"What about gettingus out of here safely?" Stretch asked.

"Only Lily matters. The rest of us are secondary. If we can"t get out ourselves, we have to get her away. She"s more important than any of us." He offered Stretch a wry look.

"Sorry, buddy."

"Nice to know where I stand in the scheme of things."

Jack nodded at the scene ahead of them: "See that last bus in the convoy, the one trailing behind all the others."

"Yeah..."

"I want it."

Wizard drove frantically.

He gripped the steering wheel of his stolen Suburban with white knuckles, anxiously swinging his eyes between three sources: the road in front of him, the convoy of pursuers behind him, and the pa.s.senger seat next to him-in which Lily lolled lifelessly, swaying with every b.u.mp in the road, her eyes closed, b.l.o.o.d.y scratches on her face.

The chase cars were catching up, filling his rearview mirror. Two fearsomelooking Humvees with gun turrets on their backs were about to pull up on either side of his Suburban.

"Sky Monster!" he yelled. "Where are you!"

"Here!"

Voooooom!

Without warning, the enormous black underbelly of theHalicarna.s.sus thundered low over the top of Wizard"s car and landed on the highway in front of him, its rear loading ramp folding open as it did so...right in front of Wizard"s speeding car.

"OK! I"ll slow a little! Bring yourself on board!"Sky Monster"s voice called.

The big black 747 rolled along the desert blacktop at a cool 80 mph, its wings stretched out over the dusty shoulder, speeding out in front of the collection of cars on the roadway.

Wizard floored the Suburban.

It leaped forward, heading directly for the yawning rear ramp of the jumbo.

At which point, the two Humvees behind it opened fire.

Bullet sparks exploded all over the Suburban and the plane, even in the hold up inside the loading ramp.

The rear and side windows of the Suburban shattered. Wizard ducked, shielding his face.

But he remained focused on the ramp of theHalicarna.s.sus.

The Suburban began to wobble and slide, but he held her tight and with a final thrust on the gas pedal, he took the plunge and lunged at the ramp...and hit it perfectly...and swooped up into the rear hold of theHali where he slammed full tilt into the forward wall!

The Suburban jolted to a halt, safely inside.

"Oh my goodness, I did it..." Wizard exclaimed.

"Jesus, Wizard, you did it!"Sky Monster said."Man, I thought you were going to miss by a yard! Nice driving, Fangio..."

Wizard turned to check on Lily, and he saw her eyes open weakly.

"Hi there. Nice to see you awak-"

He was cut off as their car was jolted violently, hit from behind by one of the Egyptian Humvees that had itself charged up the loading ramp after them!

Wizard was thrown forward, then he snapped round and saw the intruder.

Instinct kicked in.

He jammed the Suburban into reverse and hit the gas.

The Suburban lurched backward and slammed into the unsuspecting Humvee, shunting itback down the ramp and out of the plane, back into the sunshine, where the hapless Humvee hit the road and, its brakes locking, jackknifed sideways and tumbled into a roll.

Two chase cars managed to avoid it before a third car-a big troop truck-hit it square in the side and finished both of them off.

"Sky Monster!" Wizard called from the hold. "Pull up that ramp and go!"

"On it, Wiz!"

TheHali "s engines roared louder, firing up for takeoff. At the same time, the loading ramp came up and through the slowly closing aperture, Wizard saw the chase convoy-an angry body of heavily armed vehicles.

But then just as the ramp was about halfway closed, he saw the convoy split in the middle and allow a Humvee to come to the front: a Humvee with a rocketlauncher pod mounted on its back.

The Humvee fired-a single lethal rocket streaking out of its pod, and Wizard"s eyes boggled at the thought that the rocket might shoot inside the hold and go off, but instead the missile banked away to the side, darting out of Wizard"s sight.

He sighed with relief. A miss.

Only to realize a sickening moment later that it wasn"t a miss at all.

For right then he heard one of theHali "s two starboard engines get hit.

IT WAS A DIRECT HIT-the missile slammed into theHalicarna.s.sus "s outer starboard engine, causing it to blast out in a thousand pieces and spew a thick horizontal column of black smoke.

"f.u.c.k me sideways!"Sky Monster yelled, flicking switches, dumping fuel that could be ignited by the exploded engine and cutting all excess lines so that the fire didn"t spread to the tanks inside the wing.

He looked out his starboard c.o.c.kpit window. The engine was a tangled mess of twisted metal and smoke. He"d have to jettison it. Takeoff was still possible, but with only three engines it would be a whole lot harder: they"d need a longer runway.

The damage had been done.

The plane slowed.

And the chase convoy pounced.

It was an incredible sight.

A 747 jumbo jet racing down a vast desert highway, pursued by a horde of military vehicles-Humvees, jeeps, trucks, and coaches-all of them rushing along at well over sixty miles an hour, like a pack of hyenas chasing down a wounded water buffalo.

When they got in range, the chase convoy attacked.

Naturally, their first strategy was to fire at theHali "s tires, but the big plane had a set of Kevlar guards shielding them and the bullets just pinged away.

So the chasers adopted a second, more ruthless option.

The first chase truck rushed forward and swung in under the lefthand wing of theHali, where it threw off its canvas roof to reveal a platoon of fully armed Egyptian special forces troops.

They wasted no time employing a standard planestorming technique-they danced up onto their truck"s driver"s cabin and from there leaped up onto the wing at its lowest point, at the spot where it met theHalicarna.s.sus "s fuselage.

Sky Monster watched helplessly from the c.o.c.kpit. "Oh, d.a.m.n, d.a.m.n, d.a.m.n."

