Here’s where it gets dicey, Hugh figured, seeing that there would be no foot or handholds once he got onto the smooth roof surface.
With one huge effort, he scrambled up onto the roof, and lay there for a minute to settle his nerves. He knew that it was not possible for the occupants of the truck cab to see him in their mirrors, so he took a moment to compose himself.
He also noticed that there was no car following them or preceding them down the road. So, Hugh figured that the hijackers must have been in a stolen car, and had abandoned it on the shoulder where they had hijacked his truck. Good, that means there might be only two of them in the cab.
Then, slowly, he began to creep his way forward on his elbows, like a soldier’s crawl. He kept his profile low to prevent the sixty-mile-an-hour wind from blowing him off the roof.
The trailer pitched and yawed like a boat in choppy water, causing Hugh to stop his forward progress a couple of times and lie spread-eagled to keep from being bounced off the roof.
Once at the front of the trailer, he realized that there would be nothing for it but to remain on his belly, to swing his legs around with his feet facing the front, and to drop down in a reverse of how he had climbed up in the first place. The main difference was that there were no hand holds on the face of the front of the trailer. He’d have a straight drop right down to the catwalk.
"OK, here goes," he said to nobody, and started over the edge.
He got to where he could briefly hang from the top rim of the trailer’s roof, and he then launched himself away from the face of the trailer, hoping beyond reason that he could land on the catwalk without breaking a leg, and that he could keep his balance without getting pitched over the side of the swaying truck.
He managed to plant his feet firmly on the catwalk, but lost his balance as the truck banged over a pothole in the road. He saved himself by grabbing one of the coiled airlines that led from the back of the truck cab to the front of the trailer.
So far, so good. Now for the dangerous part.
He had managed to do all this undetected. But, he realized now that as soon as he stepped off the catwalk, rounded the back corner of the truck cab, and got on the steps on the side of the cab he’d be in sight of anybody looking through the side mirrors.
Considering this, he decided on his course of action. He’d go after the passenger side first, thinking to gain entrance there. He hoped against hope that there wasn’t a passenger there, and that the door wouldn’t be locked. Then, he planned on subduing the driver from inside the cab, remembering how badly it had worked out for those others who had tried to get at Hugh from the outside.
If that didn’t work. He had another plan.
He rounded the back of the cab on the passenger side as stealthily as he could. So far, he hadn’t alerted anybody to his presence. While holding onto the fairing with his left hand, he stretched himself out and reached over to try the passenger-side door. Locked. Darn.
Then, he saw a man in the passenger seat jump in alarm after spotting Hugh in the side mirror. The man then gestured excitedly to the driver, and held up a handgun, threatening Hugh with it.
“OK. On to plan B,” Hugh said.
He quickly sidled around to the back of the truck cab again. Once back onto the catwalk, he got a good purchase with his feet, and a good grip on the red emergency brake air line. He knew that once he yanked that line off where the glad hand connected it to the trailer all hell would break loose.
Hugh knew that the trailer spring brakes would instantly lock up the trailer wheels, bringing the whole rig to a sudden, screeching stop. He also knew there was a chance of jackknifing the trailer, and possibly capsizing the rig. But, it was a risk he had to take.
“Here goes,” he said, in warning to no one, and yanked the airline off.
With a sharp hiss of escaping air from the air line, the force of all the trailer brakes locking up threw him back, but he was prepared for that, and braced himself. What he wasn’t prepared for was the scream overhead, and a flying Jenny hurling off of the roof right at him.
He had presence of mind to catch her, and they went down together in a heap onto the catwalk.
“You do have a knack for showing up suddenly, don’t you,” he told her.
The locked up trailer wheels slowed the truck to a crawl, but the driver turned out to be more experienced than Hugh had counted on. The driver had noticed the sudden drop in air pressure, and had pulled the yellow knob on the dash before the sudden decrease in air pressure could engage the tractor spring brakes as well.
The driver continued to try to force the tractor forward, creating a massive screeching sound, smoke, and smell of burning rubber, as the locked-up trailer tires ground against the pavement.
Hugh desperately needed to put an end
