Hyena Dawn (52 page)

The jeep came nearer, and he fixed his aim in the centre of the driver’s sternum and began the slow squeeze on the trigger. Two shots. That should compensate for any inaccuracy that might be caused by the movement of the vehicle and the difficulty of seeing through the rain.

He was surprised that only one person had responded to the alarm - he would have expected a greater show of force. His finger began to tighten. The man was clearly in view now. It would be an easy shot. He squeezed slowly.

The whole town shook with the magnitude of the explosion. In seconds a black pall of smoke hung over the Pungwe River. Further explosions followed, and gradually the people who had been convinced it was just bad thunder became aware that something serious had happened.

Even in the pouring rain the flames from the giant fuel storage tanks refused to die down. Instead they fanned out, setting light to other tanks, triggering more explosions, creating an inferno of smoke and flames.

Suddenly the sky was filled with flashes as the anti-aircraft gunners let rip. High explosive shells were lobbed into the air and exploded in orange bursts on the horizon. It was like a fireworks display gone mad.

Larry

Rayne was almost at the bank when the first big bang occurred and he swung instinctively off the road. He dropped out of the jeep and crawled underneath the chassis. Looking away from the bank towards the west, the direction from which the noise had come, he saw to his horror huge clouds of smoke billowing into the air above the area where the fuel storage tanks were located. He’d specifically instructed his men that the tanks were not to be attacked. Who the hell had disobeyed his orders?

But then why shouldn’t they blow up the tanks? It made sense in more ways than one. After all why not totally destroy the Russian installations around Beira? Again Rayne questioned Fry’s orders and began to wonder what Fry’s true objectives actually were.

A loud singing sound made him turn suddenly - to see Mick running to the front of the bank building with a spinning reel of wire cable leading back to the front of the vault. Then a bullet impacted into the wall next to him, spraying him with plaster. He looked up to see Guy sighting his rifle on him.

‘
Guy!’

There was a silence. Rayne dropped flat on the ground behind the jeep. One wrong move, and Guy’s next shot would hit him.

‘
Captain. Is that you?’

‘
Yes!’

‘
You can come out.’

Cautiously Rayne raised his head to see that Guy’s rifle was no longer trained on him. He sprinted across the road. ‘I was held up. Only just made it.’

Guy wiped the sweat off his forehead. God, it had been close.

‘
I nearly killed you, sir. Thank God, the explosion spoilt my aim.’

‘
Who the hell blew the tanks?’

‘
I don’t know, but we’re blowing the vault now.’

Larry came out of the front door of the bank moments later.

‘
OK. Everything’s set, there’s enough plastic on the front of that thing to demolish a bridge. Keep down when I activate the detonator.’ He quickly attached the two wires to a small box with a handle on the side.

Rayne watched the rain dripping off the sides of the roof. The explosions at the fuel depot continued to thunder in the distance.

Larry spun the handle around quickly and then lay close in against the wall, gesturing for the others to do the same.

‘
For God’s sake, keep your heads right down.’ Then he pushed the plunger down hard.

A sheet of flame shot through the interior of the bank as the high explosive erupted into life. The front windows were blown out and the doors ripped off their hinges. The metal roof ballooned upwards and then mushroomed out, throwing lethal bits of metal in every direction. The windows in the block of flats opposite were shattered to smithereens.

The blast obliterated every other noise, and for a moment it seemed as if the rain had stopped. Then there was the sound of falling masonry and burning wood.

Rayne lifted his head first. His ears were singing. There was another small explosion and he dropped flat again. He wondered if there was anything left of the vault at all. Crawling out, he looked at the charred shell of the Bank of Beira. To his amazement the walls were still standing and much of the roof still hanging in place. He leapt over the wall and into the building, the others following closely.

Rayne was sure the Russians must already be mobilising to move in on the bank. The noise of the fuel tank explosion would have carried to the military base, and now, with the explosion at the bank, the alarm must have been well and truly given. He just hoped it was enough of a diversion to pull some of the troops away from the airport.

He had to admire the professionalism of Larry’s work. The safe doors were hanging on their hinges but none of the area behind them was damaged at all. He heard Larry speaking from behind him.

‘
Move it up, the structural damage is very bad. The whole place could cave in on us.’

They followed Rayne into the main vault, pulling out the large plastic rubbish bags that they had brought with them for storing the bank notes. Rayne said, ‘Remember, only take dollars, pounds or foreign currency, the local stuff is worthless.’

Rayne moved into the safe-deposit-box area and quickly saw that most of the boxes were unlocked - only a very few were actually in use. Fry’s instruction to destroy everything echoed through his mind. Once he had shot the locks off the boxes, he poured all the contents into a pile, ready to fire it. Even though time was of the essence, he could not help glancing at the documents, some of which were in English, others in Cyrillic script.

Suddenly he caught sight of Aschaar’s signature - and almost instinctively he stuffed this group of documents inside his jacket. Maybe this was something he could use . . .

Larry and Mick were stuffing bank notes furiously into their plastic bags while Guy waited outside, ready to warn them the moment anyone showed up. There had been far more foreign currency in the bank than Rayne had expected. He swore silently; the money would be a hindrance. He wished he could just tell them to dump it, but he knew that would be asking too much.

