and a couple of groups sitting enjoying a picnic, but most of the activity in the area was back inside the Tennis Center, the action taking place on the courts. They passed the golf course on the right. The driver glanced over at it, and accidentally let the vehicle drift to the edge of the road. It dropped off suddenly, but he quickly re-corrected and pulled back onto the tarmac.
‘What the hell was that?’ called a voice from the back.
‘Nothing,’ the driver said.
Looking over, he realised there was a little ditch each side of the road. Nothing to worry about for someone driving a normal car, but a nightmare for something this big and heavy. If he drove too close to the edge, they could slip off the side and topple to one side like a turtle on its shell. Focusing on the road instead, he drove over a small bridge and the road started to curl to the right, towards the exit.
He glanced to his left and saw a black car parked on the grass with a couple of people sitting inside.
Suddenly, a third person stepped out from behind the car, also in all black, wearing what looked like a balaclava or a black helmet.
He saw the figure drop to one knee and lift something to their shoulder.
Aiming it directly at the truck.
And he realised what it was a second too late.
The person in black recoiled as the rocket-launcher whooshed. In a split-second, the driver saw something zoom towards him.
Then there was a deafening explosion.
And the world tipped over.
Ortiz hit the truck first time. She was using a Stinger, and it hit the side of the vehicle perfectly. The rocket didn’t penetrate the steel, as they knew it wouldn’t, but the force of the blast smashed the truck over onto its side. It fell over with a giant crash and groan under a large fireball from the explosion, and came to a shuddering halt on the grass, on its side. They knew there were four guys inside.
And now their gun ports were all but useless.
She dropped the rocket launcher to the ground immediately and grabbed her M16 203 that was resting on the grass beside her. Whilst she did this, the car containing Farrell and Regan raced forward, coming to a halt by the upended truck. Across the grass, people on the grass and bystanders in the area started screaming and ran for cover as they reacted to the explosion and realised what was happening.
As Farrell ground to a halt on the grass by the truck, Regan leapt out of the car. He had five long lengths of plastic explosive strips in his hands, the kind used for demolitions, the M16 slung over his shoulder. Laying the strips on the grass, he waited as Ortiz ran forward, as fast as her body armour would allow. He had his back to the rear of the truck, and she didn’t slow as she approached him, putting her boot on his hands and jumping as he hoisted her up onto the truck with a grunt from the extra weight of her armour. He reached down and passed her up the demo strips one-by-one, and she laid them in a hexagon on the side of the truck, carefully avoiding the gun ports.
That done, she jumped down and ran for cover behind the black car, joining Farrell and Regan who were already there.
The three of them crouched behind the car, covering their ears.
Farrell had a detonator in his hand.
He pushed it.
There was a loud crack, and a groan as the metal fractured from the shock of the explosion. Whoever was inside would have been incapacitated, like someone had tossed a flash-bang grenade inside. Ortiz and Regan ran forward. He hoisted her up again, then used the wheel to clamber up himself, whilst Ortiz stamped on the damaged metal side of the vehicle. It fell away after the fourth stamp, and she dropped down inside. The four guards were sprawled on the floor, their ears bleeding, rolling around in pain and agony, their assault rifles forgotten. Ortiz passed the AR 15’S up one-by-one quickly, and Regan tossed them to the grass. She plasti-cuffed the four men, and none of them put up a fight, all four disorientated and in pain.
Outside on the grass, Farrell passed four black holdalls up to Regan. He took them and dropped them down to Ortiz, who started loading the money from the shelves into them. The explosion had softened up