11

Fire and Water

Ironically, it was thanks to Salamander that Ethan survived Darter's shot. At the precise moment the African fired, Ethan's legs, which were screaming from the pain Salamander had caused, finally gave up. They buckled under him, and he fell to the floor. The bullet whizzed over his head.

Darter's eyes widened. After a moment of surprise, he had the presence of mind to aim again.

Ethan got unsteadily to his feet. As he did so, he carefully grasped a test tube on the work surface he was leaning against.

Darter flicked back the hammer on the gun. He smiled at Ethan. "I'll try again, shall I?" he asked.

Ethan shrugged. "Go ahead. Make my day."

Darter fired. And this time Ethan was ready.

The moment Darter's finger tightened on the trigger, Ethan swung the test tube round and threw it. Darter instinctively corrected his aim to shoot it instead.

This was a bad idea. The tube was full of a blood-red liquid.

The bullet hit the Firestorm and ignited it.

Immediately, the air between Ethan and Darter became a wall of flame. Neither could see the other anymore. Darter yelled and stumbled backwards from the sheer force of the heat emanating from the fire. The floor buckled and began melting. So did the ceiling. It dawned on Darter that if any more Firestorm caught fire, the whole place would go up.

Thankfully, the rest of the Firestorm was no affected by the blaze. It lasted about ten seconds, after which the air immediately cleared.

Ethan had gone.

Darter, on instinct, whipped round, just as Ethan crashed into him from the side. The two men went sprawling to the floor, and Darter's gun slid under a table.

At this point, Vane regained consciousness. He opened his eyes.

Darter had the advantage in this fight. He was stronger than Ethan, and Ethan was in considerable pain anyway. Darter picked Ethan up bodily and threw him at the nearest bench. As he landed, Ethan knocked over a beaker of Firestorm, which quickly spread over the floor.

Darter advanced on Ethan, his face grim, his fists clenched, ready to fight.

Vane was behind him, climbing to his feet, at little dazed.

Ethan looked at Darter. Darter looked back, and took another step.

Then Ethan slipped the knife out of his belt. As it turned out, he had been wise to hold on to it. He twisted round and threw it at Darter.

Darter saw it coming. He stepped to the side, dodging it easily. The knife sailed past him.

Vane glanced up. He was aware of something slicing through the air towards him, and then he died.

Darter spun round when he heard the gurgle. The knife was buried in Vane's throat. Vane spluttered, and then fell backwards over a table. He slid off it, onto the ground, and moved no more.

Fresh anger surged through Darter. He roared, and rounded on Ethan. What he saw was a sheet of red flying towards him.

Ethan wasn't stupid. The moment Darter had been distracted by Vane's death, he had seized a jar of Firestorm and hurled the contents of it at Darter. The liquid splashed over the assassin, soaking him.

Darter screamed. Some of it had hit his eyes, and he was temporarily blinded.

Ethan ran for the door, even as he heard a voice saying, "T minus one minute, and counting."

As he passed, he grabbed the Bunsen burner, and threw it at Darter.

Morgan Darter was transformed. He was no longer human, but a blazing figure stumbling around, yelling in pain.

The floor was already coated in Firestorm. Now it ignited.

Ethan dashed up another flight of stairs, just as an explosion rocked the entire ship violently. He came to a door, and wrenched it open, as the air behind him grew distinctly warmer.

To his relief, he felt cold, salty air on his face. He had made it! He ran through the door and literally hit the deck as a burst of fire exited the door just behind him. He rolled, and ran around the deck of the ship, looking for a way off.

"T minus thirty seconds, and counting."

Ethan suddenly realised what was going to happen. The missile was full of Firestorm. And the ship was quickly burning. The rocket wouldn't get a chance to take off.

Another explosion. The entire middle of the ship seemed to leap upwards, disappearing in a tower of fire. Bits of red-hot metal were raining down.

And then Ethan saw the boat. A speedboat was sitting, ready to leave. Without thinking, Ethan leapt into it. Even as he started it up, he heard a deep rumbling.

"T minus ten – ERROR ERROR ERR-"

Ethan gunned the engine. The boat shot forward, off the ship, and hung in midair for a moment.

Behind him, the ship exploded as a whole. The entire thing was blasted to pieces as the missile that had been intended for IMF headquarters detonated.

