Silent Night - By Tom Barber Page 0,104

they were going. She crawled towards Archer, who tilted his hips, mouthing this pocket. She reached inside and found the key to his cuffs.

She quickly undid them.

Now free, he went to rise, but Kruger suddenly stood upright. Maddy froze then frantically scrambled back to the rear of the plane and resumed her previous position trying not to breathe too heavily.

Archer put his hands behind his back as if they were still bound.

Kruger moved back into the cabin. He walked up to Archer and stared down at him, a mad light in his eyes.

‘Not long now. But you’re pissing me off. I think it’s time you and the bitch went for a skydive.’

He laughed.

‘Just like her old man.’

He placed his Beretta to one side, then moved towards the door. He grabbed a support rail and reached for the handle. As he did so, Archer shouted something to him, but given the noise the whistling wind made from the bullet holes in the cabin, Kruger couldn’t hear.

Instinctively, he turned towards Archer, stepping closer.

‘What?’

Launching forward, Archer suddenly took Kruger off his feet.

FIFTY ONE

Kruger had done his research. The duster was coming in from the north-west. The wind reading was perfect, blowing south. If they took a hit, the virus would be airborne, drifting down onto the capital city and the surrounding area.

They were beginning to approach a military installation. It was Fort Myer, a military base aligned with the USMC Henderson Hall and the first joint base in the Department of Defense. Although it was the early hours of the morning, the main ops room was busy. A serviceman studying the screen in front of him frowned, peering closer. He pulled off his head-set, then turned.

‘Captain?’

A man looked over.

‘I’ve got a small propeller aircraft headed south towards the city,’ one of the men said.

‘That’s restricted airspace.’

‘Could be a private airplane off course?’

‘I don’t care,’ the Captain said, walking around the ops room towards the controls. ‘He comes anywhere near the city, he’s going down. Pass me the transmitter.’

The man did so. The Captain took it and pushed the buttons down on either side.

‘Unidentified aircraft, this is the United States Army. Identify yourself.’

Archer and Kruger were grappling furiously on the floor of the crop duster. Drexler had turned, sensing something was wrong, but she had to stay in the cockpit or the plane would dip. As the two men fought, Maddy had reversed the pump; the liquid was now being sucked back into the canister. Grabbing a bar to steady herself, she staggered across the cabin, avoiding the fighting men and wrenched open the side door.

The noise in the cockpit increased tenfold as wind roared in the cabin.

Her coat and hair flapping violently in the wind, she looked down and saw that they were flying over what she guessed was the Potomac, the water glinting far below in the moonlight.

She grabbed the canister nearest to her and using all her strength, heaved it out of the door.

Kruger was as strong as an ox. Archer was pinned on the floor of the aircraft, trying to attack the doctor’s neck. Kruger was trying to strike him, but was hampered by the fact that he needed all his strength to hold Archer down. As they fought, Kruger became aware of Maddy throwing the canisters out of the door.

‘Bitch!’

With a roar of anger, he lunged for her.

But he made a fatal mistake.

He turned his back on Archer.

Archer leapt on the big South African, hooked his legs around his lower torso and sunk in a rear choke, pinning him to the floor. As Kruger gagged and fought for air, Maddy continued to drag the canisters across the cabin floor and throw them out, each one plummeting down and dropping into the Potomac below. She reached over for the last. She pulled out the tubing, the seal instantly forming. She screwed on the secondary cap as tight as she could, then went to throw it out of the plane.

Suddenly, three bullet-holes appeared in the big tank by her head, and she dropped to the floor instinctively.

Archer saw Drexler moving out of the cockpit, her retrieved silenced Glock 21 in her hands. He released Kruger, just as Drexler raised the weapon again but her mag clicked dry. Screaming a curse, she threw the weapon away and moved into the cabin towards them.

Abandoning Kruger on the floor, Archer rose and waited for her.

He had a rule about not harming women, but this one had broken his nose and had just tried to