Sky Hammer. James Axler

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СКАЧАТЬ there came a shattering of glass and a sizzling green mixture spewed onto a stainless-steel table, instantly discoloring the resilient metal.

      “Masks!” James barked, slapping the emergency filter over his nose and mouth. Every member of the Stony Man team followed suit.

      A second later the North Koreans started writhing in agony. Holding a spare mask, McCarter raced for Professor Yi, but it was too late. The old scientist began to violently shake. Turning, Yi grabbed a beaker and smashed the glass to slice open his own throat before the real pain began.

      “There is no…counteragent…” He gurgled and fell to the floor.

      Helplessly, Phoenix Force watched the scientist die, and in only a few moments they were the only people still standing in the misty green laboratory. Ever so slowly, the toxic fumes started thinning, moving with the air currents into the humming wall vent of the ventilation system.

      “Okay, burn the place,” McCarter barked, pulling out a fat canister. “Leave nothing behind for them to work with.”

      Moving to the double doors, the team pulled out grenades, yanked pins, released arming levers, threw and turn to run. They were in the office when the lab exploded into flames, the searing wash building into a roaring inferno as the thermite cooked. The metal tables sagged, the walls began to buckle. Sprinklers in the ceiling gushed to life, but the water only served to increase the fury of the chemical blaze, the thermite feeding off the oxygen in the water to fuel its rampaging endothermic reaction.

      “That should do it,” Hawkins said, wiping his face with a sleeve.

      Somewhere onboard the ship, a siren started to howl, then abruptly stopped, the surge of power feeding the device causing the rigged wiring of the circuit breaker panel to blow.

      “Okay, let’s go,” McCarter barked, slinging away the crossbow, and bringing up his MP-5. The team made the deck unchallenged.

      A series of muffled explosions sounded from belowdecks and new sirens took up the Klaxon call of warning.

      “Do it,” McCarter ordered, sealing his wet suit closed and sliding the mouthpiece of his rebreather into place.

      With a ripping noise, Encizo opened a Velcro-sealed pocket, pulled out a small cylinder. He flipped the top aside with a thumb, squeezed the body until a red light glowed, and pressed down hard on a small button.

      A faint shiver went through the entire vessel as the two armor-piercing demolition charges that had been placed on the keel detonated. Hot gases bubbled up from below the ship on both sides. The ship gave a groan of tortured metal.

      Heading starboard, Phoenix Force fired at anything in its way. Guards were torn apart by the assault, flinging their rifles skyward in death. As the team leaped over the dead and the dying, the Sargasso Queen shook again, harder this time, and a gout of roiling flame rose from the main smokestack, brightening the mist for a full second.

      Heading for the gunwale, McCarter felt the ship start to tilt to port. Yi was dead, the lab ruined, the Moonfire destroyed, files burned. The rescue mission was a failure, but they had destroyed the Moonfire lab. Now all they had to do was get out of here alive.

      “Hello, Smoky. This is Bandit. Over,” James said into his throat mike, one hand firing his MP-5, the other changing the frequencies on the box on his belt. “Smoky, this is Bandit, 10-45! Repeat, 10-45!”

      “Roger, Bandit, copy. This is Uncle Smoky,” Jack Grimaldi replied over their earphones. “My eggbeater is on the way to Check Point Charlie.”

      “Negative,” McCarter snapped. “The Berlin Wall is coming down, hard and fast. See you at Bikini Zuma. Repeat, Bikini Zuma! Do you copy?” Check Point Charlie was the bow of the ship, where they were hoping to escape with Professor Yi. Zuma Beach was their hidden camp on the rocky shoreline.

      “Check. Out,” the pilot replied crisply, and the earphones went silent.

      With a loud snap, one of the anchor chains broke, the length of links whipping out of the water to come crashing down across the forecastle, crushing men and machines alike. High-pitched screaming told of somebody still alive in the wreckage.

      Grabbing the railing to hop over, Rafe grunted and fell to the deck as a North Korean shot him in the back. The rest of Phoenix Force retaliated with concentrated gunfire from their 9 mm machine guns and the enemy soldier went to his maker in several pieces.

      “Shit, my rebreather is gone,” Encizo cursed, releasing the chest harness. The device dropped off his frame and hit the deck to move away with a scraping noise.

      “We can share,” James offered, hefting his bulky rebreather.

      “Got your six, brother,” Hawkins confirmed, his MP-5 firing along the railing to take out soldiers coming their way. The men fell like bowling pins, several of them going overboard.

      “Dump everything!” McCarter ordered. “Move it, people!”

      As the deck continued to rise, the men removed their excess equipment. By now, every loose item on board was starting to sliding to port, and the shouting of the North Koreans was taking on a hysterical note. Another anchor chain broke, the whipping metal crashing down upon the rocket battery with thundering results. The Sargasso Queen shuddered.

      Scrambling over the angled gunwale, the Stony Man commandos dropped into the water and started swimming across the surface. Speed was important now, not stealth. Everybody on board the sinking vessel was too busy to bother shooting at them now.

      Minutes later, the five reached a pebble beach. Rising from the waves, McCarter turned just in time to see the burning ship do a death roll, water and flames blowing out of the gaping hole in its belly like a whale surfacing for air. Something in the engine room exploded, probably the boilers from all the steam mixing with the smoke, and the ship loudly groaned as it cracked in two to begin a short voyage to the bottom of the cold Yellow Sea.

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