and tracks made everything else recede into the background. Kate was surprised to find she was allowed to drive. Of course, she had been told that she would get to drive the tank, but the confidence the soldier showed in her, allowing her to drive along the narrow roads of the camp, was still something of a revelation. Nevertheless, the soldier’s hands were never far from the steering yoke.
‘What sort of tank is this?’ asked Hector.
‘LeClerc,’ replied the soldier.
‘You’re a cleric?’ Kate clarified.
‘LeClerc, yes,’ repeated the soldier, ‘Main battle tank.’
Hector did not know what a cleric was. Kate, on the other hand, was completely puzzled as to why the tank should need a vicar. The LeClerc main battle tank is just called LeClerc, and the French do not routinely people their tanks with priests. As it happened the soldier was not religious, although he might have ventured a prayer that they would get through the next hour without any major damage.
As they followed the track out of the camp up the gently sloping hill to moorland above, Kate had a chance to look around at the bewildering array of lights and dials and buttons and knobs. Hector had found the controls that allowed him to move and position the gun, and was already yelling bang, pooow and boom, interspersed with shouts of ‘enemy at 2 o’clock,’ and ‘take that’.
After about fifteen minutes they reached a plain, with their tank on a slight hill. In the distance Kate could see a number of tanks and burnt out lorries. The soldier explained that they were to be allowed to fire one shell each at any of the targets, but then began to drone on about what they had to do and the best way to hit the target.
Hector paid attention. He appreciated that in a computerised tank you had to know what you were doing to fire the gun, and he was determined to fire the tank’s gun. He asked several questions, clarifying the steps needed to load, aim and fire the gun.
Kate tried to feign interest in the long ramble about trajectories, tanks and shells and how these affect accuracy. Hector, on the other hand, made no attempt whatsoever to look interested as soon as he had worked out which controls did what. Accuracy was for those without talent. Clearly, if he fired a shot it was going to hit; that was the way of the world, or at least the way of Hector’s world. Hector was brilliant, in Hector’s opinion, and it was the only opinion that mattered.
‘Wow, a moving target,’ yelled Hector while looking through the gun sights and pointing. ‘This is going to be great.’
‘Are you serious?’ asked the soldier, ‘If there is something moving we cannot fire.’
‘Why not, he’s got his gun pointed at us,’ replied Hector.
The soldier let out a resigned sigh, and took a look through the gun sight.
‘Ohhh,’ was all he managed to say before a massive explosion rocked the tank and threw him to the floor.
‘Oops,’ said Hector. ‘I think this is for real’.
The soldier indicated to Kate that she needed to get their tank moving, but Kate was ahead of him, and already they were picking up speed. He began yelling something about a tiger into the radio.
‘Tiger?’ questioned Hector.
‘An old German Tiger tank,’ the soldier replied.
‘No,’ said Hector, looking into the gun sights, ‘there are three of them.’
‘You two have some terrible enemies,’ the soldier said, as another nearby explosion rocked their tank, and he began to shout into the radio again. Next, he armed the main gun and told Hector to move over so he could aim.
‘No,’ said Hector, ‘this is my go.’
Before the soldier could reply, another explosion rocked them, and the soldier turned to tell Kate to vary her course more.
‘You want me to zig zag?’ she shouted.
‘No, but not so straight, and do not keep an even speed,’ he said, just as Hector muttered ‘Got ya’.
‘No!’ the soldier instructed, but it was too late. Hector had fired.
‘You’ve wasted one of our shots,’ the soldier said angrily.
‘No, I haven’t. I got him,’ declared Hector.
Moments later the soldier had seen the wrecked tiger tank for himself, and loaded the other shell. Hector was already tracking one of the other tanks.
The next few minutes were fraught, as Kate took them behind hills, slowed and accelerated. Explosions echoed around them, some closer and some not so near.
‘They are not very good’ said the soldier, ‘but they can still get lucky.’
‘He’s tipped over, he’s tipped over,’ yelled Hector suddenly. It was true, one of the Tiger tanks had run up an embankment and toppled over. ‘They must be real idiots.’
As if to wake them from Hector’s confidence, another blast rocked the tank, and this one was much, much closer. The tank lurched to the left.
‘It’s going to the left’ yelled Kate, ‘I cannot go straight or right.’
‘They’ve damaged our tracks,’ said the soldier. ‘They’ve been lucky’.
Then, bit by bit, the tank slowed to a halt.
‘We are sitting geese,’ yelled the soldier, ‘get out!’
‘Sitting ducks,’ Kate corrected, as Hector briefly reflected on just how annoying his sister could be at times.
‘Too late, the Tiger tank is here,’ said Hector, looking through the sights.
There was a boom, and then silence.
‘Got it,’ said Hector, in the same matter of fact voice he used when completing a well-known level on a computer game. The soldier let out a long sigh. Then he started talking into the radio, as Kate and Hector heard the squeak and rumble of arriving French armour.
Kate and Hector exchanged looks. Hector grinned and Kate looked worried. They had survived again, against all the odds. Hector thought about school, and how much fun he was going to have telling his friends about all of this. Of course, some would not believe him, but there might be newspaper reports.
‘That doesn’t look like our tank,’ said Hector, just as the soldier took a look himself.
‘Leopard. Leopard tank. It is a Leopard,’ he stuttered, a look of shock on his face.
‘Any more shells?’ Hector asked quickly.
‘No no. We’re dead. Where did they get a German Leopard Tank?’ the soldier said to no one in particular.
‘They’ve been stealing old planes from collectors. Maybe they stole the tanks from collectors,’ said Hector, in a matter of fact tone. Hector believed the tank’s armour would protect them against anything.
Kate
