After the initial white-hot blast, a great circular cloud of superheated water—packed with billions of swirling micro-bubbles—materialised and expanded, shooting out laterally before it hit the surface, sending an absolutely gargantuan geyser of water spraying up into the sky, the greatest fountain in history.
Thankfully, the warhead had sunk deep enough before it blew. The heavy weight of ocean water above it had defused its potent catalytic power and so it did not ignite the sky.
Indeed, the only person it shook was Marius Calderon.
As he climbed back into the cockpit of the Antonov and saw the great circular explosion down on the ocean’s surface, Schofield breathed a huge sigh of relief.
Battered, bloody, tortured, almost overcome with exhaustion and having lost many brave people in the process, he and his team had beaten impossible odds and stopped the Army of Thieves from setting fire to the world.
It was only then that he saw the uplink dish, sitting on the cockpit’s floor in front of him with all its lights extinguished.
It had been switched off.
‘Oh, shit . . .’ he said. ‘The Russians.’
If the Russians had detected this and launched a nuke, Dragon Island and everyone on it had less than twenty minutes to live.
Schofield turned off the autopilot and swung the plane around, banking hard and fast, heading back toward Dragon Island.
AIRSPACE OVER DRAGON ISLAND
4 APRIL, 1400 HOURS
Schofield’s Antonov shot through the air at phenomenal speed.
On the distant northern horizon, Schofield saw the silhouette of Dragon Island: its jagged southern mountains, and on the northern plateau, the disc-shaped tower with its lone spire and the two colossal vents.
He keyed the Antonov’s radio. ‘American listening post, do you copy? This is Captain Shane Schofield, USMC, in distress. Is anyone out there monitoring this frequency?’
A voice immediately came on the line, jabbering in angry Russian. Then suddenly, static cut over him and an American voice came in.
‘Captain Schofield, hold for secure line,’ some clicks, then: ‘Captain Schofield, this is United States Air Force Listening Post Bravo-Charlie-Six-Niner, operating out of Eareckson Air Station in the Aleutian Islands. We’d been instructed to keep an ear out for you, in case you called. Please state your service number and comm-security passcode for verification.’
Schofield did so, adding, ‘Now put me through to the White House Situation Room.’
‘Patching you through now, sir.’
The President’s crisis team was still gathered in the White House Situation Room. With them now, however, were two extra people from the Defense Intelligence Agency: Dave Fairfax and Marianne Retter. And the CIA’s representative was no longer present: when Dave and Marianne had commenced their briefing, they had requested that he leave the room.
When word came in that Scarecrow was on the line, the National Security Advisor and former Marine general, Donald Harris, jammed his finger down on the speakerphone.
‘Scarecrow, Don Harris. I have the President and the crisis team here with me. Where are you and what’s happened with the atmospheric device?’
‘I stopped the activation of the device, sir, but I need to know: with the uplink signal down, have the Russians launched a nuke at Dragon?’
‘Yes, they have. Three minutes ago.’
‘How long till it hits?’
‘Nineteen minutes.’
‘Shit. Can you get the Russians to self-destruct it?’
‘No. Satellite scans reveal that this missile’s guidance control systems have been disabled to prevent any outside takeover, even from its own base. After what happened to the last nuke they fired at Dragon, the Russians made sure this one would hit its target. Nothing can stop that missile now.’
There was silence on the other end of the line.
‘Scarecrow?’ Harris asked. ‘Where are you?’
‘In a plane about sixty klicks south of Dragon.’
‘Then what the hell are you thinking? Get out of there. In nineteen minutes that island is gonna be a mushroom cloud.’
‘I have people back there, sir,’ Schofield’s voice said.
The President leaned forward.
‘Captain Schofield, this is the President—’
‘Excuse me, sir, but by any chance did a guy named Dave Fairfax get in touch with the White House?’
The President turned to look at Fairfax.
‘Why, yes, in fact he did. He drove right through the side gate, actually. He’s here now, with Ms Retter from the DIA. They were just briefing us on some CIA plan called “Dragonslayer” and an agent named Calderon.’
