London Wild (50 page)

‘Bloody vultures,’ Michael muttered
, interrupting; already he sounded as if another sneeze was building up.

Charles sighed and nodded his agreement
. ‘We can’t hide this as much as I’d like to. Inform Tank Three that we’re continuing on this road to Upminster with them leading the way until Tank Two catches back up with us. I think all the vehicles in the convoy can manage this crater; it doesn’t look too deep.’

The tank lurched into life as it followed Tank Three now. Gloria drove slowly as they passed the smoking remains of Tank One
. From the other side they could see that the scout tank had actually been ripped open by the blast, and there was no sign of any of the crew, living or dead.

Once they were
past the wreck, Charles turned to Michael, saying, ‘Inform the convoy to keep a careful lookout for more booby traps. Tell them to use their scanners to detect explosives specifically. Tell them to destroy any vehicle that looks like it might be a threat even if it doesn’t read as being laden with explosives. If the cats are willing to sacrifice themselves like that in an attempt to stop us, we’d better be ready for anything.’

‘Assuming the cats did sacrifice themselves,’ Gloria commented
. ‘The cars might’ve been radio controlled.’

‘Now, that’s a thought,’ Charles responded.

It wasn’t that much further on—in fact, it was a mere three streets later and still on the new route through to Upminster—that Tank Three stopped in its tracks and immediately made contact with Michael.

‘Sir, Tank Three has detected a car parked on one of the side roads up ahead. It seems to be laden with explosives.
They say the infrared isn’t picking up anyone on the street that might be a driver, but there are people in the buildings on either side of it, any of which might house possible hostiles. They want to know what you want them to do.’

The side street
he referred to was on the left hand side of the road. There were houses along that road, but on the two corners were three-storey buildings that doubled both as residences and as shops.

‘Tell them that standing orders on anything that might be dangerous to the convoy
are to blow it up from as far distant as possible. I won’t risk any more tanks to carelessness or complacency,’ Charles told him curtly. ‘Those in the nearest buildings will just have to take their chances.’

Michael relayed the message
. He seemed to have gotten over his bout of sneezing, but it had been replaced by intermittent sniffling, and his voice still sounded as if his nose was clogged as he spoke. ‘They say the car is parked at the edge of a side street. To get a clear shot at it would mean getting a lot closer to it, possibly close enough for it to do some real damage to them if it was suddenly detonated.’

‘Okay,’ Charles commented
, thinking, ‘better tell them to stay put. Can we find any other route through to Upminster from here?’

‘I’ll check, sir,’ Michael commented as he started to check the maps that the positional satellite was supplying to them. ‘There are no possible alternatives for at least five more turnings, and even then the roads will be gridlocked.’

‘Then we’d probably best deal with the bomb.’ Charles sounded as if it was the last thing he wanted to do. ‘Okay, tell Tank Three to scan for the heat signatures of feline life forms. We know there are life forms in the shops; let’s check the rest of the area. Oliver, I want you to do likewise and see if there is anyone nearby who might be able to trigger the car bomb when we pass it. Michael, contact one of the troop transports and get it up here. We can’t just kill anyone on the off chance they might be a cat; every heat signature will have to be checked personally. We can start with the shops.’

‘I’m finding many traces,’ Oliver commented
. ‘Every building in the area seems to be populated. I can’t tell if they’re human or cat, though.’

‘I was afraid of that. Our scanners won’t be of any real help here.’ Charles was checking all the cameras in order
, trying to find some clue as to which buildings might be infested with cats. Not for the first time, he wished he had more of the Elite in his little force.

‘I guess we’ll have to do it the hard way,’ Oliver commented, swiveling his perch about as he checked every building in range of his equipment. Every building along this street seemed to be occupied, but which
—if any—were cats, and which of them actually lived here?

Charles sighed as Oliver told him the bad news
. Every building in the street might need to be checked before they could continue. Charles could feel a headache coming on as he asked, ‘Can we get a vehicle into that street from the far side?’

‘No, sir
,’ Michael replied before sniffling, ‘that street has been carefully chosen; it’s a cul-de-sac. There seems to be a very narrow walkway at the far end, but it’s not wide enough to get a tank or a truck along. There is also a stone pillar to stop vehicles from using it. True, we could flatten that pillar, but it’s still too narrow for us. We could probably send some soldiers that way, drop them off at the end of the walkway and let them take out the car bomb with a rocket, but they would still be open to attack from any cats in the surrounding buildings.’

‘Ok,’ Charles said, ‘inform another troop transport
…erm, let’s give the sixty-eighth something to do. Tell them to find the end of that road and await further orders. Where’s the transport I ordered to come here?’

‘They’re here
, sir,’ Michael said, sniffing again. ‘They have moved alongside Tank Three and are waiting for your orders.’

‘Okay
.’ Charles checked the driver’s camera so that he had the transport in sight. ‘Tell them to disembark very carefully. I have a nasty feeling that the car bomb is intended more as a lure this time. Tell them to take maximum advantage of all available cover, including the tanks and their own transports. Tell them I want every building in sight of that bomb checked as quickly as they can, but remind them that I’d rather they took all day than got careless.’

As Michael started to relay the instructions, Charles watched the events unfold on his camera. It wasn’t as mobile as some of the other cameras on the tank
and had a habit of going further in one direction than he wanted, but at least he had control of it. He was also tuned into the cameras of the other three.

A moment later they were under fire. The patter of the rain on top of the tank was joined by the sound of stray gunfire
as the occupants in three of the buildings, including one of the shops, opened fire on the soldiers disembarking from the troop transport. The noise increased further as the soldiers, members of the eighteenth armored support division, returned fire indiscriminately.

