First Strike

“Manual controls?” Chance wondered. “Look— everyone look, see if there’s a switch or a lever or a button. Anything.”

“I bet the controls are down there,” said Rich, pointing over the side of the walkway. “I mean, you wouldn’t want to be operating controls up here when it launched would you?”

“Doesn’t matter now anyway,” said Jade.

The first of the rebel troops had spotted them. He was shielding his eyes from the bright glare of the lights with one hand, and holding his rifle level in the other. He shouted at them.

“He’s asking who we are. He can’t see us clearly,” said Mr Chang quietly. “What do we do?”

“We ask them to open the hatch for us to escape,” said Chance.

“Oh, like that’ll help,” said Jade.

“Tell him we’re on his side,” Chance told Mr Chang. “Then shout to them down below to open the hatch so they can get the warhead off the missile.”

“Are you serious?” Rich asked.

“Worth a try,” Chance told him as Mr Chang shouted to the approaching rebel soldiers. They shouted back angrily. The leading rebel raised his rifle.

Mr Chang yelled urgently at him. Then he leaned over the walkway and shouted down—urgent and loud. There was an answering shout, and Mr Chang yelled the same thing again, even more loudly.

He turned to the others. “I think it’s working. They said that—”

But his words were drowned out by the sound of the enormous hatchway above the missile sliding back. Through it, the black night sky was visible. A cool breeze riffled Rich’s hair.

“I can’t believe they fell for that,” said Rich.

“Move,” said Chance. “They won’t fall for it for long.” He grabbed Jade and hoisted her up bodily into the gap a metre above his head. She grabbed the edge and hauled herself out, reaching back for Rich.

Just then, there was another shout from below. Moments later, a bullet pinged off the walkway.

“I think,” said Mr Chang drily, “they have detected our ruse.”

Rich watched from on top of the roof as Chance raised his rifle and took careful aim—not at the rebel soldiers but at the wall of the silo, where the walkway was fixed.

The sound of the shot was deafening.

The rebel soldiers charged along the walkway, not daring to fire in case they hit the warhead.

Chance fired again, this time a burst of automatic fire. The huge hinges broke away from their fixings, and the walkway lurched to one side. Mr Chang jumped back from the edge as the walkway tipped.

Further along, the effect was more pronounced. The metal was twisting, ripping apart under its own weight now it was no longer attached to the silo wall. The rebel soldier fired. But as he loosed off the shot, his feet skidded from under him and he pitched over the side of the walkway with a cry.

Gunfire pinged off the rim of the hatch. There was more shouting. Rich reached down and grabbed hold of Mr Chang’s arms, helping to pull him up through the open hatch.

Then there was a grinding sound as the hatch began to close again. Rich hurried to help Jade, who was reaching back down into the silo for their father. He was firing at the oncoming rebels, now approaching from the other direction where the walkway still held. They ducked away as bullets ricocheted off the side of the missile.

Chance let off a final burst, then flung the rifle up and out of the closing hole in the roof. He leaped after it. His hands grabbed the edge of the hatchway. Jade and Rich struggled to secure his arms and pull him up and through.

The hatch was closing fast. Tonnes of metal sliced towards Chance as he desperately tried to haul himself out of the way. Finally—just as it seemed he was too late—he managed to heave himself up and out. His foot came clear of the hatch just as it closed.

“Thanks,” he gasped. “I thought for a moment I was going to be de-feeted!”