Juggernaut

Amanda washed his neck with canteen water and dressed the wound.

‘Sure you don’t want a shot?’

‘I’m okay.’

‘How does it look?’ asked Lucy, out of earshot.

‘Deep,’ said Amanda. ‘He’s lost a lot of blood.’

Lucy walked between cars. Smoking fragments of flesh scattered in the dust.

She hooked blood-caked dog tags with the muzzle of her rifle. She examined them with gloved fingers.

‘What have you got?’ asked Amanda.

‘Republican Guard.’

‘Guess Jabril was wrong. Some of them made it.’

Lucy nudged a withered arm with her boot.

‘Burnt. Mummified. This guy has been dead for weeks.’

‘Huang says different.’

Lucy unsheathed the T-shaped push-knife she kept strapped to her webbing. She prodded the severed arm with the blade.

‘Looks like something’s embedded in his flesh.’

‘Like what?’

‘Wires. Tendrils. Fine thread knitted through muscle.’

‘Shrapnel?’

‘No. Something else.’

‘Sooner we get out of here, the better.’

‘Yeah,’ murmured Lucy, sheathing her knife. ‘I think you’re right.’

The armoured truck was parked in the main courtyard of the citadel. Jabril circled the vehicle, inspecting bullet damage. He saw Lucy approach.

‘These rear doors are your biggest challenge. The steel is three inches thick.’

Lucy grabbed the collar of his body armour and slammed him against the side of the truck. The impact shook free his prosthetic hook. It clattered on flagstones.

He tried to fend her off with his hand and stump.

‘We just got jumped. Huang. Someone, something, just tried to rip out his throat.’

‘Is he hurt? Is he bitten?’

Lucy shook Jabril. She knocked his head against the armoured hull of the truck.

‘What happened out here, Jabril? What really went down?’

‘You mustn’t touch Huang. None of you. Tell your men. They must wear gloves each time they go near him.’

‘Tell me. What happened here? The guy back there in the convoy. He looked like he had been dead for months. There’s no way he should be running around.’

‘You knew this place was poisoned. You all knew the risk in coming here.’

Lucy shook him.

‘There was something in his skin. Wires, cables. Did he do that to himself?’

‘No.’

‘How many more of your buddies are wandering around?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘Talk to me. What the fuck is going on?’

‘I can’t tell you.’

Lucy slapped his face.

‘I promised you gold,’ he said. ‘There is gold in the truck. Just take it and leave.’

Lucy’s crew crossed the courtyard. Huang supported by Amanda and Toon. He struggled to walk. He was pale and sweating.

‘How’s it going, boss?’ asked Toon.

Lucy shook Jabril one last time.

‘If we get hit by any more surprises I will seriously fuck you up.’ She released her grip on Jabril’s body armour. She turned to Toon. ‘I’m going to get the truck under cover. Mandy: with me.’

Toon helped Huang across the courtyard and sat him in shade.

Jabril wedged the prosthetic hook back onto his wrist stump. He crossed the courtyard and sat on rubble beside Huang. He looked at the bloody dressing taped to the man’s neck.

‘I’m sorry,’ said Jabril.

‘The guy that jumped me. Swear to God, he was a living corpse. What the hell happened to him?’

Jabril looked down at his feet.

‘I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.’

Lucy climbed in the cab. She gunned the engine. Puff of black diesel fumes. She eased the throttle. The vehicle inched forward.

She drove the truck through the citadel precincts. The central processional avenue cut a path through collapsed buildings and courtyards choked with debris.

The armoured car climbed the gentle gradient towards the entrance of the temple. The single intact headlamp projected a cone of light.

The truck passed between the two monstrous bull colossi and crawled into the darkness of the temple interior. The spluttering cough of the damaged motor echoed through the vaulted hall.

Lucy killed the engine. Amanda kicked open the cab door.

‘The roof should hide us from over-flight,’ said Lucy. She shone her flashlight into the shadows above them. Pillars supporting massive roof slabs. ‘Our heat signature should be pretty well masked.’

They inspected the truck vault.

‘Inch-thick cadmium steel. No windows, no gun ports. We could try C4, but it would be a waste of time. Take a hydrogen bomb to punch a hole. The door is the weak spot. Thinner plate, but it’s sheathed in cobalt. Diamond drill wouldn’t make a scratch. Hinges are recessed. Roof vents, but they won’t give us any help.’

‘Then I guess we do it the hard way.’

‘Yeah. Check on the guys. I’ll get to work.’

Gathering twilight. Bright stars. A red moon.

Toon crouched on the courtyard flagstones. He unzipped a side pocket of his backpack. A patty of C4 and detonators.

He pressed and punched the explosive into a crevice at the base of a high pillar near the citadel entrance.

He pushed a detonator deep into the clay. He backed away across the courtyard, unspooling command wire. He tied the wires to the terminals of a battery initiator. He crouched behind a massive stone block.

‘Standby. Firing.’