The speedboat landed, and continued through the water, towards the harbour. Ethan looked back.

It was as if the Lacerta had never existed. There was simply nothing left but the debris floating around. It was over.

And then, like a vampire rising from the crypt, Seymour Wray threw off the tarpaulin that he had been lurking under, and sprang up. With a face like his, the parallel wasn't difficult to draw. Ethan was so shocked, Wray managed to hit him square in the face.

Ethan fell back on a lever. Immediately, the boat shot forward with a huge burst of speed. Wray fell backwards, allowing Ethan to get up again.

There was a crate on the floor of the boat. It seemed to be full of weapons. He dived for it, but Wray kicked him away. As Ethan rolled, Wray picked up an AK-47. He grinned. When he had told Darter to load up a boat with weapons, Darter had taken the words literally.

But now Ethan was up again, too. On such a small speedboat, there was no room to fire, so instead Wray swung the butt of the gun at Ethan. Ethan ducked. He dived at Salamander, who went sprawling to the floor of the boat.

Ethan now had the opportunity to grab a weapon. The first thing that came to hand was a harpoon gun. He tried to aim it at Salamander but the other man was too fast, and drove the machine gun into Ethan's stomach.

Ethan doubled up from the pain. Then he heard a sound.

It was the hooting of a large ship.

Looking round, Ethan saw that they had arrived at the harbour. The cruise ship was just departing, hooting its horn enthusiastically.

Wray saw it too. He kicked Ethan, and then grabbed the wheel to avoid crashing into the wall beside them.

The boat reached the mouth of the harbour, and sped into it. Wray hit Ethan on the back, and frantically twisted the wheel as they weaved through all the other boats.

The large cruise ship was gliding through the water towards the point where Ethan and Wray had come in.

Ethan kicked Wray, who let go of the wheel. The boat suddenly veered across the water, directly behind the cruise ship. They hit its wake and the boat tossed violently. It made it to calm water on the other side, but not before flipping most of the weapons, and Ethan, into the water.

Wray cut the engine, turned the boat round, and seized the machine gun. Ethan's head bobbed up to the surface, and Wray aimed at it.

Realising what was happening, Ethan dived, just before the bullets smashed into the water. He swam to the only available cover, which was directly below the speedboat.

"Come on then, Hunt!" screamed Wray. "Show me what you were trained for!"

He was still firing at the water randomly. Ethan knew there was no chance of getting back on the boat without being mown down. If he had some sort of weapon…

Something flashed in the water. He looked round. Some metallic object had caught the light from the surface.

It was the harpoon gun.

Wray ran out of bullets. Quick as a flash, he ejected the magazine, and inserted a fresh one. He immediately opened fire again. "Show me how to do it!" he yelled. "Come on, Hunt, show me how it's done! How do you kill someone like me?"

Ethan grabbed the harpoon gun. He aimed it at the only available target – the underside of the boat. He fired.

The harpoon hit the hull of the speedboat at point-blank range. This drove it straight through the hull, and then straight through Salamander. It hit him in the stomach, and proceeded through him diagonally, exiting through his shoulder blades. It finally came to a stop like that, with most of it stuck in Wray, and the head of the spear protruding from his back.

The bullets stopped. Ethan, bursting for oxygen, surfaced. He looked at Wray. Wray looked at him. The burned, tortured face twisted into a sort of grin. Then Wray made a small burbling sound, and a trickle of blood ran down from his mouth. Salamander collapsed.

As he fell, he leaned on a lever; the same one Ethan had fallen on before.

Immediately, the boat sprang to life again. It suddenly shot off at an angle, towards where they had come in. Ethan was left behind, treading water. But he didn't particularly want to be on the boat. He could see where it was going.

Wray, not quite dead yet, found that the water around him was suddenly very choppy.

He found the strength to raise his head, to see where he was going.

The last thing Seymour "Salamander" Wray ever saw was one of the huge propellers at the back of the cruise ship.

Ethan turned away as the boat sped straight into the spinning fan. The ship carried on its way as though nothing had happened. It didn't even notice Salamander.

A small boat pulled up beside Ethan. It was Sean and Luther. He gratefully allowed himself to be dragged into the boat.

As they returned to dry land, Ethan watched the cruise ship disappear into the horizon.