There must have been explosives on board the transporter, and a second, colossal explosion sent fragments of hot twisted metal hurtling through the air like shrapnel. Small fires soon caught hold on the older buildings in the nearest compound, constructions of brick and wood.
The blast had blown Sol to the ground, but the almost indestructible robot was soon back on his feet and raced over to the blazing wreckage. No human could have survived the blast, but Sol was not expecting to find human remains and searched for any androids that may have survived in part.
The base was now in chaos. The siren was still blaring, and searchlights criss-crossed the area, illuminating platoons of soldiers searching for any more intruders. Men were tackling the fires with fairly basic firefighting equipment, trying to stop the blaze from spreading.
The troop carrier stolen from the airfield by the intruders was an armoured vehicle, but it had been reduced to smouldering fragments scattered over a wide area.
Sol was shifting through the wreckage when the siren stopped and an order from El Jeffe was broadcast over the still-functioning Tannoy system.
"Secure the perimeter and the main gates. All available personnel are to assemble at the perimeter fence to repel a possible attack.
"Platoon commanders are to deploy heavy weaponry at strategic points."
There was a short pause, and the message began to repeat.
Sol made his way to the main gates as quickly as he could and, using his great strength, began to drag the open gates back into position. Help soon arrived, and the entrance was secured.
Elsewhere, men had dug themselves into position around the perimeter fence, and the limited heavy armament the base possessed was installed at strategic points.
They waited. An hour passed, and then a soldier from a watchtower alerted El Jeffe.
"Movement in the dunes five hundred metres southwest. One vehicle, possibly two, emerging."
" El Jeffe briefly sounded the klaxon and broadcast:
"Enemy approaching 500 metres southwest. Prepare to engage."
There was a pause of four minutes, and the watchtower again alerted El Jeffe.
"They have turned the other way, sir! Leaving at high speed."
El Jeffe felt relief tempered with caution. He would not stand the troops down yet. The runway was still blocked by the SkyTrain, or he would have sent Joe up long ago to scout the area. The SkyTrain could not be dragged out of the way without causing possibly irreparable damage, and he would not risk it now when the enemy had gone into retreat.
At least they had survived.
When darkness fell, he stood the men down but ordered that a guard be mounted.
Now it was late evening, and El Jeffe was in a one-to-one meeting with David. They had discussed the day's events in detail and were now moving to more general topics.
El Jeffe asked David what had first alerted him to the possibility that the RAF officer might be an impostor.
"Number one. Although Hector has a human mind, he has the body of an android, and the commandant, who has an almost pathological hatred of machines, would not have entrusted him with this mission.
"Number Two. He said he put the WW2 Land Rover into 'drive', but those vehicles were not automatic but had manually operated gears.
"Number Three. He said that we had achieved a great deal in twenty-four hours. How did he know what had happened on the airfield?
"Finally, I had a gut feeling that this was not Hector. His voice and mannerisms were very close to the original but ever so slightly off-key. I instinctively didn't like him, which was most surprising since I was quite fond of the real man."
"Still," said El Jeffe, "the android was very convincing, and you did well to spot him."
"Your own encounter with an agent of the enemy was far more challenging," I said, "and you never completed your story of what happened after you were stopped from leaving your room."
"I had forgotten about that, with all that has happened since," he said. I think that I got as far as the part when I heard its voice again as I was trying to get back to the party.
"Where do you think you are going, worm?"
"I turned around, and although I could not see him, I could feel his presence as overwhelmingly evil, if that is not too strong a word, and I could smell him. It was like the cloying aroma of freshly dug wet clay cast up by a gravedigger as he went about his task six feet below ground in a cemetery. The image flashed through my mind, and the picture represented death and decay.
"I was shocked into a state of immobility, forced to listen to his words. He predicted your coming and said that a stranger would follow who would rid me of your presence. He described you as an agent of my immortal enemy and said that if I did not compel you to leave with the stranger, the airfield and all in it would be destroyed.
"I was terrified but not deceived, and after he left me in peace, I vowed to do the opposite of what he ordered. When I first saw you and heard you speak, there was no doubt in my mind that you were a good man, and I arranged to meet you in private as soon as I could."
"Thank you, El Jeffe; your instincts were correct. The androids Roberto and Hector were not the agents of the machines; they were the agents of Satan, and I am afraid that it is my presence here that brought them to your airfield. It is my life mission to destroy Satan, and I will not be deflected from achieving that goal. At least I now know for certain that he lives as a man in this world, and he is based in the mountains very close to the base camp. It is there I will return. I brought Satan to the base, as I brought him here to the airfield, and the commandant will rightly not allow me back. I must find somewhere else in the mountains to live, and I will leave as soon as we repair the SkyTrain, with regret for all the trouble that I brought upon you."