The thought passed through his head as he and his two companions fought the raging surf, desperately clinging to their boards.
The full moon illuminated the distant coastline with an eerie, white glow that created phantoms out of the concrete pillboxes and radar dishes. The moonlight wasn’t adequate for their purposes but the night-vision goggles made up for the deficit. Through them he could actually see the barbed wire that fortified the beach. The sharp points glistened like stars dotting the landscape.
The three men paddled the surfboards furiously in an attempt to catch a massive wave. They managed to get up but not for long. The huge wave quickly crashed over and wiped out two of the surfers. The one man who kept his balance found himself on top of what he estimated to be a sixty-footer. If he hadn’t been concentrating on the seriousness of the mission, he might have enjoyed it.
Eventually the wave levelled out and the surfer glided elegantly across the dark, silvery water, effortlessly changing direction when he needed to and finally
floating silently to the shallows. He dismounted and walked quickly up the sand.
The surfer crouched in the shadows just as a sentry came around the bend. Painfully, he willed himself to slow his breathing so that the guard wouldn’t hear him.
As expected, the sentry was dressed in the uniform of the North Korean army. He carried an AK-47 and probably had a handgun attached to a belt. The surfer watched as the sentry noticed the surfboard wash up on the sand. The guard stepped over to it, curious and surprised to find such an object on this isolated and closely watched beach.
The surfer made his. move. Like a jungle cat, he sprang out of his hiding place, lightly ran the few feet across the sand and struck the sentry from behind. The guard collapsed beside the board.
James Bond removed the night-vision goggles and looked up and down the beach. There was no sign of anyone else. He scanned the surf and finally saw his two wet-suited colleagues struggle onto the beach. They ran over to him and removed their own goggles. His enigmatic companions nodded to him. They too were breathless and needed to gather their strength for the challenges ahead.
Bond squatted by the surfboard and took hold of the fin. With a click, he twisted it and a compartment slid out of the edge of the board with a satisfying rasp. Inside was everything he needed: his Walther P99 and several magazines of ammunition, nylon rope, a tray of C4 plastic explosive and a combat knife with a Global Positioning System device built into its handle.
He stood and surveyed the beach again. The radar dish on the dunes behind them would suit their very precise needs. The two surfers read his mind and ran up the beach towards it as Bond unzipped his wet suit. He pulled it off, revealing a smart Brioni suit. The shoes were hidden in the surfboard. By the time he was dressed for the role he was about to play, the two Koreans from the South who had ridden the waves beside him had also shed their wet suits, revealing North Korean army uniforms.
The mission to Pukch’ong beach was extremely dangerous. Everyone knew it. Even M had given Bond a chance to let someone else do it, but 007 had looked back at her with fearless self-assurance. The risks and the high stakes of a meticulously planned - and brilliantly executed - military raid remained Bond’s first love. There was no question but that he would go through with it. As for the two South Koreans, they shared Bond’s grim purpose and dedication to the job at hand. Don and Lee. Bond didn’t know their last names and didn’t want to know. They seemed capable enough, but it was always a good idea not to become too friendly with fellow operatives. You never knew when someone might not return.
Don used his blade to sever a power cable attached to the radar dish, while Lee took Bond’s combat knife and thrust it into the ground. The handle automatically split open to form a small dish - the GPS beacon device that was one of Q Branch’s more ingenious inventions. Within seconds, they could hear a faintly audible signal.
Some sixty miles away, a Russian-made Kamov Ka-26 Hoodlum helicopter flew over the dense forest that made up much of the North Korean peninsula. The North Korean army pilot noticed that a new indicator had lit up on the beacon interrogator screen that pulsed in front of him. The flight system recalibrated to direct the helicopter towards the new landing zone. The pilot made a slight adjustment in his heading, then turned to look back at his passenger.
The man had been clutching a briefcase to his chest ever since he had boarded the chopper. He seemed to be extremely nervous.
The pilot turned back, chuckling to himself. Westerners were either cowards or idiots and this one seemed to be both.
As the Hoodlum made a subtle change in direction, a sliver of sun peered over the horizon and broke the night sky into thousands of warm colours.
