Chapter 27
Lara quickly opened the door and took the seat next to her friend. Despite the flip comment upon his arrival, he did not look good.
Even though he had donned his leather jacket, Lara could still see remnants of his shirt and dressing that were soaked through with sweat. Max's face was frighteningly pale as well. Lara needed to get him to a proper hospital in rather short order, or this film about her may well be his last.
"How are you?" she asked, with genuine concern on her face and in her voice.
"Not real great..."
"Let's get moving, shall we?"
"Hafta' take are of a little something first..." Max replied weakly as he reached under a position of the dash and flipped a switch. A slight vibration could be felt as he did so. Lara looked to Max.
"My little toy on the roof - time for a test...:
Lara poked her head out of the window and saw that the innocent-looking luggage carrier had grown some rather impressive teeth. Fake panels in either side of the carrier had opened and a cylindrical rocket pod now adorned each side. Each of the pods carried six individual rockets.
"They're FFAR's," Max informed her, "the same thing that bird was shooting at in the jungle."
"Yes, Folding Fin Aerial Rockets."
"Thank you Ms. Acronym."
"I've played with more toys that you have."
"I sit corrected. Let's do a little damage..."
Max pulled the car ahead and began to line it up, using a small video monitor in the dash to aim. He jerked the car forward a few times, steering from left to right, trying to line up his shot.
To Lara, who was still under an intense adrenaline rush from her escape a few short minutes earlier, Max's sighting was taking an eternity that they did not have to spare.
"Forget about this, let's move."
"Come on..." Max taunted the monitor.
"Drive, they could never catch us in those lorries."
"I know, but I've been dying to try this out - and this may be the only footage that we get on this whole deal."
"You're recording this?"
"Damn straight..."
Lara was on the verge of commentating, when she noticed the lone guard she had fooled during her escape. He was running in the direction of the Subaru, AK-47 at the ready.
"Go, now!" Lara ordered as she shouldered her MP5. She fired a long burst at the guard, and he went down. Whether he was taking cover or was hit, Lara could not tell at this extreme range.
"Got it!" Max exclaimed and pulled on the cruise control stalk. There was a loud noise, a shimmy, and then a blinding light. Looking out the windshield, Lara just made out twin smoke trails as the first lorry exploded. The high explosive warheads both detonated in the covered cargo area of the truck, the force of the explosion tipping the large vehicle over on to its side. A moment later, the sound of the firestorm reached the little station wagon.
"There, you got to try out your contraption, get out of here before the others return."
Max engaged the transmission and began to pull out of the area, muttering, "fine aiming is really bad, I'll need to get some kind of gimbal system on the pods - just a couple of degrees here and there..."
They were back on the narrow "road" that led down the mountain.
"Worry about it later - drive now."
"Aw, come on..from here on out we've got smooth...aw hell!"
Down the road rested a Russian BRDM armored personnel carrier. The four-wheeled behemoth had been parked sideways on the road, making it very difficult to get past it. On one side was a steep incline, the other, a hundred foot drop to the road below.
"Elder planned for this," Lara noted with a hint of respect.
"Yeah, but not this..." Max pulled on the cruise lever again.
This time, Lara shielded her eyes.
Due to the curve of the road, one of the rockets went wide, accelerating past the APC, but the other struck the armored front of the vehicle. The gunner manning the top machine gun never had a chance to fire at them as the concussion of the blast threw him into the unyielding rock wall and landing in a clump.
Max applied the brakes quickly, "we're gonna have to move that thing - only way around is down there..."
"I've got it."
"Got your back."
"Just try not to vomit all over yourself while you do."
"Just move the damn thing.."
Lara unbuckled herself from the harness and exited the car. She retracted the shoulder stock on the MP5 for easier use in close confines of the APC. After surveying the silent vehicle for a moment, Lara leapt to the top, intending to enter through the gunner's hatch.
There was no sound from inside, and she dropped through the open passage.
Max watched keenly as he unlatched his restraints. With his eyes on the BRDM, her reached behind him and withdrew a fearsome-looking weapon. It bore a passing resemblance to the Colt M-16, with a carrying handle atop and plastic grips. However, this rifle had a much wider muddle and a very large drum magazine - like the classic gangster's Thompson. Max chambered a round into the large weapon and got out of the car.
