The stump of the pylon was on fire, and the Marsh Flyer immediately began turning to starboard, threatening to send them crashing into the jungle.
Parsons strained at the wheel to pull them back on course.
“Cut back power on the port engine,” he shouted, pointing with his bad hand at a handle near Juan’s knee. Juan pulled back on the control, and the engines lowered the speed of the propellers on the port side to compensate for the one that was now missing.
Parsons was able to keep them straight now, but their speed was cut in half.
“Can we put out the fire?” Juan asked.
“Not without flaming out the engine.”
A guard in one of the other Qingdaos now had an RPG ready to fire.
A second truck in the car deck rolled to the stern, this one facing the opening. The tires squealed, and Linc rolled out of the driver’s door as the truck sped through the doors.
The truck exploded seconds after it landed in the water. Two of the hovercraft were going around it as before, but this time they were catapulted into the air. One of them blew up in midair when the RPG misfired, and the other somersaulted across the swamp.
“There’s the bay,” Parsons said. The swamp was beginning to thin out as they approached open water.
The drivers of the last two Qingdaos learned the lesson and went wide, quickly pulling alongside the Marsh Flyer. If they could damage the skirt, it would be over. The giant hovercraft would be dead in the water.
There was one truck with dynamite left, but it wouldn’t do any good if they couldn’t get it into the path of their pursuers.
“Can you spin this thing?” Juan asked Parsons.
“Are you crazy?” Parsons said. “I’m barely keeping it together as it is.”
“We won’t be here at all if they can pick us apart with those RPGs. Can you spin it?”
“Maybe once. Why?”
“Because we’re going to turn the Flyer into a slingshot.”
* * *
—
Polk was watching from two thousand feet up. The Marsh Flyer was burning as it crossed into the bay back toward Nhulunbuy, but it was still moving. His men should have destroyed it by now, but their tactics had been sloppy. He told them to stop following behind the hovercraft and shoot at it from the side. Once they deflated the skirt, the surviving guards could sink it and kill everyone who jumped overboard, then meet him at the airport for their flight to rendezvous with the Marauder.
One of the Qingdaos matched the speed of the wounded Flyer, and a man stood with an RPG to cripple his target. It seemed like an easy shot.
But to Polk’s surprise, the Flyer’s propellers rotated, sending the gigantic hovercraft into a horizontal spin on its own axis. The centrifugal force flung something out the back as the stern aligned with the Qingdao, and Polk realized it was another truck like the last two.
Neither he nor the Qingdao pilot could do a thing as it splashed into the water and exploded, sending a geyser into the air that disintegrated the small hovercraft and severely damaged the Marsh Flyer.
The aft skirt was ripped to shreds, and the Flyer plowed into the water. The propellers on top continued to turn, but it wasn’t going anywhere. It was already beginning to list. The buoyancy tanks must have been punctured. It wouldn’t stay afloat for long.
Polk radioed to the last Qingdao.
“Make sure no one gets off alive.”
Low rain clouds were starting to roll in, so he wouldn’t be able to watch for much longer, but he wanted to be sure they finished their task.
He’d been so focused on the hovercraft that he hadn’t noticed a ship entering the bay until he banked around for another pass. It looked like an ordinary bulk cargo ship, although it was spewing a huge wake behind it like it was a speedboat.
Then something odd happened. The tower on one of the ship’s cranes seemed to come apart, revealing some kind of device. It was only when the mechanism swiveled around and aimed at the Qingdao that Polk recognized it as a twin-barreled Gatling gun.
A torrent of rounds poured from the weapon, obliterating the small hovercraft in an instant.