Scarecrow Read Online Free PDF Page A

yet.’
    â€˜What are we going to do?’ Clark asked desperately.
    â€˜I’m working on it,’ Schofield said, gazing up at the thick steel hull above them, looking for escape options.
    With his back pressed against a concrete block, he poked his head around one of the outer corners and looked all the way down the dry-dock pit—and saw the high steel sea gate that separated the pit from the ice-covered pool of water at the eastern end of the hall.
    The mechanics of the dry-dock leapt into his mind.
    To get an enormous Typhoon into the dock, you lowered the sea gate, flooded the dry-dock, and sailed your sub into it. Then you raised the sea gate again and drained the dry-dock, lowering the sub onto the concrete blocks in the process and giving yourself a clean and dry environment to work on the submarine.
    The sea gate . . .
    Schofield eyed it closely, thought of all the water being held back behind it. Looked the other way: toward the bow of the sub, and saw it.
    It was their only shot.
    He turned to the others. ‘You guys got Maghooks on you?’
    â€˜Er, yeah.’
    â€˜Yes.’
    â€˜Get ready to use ’em,’ Schofield said, looking down at the great steel sea gate, three storeys high and 90 feet wide. He drew his own Maghook from his back-mounted holster.
    â€˜We going that way, sir?’ Clark asked.
    â€˜Nope. We’re going in the other direction, but to do that we need to blow open that sea gate.’
    â€˜ Blow open the sea gate?’ Clark gasped, looking at Book.
    Book II shrugged. ‘This is standard. He destroys things—’
    Just then, an unexpected volley of bullets raked the concrete blocks all around them. It had come from the direction of the sea gate.
    Schofield ducked for cover, peered out, and saw that ten more mercenary soldiers had dropped into the pit at that end.
    Christ, he thought, now they were stuck in the pit between two sets of bad guys.
    The new group of mercenaries began to advance.
    â€˜Screw this,’ he said.
    Cedric Wexley watched the dry-dock pit from high above.
    He saw his two squads of mercenaries closing in on Schofield and his men from both sides.
    A cold smile cracked his face.
    This was too easy.
    Schofield grabbed two Thermite-Amatol demolition charges from his combat webbing. ‘Gentlemen. Maghooks.’
    They all pulled out their Maghooks.
    â€˜Now do this,’ Schofield moved to the port-side edge of the Typhoon, raised his Maghook and fired it at close range up into the hull of the sub.
    Clangggggg!
    Clark and Book II did the same.
    Clangggggg! Clangggggg!
    Schofield peered down the length of the submarine. ‘When the wave hits, let your Maghook ropes play out, so we can move along the outside of the sub.’
    â€˜Wave?’ Clark said. ‘What wave . . . ?’
    But Schofield didn’t answer him.
    He simply took the two demolition charges in his hands and selected the timer switch he wanted.
    Timer switches on Thermite-Amatol charges come in three colours: red, green and blue. Depressing the red switch gives you five seconds. Green gives you thirty seconds. Blue: one minute.
    Schofield chose red.
    Then he hurled the two charges down the length of the dry-dock pit, over the heads of the advancing mercenary team, sending the two high-powered explosives bouncing into the plate-steel sea gate like a pair of tennis balls. They came to rest at the gate’s weakest point, at the spot where it met the pit’s concrete right-side wall.
    Five seconds. Four . . .
    â€˜This is going to hurt . . .’ Book II said, wrapping the rope of his Maghook around his forearm. Clark did the same.
    Three . . . two . . .
    â€˜One,’ Schofield whispered, eyeing the dam. ‘Now.’
    Boom.

    Â 
    The twin blasts of the Thermite-Amatol demolition charges shook the walls of the entire dry-dock building.
    A blinding-white flash of light