London Wild (12 page)

Up ahead
, the road widened a fair bit as four roads converged. The hovercopter moved on a little and turned as if preparing to strafe the patrol car at that point. The hovercopter’s lasers wouldn’t dent the patrol car’s laser-resistant body, but the missiles could destroy it.

February saw the danger
. She quickly spun the patrol car about and headed back the way she had come. The hovercopter took only a moment before it was overhead again, the searchlight back trying to blind February while at the same time illuminating the target for all the pursuers.

‘I’m not sure I like this lifestyle
,’ Kitty commented, as the car suddenly turning had caused her to knock her head on the passenger door window. It was a small bump that probably wouldn’t even result in a bruise, but she fingered the area unhappily.

‘Me neither,’ February called back, her mind clearly on other things right now. She flipped the toggle for the automatic collision sensors off, and while she was at it,
she flipped another to turn on the vehicle’s sirens.

‘Isn’t that dangerous?’ Kitty asked
, noticing what she was doing.

‘The ground pursuit is nearly on us. It’ll be less dangerous for us than if the army have set up a roadblock. With that on we’d just come to a stop
, and we can’t allow them to take us alive. If we die in a pileup, it’d be better than what they might have planned for us. I put the sirens on as an afterthought; no would-be hero is likely to try and stop us if we look as if we’re the ones doing the chasing. Shame the hovercopter has us lit up like criminals, but it may help a little.’

Kitty nodded hopefully
. ‘I-I’m sure you know what you’re doing.’

‘I hope I do,’ was February’s remark.

A minute or two heading in this direction and they saw their first pursuit car. It was approaching from the other direction and when it saw them, it spun itself sideways across the road. February had to drive on the pavement to avoid a collision. She demolished part of someone’s garden wall and dented the side of her patrol car. The front wheel on that side now rubbed against part of the damaged section of the car, making a constant irritating screeching noise. She managed to correct her steering quickly enough to get them past otherwise unscathed. The hovercopter followed right on her tail, and the patrol car that had tried to block their way was right behind them within seconds, sirens blazing.

‘Looks like I turned the collision sensors off just in time,’ February commented as they passed the patrol car. She seemed calm, but her face was covered with sweat from worry and concentration.

Kitty nodded back, her own face a little paler than usual.

‘I have to admit,’ February said after another minute, ‘if I can’t find a way to lose that hovercopter
, I don’t know how we’re going to get out of this.’

They passed another patrol car a minute later. This one
, though, drove straight past them and then turned around to continue pursuit.

The first pursuit vehicle was sticking right behind them and seemed to be closing the gap. February was sure they were going to try and ram her off the road. She waited until the right moment and jerked the wheel right over. The pursuit car missed and headed off the road itself, but the driver in that car was experienced
, and he corrected his steering before he collided with anything. A moment later he was coming up close on February’s rear again.

‘What can we do?’ Kitty cried in near
-panic.

February reached blindly in front of Kitty and pulled a small lever hidden under the dashboard, activat
ing a holographic console. ‘This is an army pursuit vehicle; it comes equipped with two forward-firing laser cannons and a single one to the rear. Use the one to the rear and try and stop those pursuing us. If you get the opportunity and if the guns will aim high enough, try and deal with that hovercopter too.’

‘Shoot at them!’ Kitty seemed horrified at the idea.

‘It’s them or us,’ February replied simply.

‘But I couldn’t kill anyone,’ Kitty said.

‘Nor will you,’ February replied, exasperated. ‘These patrol cars are reinforced, laser-resistant. You wouldn’t be able to do them any real damage, but you might be able to put them off their pursuit.’

‘I can’t
. I-I’m sorry, but I just can’t,’ Kitty replied almost tearfully. ‘What if putting them off causes them to crash? I couldn’t allow myself to be the cause of another’s death.’

‘Then don’t,’ February replied
; she didn’t seem angry and spoke in a straightforward, matter-of-fact way. ‘You asked what we could do, and at the moment I am open for suggestions. Chances are they wouldn’t have worked anyway, not unless I poke around in the computer again.’ A short pause. ‘And even if they had worked, it’s unlikely you’d have made any real difference in their pursuit.’

February turned into another side road going parallel to the main thoroughfare they had passed through earlier. Another
patrol car joined the pursuit right behind them, heading in from that thoroughfare.

The hovercopter overtook them and seemed to come down low. It hovered over the road and took up the entire width of the road
, hovering at a height where the hovercopter’s skids would act as a makeshift roadblock.

‘Duck,’ February told Kitty
, and then she gunned the engine. There was no going back, even though she knew that the hovercopter’s skids were likely to be tougher than the material of the car they were driving.

With one bone-shuddering crash, the hovercopter’s skids ripped off the top of the patrol car
, and it hung loosely from one corner. It trailed behind them and scraped noisily along the road behind their vehicle. It also obscured February’s view of her pursuers, and hopefully their view of her.

In return for losing their roof
, the skid that they had hit was only slightly dented, and it didn’t look as if the collision had done it any serious damage.

‘We’re sitting ducks,’ February told her passenger insistently
. ‘Use the laser rifles; you must try to chase them away, if only with warning shots.’ She reached out and grabbed the nearest laser rifle, moving it towards Kitty as if urging her to take it.

