第100节

Clearwater, Cadillac, Jodi and Kelso threw themselves down beside Steve

as he hit another button, triggering the six charges spaced alongside

the inside of the flanking walls.

BB-B-BBABAMM!

The double-sided blast tore through the walls and through the Japs

trapped between them, and the six incendiary grenades that Steve had

taped to the plastic spewed out a glutinous rain of fire in all

directions.

Seconds later, racks of timber, wooden workbenches and the rafters of

the collapsing roofs were ablaze.

'Shee-itt,' breathed Kelso. 'This escape plan of yours had better

work. I'd hate to be here when they start figuring on just who's gonna

pay for the damage!" Jodi pointed to the south-east corner of the

sky.

'Three on their way in! See 'em?!" 'Yeah, they're next,' said

Steve.

'C'mon!" Grabbing Clearwater's bundle, he motioned to her and Cadillac

to follow him in a crouching run. They left the cover of the bushes

and leaped into the ditch that ran behind the low grassy earth bank

made from the outfill.

The bank divided the western edge of the field from the smaller

adjoining pasture. The ditch was calf-deep in water, but by moving

along it they were able to remain hidden. So far, the only people who

had seen them were dead, or too ill to talk about it.

When they drew level with the four planes perched on their launching

trolleys, they flopped against the bank and peered over the top. Drawn

up behind the four planes were two carts containing racks of the plump

launch boosters and the thinner rocket tubes carried by the planes.

Steve drew Kelso's attention to the handful of dinks . who hadn't been

sucked into the alley and were now running around like headless

chickens on the edge of the raging inferno. 'Think you can frag them

from here?"

Kelso weighed up the yardage involved. 'Be easier to pitch it from

behind that end cart."

Steve patted him over the shoulder. Kelso slithered sideways over the

bank and ran for cover.

'I think we've been spotted,' said Cadillac.

Steve looked up to his left. The approaching three-plane formation had

broken up. Two were now descending in line astern along the northern

edge of the field where he had taken his flying leap over the stone

wall into the pond. The third aircraft had stayed high and out of

trouble.

That would be the Consul-General. Yeah... Had to be.

The two planes made a wide sweeping turn behind them just as Kelso

stood up and winged the first of two fragmentation grenades at the

panicky dinks. Now only 500 feet up, the two-man crews could not miss

seeing them crouched in the ditch.

The Herald saw the two flying-horses pass over the burning workshops

and dip towards the grandstand just as the commander of the Min-Orota

troops dispatched half his force across the field to tackle the

blaze.

Toshiro ordered the government troop detachment to stand fast. It was

Min-Orota property that was going up in flames.

Until called upon to help, he was not required to do so.

Grasping the radio transmitter in both hands, Steve used his thumbs to

press buttons six and eight.

Baa-bamm I Both aircraft disintegrated as they angled across the path

of the advancing troops - the first at a height of some two hundred

feet, the second at barely a hundred.

Their forward momentum caused the debris to arc down like a salvo of

air-to-ground missiles upon the already jittery formation. The

commander was swept from his horse by a charred, half-naked body.

Discipline cracked; the soldiers turned tail and fled to the

comparative safety of the a