Ten minutes later, James Bond and his two companions heard the approaching helicopter. The Koreans took their positions on the sand and stood to attention as the Hoodlum appeared over the hills behind the beach, circled and hovered tentatively. The pilot was naturally cautious as the landing zone differed from the original plan. Finally, the helicopter gently descended and set down on the sand. The rotors slowed as the pilot unbuckled his seat belt, opened the door and hopped out. He looked over at the two soldiers. They saluted. The pilot half-heartedly returned the salute and then turned to help the passenger out. The man was still clutching the case as if it held his life support system.
When the new arrivals turned back around, they saw that the two Korean soldiers had drawn their weapons and a third man had joined them. James Bond stood between them, Walther in hand and a pleasant grin on his face. The man holding the case was surprised, for he thought he was looking into a mirror. He was dressed in exactly the same style of suit as Bond. The pilot and passenger slowly raised their hands.
Bond stepped forward and took the passenger’s briefcase. The two Koreans worked quickly. They tied and gagged the pilot and passenger and marched them over behind the radar dish. Another few loops of the ropes secured the two prisoners safely out of sight ensuring that they wouldn’t be discovered for several hours. Too late.
Bond and the two Koreans boarded the Hoodlum and buckled in. Don sat at the controls, made some adjustments then guided the chopper into the air.
Bond set the case on his lap and opened it. It was full of sparkling, dazzling diamonds. Lee glanced over at it and couldn’t help but gasp in awe. Bond removed the C4 from a packet and carefully pressed the substance under the bottom lining in the case. The detonator was the size of a cigarette and this he plunged into the explosive. The remote was next, which he wired to the detonator. He then activated a switch on the edge of his Omega wristwatch. The remote beeped.
Bond looked at Lee, who nodded. Bond shut the case, settled back for the ride south to Colonel Moon’s compound and reflected on what he was about to do.
North Korea was arguably the most dangerous place on earth for a captured spy. The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea refused to allow even genuine journalists into the country, much less anyone who could possibly be an agent of either South Korea or the despised countries of the West. Intelligence service lore was filled with horrific yet hauntingly unsubstantiated tales of what happened to agents caught north of the 38th Parallel. Bond and his companions could certainly expect torture followed by death if they were unmasked.
Increasingly isolated from even the Communist world, North Korea was a mysterious land about which reliable intelligence was sparse. A bitter civil war ended with the peninsula’s division into two hostile parts half a century ago and for decades Kim Il Sung ruled North Korea unopposed. Now there were rumours of mass famine, of rival factions vying for power; rumours that Kim Jong II, the country’s current leader, was a mere puppet controlled by a secret cabal of generals. Foreign intelligence sources were convinced that the DPRK was developing nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. North Korea refused steadfastly to allow inspectors into the country to confirm or refute these allegations. Even her staunchest allies, the Chinese, had begun to treat North Korea with suspicion.
Tensions around the Demilitarized Zone north of the 38th parallel remained as high as they were at the end of the Korean War: to this day, North Koreans call that conflict the ‘Fatherland Liberation War’. According to their history books, South Korea, aided by the Americans and British Commonwealth countries, had attacked the peaceful North Koreans who repelled them with sticks and rocks, driving them back into the southern part of the Korean peninsula from which they might at any-moment launch a new attack on the northern ‘socialist paradise’.
Two South Korean agents had lost their lives unearthing the valuable information on a young hardliner by the name of Moon who had created a loyal semi-private army that supported his aggressive stance against South Korea and the West. It was believed that Moon was financing his operations with the sale of illegal diamonds from the warring nations in Africa - so-called ‘conflict diamonds’. Colonel Moon was considered to be highly dangerous, perhaps the most corrupt and volatile man in the North Korean army. He was a rogue element who could start a war overnight. It had become inescapable logic that he had to be eliminated. This situation was made complicated and more delicate by the fact that Moon was the son of one of the army’s more moderate generals; a man with good intentions with regard to a unified Korea.