The three buildings all overlooked the main road through which the convoy intended to pass. The nearest of them was the shop on the corner of this street and the cul-de-sac
. It was so close to the bomb that if it was triggered, it would probably take that building with it as well as the other shop on the other corner. The second building was right next door to the first and just behind it from the point of view of the convoy. The third building was across the street from the second, positioned between two other apparently neutral buildings.

‘We have three men down,’ Michael called suddenly
. ‘I’ve summoned a Med Unit, but they won’t leave the relative safety of their vehicle until the enemy is dealt with.’ 

‘The enemy seem to be just firing wildly,’ Gloria commented
. ‘Could be the rain stopping them from getting any clear shots, or it could simply be that they aren’t trained to fight in a sustained battle.’

‘Could be they’re more scared than us,’ Michael ventured quickly. He sneezed again.

‘Oliver,’ Charles called behind him, ‘no more messing around, blast them.’

The big gun fired so quickly after the order was given that Charles could only assume Oliver had already targeted the building that was currently collapsing into a pile of rubble. Due to
its position on the corner of the road and the cul-de-sac, the rubble spread itself liberally across both. The rubble would cause a little bit of an annoyance to the convoy, as they would have to drive over it to continue the journey, but what was more dangerous was that bits of the building falling into the side street were hitting the car bomb as they fell.

They waited patiently in the tank, expecting a loud bang at any moment. The soldiers out in the street began pulling back to more protective cover. It seemed everyone expected the bomb to go off at any moment.

When the rubble was no longer falling quite so violently in that direction, Gloria sat up straight in her chair and commented, ‘Hope there weren’t any civilians in that shop.’

Oliver was already aligning the big gun for a blast at the second building when he said, ‘It looks like they
’ve had enough; their heat signatures are scattering throughout the entire building. They’ll get away before I can line up my shot properly.’

‘I expect everyone will be trying to get to safety,’ Gloria
said as she turned round toward Charles and Oliver. ‘If you had time to scan these other buildings nearby you’d probably find them already empty of heat sources. Most will probably have left when the cats opened fire on us.’

‘Fire,’ Charles ordered. He seemed to be ignoring Gloria’s comment
as he continued, ‘You don’t have to demolish the building; just hit it before they all get out.’

The
big gun fired, and the second building, the one that had been positioned behind the first, seemed to lean forward a bit as the laser blast hit it. The whole of the front of the building then seemed to peel away as if it had been unzipped. It flowed down to the road, scattering more debris across the path the convoy intended to take.

‘
I can probably demolish the rest of it with another blast,’ Oliver commented, sounding unhappy that part of the target building was still standing, ‘but there’s nothing left alive in there. The other building the hostiles were using is also empty. I think it’ll be a waste of time and energy to destroy either.’

‘Okay,’ Charles ordered, ‘tell the Med Unit to get on with seeing to the wounded
and summon a meat wagon only if it’s needed. Tell the soldiers to remain calm and careful. Just because some of the cats attacked and have been dealt with doesn’t mean they’ve all made themselves known. Those that escaped might regroup and try again. Also, that car bomb is still a danger while it’s there.’

Michael carried out these orders and then turned to report. ‘Tank Two reports its repairs complete and is rejoining the convoy. Do you want it back in the lead, or in the rear?’

‘Tell them I want them in their right position, and as Tank One has gone, that will be in the lead.’ Charles’ voice was still commanding; he was finally feeling the role of being in charge. ‘And find out about the Med Unit and meat wagon we left at Tank One, will you?’

‘Sorry, sir,’ Michael replied, ‘they rejoined the convoy just before the gunfire started. It was so hectic I forgot to inform you at the time. Of the four crew of Tank One, only one of them survived,
and he has something like thirty percent burns. He’s already been taken to a hospital.’ Michael turned back to face his controls and continued listening to the communication between the vehicles in the convoy.

‘Good shooting, Oliver,’ Charles commented as an afterthought as he went back to watching the events unfold outside via the driver’s camera.

‘Anyone else get the feeling the cats just aren’t trying? I mean, okay, we’ve lost a tank, but resistance so far has been pitiful,’ said Oliver.

‘I know what you mean,’ Charles replied casually, ‘like a cat playing with a mouse. I’d expected us to have to fight for every inch of the way.’

‘Maybe they’re just trying to buy time!’ This was from Gloria.

‘But how much time do they need?’ Charles asked
. Because he had positioned himself to see the monitors clearly, he found he had to move his head to look round them so he could see Gloria. ‘We’ve given them thirty hours already.’

‘Maybe they’re just uncoordinated,’ Oliver offered
. ‘They’re only cats, after all.’

Once the wounded had been recovered from the battlefield, Charles gave his next order. ‘Okay, order the troops at the far end of the cul-de-sac to move in and destroy the car bomb. Tell them not to get too close. I don’t want any of them going up with it. Use rockets.’

Michael relayed the orders and then tried to watch the action via the satellite uplink. It gave a better overall view, but it wasn’t as clear a picture as that which one of the cameras gave. It seemed that everyone in the tank wanted to watch as the threat of the car bomb was removed. Everyone wanted to be ready for the anticipated bang! The car was soon being bombarded by many laser weapons, as well as a rocket or two. These troops hadn’t seen action yet today, and it seemed they all wanted a piece of the target. Then there was the explosion. After all the feeling of buildup, the actual bang was a bit of an anticlimax. Far from threatening to demolish any of the neighboring buildings or even leaving a crater in the middle of the street as the previous car bombs had, this explosion wasn’t even powerful enough to jolt the car more than a few inches from its original position.