Page 49 of Buck Baxter and the Mysteries of Love

Within seconds we heard the sound of gunfire, bullets slamming against the other side of the door.

In the next moment, the wheel lock tried to turn.

Harry and I held it tight, but Hammer must have reached it from the other side, his brute strength shifting the wheel an inch, then another.

“Buck! Help!”

I turned to see that Bockenheimer was back in the fight, bearing down on Stella, his drill spinning madly.

Mrs. Hart was trying to pull him off her, hitting him with her fists but to no avail.

I lunged at his feet, grabbing his ankle and yanking him away from Stella.

The vessel gave a loud metallic moan and several valves in the console burst, hissing steam.

Dials flickered and cogs spun out of control.

I pulled myself to my feet, only to be sideswiped by Bockenheimer who hurled himself at me, knocking me on top of the torpedo with the timer.

He came at me with his drill.

I tried to fend him off, my ears filled with the sound of the deadly countdown ticking over, the timer behind my head, the drill almost right between my eyes.

Suddenly Stella was on top of him, beating Bockenheimer’s head with her fists. “Get away from him, you psycho putz!”

He shook her off with a jerk of his shoulders, then thrust the drill straight down at me.

I moved my head to one side just in time.

The spinning drill missed me by a whisker…

And pierced straight into the timer on the torpedo.

Bockenheimer’s eyes widened with alarm. “Oh dear. That’s not good.”

I turned to see what he was looking at.

The hands on the timer were now spinning twice as fast as before, flying past the five-minute mark and accelerating.

“Oh, fuck!”

Desperately Bockenheimer tried to pull his robotic hand free, but the spinning drill had caught itself inside the timer.

From behind me came Harry’s voice. “Buck! A little help here!”

He was straining with the wheel lock, no match for Hammer on the other side who was slowly making ground, turning the wheel several inches at a time.

I charged for Harry, grabbing the wheel to try and slow Hammer’s progress, but it was no use. We wouldn’t be able to hold him back much longer.

“Buck! The timer just passed four minutes!” screeched Stella. “It’s spinning out of control!”

Frantically I looked around for anything I could jam inside the wheel lock to stop it from turning.

I noticed the handhold welded to the side of the doorway.

Quickly I reached around Harry from behind.

I unbuckled his belt, my hands working as fast as they could.

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