It had been a rough night. Once the requisite intelligence regarding the exchange of diamonds had been received, Bond and his two South Korean cohorts had only had three hours to launch the mission. Bond had been in a holding pattern in South Korea for over a week waiting for the green light. Finally, just after 02.00 in the morning, the word came through. Van Bierk, the diamond trader, was on his way to meet Moon. As Van Bierk was white, had dark hair and blue eyes and was roughly Bond’s size, M had made 007 the prime candidate for the job. Don and Lee had been recruited from South Korea’s elite Special Forces unit - officially off the record - that specialised in counterterrorism and clandestine military activity. The three men had been flown with their gear at low altitude in an army helicopter from Yanggu, over Tongjoson Bay, to a point three miles offshore from Pukch’ong’s nearby beach. They were dropped into the choppy water with their surfboards and now they were ready to execute the second phase of the mission.
The sweat rolled off Colonel Tan-Gun Moon’s bare torso as he struck the punchbag repeatedly. It hung heavily from the ceiling in the makeshift gym, sparsely decorated in typical Korean style. Colonel Moon liked to begin each day with a strenuous workout. He was extremely fit and he intended to stay that way. The future leader of a united Korea needed to be a strong and powerful man. At twenty-seven years of age and the handsome son of a respected army general, Moon believed it to be his destiny to rule his country.
An officer stood nearby, watching Moon pummel the punchbag until the colonel had finished and turned away.
‘Let him out,’ he ordered the officer in his native tongue.
The officer stepped forward and unzipped the punchbag. An unconscious man, bruised and bloody, spilled out onto the floor.
Moon looked back at the pile of flesh and said, ‘That will teach you to lecture me.’ The slow sound of a helicopter making its descent caught Moon’s attention. He grabbed a towel and wiped the sweat from his body before putting on his military tunic. He then reached for his colonel’s hat, which sat on a bronze bust of his head. Moon motioned to the officer, who bent down to drag the beaten man away.
‘Find me a new anger therapist!’ Moon barked, then he went out of the room in the opposite direction.
The compound was located on a hill overlooking the Demilitarized Zone on the north side of the 38th Parallel. Moon liked to call it a villa, even though it was really a glorified bunker, a border gunpost that was the lair of a true warlord. The walls were made of solid concrete, fortified with pillboxes and barbed wire. Sentries lined every visible portion that faced the south. They were always ready for any possible attack, however unlikely. The Demilitarized Zone was a no man’s land full of mines, booby-traps, death and destruction. Only a fool would dare to venture into it.
Colonel Moon’s compound wasn’t large but it was certainly unique. Just beyond the fortified walls was a courtyard with enough space for a helipad and several military vehicles. At one side of the courtyard was a collection of half a dozen luxury sports cars, including a Jaguar XKR, a Ferrari and a Lamborghini.
As the Hoodlum helicopter descended into the courtyard, a man dressed unobtrusively in civilian clothes stood aside and waited. Many of the soldiers stationed at the bunker called him ‘the Man Who Never Smiles’, but not to his face. Indeed, this man, who seemed to follow the colonel everywhere, was a mysterious cipher who maintained a deadpan expression at all times. Even now, as he watched the helicopter land, his eyes betrayed no emotion.
James Bond opened the door of the helicopter and stepped onto the tarmac. The briefcase was in his hand.
The civilian surreptitiously aimed a small Sony Ericsson PDA at him, capturing his image with a built-in CMOS camera. The man pressed a button and the word ‘SEND’ flashed over Bond’s picture on j the tiny screen.
As Bond looked over and saw him, the man pocketed the PDA and walked forward.
‘I am Zao,’ he said in English. ‘You are late.’
‘I had to tie up a few loose ends,’ Bond said.
Zao turned to the back of the courtyard just as Colonel Moon, now dressed in full military uniform, emerged. His eyes never left Bond’s face as he walked towards him. As he passed his retinue of guards and soldiers each man visibly cowered.
‘Mister Van Bierk,’ he said in fluent, cultured English. ‘I’ve been looking forward to this meeting.’ [
‘Me too,’ Bond replied, offering his hand. Moon ignored it. ‘My, uhm, African military friends owe you many thanks. Few men have the guts to trade African conflict diamonds since the UN embargo.’