‘I’ve been doing battle with Mr Calderon all morning. Hey, Dave.’
‘Hey, Scarecrow,’ Fairfax said to the speakerphone, aware of all the eyes now on him. ‘How ya doin’ over there?’
‘I died for a while, but I’m okay now. Thanks for everything, buddy. That info you sent made all the difference. Hope it didn’t get you into too much trouble.’
‘A little,’ Dave said.
‘Well, thanks. Tell the DIA director and the President that this Marine thinks you deserve a promotion. And Mr President, one more thing. I may have stopped the ignition of the atmospheric device, but Calderon got away—the bastard had an exit plan—but he’ll have to turn up at Langley sometime. I may not come back from this, but I want him brought in. Can you do that for me?’
‘We’ll find him,’ the President said. ‘You have my word on that, Captain.’
‘Thank you, sir. I’ve gotta go now. I just arrived back at Dragon.’
The Antonov soared over Dragon Island.
Schofield checked the timer on his old Casio digital watch. As soon as he’d been told that the Russian nuke was nineteen minutes out, he’d started the watch’s timer. It was now at:
14:41 . . . 14:40 . . . 14:39 . . .
Schofield did the calculations in his head. Another minute to land—perhaps ten to find whoever of his team was still alive: Zack, Emma, Mother, Baba and Champion—and then four to get back on the Antonov and get to MSD, minimum safe distance from the blast.
The numbers didn’t look good. There wasn’t nearly enough time nor did he have enough weaponry to take on the Army of Thieves. All he had was Bertie on his back—out of ammo—and a couple of pistols he’d found on the Antonov.
Either we all survive together or we all die together, he remembered his own words back at their camp.
‘Fuck it,’ he said.
He scanned the base as he came in for landing and saw men running every which way.
The Army of Thieves had lost not only its supreme leader but its whole command group. Now the thugs were looking for someone to tell them what was happening and what to do.
He keyed Bertie’s short-range radio: ‘Mother, Baba! Zack, Emma! Renard! Can any of you hear me—?’
A man’s voice came in. ‘I hear ya, buddy, although I sure ain’t your fucking mother.’
‘I hear ya, too,’ another reedy voice hissed. ‘Calling for your mommy, eh? I think I fucked her once and she loved every minute of it.’
There was no reply from Mother, Baba or any of the—
‘Captain, it’s me,’ a softer voice came in.
It was Zack.
‘I’m alive and have E with me.’ Knowing others were listening, he was obviously being careful not to mention Emma’s name.
‘We gotta get everyone off this island. You’ve got nine minutes to meet me at the spot where Baba emptied out some diesel fuel.’ Schofield didn’t want to broadcast their meeting point.
‘Copy that. See you there.’
A few seconds later, a woman’s voice came in, her accent French:
‘Scarecrow, this is’—a pained cough—‘Renard. You’—cough—‘came back?’
‘Where are you now, Renard?’
‘Where you left me. But I have’—Blam! A gunshot, loud and close—‘a bit of a
problem here.’
‘Stay there. I’m on my way.’
Blam! Another. ‘Hurry.’
‘Ooh, aah! Yeah, stay there, Renard, we’re coming, too!’ another voice mimicked Champion’s over the airwaves.
14:01 . . . 14:00 . . . 13:59 . . .
As he banked over Dragon Island, Schofield tried to reach Mother and Baba, but he only got more crude replies from snarling Thieves.
Nothing from Mother or Baba.
Damn . . . he thought sadly.
Schofield brought the Antonov in for landing, shooting past the mighty vents before sweeping low over the disc-shaped tower—with one of its spires now lying on its side—and touching down on the runway. The Antonov’s tyres hit the tarmac and it taxied down the length of the runway, before pulling up fifty metres short of the western cliffs.
At least twenty members of the Army of Thieves had been gathered by the airstrip’s hangars when the plane had come roaring in and landed.
They immediately leapt into jeeps and charged after it, to see if their boss was on board.
Schofield leapt out of the Antonov—
13:10 . . . 13:09 . . . 13:08 . . .