He went to the window on the other side and sawan entire bus of soldiers swing in under the armpit of the starboard wing with more men climbing up through a hatch onto its roof, readying themselves to storm that wing.

"s.h.i.t, s.h.i.t, s.h.i.t..."

Wizard arrived in the c.o.c.kpit with Lily. "What"s going on?"

"We"ve lost engine four and now they"re boarding us via the wings!" Sky Monster said.

"And we have no defense against that! They"re like fleas I can"t shake."

"You have to do something...!"

"Wizard, I don"t know of any pilots who"ve been in this kind of situation before! I"m adapting the best I can!"

"Can we take off?"

"Yes, but we"ll need a h.e.l.l of a long runway." Sky Monster started swinging theHalicarna.s.sus wildly left and right.

On the wing outside, the Egyptian troops staggered and struggled for balance, grabbing for handholds, one of them dropping off the wing with a shout and falling to the road below.

But they soon got their balance, and the bus under the starboard wing began unloading more troops.

The Halicarna.s.sus -speeding along the desert highway, unable to take off-was under siege.

In the c.o.c.kpit, Wizard clumsily unfolded a map. "This highway straightens out in about three miles into a long unbroken stretch about two miles long. But after that it twists and turns through hills all the way to the Sudanese border."

"Then that"s our runway," Sky Monster said.

"Our only runway."

Sky Monster was still staring anxiously out the starboard window. "Wizard, you think you can drive this for a few minutes," he said, standing suddenly.

"Drive?" Wizard blanched. "I don"t even drive acar very well, Sky Monster."

"Well it"s time to learn. Here, pay attention, I"ll show you how..."

About a mile behind the desperate scenes on theHali, the last bus in the Egyptian military convoy drove quietly in its allotted place, everyone on board it keenly watching the spectacular goingson up ahead.

They never noticed the little Land Rover Freelander-now driven by Pooh Bear-swing onto the highway behind it, never noticed it creep right up close to its rear b.u.mper, never noticed the three figures of West, Stretch, and Astro clamber out onto the hood of the Freelander and climb up the ladder attached to the back of the big coach.

The three small figures then danced along the roof of the speeding coach, pausing briefly to drop two of Astro"s knockoutgas grenades through a hatch.

A moment later-as all the occupants of the bus pa.s.sed out and the coach began to veer off the bitumen, West lay on his belly and reached down, unlatching the safety catch on the coach"s forward door, and swung himself inside, followed by his two comradesin arms.

Inside the bus, wearing his lightweight half gas mask, West pulled the unconscious driver out of the driver"s seat and took the wheel.

He scanned the road ahead: beyond the convoy, he saw the woundedHalicarna.s.sus lumbering along, spewing black smoke from its right wing, and bearing bad guys on the inner segments of both its wings.

Astro examined the rest of their bus. It was filled with slumpedover soldiers, all of them lowlevel infantrymen.

"They"re Egyptian Army," he said, grabbing the uniform of the nearest trooper.

"Like a lot of African countries, sometimes Egypt"s army is up for hire," Jack said. "If you"ve got enough dough and the right contacts, you can buy yourself some local muscle for a day or two. The question is: Who"s paying for Egypt"s services today? Now, if you don"t mind, it"s time to clear the road and get those b.a.s.t.a.r.ds off our plane. Stretch, I don"t need this windshield anymore."

Stretch stepped forward and fired a burst from his submachine gun into the windshield. It shattered and dropped from view. Wind rushed in.

"Gentlemen," Jack said, removing his gas mask. "Tires."

With wind now blasting into his bus, West gunned it, lifting his coach to over 80 mph and bringing it forward through the convoy, at the same time as Stretch and Astro fired their guns out the open front windshield, blasting the rear tires of the other buses in the convoy.

The tires of the other buses punctured loudly and caught off guard, they fishtailed crazily, skidding off the roadway and onto the sand shoulder while West"s bus shot past them, moving ever forward.

After four such bus crashes, one of the Egyptian Humvees noticed West"s rogue bus and it turned its turret gun on Jack-just as Stretch nailed the Humvee with a Predator missile.

The Humvee exploded, lifting completely off the ground before flipping and rolling in the dust.

Another jeep saw them and brought its gun around, only for West to ram it with his bus, sending the jeep spinning off the road like a toy.

"Pooh Bear!" he called into his radio. "Stay in our shadow! We"ll shield you all the way to theHalicarna.s.sus "s loading ramp!"

At the wheel of the Freelander, Pooh Bear shouted, "Roger that!"

Beside him, Zoe and Alby peered out at Jack"s stolen coach and at the vehicles of the enemy convoy ahead of them.

They were now only about sixty yards behind theHalicarna.s.sus -on which they could see about a dozen armed men, six on each wing and gathering at the wing doors. Four more buses and a couple of Humvees stood between them and the fleeing 747, all of the enemy cars hovering at the flanks of the plane, tucked under its wings.

They heard Jack in the stolen coach calling over the radio:"Sky Monster! Come in! We need you to open the rear ramp!"

But, oddly, there was no reply from Sky Monster.

AT THAT VERY same moment, the Egyptian troops on the lefthand wing of theHalicarna.s.sus managed to get its wing door open. They flung it wide- Boom!

The first Egyptian trooper was blown off his feet by a ma.s.sive shotgun blast.

All the other troopers dived for cover as they saw the enraged figure of Sky Monster standing inside the doorway, shucking a Remington twelvegauge, readying it for the next shot.

"Get off my plane, yer ratb.a.s.t.a.r.ds!" the hairyfaced New Zealander shouted. Unseen by him, his radio earpiece dangled uselessly off his ear-dislodged in his desperate scramble to get down here from the c.o.c.kpit.