Colonel Moon gave a thin, sour smile. ‘I know all about the UN. I studied at Oxford and Harvard. I majored in Western hypocrisy.’
Bond raised his eyebrows and gestured. ‘From your modest little car collection, I’d never have guessed.’ Moon snapped, ‘Show me the diamonds.’
‘Show me the weapons.’ There was no mistaking the obdurance behind these words.
The colonel studied Bond. Few men had ever shown such toughness with him. None dared do so now. Moon immediately knew that he had met a hard man of unusual strength and determination. He looked at Zao and nodded curtly. Zao spoke into a walkie-talkie and immediately the distant roar of engines attracted Bond’s attention to the Demilitarized Zone.
A concrete block at the gate began to rise and Bond could see lights swimming in the clouds of dust, growing larger, coming closer.
Trucks? Impossible! Bond thought.
‘Hiding weapons in the Demilitarized Zone?’ he asked Moon. ‘Very stylish, Colonel. That’s a bit of a minefield out there.’
Moon replied sardonically, ‘America’s cultural contribution to our country. One million landmines.’ .Moon’s voice could not conceal his pride, as he declared ‘And my hovercraft float right over them.’ Bond turned back to look through the gates. The man was right. The vehicles were indeed hovercraft. One was a huge military carrier, a mothership that was a magnificent piece of machinery. Four smaller hovercraft accompanied it, gliding like wraiths over the vast, mine-pitted wasteland bordered by skull-and-crossbones signs. Hovercraft have the ability to fly a few inches off the ground on a cushion of air and are lifted by the thrust of fans ducted through double skin hulls. The lift air is contained under the craft by flexible segmented skirts that keep the air cushion pressure up. Bond knew that hovercraft do not set off mines over which they travel because they produce virtually no acoustic, magnetic or pressure signatures.
The mothership flew into the compound, slowed and settled to the ground. The four smaller hovercraft came to rest alongside it, two on each side. Bond could see that the larger ship was bristling with an abundance of weaponry and materiel: machine guns, ammunition, mortars, flame-throwers, land mines, bulletproof vests and a variety of small arms. Deep drawers slid out of the flanks, revealing even more weapons inside.
‘RPGs, flame-throwers, automatic weapons and enough ammunition to run a small war,’ Moon said proudly. Then he smiled for the first time. ‘The diamonds?’
Bond presented the case to him. Moon took it and handed it to a bespectacled man standing behind him. The man opened it and showed the sparkling interior to Moon.
‘Don’t blow it all at once,’ Bond said.
‘Oh, I have special plans for this consignment,’ Moon replied.
The bespectacled man took the case to a table, pulled out an eyepiece and began to examine the loot. Bond was disappointed that Moon didn’t take the explosives-laden case himself, but he was careful not to show it.
A mobile phone rang. The man called Zao reached into his pocket and answered it. He slipped on an earpiece, then took out the PDA camera. A large red ‘X’ blinked over Bond’s image.
Bond sensed that something was terribly wrong. When Zao looked up at him with narrow, lizard-like eyes, he was sure of it.
Zao approached the colonel and whispered in his ear.
Moon smiled again and addressed Bond, ‘Let me show you our new Tank Buster.’
He reached over the side of the mothership and grabbed a heavy combination grenade launcher/machine gun.
‘Depleted uranium shells, naturally,’ he said.
‘Naturally,’ Bond said, slightly uneasy.
Moon considered his choice of targets within the terrain. Then, without warning, he swung it around and pointed it at the Hoodlum helicopter, where Don and Lee still sat. Before Bond could react, Moon let rip. A massive grenade shot through the chopper and it exploded with a deafening blast.
In the same instant, Zao drew a handgun and pointed it at Bond’s head. Bond had no choice but to raise his hands.
Through the black smoke, one of the South Koreans came running out, his body aflame. Colonel Moon flipped the Tank Buster and aimed the machine gun portion at the poor man and, with a single shot, took him out.
