or a truck bringing up more reinforcements? If it was a truck, they would have to stay out of sight and let it go by. No point in throwing away everything trying to take on a score of soldiers. But if it was a staff car, then they would have to work fast.

Now the vehicle was only about half a mile away and coming up fast and still the cloud of white dust thrown up by the wheels obscured most of it. Then, for a second, he was able to see it clearly.

“It’s a staff car,” he said sharply. “Warn the others. They all know exactly what to do.”

The girl raised herself a little, waved her arm. There came a signal from the other side of the wide, concrete strip of the road. God, but this was going to take split-second timing, Carradine thought fiercely; high-jacking a staff car in broad daylight on this open stretch of road. Yet they had committed themselves now. The prospect would have frightened him but for the sharp sense of excitement stirring within. This was what he had been trained for. This was his whole life since he had dedicated himself to the Service!

From the edge of his vision, he saw one of the men run out into the middle-of-the-road, throwing himself down on to the concrete in the path of the oncoming car. Would the driver stop? Or would he simply drive on, over the inert body of what he considered to be simply a peasant, someone who was expendable? There was also the possibility that these men would be alert for danger.

He was answered at once. There came the squeal of brakes being applied. The speed of the car was checked. It made to swerve around the man lying in the road, then came to an abrupt stop less than ten yards away. Carradine saw the man beside the driver say something. Leaving the engine still running, the driver got out. There were two men seated on the backseat of the car. Neither made any move as the driver advanced on the prone man.

Cradling the Luger in the crook of his forearm, Carradine aimed it carefully. This was no time for niceties, no time to think of ethics of war, even in this sort of hole-in-the-corner fight. The driver, standing over the man on the ground, the toe of his boot thrust out to turn him over, suddenly jerked back as though struck in the chest. He seemed to develop a third eye in the centre of his forehead. Before the sharp echoes of the single shot had died away, before the body of the driver crashed to the ground, three things had happened simultaneously.

The girl, running like a gazelle, had reached the side of the car. The long-bladed knife in her hand was thrust against the short, squat man’s neck, the tip of the blade pressing against the base of his throat. Tai Fan and two other men were at the back of the car, pulling open the doors, dragging the two officers out into the road and Carradine had grabbed the dead driver by the collar and was dragging him out of sight into the brush by the side of the road.

By the time he got back to the car, the other three men were dead. Carradine did not like the idea of killing in cold blood any more than the next man but they could not afford to risk any of these men getting free and raising the alarm. There was far too much at stake.

Less than three minutes passed before Carradine was seated in the back of the car, dressed in the uniform of one of the dead officers. Now his only regret was that none of the uniforms had been large enough to fit Tai Fan’s mountainous bulk. The other would have been invaluable in the work they would have to do. The one consolation was that one of the other men, Tao Chia-Tu, having fought with the Nationalists during the long retreat across China shortly after the war, was an expert in demolition and sabotage.

Hoping that there would not be some kind of password to get into the top-secret laboratory, Carradine sat back as they drove along the dusty stretch of concrete road towards a low cluster of buildings in the distance. Barbed wire had been stretched around the site and he noticed that there were guard posts every couple of hundred yards with what looked like a machine-gun nests and searchlights surrounding the place.

Unhesitatingly, they drove up to the front gate. The two guards on either side had snub-nosed automatic weapons over their shoulders. Would they recognise the car and wave it through—or would they stop it, demand to see papers? He held his breath until it hurt in his lungs. The man behind the wheel, his face expressionless, slowed a little as they approached; to have accelerated would have been fatal.

One of the guards stepped forward, raised his hand for them to stop. He came forward, one hand held through the strap of the gun. Stiffening in reflex anticipation, Carradine gripped the butt of the Luger, hidden from sight by the seat in front of him, his finger tight on the trigger. Maybe if there was trouble, he could shoot both of the guards giving the driver the chance to turn the car and head back before the alarm could be raised.

The guard bent, thrust his head through the open window beside the driver, allowed his gaze to slide over the four of them, then said something rapidly. The driver nodded, said something back, then let in the clutch as the guard straightened and stepped back a couple of paces. The next moment they were driving through the gate between the rows of barbed wire. The sense of relief was almost overwhelming. Evidently the other had been merely telling the driver where they were to park the car.