“They don’t know we’re here,” said Jade. “They’re looking for the missiles. We could hide.”
“What about the unconscious soldiers?” said Rich. “They’ll know someone’s down here.”
At the top of the ladder, a metal gantry led across towards the top of the missile. There were railings along each side, but they were rusty and corroded.
Rich looked down, feeling his stomach lurch when he saw how high they were.
“If they try and launch that thing, it’ll probably explode,” he said. “It’s so old and neglected.”
“They will remove the warhead and use another delivery method,” said Mr Chang.
“Can we remove it?” Jade wondered. “Get the warheads away from here?”
“No, we can’t,” Chance called back over his shoulder. He was almost at the nose of the rocket. One of the large strip lights was shining in their eyes, so the rocket was just a hazy blur.
“Why not?”
“First, because it’s far too heavy. And second…”
The roof was just a metre above their heads. The walkway turned to circle the rocket. There were massive hinges holding it to the wall, and Rich guessed it would be swung away when the missile launched. It was obviously positioned there for maintenance, allowing engineers to get close enough to work on the nose cone.
Except there was no nose cone. The top of the rocket was an empty cylinder, with wires and cables spilling out.
“And second,” Chance finished, “because someone’s already taken the warhead away.”
“So, the missiles were decommissioned,” said Mr Chang. “The rebels will be rather disappointed, if they’re all like this.”
“I’ll bet they are,” said Jade. “But we don’t have time to check.”
Far below, uniformed men were running into the silo. They spread out through the open space, checking everywhere, guns at the ready.
“We’re too close to the light for them to see us,” said Chance. “That’s why we couldn’t see the warhead was gone. And neither can they.”
“But they’ll soon come and look,” Rich told him. “And there’s no way we can get down without them spotting us.”
Jade was leaning over the top of the missile, braced against the rusting handrails. “Look at this.”
“What is it?” Chance hurried to join her.
“Oil. Recently spilled. And the edges of the wires where they’ve been cut—they’re still shiny, like new.”
“You mean, this was recent?” Rich asked.
“Can’t be more than a day or two since the warhead was removed,” Chance agreed. “The rebels must have known they were still here, and they’re only just too late. That’s what Ralph was warning us about, I bet—that the rebels were planning to get the missiles. Seems the Chinese knew that too and finally acted—got the warheads to safety before the rebels could take them.”
“So where are the warheads now?” Jade wondered.
“There was a convoy,” said Mr Chang. “Yesterday, my contact at the factory told me, a lot of soldiers and vehicles left this base.”
“You didn’t mention that,” said Chance.
Mr Chang shrugged. “I told you they had left only a small force behind. It didn’t seem important. But now…”
“The nukes can’t be far away. They might still be in Wiengwei. They’re too big to fly out on a cargo plane, so they must have left by road, on big, slow, cumbersome trucks. And the rebels will soon be after them.”
“Once they’ve finished with us,” Rich whispered. “Look!”
He pointed to where the first rebel troops were climbing up the metal ladders towards the walkway.
There was another ladder leading down from the other end of the walkway, but rebel soldiers were climbing that one as well.
“There’s no other way down,” said Jade.
Rich stared at the rocket. Something had occurred to him, though it wasn’t a thought he relished. “What about up?”
“Up?!” Jade stared at him.
“The roof must open when they launch the missiles. There must be a way out.”
“That hatch,” said Chance.
There was a huge circular hatch that they had seen from the ground. But it was tight shut.
“How do we get it open?” Mr Chang asked.
“Ideas soon, please,” Jade hissed.
The first rebels were almost at the top of the ladders.
“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