On Her Majesty's Behalf Read Online Free Page A

about to give it time to recover, either. The minute the shredder hit the ground he moved in, rifle in hand, screaming in fear and rage as he slammed the stock of the rifle down on the shredder’s skull, once, twice, three times until it shattered under the impact, sending black blood and brains splattering in every direction.
    The shredder went still.
    With his chest heaving from the exertion, Burke staggered back away from the twice-­dead corpse. A quick check told him that the immediate threat had been taken care of, but he could hear incoherent shrieks and howls in the distance and knew that they had overstayed their welcome. This place was going to be crawling with shredders any minute now; it was time to take their prize and get the hell out.
    Casting a final glance at the remains of the shredder on the ground before him, Burke turned and hurried after the man he’d just rescued.
    The soldier was staggering about, barely on his feet, when Burke caught up to him. Whatever he’d been through, it had clearly sapped his strength and there was no way he was going to make it on his own if Burke didn’t do something to help. Casting the now-­empty Enfield aside, Burke slowed down just enough to slip the other man’s arm over his own shoulders in support and then got them moving.
    A loud crash came from somewhere behind them and it didn’t take much for Burke to guess what was behind the sound. A glance over his shoulder confirmed his suspicions.
    Another, larger group of shredders had just burst through the pavilion doors in pursuit of them. Burke gave a half-­second thought to pulling his sidearm and sending a volley in their direction, but then dismissed the idea; the range was just too great for him to realistically expect to hit anything, and shredders would probably scramble for cover at the first sound of gunfire the way humans might. Instead, Burke concentrated on moving the wounded man next to him along a bit faster.
    Looking ahead of them, he could see the trawler nearing the end of the pier. He expected it to heave to at any moment and some quick mental calculations assured him that they would have enough time to scramble aboard before the horde caught up. From there it would be a straight shot across the Channel to the safety of the Allied camp at Calais.
    But as they drew closer to the end of the pier, it became clear that the captain of the trawler had other plans. The boat reached the end of the pier . . . and then continued past it, headed for the open water beyond.
    The captain wasn’t going to wait for them!
    Anger flooded Burke’s system, giving him a burst of energy, and he hustled the two of them forward, shouting as he went.
    â€œHey! Hey, wait!”
    At the sound of his voice the howling behind him grew louder, the shredders filling the air with their eager cries.
    â€œI said wait, you sonofabitch!”
    Burke could see Cohen and Montagna staring at him from the stern of the boat, frozen in indecision by this turn of events. He needed to do something to break the paralysis that gripped them or it was going to be all over right here, right now.
    â€œStop the boat!” Burke hollered, waving his mechanical arm at them in frustration. “I don’t care if you have to shoot him, stop the boat!”
    His orders seemed to do the trick. Both men started, as if shaken out of sleep, and staggered into action. Montagna drew his pistol and headed for the wheelhouse while Cohen began casting about the deck, looking for something.
    Please, God, let it be a rope!
    He could see that he was twenty feet from the end of the dock and closing, but that was still twenty feet too far. Even as he hurried forward, Burke knew they were never going to make it. By the time the boat turned around and came back, the shredders would have already fallen upon them from behind. They were done for, unless . . .
    â€œCan you swim?” he asked the other man