“Not prob,” the albino teenager said, lighting the rag tied around the neck of the glass bottle. “Tell when.”
“On my mark,” Ryan said calmly, placing the crosshairs a foot above the top of the turret. “Now.”
Whipping his arm forward, the miscellaneous bits of metal and glass sewn into Jak’s camou jacket jingled from the abrupt motion as the firebomb arced high and crashed directly on the nose of the APC. Instantly, J.B. stitched a short burst along the rear doors of the wag, the 9 mm rounds ricocheting harmlessly off the military armor.
A split second later, the top hatch flew open and a hand came out to grab the .50-cal and blindly fire the weapon in every direction. On cue, Krysty, Mildred and Dean screamed in pain from behind the dune as if mortally wounded.
At the sounds, a blond woman rose into sight from the hatch and grabbed the firing grip of the big bore 25 mm cannon just as Ryan stroked the trigger of the Steyr. The rifle bucked once and a single 7.62 mm round smacked directly into her left temple, the right side of her head spraying out in a pink froth.
Even as she fell limp across the blaster, her convulsing hands triggered the cannon and a spray of 25 mm shells hit the ground in front of the companions, the cacophony of detonations throwing out a tempest of debris before coming to an abrupt stop.
While the salt and sand were still in the air, the companions raced across the open ground low and fast and hit the rear doors of the APC, pressing their bodies flat to the steel and ramming the barrels of their blasters through the louvered slats of the air vents.
“Surrender, or we shoot!” Ryan ordered loudly. “This is your only chance!”
But aside from the crackling flames of the Molotov, only silence answered the challenge. Which was a damn good thing, since the man had no intention of shooting into the APC. It could easily be packed full with fuel or ammo, and a single round might have obliterated the wag, along with the companions and the entire section of cliff they were standing on.
After a few more moments, Ryan motioned to Dean, and the boy removed a self-heat from his backpack and gently lobbed it up and into the open top hatch of the vehicle.
“Gren!” the boy called as it bounced off the corpse and dropped down inside.
But there was still no reaction from anyone inside. J.B. got busy tricking the door locks from the outside. As the bolt was disengaged, the door swung open and the companions got clear in case of outgoing rounds. But the interior of the APC was empty aside from the deader dangling from the turret.
Doc and Dean stayed at the doors as rear guards while the others climbed inside and did a quick recce for a boobie, but the wag was clean.
“Bunch folks were here, mostly women,” Jak said, opening a handmade backpack and pulling out loose white gowns. “Not gaudy slut, either.”
Krysty squinted at the clean clothing and the abundance of weapons lying openly in the boxes on the metal floor. “Gaza had five wives, right?”
“Four now,” Ryan said, pulling the corpse down from the hatch. Her clothing matched that from the packs, and the handcannon tucked into the holster of her gun belt was clean, oiled and carrying six rounds.
“Baron’s wife, all right,” he stated.
Finding an Ingram machine pistol hanging on the wall, Dean yanked out the clip to make sure it was carrying the same 9 mm ammo he used in the Browning Hi-Power, then tucked the clip into a pocket to be emptied later.
“Found the engine,” J.B. announced, kneeling to try to see into the darkness. “Millie, hit the lights, would you?”
Going to the control panel in the front, Mildred dodged the waves of heat coming off the dwindling fire on the armored prow outside and flipped a few switches to activate the emergency lights.
Now the war wag was brightly illuminated, and the companions were astonished by the display of armament lying about. Belted ammo for the fifty and the 25 mm, four LAW launchers, one in questionable condition and even a hand comm, which was strange since the radio transponder in the dashboard was no longer present, along with the radar and most other of the preDark equipment.