Marauder (Oregon Files 15)

The destruction wasn’t exactly the way he wanted it to happen, but he thought it might be good enough to serve their purposes.

But he couldn’t celebrate just yet. He banked the chopper around to watch the four small hovercraft racing to catch up to their far larger cousin. From this angle, it looked impossible for them to take out a hovercraft the size of the Marsh Flyer.

He silently patted himself on the back for having the foresight to arm his security team with rocket-propelled grenades.

THIRTY-TWO

Linda was crouched beside MacD on the car deck behind one of the trucks near the Marsh Flyer’s bow. She could make out three of the guards from the Qingdao that had made it on board, but she didn’t see the fourth one. They took cover behind their hovercraft, which had crashed into the rearmost of the three trucks. The space echoed with the deafening sound of gunfire.

“Where is he?” MacD yelled between bursts from his MP5. The invading gunmen carried high-powered Norinco assault rifles.

“I don’t know,” Linda called back, “but if one of those rounds hits the dynamite, we won’t have time to regret our life choices.”

“We’ve got to ambush them now,” Linc said over the comms. “Eddie, are you in position?” Both of them were standing behind the doors to the passenger compartments on each side of the Marsh Flyer.

“Ready.”

“Linda and MacD, distract them.”

“Here goes,” Linda said.

She and MacD jumped up and unleashed a barrage in the direction of the three guards. They were so focused on the incoming bullets that they didn’t see Linc and Eddie burst onto the car deck behind them and open fire. All three were dead before they hit the deck.

Linda and MacD edged forward, checking under the trucks for the fourth guard.

“Do you see him?” Linda asked.

“No,” MacD replied.

“Neither do I,” Linc said.

“Hold it,” Eddie said. “The rear door to the truck we came in on. Was it closed?”

Linda looked at MacD, who shook his head.

“We didn’t close it.”

They joined Linc and Eddie quietly outside the rear of the truck. While Linc and Eddie held their weapons on the door, Linda and MacD put their hands on the handles. Linc nodded, and they threw them open.

The remaining guard whirled around with something in his hand, reaching for his Norinco, but before he could reach his rifle, he was riddled with bullets.

Linda picked up the object that he dropped. It was a small detonator with a countdown timer set at twenty seconds. There was a keypad labeled in Chinese characters. She handed it to Eddie, who tapped on it. The LCD screen went blank.

“I’ve canceled the timer,” he said.

The crate beside the guard’s body was open. A pocket in the lid the size of the detonator was empty.

“The detonator must already have been in there,” Linc said.

While Eddie, Linc, and Linda opened the other crates, MacD ran to the next truck and came back a few moments later holding an identical one in his hand.

“It looks like each truck has only one detonator,” Eddie said.

“Too bad,” Linda said, looking through the open rear door at the Qingdaos that were quickly gaining on them. “It would have been nice to dump these crates behind us one by one like depth charges. I’m already low on ammo.”

“Me, too,” MacD said.

“That’s actually a good idea,” Eddie said. He peered at the pursuing hovercraft and nodded his head rhythmically.