74

The sound of their engines is getting louder with every passing second and yet you are unable to find a safe way down to the river bed—it is far too steep. Desperately, you drive back and forth along the edge of the bank until a volley of shots echoes across the plain and the first of the clansmen’s bullets start to whistle past. You have been seen.

Quickly you abandon your attempt to hide and steer your roadster back onto the freeway in a frantic bid to outrun the pack. The fastest bikes give chase and relentlessly they pursue you until the leader is within twenty yards of your tail. With mounting fear, you glance in your rear-view mirror to see him draw a stubby-barrelled weapon from a tube strapped to the fuel tank. At first you think it is a sawn-off shotgun, but then you recognize the weapon and your heart sinks. It is a D-40—a laser sighted grenade launcher. You see the muzzle flash, and then moments later there is a deafening explosion. The last sensation you feel is that of being hurled skyward, surrounded by fire and fragments of your roadster.

The armour-piercing grenade has penetrated the trunk and exploded the spare fuel tanks you were carrying. Tragically, your mission and your life end here.