‘Amazing accuracy,’ Moon commented, impressed with the weapon. He turned to Bond and said, ‘So you are James Bond, a British assassin. And how do you propose to kill me now, Mr Bond?’
Bond froze. How did they know his name? And how was he going to get out of this fix?
02 - Shooting Gallery
There was still a chance.
As Moon stepped towards the briefcase on the table, Bond reached for the trigger button on his watch.
‘Don’t move!’ Zao commanded, as he forced Bond’s arms apart and began to pat him down. He found the Walther and removed it.,
Moon came back to Bond and spoke into his face. ‘It is pathetic that you British still believe you have the right - no, the duty - to police the world. You’re as redundant as those mines out there will soon become.’ He paused to regain his composure and then said, ‘But you won’t live to see the day all Korea is ruled by the North.’
Bond replied, ‘Then you and I have something in common.’
Moon smirked and moved near the diamonds again. Bond decided then and there to sacrifice himself for the mission. He would blow up the case and take everyone with him. The explosion wouldn’t be huge; he might even survive. Bond moved his hands closer together, ready to detonate the bomb, but then Zao’s walkie-talkie buzzed. The henchman answered it and his normally unemotional face grew concerned. He handed the receiver to Moon and said in Korean, ‘It’s the general.’
Bond’s command of the Korean language was weak, at best. But he knew enough to catch the gist of what was being said.
Moon spoke into the walkie-talkie, obviously shocked ‘Father?’ He listened for a moment, stiffened, then shut it off. He looked at Zao and said, ‘He’s five minutes away. He heard the explosion and wants to know what’s going on.’ He shook his head and began to stride away. Over his shoulder, he shouted an order to everyone standing nearby, ‘Get the weapons out of here!’
He stopped, as if he had forgotten something and turned to Zao and said, ‘Kill the spy.’ Bond had no trouble understanding that.
Zao nodded and stood beside the diamonds as | Moon climbed aboard the mothership. Moon shouted to the driver and in seconds the hovercraft lifted and moved off, followed by two of the smaller craft.
Zao drew his pistol and pointed it at Bond, but at the same instant Bond hit the button on his watch.
The briefcase exploded just feet away from Zao and covered the henchman with diamond shrapnel. Bond dropped and rolled as Zao’s bullet shot over his head. Zao fell to the ground as Bond leapt up and ran after Moon’s convoy,
Zao lifted his head. His face was lacerated and pitted with glittering matter. Despite the pain, he scanned the courtyard and saw Bond running towards one of the two remaining small hovercraft. He pulled himself off the ground and staggered to the Jaguar XKR, the nearest of Moon’s valuable cars. He leaned in through the open window and punched a button on the dashboard. A machine gun appeared and rose from a compartment in the rear. Zao took hold of it, trained it on Bond and began strafing the courtyard with bullets, trailing destruction just inches behind the enemy spy. As he was half-blinded by the wounds on his face, Zao’s hail of bullets was wildly dangerous but inaccurate. Some of the bullets had punctured the petrol tanks in several of Moon’s fancy cars, causing a domino effect of explosions down the line. The British agent avoided the gunfire and jumped onto the fighter escort hovercraft as it was taking off.
The gunner on the back of the hovercraft couldn’t believe his eyes as Bond rolled onto the deck of the moving vehicle. He turned his gun to blast him but Bond deftly grabbed the barrel and swung it around into the gunner’s face, knocking him out.
Back in the courtyard, Zao yelled to the crew of the remaining hovercraft, ordering them to give pursuit.
Bond looked back and saw that the fourth hovercraft was taking off. His own craft was just passing through the arch at the compound gate. Thinking quickly, Bond angled the rear gun at the control mechanism mounted on the gate and fired. Bond’s craft zipped through the opening just as the huge keystone fell with an earth-shaking thud. The driver of the pursuing hovercraft had no time to stop and slammed straight into it. The explosion rocked the compound.
As Bond’s craft sailed into the Demilitarized Zone, he moved forward and grabbed the pilot by the neck He pulled the man away from the controls and threw him over the side. The man fell directly onto a mine in the dirt and disappeared in a fireball. Bond was now in command of the hovercraft.
