The concrete of the plaza was becoming dark with spilled blood, and most of it was human.
Chapter Twenty-One
“Fire!” Mitchum ordered, and a Firebird was launched from the pod of his wag.
Spiraling in fast, the rocket slammed deep inside the creature and came out the other side before exploding. The soft bulk of the spider didn’t offer enough resistance to set off the warhead. Mortally wounded, the insect grabbed a Hummer in its mandibles but was unable to lift the heavy wag.
Flintlocks discharged steadily, and the battle zone was becoming smoky with the fumes of spent black powder, but the sec men raked the beast with their rapidfires, then put two more Firebirds into the gore-streaked mutie.
Taking advantage of the distraction, Ryan and J.B. returned to the broken door of the train station and surveyed the outside battle. The spider was clearly dying, and soon Mitchum would concentrate his attention on the station.
“Spider is losing,” J.B. stated.
Ryan checked the SIG-Sauer. “Gonna be after us next.”
“We could hide in the tunnels,” J.B. went on, firing a few rounds at the busy sec men. One clutched his throat and fell over, crimson blood gushing between his fingers.
“Mitchum would only run us down with the Hummers,” Ryan said, squeezing off shots with his silenced weapon. Two more sec men fell. Then a flurry of machine-gun fire ripped up the doorway, and the men retreated behind the brick wall.
“Our best bet is to stop them here,” Ryan continued, “then go hunt for the redoubt.”
Several miniballs hummed through the open doorway.
Sticking out the Uzi, J.B. triggered a short burst. “Yeah, I’m sick of running away, too,” he growled.
Holstering the blaster, Ryan held out an empty hand. “Give me that launcher,” he said brusquely.
Shifting his bag and packs, J.B. passed over the boxy 4-shot weapon. “Only got one,” he reminded him.
“That’ll do.” Ryan pulled out the arming pin for the remaining rocket and moved away from the doorway to take a position behind some benches a few yards distant.
Then the man assumed a firing stance, but with the wrong end of the launcher pointed toward the broken doors.
“What’s he doing?” Dean demanded from behind a pillar.
“Chilling two birds,” Krysty replied, cocking back the hammer on her blaster. “Get ready, here they come.”
With the roar of a diesel engine, a Hummer crashed through the double doors, the armored fenders slamming the remains of the doors aside and removing most of the jamb. Ignoring the vehicle, Ryan triggered the launcher. Instantly, the LAW rocket shot away from the front on a column of fire to streak across the station and strike the iron grating. Designed to kill tanks, the shaped charge blew the barrier apart and sent a shotgun charge of shrapnel hurtling down the sloped ramp beyond.
At the same moment the rocket launched, the back-blast erupted from the aft end of the boxy weapon just as the second Hummer appeared in the doorway. Holding the weapon steady, Ryan let the sec men drive their vehicle through the fiery exhaust, shattering the windshield and beheading the driver. The sec man standing at the .50 cal was ripped away from the blaster and went flying, leaving an arm behind. The rest of the crew was buffeted by the searing-hot gases, the flesh scalded from their faces. Completely out of control, the Hummer cut a swath through the benches to the sound of splintering wood and crashed into a ticket counter, a whirlwind of ancient paper engulfing the dying men in an impromptu blizzard.
Tires squealing, the third Hummer banked away from the doorway, and J.B. riddled the crew with his Uzi as they drove by. Expertly, the wiry man rode the chattering rapidfire into a tight figure eight, the copper-jacketed 9 mm rounds tearing the sec men apart like rag dolls.
Meanwhile, the companions stayed hidden behind the pillars and rattled the first Hummer as it drove around inside the station. In short controlled bursts, Doc emptied his M-16, chilling the driver. As the rest of the sec men started returning fire with their flintlocks, Krysty rolled a gren under the armored wag. Her aim was good and the sphere detonated under the front of the military wag. The explosion flipped the nose, and, impelled by their speed, the wag flipped over to crash onto the marble floor and slid for several yards.