Lordt, the Far Cry Chronicles. “C4 At the Door”

As I removed my eye from the rim of the scope my lips curled up in silent satisfaction.

“Would you remove that shit-eating grin?” Hurk asked.

I saw no reason to do so and held the pose before loading another round into the chamber of my Predator sniper rifle and deftly executing another sentry.

However, my smugness was short-lived, since the Fortress ahead of us was not populated by sentries alone. They were but the icing on the cake, if that. Somewhere behind those walls would be men-at-arms, lunatics, heavies and no doubt the customary mortar these guys seemed so obsessed with. To be honest, if I had access to one, I would be too.

We needed a plan to get inside and if the slumped corpses of the trio of sentries I’d reamed hadn’t already given the game away, the RPG on my shoulder might.

“Wait, I’ve an idea” Hurk said, ill-advisedly placing his hand on the end of the rocket to lower the launcher.

He nodded over to the truck we’d just exited.

To be fair, I’m surprised our arrival hadn’t already alerted every fortress and outpost within a fifty mile radius. We had burnt the clutch out, ragged the engine and basically skidded to a stop at the end of the driveway before piling into the shrubbery.

Yet somehow no one seemed to notice a damn thing.

It took me a while to get Hurk’s meaning. He’d not long been savaged by a Honey Badger and I had suspected it was beginning to affect his performance.

But then the penny dropped.

Seconds later we were packing the trunk of the van with C4 like the stuff was going out of fashion.

The plan was to release the handbrake on the truck and send it through the front door like an unwelcome guest.

Naturally the plan hit a snag when we realized the incline on the road was nonexistent and the truck stayed put.

There was only one thing for it. One of us, and by which I mean Hurk, would have to drive the vehicle hurtling towards the front gates and then abandon ship mid-way, leaving the vehicle to careen helplessly to its doom.

It was a perfect plan that could not possible fail.

…At least until we executed it.

Now, I’m not an unkind man, but I do have a certain reputation. But before I could wish my pal good luck and to be careful not to drive over any mines he…drove over a mine.

As I watched the mushroom before me cloud reach skyward from the comfort of a nearby grassy knoll I noticed the crisp husk of a man looking back at me from the wreckage. Those cold, dead eyes were fixed on one thing; the detonator in my hand.

What must he have thought?