—and saw it.
Saw the motorcycle-and-sidecar lying askew on the northern side of the runway, the one whose rider and gun-toting partner Bertie had shot earlier. Their dead bodies still lay beside it.
Schofield ran over to the bike-and-sidecar, lifted it upright and kickstarted it. It roared to life.
He peeled out, kicking up a spray of dirt behind him.
12:30 . . . 12:29 . . . 12:28 . . .
He couldn’t believe what he was doing.
He was going back into Dragon Island—doomed Dragon Island, inhabited by a leaderless throng of Thieves—with only twelve minutes left to save his friends.
Schofield gunned his motorbike up the hill that lay between Dragon Island’s runway and its abandoned whaling village—the same hill he’d hurtled down half an hour earlier.
11:00 . . . 10:59 . . . 10:58 . . .
He glanced back at the runway and saw four jeeps filled with Thieves arrive at his plane; saw them swarm inside it.
They emerged shortly after, looking confused and bewildered. One of them saw Schofield speeding away, pointed and opened fire. Two jeeps took off in pursuit.
Schofield reached the fork in the road at the top of the hill and swung left, heading for the whaling village as his timer passed through ten minutes.
10:00 . . . 9:59 . . . 9:58 . . .
A minute later, he came to the roadblock guarding the whaling village, the same one where Typhon had outwitted him earlier.
A single Army of Thieves jeep was still parked sideways there, but the men who had been manning it lay dead: shot by Bertie in the smoke-grenade haze that Champion had provided for him.
Schofield raced past the roadblock and skidded to a halt in front of the frost-covered village.
He leapt off the bike, gun up. ‘Renard!’ he called.
Movement to his left—
—a shaggy polar bear flashed between a pair of sheds and went bounding away.
Blam!-Blam!
Gunshots.
From within the village, from the direction the bear had gone.
Schofield ran that way.
He rounded a corner just as—Blam!-Blam!-Blam!—more gunshots rang out and he saw Veronique Champion, sitting in a corner with her back to the wall, her last remaining gun, her tiny Ruger LCP pocket pistol, extended and firing at a shaggy white bear!
That bear dropped, punctured all over with bullet wounds—and in a fleeting instant, Schofield saw three more dead bears lying in the snow beside it and in that instant, he saw what Champion had been dealing with in his absence: holding off a steady supply of polar bears with a very small-calibre gun.
The newly arrived bear roared as it bounded toward Champion and she fired at it, too, but after one more shot, the little Ruger went dry and she looked up in horror as the bear, furious and deranged, charged at her unhindered.
Schofield fired both his pistols and the bear went sprawling head-first into the snow, hit squarely in the back of the head, and it slid up against Champion’s feet, its tongue lolling, its brains oozing out from a huge exit wound.
Champion looked up and saw Schofield and exhaled with deep relief.
He hurried over, quickly lifted her in his arms and carried her back to the motorbike.
As he carried her, Champion found herself looking directly at Bertie, peeping over Schofield’s shoulder.
‘Hello,’ Bertie’s electronic voice said pleasantly.
‘’Allo,’ she replied.
‘Looks like we got here just in time,’ Schofield said, sliding her into the bike’s sidecar.
‘I still can’t believe you came back at all.’
Schofield checked his watch.
8:01 . . . 8:00 . . . 7:59 . . .
‘In eight minutes, this island is going to be wiped off the face of the Earth by a Russian nuclear missile,’ he said. ‘And my philosophy is simple: when it comes to my teammates, I don’t leave anyone behind.’
He gunned the motorbike. ‘Hang on.’
They zoomed up the hill, away from the whaling village, back up into Dragon Island.
Sixty seconds later, they arrived at the fork in the road at the top of the hill. From there they could see all the main features of Dragon Island: the airstrip, the disc-shaped tower, the northern bay.
7:01 . . . 7:00 . . . 6:59 . . .
Schofield stopped the bike, his eyes focused on the runway—
‘Oh, no . . .’
He saw the Antonov, surrounded by cheering members of the Army of Thieves, being pushed slowly toward the cliffs at the end of the runway!