Up ahead, Colonel Moon had witnessed what the British spy had done and was intrigued and excited by the man’s fortitude. At last, here was an adversary worth fighting! He was obviously not like other West¬erners. It would be a pleasure to defeat him.
Moon picked up the Tank Buster and shot at the ground behind him, setting off mines in front of Bond’s hovercraft. Bond was gaining on the two escort craft just as the explosions jolted his vehicle with showers of rock and soil. Bond lunged with the steering lever and managed to dodge the blasts by weaving the craft back and forth. The controls were easy enough to master. The hovercraft was steered by a handle bar that controlled the air rudders behind the fan. In smaller ships this was combined with leaning the body-weight right or left. Bond was aware that good pilots' used a lot of fancy footwork but he was not familiar with it. The tricky part was keeping level. Sharp turns were almost impossible; if the ship tilted too much to one side it would fly right into the ground. In many ways it was like flying a helicopter.
Bond took a chance and increased the speed. The two fighters pulled back between him and the mothership and then the gunners let loose with a volley of machine-gun fire from the rear. Bullets riddled the front of Bond’s vehicle and smashed the windscreen to pieces. He ducked below the dashboard, inadvertently knocking the steering bar as he did so. His hovercraft slammed into the nearer of the two fighters, throwing the gunner off his feet. Bond regained his footing, realised what he had done, then rammed the fighter once again.
Suddenly, a large concrete pyramid structure loomed ahead of his vehicle. Bond swerved just in time, coming within inches of hitting it. Looking out on the minefield, he saw that they had entered an area of the Demilitarized Zone that was otherworldly, surreal and frightening. The pyramid was one of many contraptions known as ‘tank traps’; obstructions built to prevent the progress of tanks. All around the structures were the wrecks of blown-up and burned out tanks and other vehicles. The place looked like a post-apocalyptic wasteland.
Bond forgot about his prey for the moment and concentrated on the steering as the obstacles zipped past him on either side. It was a good thing that he had logged many hours in a racing simulator at MI6. This was the kind of course one might find in a high-tech video game, where the only way around deadly obstructions was having well-honed reflexes and the ability to see the obstructions coming at a second’s notice.
Bond heard more machine-gun fire coming from the hovercraft he had rammed. The gunner was back on his feet and was shooting at him again.
Why won’t he stay down? Bond thought angrily, as he swerved hard to slam into the fighter again. This time he forced the enemy hovercraft into one of the tank traps. The craft’s skirt rode up the block, causing the fighter to tilt and slide along on its side before setting off a mine. The explosion threw the hovercraft into a fiery cartwheel. It rotated twice before rupturing into a hundred pieces.
Colonel Moon was furious. He had lost two hover¬craft and the British assassin was gaining. He yelled to the pilot of the remaining fighter escort and ordered him to intercept Bond. The pilot swallowed, acknowl¬edged the order and turned the. hovercraft around to head towards Bond, face to face.
Bond saw the fighter turn. He gripped the wheel and thought, If it’s a game of chicken they want...
Then he felt movement behind him. The gunner he had knocked out earlier had come to and was rushing at him. Bond let go of the steering bar momentarily, turned and slugged the gunner hard in the face. The man flew backwards, hit his head on the side of a bench and was out cold once again.
Bond spun back to face the oncoming hovercraft Bullets sprayed across the front of his vehicle, forcing him to duck for cover. Nevertheless, he was careful to keep the bar steady, daring the other pilot to stay on course. At the last moment, the other pilot lost his nerve and swung the fighter out of the way. Bond rose from cover and guided the craft forward towards the mothership.
One advantage that the smaller fighter had over the mothership was speed. Bond was flying alongside the carrier in a matter of moments. The problem was that it was much larger. How was he going to stop it?
Before he had an answer, the mothership’s pilot swerved and rammed Bond’s hovercraft hard, pushing it towards a line of trees. Bond pulled his craft up and over, barely avoiding a collision with them and found himself running parallel with the mothership on the other side of the trees. As the craft skated over a water splash, he noticed that the other fighter had turned around and was now hot on his tail.