Mick burst out of the doorway after Rayne and they threw the bulging bags into the back of the jeep. Rayne decided to leave the Peugeot behind. He looked down anxiously at Guy’s watch. Five-fifteen. He had anticipated being out of the bank by five-ten. They were nearly all set now, but where the hell had Larry got to? A shout to his left informed him, in no uncertain terms.

‘
Put your hands up, get out of the jeep. Watch it, Guy, I know there’s a gun beside you. That’s better. Now, get over to the garage.’

Larry walked out of the bank, an Uzi carbine in his hands and an ugly expression on his face. He moved with his back to the road, some two metres from them.

‘
Larry, you fucking bastard!’

‘
Shut it, Gallagher.’

Rayne guessed Larry’s plan. He shouldn’t have given him the map showing him the pick-up point. Larry would lock them in the garage next to the bank, drive out to Lois and tell him they’d all been killed. He was the only one who knew about Lois, because Rayne hadn’t yet been able to tell Michael Strong or Bunty about him. Larry would probably fly out of the country with Lois, then kill him and keep the money for himself. It was that simple, and that disgusting.

‘
Move it to the garage. Don’t try anything stupid.’

They moved slowly away from the jeep and towards the open doors of the garage. Now they would be caught by the Russians, and that meant certain death. How could Larry do this to them? It was worse than shooting them in cold blood.

Suddenly there was the noise of a vehicle in the street behind them. Larry turned momentarily, and Mick took the opportunity to go for him. He sprinted forwards, aiming for Larry’s back.

Mick was almost on him when Larry turned back again. Rayne shouted out in desperation, ‘Mick!’

Mick grabbed the muzzle of the Uzi as Larry pulled the trigger. He spun away from the barrel as the bullets hit him in the stomach.

Larry pointed the weapon towards Rayne and Guy. ‘Don’t try anything, you fuckers, or you’ll go the same way.’

Rayne kept his eyes on the Russians who were jumping out of the truck down the road. He saw one of them raise his rifle.

Larry screamed out as the bullets tore into his back. Pockmarked with blood, he fell forwards. Rayne ran to pick up the Uzi. He moved in close behind the wall and pushed the muzzle over the top, letting off a quick burst of fire. There was a scream, and the sound of metal crashing into concrete. When he looked over the wall it was to see one Russian lying in the road clutching his leg and three more running for cover. He aimed again and hit one man before he made it to safety. Then he ducked to avoid the burst of fire that came from the other two. Mick was lying on the ground next to him, holding his stomach and trying desperately to get up.

‘
Stay down, Mick, they’ll cut you to pieces.’

Guy crawled up beside them and lobbed a grenade at the wall their two attackers were hiding behind. They ducked, and waited for the explosion.

Seconds later there was an ear-shattering thump and they all made for the jeep. Guy carried Mick and dumped him in the passenger seat, then he leapt into the driver’s seat and started the engine. As they pulled away, the firing started again and Rayne opened up at the wall. They accelerated up the main street, leaving the bank far behind.

Guy pushed the jeep as hard as the engine would go. Each time the revs reached bursting point he would change gear and the vehicle shot forward. Mick kept on screaming out with pain, but there was nothing they could do.

Rayne slapped a fresh magazine into the Uzi and grabbed another from the floor of the jeep. Now he had two machine-guns, one in each hand, and he braced himself against the back of the jeep, ready to fire the moment they ran into trouble. Mick gradually won his battle against the pain of his bullet wounds and managed to hold a Galil assault rifle in his hands. It wasn’t a moment too soon. As they rounded the next corner, they ran straight into an ambush.

A truck had been turned over, blocking their path, and gunfire erupted from both sides of the road. Rayne opened up on the left side and immediately there was a reduction in fire. Mick pumped a couple of carefully positioned shots into the bush on the right as Guy aimed the jeep at the gap between the left side of the road and the roof of the truck. They tore towards it, travelling at over a hundred kilometres per hour.

Rayne kept firing into the bush. Bullets whacked into the side of the jeep. They made it through, immediately running into thick smoke from the burning fuel tanks near the roadside. Gunfire was everywhere, anti-aircraft shells kept on exploding in the sky above them.

The rain lashed down harder and the jeep slewed from side to side as it careered along the dirt road at top speed. Guy fought with the steering wheel, battling to keep the vehicle on a straight course without losing speed.

It was impossible to tell which direction trouble would come from next. They had to get away from the centre of the action as quickly as possible.

Everything had gone horribly wrong.

Major Balashov, first-in-command at Beira airport, watched the Lear jet climb skywards. Visibility was bad, and the plane was almost out of sight although it had only just left the runway.

‘
What the hell?’

Balashov nearly fell over backwards as he saw an explosion at the rear of the plane. It looked very much as if it had been hit by a ground-to-air missile, but who could have fired it?

He yelled at the radio operator. ‘Make immediate contact! They must try to land if it’s not already too late!’

The plane plummeted earthwards, smoke pouring from the rear, but the engine did not seem to be on fire. Balashov looked on with grim fascination.