to Phoenix! It's a tri( Trap!
Trap! Major Graaff isn't here -- -' Dazed, Hauer lunged back into the
driver's compartment.
He did not understand Afrikaans, but he recognized a warning.
Taking hold of the driver's head, he wrenched with all his might, hoping
to snap the man's cervical vertebrae. The driver went suddenly stiff,
then limp.
'Take the wheel!' Hauer shouted at Captain BamardWhile Hauer dragged
the driver back into the crew compartment, Captain Barnard scrambled
into the driver's seat and wrestled the Armscor into gear.
The vehicle lurched forward, back, then began rolling toward the house
again.
Hauer laid the senseless driver against the Armscor's side hatch and
tore off his own respirator. 'Another traitor!' he yelled to General
SteynGeneral Steyn ripped off his gas mask. His face was flushed with
anger and disbelief. At his feet the traitor squirmed and flung his
arms upward. In a fit of rage Gadi kicked open the Armscor's side hatch
and shoved the driver out onto the veld. By the time Gadi shut the
hatch, a Libyan machine gunner had riddled the man's body with .30
caliber slugs.
The Armscor shivered as another Libyan machine gunner locked onto the
tail of the armored car. Hauer grabbed General Steyn's arm. 'I don't
know if the tower heard that warning, but-' The sudden, steel-ripping
roar of the Vulcan obliterated both Hauer's voice and the rattle of the
Libyan machine guns.
Hauer leapt up to a firing slit. His stomach rolled as he watched the
blazing tracer line march toward the nose of the Armscor. He had seen
similar guns on American tank-killing planes on maneuvers in Germany.
The rotary guns mounted in their stubby snouts spewed out 5000
depleted-uranium slugs per minute-enough to turn a T-72 tank into a
burning hulk in seconds.
Captain Barnard swerved to avoid the oncoming tracer beam, but the
Vulcan gunner simply adjusted his fire.
Barnard screamed as the shells churned up the earth directly in front of
the Armscor. Then suddenly-miraculously-the fiery stream of death
winked out.
'He's jammed!' Hauer shouted. 'Go! Go!'
The Annscor surged forward. Like a hailstorm from hell, slugs pounded
the vehicle from every side as Smuts's bunker gunners opened up from
their concealed positions. Hauer peered out through a gun port, trying
to pinpoint the source of the fire.
'Bunkers!' he shouted. 'They're dug into the hill!'
From a slit on the Annscor's right side, Gadi fired his R5
assault rifle in careful, three-round bursts, aiming for the muzzle
flashes of the bunker guns. 'Momser!' he shouted, but no one heard
him. The noise inside the Armscor had reached a deafening level.
Hauer was leaning into the driver's compartment to urge Captain Barnard
forward when Pieter Smuts detonated the first string of Claymore mines.
Two Claymores exploded directly beneath the Armscor, hurling the
eighteen tons of hardened steel into the air like a child's toy. The
vehicle tottered on its three right wheels, then crashed back onto all
six and continued toward the house. Another string of Claymores
exploded in front of the Armscor; hundreds of steel balls scythed into
its hull, shattering the polycarbonate windshield. Captain Barnard
screamed in pain, but the Arrnscor kept rolling.
Hauer's mind raced: they still had more than a hundred meters to cover.
The mines could be handled, but not under the fire of the tower gun. If
the gunner cleared his weapon in the next thirty seconds, they didn't
stand a chance. The Vulcan had to be silenced.
'Stop!' he roared. 'Turn this thing sideways and stop!'
Captain Barnard-not enthusiastic about hitting any more mines
himself-gladly obeyed. Hauer turned back to General Steyn and his men.
'Pour it in! I'm going Out!'
One of the masked men jumped down from a firing slit, ripped off his
respirator and grabbed Hauer's arm. It was Gadi. 'If you go out there,
you're dead!' he yelled.
Hauer jerked his arm free. 'Just keep those bunker guns off me!'
While Gadi stared, Hauer snatched up his sniper rifle and unlatched the
Armscor's side hatch. The full din of battle filled the vehicle.
Holding the Steyr-Mannlicher close against his body, Hauer took a deep
breath, and leaped outside.
He hit the ground hard and rolled beneath the huge vehicle, praying no
one had seen him. He got to one knee. There was almost enough room for
him to stand beneath the Arrnscor's undercarriage. The six giant wheels
provided a wall from behind which he could fire in relative safc Bracing
his right knee behind one of the giant tires, raised the Steyr to his
shoulder and sighted in on the tower.
The last light of dusk had almost gone. He had no nightvision scope,
but the standard Kahles-Helios ZF69 optical scope was excellent.
Even in near darkness it brought the tower in nicely.
When Hauer saw the turret in detail, he groaned. At 120 meters,
accuracy wasn't the problem. With the Steyr, he could fire ten bullets
into a sixteen-inch circle from six times that distance. The problem
was the 'glass' he saw for-ming part of the turret's circular wall. It
would undoubtedly be made of transparent composite armor. Through the
scope he searched for a weakness suited to his weapon. The turret
rotates, he realized, noticing the huge gears mounted beneath the
observatory dome. But I can't damage those gears. Twelve seconds later
Hauer spotted his chance. Just where the Vulcan's six barrels protruded
from the 'glass,' a narrow port had been cut so that the gun could be
traversed vertically. Hauer felt the hair on the back of his neck rise.
He could see men working frantically to clear the jammed weapon.
He laid his cross hairs on the tiny port and chambered a round into the
breech. The Steyr accepted a ten-round magazine, but like most sniper
rifles it was bolt-action. He would get one perfect chance, then nine
snap shots. He took a deep breath and pressed his b(>dy into the huge
tire that shielded him. He felt the reassuring weight of the rifle on
his shoulder, the wooden stock cool and familiar against his stubbled
cheek. The sound of the battle grew dim and distant as he focused on