He could hear Lara milling about inside of the Russian vehicle, and could just make out a few curses. He was just on the verge of smiling when a motion off to his right made him instinctively duck. His action was rewarded by the several short cracks of pistol fire, followed closely by the sound of slugs penetrating the opposite fender of the wagon.
Now Max did smile.
Soon, there as a break in the shooting. Waiting a moment, he rose as quickly as possible, bringing his USAS-12 to bear.
He had timed it perfectly, the wounded gunner was just coming from behind the cover of the rear of the BRDM as Max opened fire.
The sound of the fully automatic shotgun was more that of a transmission failing than a firearm - but the effect was far more deadly. in a second, ten rounds of buckshot had been fired at the hapless gunner (who was already having a very bad day). Given the short range of the exchange, aiming was entirely optional, and as Max recovered from the massive recoil of the weapon, the perforated carcass of the gunner slammed (once again) into the rock wall - never to rise again.
A small viewport near the driver's area of the APC opened, and Max could just Make out Lara's red-tinted sunglasses resting down on her nose.
"What are you doing out there? What is that?!?"
"I told you about my scatter-gun..."
"The controls are frozen in here, I can't even get it into neutral."
"That's not good..."
Max was just started hearing the rumble of the approaching trucks. Obviously, it hadn't taken long for Elder to give them chase.
"Forget that thing, we've got bigger problems."
Lara vacated the impotent controls of the APC and made her way back to the roof, just in time to see the little Subaru start up and begin to back up the road. For a brief moment, Lara was incensed. Her rage came partially from the thought of her friend leaving her, and partially from his choice of escape routes - back towards the enemy.
Then Max cut the wheel, bringing the car's front end around. The front tires came dangerously close to the edge of the road, but held fast with the Impreza now pointing in the opposite direction. Lara saw the white back-ups glow as Max brought the car into position.
Jumping down to the road. Lara opened the passenger door and used is as cover.
"Are they coming?" she asked.
"Naw, just felt like flippin' a bitch, that's all."
Lara was unaware of the meaning of Max's expression, but even if it were an insult, there seemed to be little time and point to dealing with the rumpled cameraman.
"Can't we just push it out of the way?" she thought aloud.
"That thing outweighs me by at least...seven times - we'd just blow an engine and ruin a set of tires."
"So we hold here?"
"If we get lucky, they will send the trucks on at a time, and we can just pick 'em off with the old rockets."
"If we get lucky..."
"Hey, it's gotta start sometime."
"And if they don't oblige us and come one at a time?"
"We'll go to plan B. How's the ammo?"
Lara looked to her MP5 - the stock once again extended for long range accuracy.
"This magazine is at one half...two more where it came from."
"Anything we can use in the APC?"
Lara was just about to turn around when the lumbering form of a truck came around the bend.
"Hold it! No time!"
Lara returned to her position behind the door. In that moment she wondered how much real protection it would afford to the plethora of weapons that Elder's people carried.
"Just a little more...there!"
Max fired another salvo of rockets. When backing up the car, he had carefully lined up his shot, and both struck home in the cab. The mighty explosion lifted the front end of the truck off of the ground a full feet before crashing back to earth.
Max had hoped that the blast would have thrown the truck off of the cliff - now they were completely trapped.
Dazed troops began to file out of the ruined truck. Lara began to fire at them with the MP5, her short bursts making them dive for cover. Max fired the rockets again, but they served to only provide a light show and further damage the crippled transport.
Moments later, Elder's troops regrouped and began to fire on the Subaru. Lara expended another Magazine in their direction, and Max opened up with his shotgun. However, due to the range at which he was firing, there was little to no effect.
From his right, Max heard a slight whimper, and turned to see a hole in the door's coach work and Lara regarding her bloodied shorts.
"You okay?" he yelled in between bursts.
"Just my thigh - I've been in worse spots."
Lara turned her attention back to her attackers and emptied the remnants of magazine.
"I'm out."
"Get strapped in...."
"What?"
Max let out a particularly long burst from the USAS, the recoil driving him into his seat.
"Shut up and get strapped in - we're going down..."
The windscreen turned to spider webs as several rounds found their mark. Lara fumbled with her harness as Max threw his shotgun into the rear of the car. In a last-ditch effort to provide cover, Max fired the last two salvos while his aim was still true.
"Hold on," he offered as he put the Subaru into gear and drove off of the cliff.
