Fire Force(61)

We have to strike the foundations, Ollie told himself. That’s the only way we’re going to blast through the wall.

‘Steady the boat, steady the boat,’ he shouted towards Newton.

Yet even as he spoke, another strong wave rocked into the side of the vessel.

‘Bloody hell,’ he spat angrily.

This is a sodding disaster.

Steve hung onto the rope for dear life.

He was hurtling down into the fort. The stun grenades were still fizzing and popping all around him, the echoes of the blast fading only slowly. The afterglow of the flashes created a hazy, yellow light, like stepping right inside a light bulb. The chopper was jerking in the sky, due to the brutal weather, and the wind was starting to pick up force as the impact of the explosions, which had briefly sucked most of the air out of the fort, started to subside. Steve began to sway from side to side.

He looked down. Even though he was at the end of the rope, he was still fifteen feet from the ground. Suddenly, the Alouette twitched upwards: Steve was twenty feet from the ground now. Broken ankle territory, he told himself grimly.

‘Drop - fucking drop now!’ he yelled to the other men. But they all had ear mufflers on to protect them from the stun grenades, so there was no way they could hear anything.

Steve let go of the rope.

Tucking his legs up into a foetal position, he took the impact of the landing on his side. He rolled to absorb the blow, and felt a horrible punch in his ribs as he did so. In the same movement, he whipped the AK-47 from his chest and rolled once more before turning himself upwards into a crouching position. The parade ground where they’d come down was still filled with smoke, making it impossible to see more than a few feet ahead, but Steve knew the enemy would have been aware of the assault for at least a minute now, and that was more than enough time to prepare a response.

Everything depended on hitting the enemy with such total force and shock that they were destroyed before they could organise themselves. If they got into a fair fight, then the unit was done for.

He slammed his finger hard on the trigger. A lethal burst of fire blasted out of the weapon.

Behind him, Maksim had taken up the same position, his AK locked onto automatic, spewing out bullets. Dan had crashed to the ground, swearing violently as he rolled with the impact and struggled to get his gun into position. Ian had attempted to throw himself into the fort but the rope had snagged on his foot, and had suddenly jerked him upwards, turning him upside down. The Alouette was starting to lift itself back up into the air, pulling Ian upwards by the foot. The man was screaming in agony.

‘Cut him down, cut him down!’ yelled Steve.

Through the clearing smoke, he saw a figure starting to run towards him. Lifting his AK-47 to his face, he pulled the trigger and slotted two bullets cleanly into the man’s chest.

Christ, please let David see what’s happening, Steve told himself as he turned around to see Ian lifted upwards.

Dan was running towards Ian with his knife, while up above, David was trying to lower the Alouette.

Dan leaped up, grabbing hold of Ian’s legs and slashing at the rope with his knife. The nylon was strong but eventually gave way, and both men came crashing down to the ground, swearing and shouting as they did so. The chopper was lifting back into the sky, but 100 feet away, a machine gun had started to splutter into life. Fire and metal was pouring from its short stubby barrel, directed upwards into the innards of the chopper.

The Alouette was twisting into the sky, but there was thick black smoke billowing from its gearbox, and even from the ground you could hear the engine spluttering.

‘Where the fuck is Ollie?’ screamed Steve. ‘We’re about to take a beating here.’

Ollie looked into the smoke and debris, but could see that so far they hadn’t put much more than a scratch on the surface of the wall. Chris had opened up an intense blast of fire, but even the heavy-calibre bullets of the KPV weren’t doing anything more than chipping away at its surface.

A unit of three men was advancing towards them on the shore, a patrol sent to find out what the hell was happening. When they saw the boat, they opened fire with their automatic rifles, the bullets smattering its skin. Nick immediately swivelled around the MAG, cutting down all three men with lethal efficiency.

‘Cover me!’ he yelled, and jumped into the water. The patrol boat was still ten yards into the lake, swaying in the choppy waters. Nick started to wade ashore. Behind him, Newton had grabbed his AK-47 and was peppering a line of bullets over Nick’s head to prevent anyone stepping out to confront him. As Nick emerged onto the shore, he ran for the short jetty, grabbed a rope and tossed it towards the boat. The rain was beating hard into him but he held himself steady as Ganju caught the rope and twisted it around the boat’s prow. Putting all his strength into it, Nick started to haul on the rope, tugging it into the jetty, steadying the vessel as he did so.