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Nighthawk (NUMA Files 14)

Page 119

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She inched forward and eased around the side of the containment unit. “Now for the ropes.”

Disconnecting the ropes was fairly easy. And once they were untied, Emma was able to loop them around the containment unit and the attached fuel cell. One loop, two and then a third. That was all the excess length they had.

She pulled it tight, tested the weight and looked up toward Gamay and Paul. “Ready?”

“Whenever you are,” Paul replied.

Emma took a deep breath. To get to the back hatch, she had to use her legs. She edged around the unit, put her feet on the back of the passenger seat and pushed.

The force caused the seat back to fold forward.

Emma slid. The containment unit slid. The Land Cruiser tilted downward at a steeper angle and she heard the tree splitting down the middle. She grabbed the seat belt to keep from falling out through the gap and crawled upward once again.

“Hurry!” Gamay shouted.

Emma moved as fast as she could.

The Toyota began to slide forward. Two of the bungee cords snapped.

Emma was climbing at a fifty-degree angle now, each move worsened the slide. As she neared the top, Paul let go of the bumper and reached in with his long arms. She tried to hand him the ropes, but instead of grabbing them, he clamped his hands around her wrists and pulled her out.

She hit the ground just as the tree split in half.

She turned to see the Toyota sliding off the edge and into the dark. She set her feet and pulled on the ropes with all her might.

As the back end of the Toyota vanished, the containment unit popped free and landed on the edge of the dirt road. With Paul and Gamay’s help, she pulled it safely onto level ground.

A resounding crunch followed far below as the Land Cruiser hit a small ledge and tumbled farther down.

The three of them sat there with the ropes clutched tight in their hands like the exhausted winners of an epic tug-of-war.

Only now did it dawn on Emma that Gamay hadn’t been with them earlier. “What are you doing here?”

“I came to rescue the boys,” Gamay said.

No less confused, Emma crawled to the side of the containment unit to check the readings one more time. Even after the latest bump, everything remained in the green. “Let’s just get this thing on a plane and get it back to the States.”

“Not,” Paul said, “until after we remove the bomb.”

58

Kurt stared at the runway from the edge of the tree line. He could barely believe their luck. Blackjack 2 was still on the ground, though a pinprick of light moving back and forth suggested it wouldn’t remain for long.

“Flashlight,” Joe said. “Probably the copilot doing a last-minute inspection before takeoff.”

Without warning, one of the bomber’s turbines came to life with an electric whine. The sound blossomed into a throaty roar, and a wave of blue fire appeared behind the bomber.

Then twin sets of landing and taxi lights came on. The four blindingly bright beams lit a wide swath of ground up ahead and directly in front of the plane.

“We need to stop that plane from taking off,” Kurt said.

“We can get to the plane easy enough,” Joe replied. “But then what?”

“We reason with them,” Kurt said. “Explain Urco’s plan and point out the danger they face.”

“And if they ignore us?”

Kurt pulled out the brick of Semtex. “Then we reinforce our argument Teddy Roosevelt style. Let’s go.”



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