Moon used the Tank Buster to shoot at Bond through the trees, but he only managed to shred them. He needed something more effective. He looked around at the pile of weapons at his feet, grabbed a flame-thrower and aimed it at Bond. A huge jet of fire shot out and across the trees, igniting them.
Bond was forced to drop back and steer his craft through a narrow gap in the trees, skirting around the flames. Now he was behind Moon again.
Moon shouted to his pilot to go faster, but the man didn’t respond quickly enough. In frustration, Moon delivered a karate chop to the pilot’s neck, pulled him out of the seat and took over. He accelerated, then had another idea. Moon flipped a couple of switches and looked back to see if his ploy had worked.
A thick billow of black smoke poured from the back of the mothership and covered the area. Moon laughed and sped ahead.
The smokescreen effectively prevented Bond from seeing where the mothership had gone. Flying blind, he pushed straight ahead. Eventually, his craft burst out of the cloud and crashed down a fifteen-foot drop followed by the fighter.
There were two men in the pursuing craft, which gave them an advantage in firepower. Bond used Moon’s tactics by turning and shooting at the mines on the ground. These bounding fragmentation landmines were different - they were designed to leap thirty feet into the air before exploding. Bond hit one and managed to take out the gunner. Somehow the pilot kept going and pursued Bond up a narrow track, embanked on both sides.
The mothership appeared from nowhere and was behind both vehicles, herding them forward towards a massive pair of gates. They appeared to belong to the ruins of an ancient temple that stood at the end of the track.
Moon smiled as his monstrous machine bore down on Bond and the other craft.
Bond could see what was going to happen and tried to get off the track by pulling the craft sideways. But it was no good - the bank was too steep. He had only a few seconds before he was rammed into the gates.
Cursing to himself, he abandoned the controls and ran back to the rear of the hovercraft. The pursuing fighter was just a few feet behind him. Bond could see the pilot’s face register confusion. Was the British spy crazy?
Either crazy or suicidal, Bond thought as he leapt from his own craft to the front of the fighter He slammed down hard and got a grip on the windscreen. Before the pilot could react, Bond climbed over, kicked the pilot in the face and continued to run to the rear. Now he made a death-defying leap to the nose of the larger hovercraft.
Bond’s original craft crashed into the giant gates, quickly followed by the other fighter. The ensuing explosions knocked out the gates and disintegrated the two hovercraft, allowing the mothership to sail through the inferno unharmed.
The huge carrier had hurtled into the ancient temple and had nowhere to go but into the far wall. Bond threw himself over the windscreen and onto the deck as the craft smashed through, spun around on the rocks and came to a stop.
The pilot was still unconscious. Moon had been knocked back and was stunned. Bond was surprised to find himself in one piece. He looked over at the colonel and their eyes met. Then the hovercraft tilted sickeningly.
They had broken through the temple wall and were on the edge of a raging waterfall at least two hundred feet tall. The hovercraft had somehow lodged against some rocks.
Moon jumped up and attacked Bond. Bond rolled and threw the colonel into the side of the deck. By the time Bond was on his feet, Moon had rebounded. The two men faced each other and engaged in hand- to-hand combat Moon was obviously experienced in martial arts, but Bond was unsure how proficient the man was. A stunning blow to Bond’s chest told him everything he needed to know.
Bond fell backwards and used his feet to block Moon’s kicks. Bond used a large case for leverage and jack-knifed up and over. His right foot swung into Moon’s jaw with a sickening smack just as the hovercraft broke free, slid further towards the edge of the cliff and wedged between two large boulders. The jolt caused Moon to fall back against the massive fan at the back of the craft. He instinctively reached for an AK-47 at his feet.
Bond pulled a bulletproof vest from a pile on the deck and held it in front of him as he moved to the control cockpit. Moon’s bullets strafed the area, j hammering the vest until Bond could no longer hold it. But by then he was where he wanted to be. Bond pulled the throttles to full, causing the fan to spin. Coloner Moon was sucked off his feet and pulled against the caged propeller like a magnet. He tried to raise his gun arm away from the fan but the suction was too strong.