The plane tipped off the runway and began to roll down the short embankment separating the airstrip from the cliff-edge. Then the Antonov tumbled over the cliff and fell out of sight.
The Thieves all around it cheered.
Schofield swallowed, his eyes wide. Of all the things that might have happened, he hadn’t expected that. But then, the Army of Thieves had no idea of the thermonuclear strike only six minutes away.
‘What?’ Champion said. ‘What?’
‘That plane was our escape,’ Schofield said flatly. ‘We are now officially stuck here.’
Schofield stared out at the spot where his Antonov had disappeared over the cliff, stunned.
Champion said, ‘There must be another way out of this. Another plane or helicopter, or maybe some kind of bunker we can hide in—’
Gunfire sizzled over their heads from the two Army of Thieves jeeps that had just arrived from the runway.
It roused Schofield from his reverie and he snapped round to face Champion, something in his eyes. ‘A bunker, yes . . . a nuclear bunker.’
Champion said, ‘Ivanov said there was a special bunker-like laboratory buried under the main disc—’
‘No. Not that one. We’d never reach it in time anyway. I saw another one. Earlier. But where was it . . . ?’
More bullets whistled past them.
Champion ducked. ‘Can you think as we ride!’
‘Right.’ Schofield gunned the bike away with renewed intensity, fleeing from the jeeps.
A few seconds later, he turned to Champion. ‘I just remembered where it is.’
6:00 . . . 5:59 . . . 5:58 . . .
Schofield’s bike-and-sidecar skidded to a halt in front of the cable car terminal.
Schofield carried Champion toward the terminal’s side garage, the door of which was suddenly hurled open from within by Zack and Emma. As requested, they’d gone to the place where Baba had released diesel fuel earlier.
Zack ushered them inside. ‘What’s going on?’
5:10 . . . 5:09 . . . 5:08 . . .
Schofield hurried past him, still carrying Champion. ‘When they saw the uplink had been turned off, Russia fired a nuclear missile at this island. It’s five minutes away.’
Zack went pale.
‘Five minutes? What can we possibly do in five—?’
‘We get to a nuclear bunker.’ Schofield raced through the garage and entered the terminal proper. He hurried over to the cable car and looked up at its cable stretching all the way down to Acid Islet.
He recalled seeing the thick lead door in the hall on Acid Islet earlier, the one down on the bottom level with a nuclear symbol and a warning sign in Cyrillic on it. At the time, he’d thought it was a chamber for nuclear storage, but it wasn’t: it was a nuclear bunker.
Of course, Dragon Island would have several fallout bunkers on it. It was a first-strike Cold War target. And placing a bunker under Acid Islet made sense: the islet was already partially protected by the cliffs of the bay, plus the seawater separating it from Dragon Island would act as an extra buffer against the concussion wave from any nuclear explosion.
‘That cable car is too slow. It won’t get us down fast enough,’ Emma said.
‘You’re right, it won’t.’ Schofield was still looking up at the cable. It stretched steeply away from them, sweeping down to the station on Acid Islet a thousand feet away.
He turned.
‘Everybody up onto the roof of the cable car. We’re gonna zipline down that cable.’
4:20 . . . 4:19 . . . 4:18 . . .
They all clambered up onto the roof of the bullet-battered cable car.
The cable swooped downward, impossibly long and dizzyingly steep, ending at the islet far, far away.
Once they were all up on the roof of the cable car, Schofield said, ‘Okay, Zack and Emma: use your belts. Loop them over the cable like this.’
He looped Zack’s belt over the cable, then crossed its two ends so they formed an X. ‘We dislodged most of the ice on the cable when we came up earlier, so the cable shouldn’t be too icy. To slow yourself as you slide, pull your hands outward; that’ll cause your belt to squeeze on the cable and arrest your slide. Got it? Good. Go.’
Zack went. He leapt off the cable car and with a scream of terror shot down the super-long cable. He became very tiny very quickly as he slid away.
Emma was next. She stepped tentatively to the edge of the cable car’s roof.