‘At least we can get out of the vehicle now,’ Kitty replied
. She didn’t make any reach for the laser rifle.

Without their laser
-resistant roof, it would have been only too easy for the hovercopter to move overhead again and cut them to pieces with its lasers. Plus, there was less splash damage with lasers than missiles.

However, perhaps it was the fact that the hovercopter belonged to the police
, and this wasn’t really their fight. Perhaps the collision had damaged the hovercopter more than February had thought. Perhaps the pilot of the hovercopter was worried about all the paperwork involved in explaining a dent in one of its skids. Well, whatever reason the pilot had for ending the pursuit there, he rose above the nearest houses and disappeared slowly into the distance.

Kitty sighed with relief as February took her hand off the laser rifle again and concentrated on the road.

‘You think they’ll give up the chase?’ Kitty peered behind her, but the remains of the roof blocked her vision of the pursuers.

‘I think things are beginning to look up for us,’ February replied, though her voice was still filled with worry. ‘But we aren’t out of this yet. There are still vehicles pursuing us
, and the army might send in their own chopper next.’

The weight of the roof finally seemed to be too much for the one support that was still holding it
, and after another few twists and turns it broke loose. The pursuing cars passed over it with a metallic crunch as they closed on their prey.

‘Keep your head down,’ February commented
, not turning to look as she spoke. ‘With no laserproof roofing, one of the pursuers might try his luck.’

As if on cue, the front
-facing laser cannons on the lead pursuit vehicle emerged from their housings and fired. Two blasts hit the laser-resistant body of the car February was driving, making her feel as if they had just been kicked. Fortunately most of the blasts went wide, though, hitting the road just behind them or to their sides.

February put her foot to the floor to try and gain a little distance on the lead pursuit car, but the damaged wheel complained with an earsplitting squeal and held them back. The lead pursuit car kept up easily and moved almost bumper-to-bumper
, their laser cannons no longer firing because they were too close to hit anything other than the laser-resistant bodywork. She inched her way slowly across the road, and the driver of the lead pursuit vehicle, seeing an opportunity to overtake her and maybe block the road ahead, started to do just that.

Then February suddenly hit the brakes
, bringing her vehicle to a dead stop while the pursuit car went shooting on past. 

‘Inertial dampeners can be so useful,’ February said
, half to herself.  She turned her wheel fully to the left and took the nearby turning before flooring it again.

The first two patrol cars went shooting by the entrance to this road
; the third followed them, and it wouldn’t be long before the first two turned round and were in pursuit again. But they had a fair lead on their pursuers now, and there was nothing to stop them bailing out.

February immediately took the next turning and then another turning after that so that they lost sight of the one remaining pursuit car. She then pulled the car to a stop. This road went on for a lot longer
, but there was a small footpath not far off linking it to the next. The footpath was why February had chosen to stop here.

‘This patrol vehicle has a tracking device on it,’ February told Kitty quickly
. ‘It won’t take them long to find us. We have to get out now and get away while we have the chance.’

Kitty nodded and tried to open the passenger side door, evidently forgetting for a moment that it would still be locked. The top of the door was covered with broken glass where the roof of the vehicle had been ripped off. Kitty climbed out clumsily
, cutting her hand on a jagged edge.

February would have to leave the car in much the same way
, but first she needed to gather her booty from the vehicle’s arsenal compartment. She threw the keys to Kitty. ‘Grab the corpse from the back of the car, would you? The back should still open.’

‘Corpse?’
Kitty said, horrified, as she caught the keys. ‘A dead person?’

‘I killed him earlier,’ February said exasperated
ly; time was counting down. ‘He’s my dinner. Now please, we don’t have long.’ She could hear the sirens getting closer again and was already looking around for the pursuers to catch up.

It was clear from her reaction that Kitty couldn’t bear the thought of having to handle a corpse. She even closed her eyes for a second as if trying to chase it from her mind. When she opened her eyes again
, February sat half-turned in the driver’s seat of the vehicle, staring at her accusingly.

‘Throw me back the keys
; I’ll get it,’ she said impatiently.

Kitty sighed with relief and obeyed. She tossed February back the keys.

‘You grab the laser rifles and the bombs from the stash between our seats. Then…’ February pointed down the footpath between the roads. ‘…head down there and wait for me.’

Kitty obeyed willingly
, probably keen to do something to help which didn’t involve having to carry bodies about. She climbed back into the car the same way she had gotten out, careful not to injure herself this time, and she gathered the two laser rifles and the bombs. She then climbed out again and turned to head down the footpath as quick as her visibly shaking legs would allow her to.

‘Hold on,’ February stopped her
. ‘Give me one of those bombs; I think I’ll leave our pursuers a little parting gift.’

The sound of sirens was getting very loud now; they could only be in the next street. The pursuers had taken longer
than February had expected; maybe they had been lying in wait for her to come out and, realizing the vehicle was no longer moving, they had finally decided to come in. Then again, it had been less than a full minute since they had stopped; perhaps it just seemed longer.

Kitty obediently chucked one of the bombs to her new friend and then followed it with the trigger. She then headed off along the short path to the neighboring row of houses.

February had had to reach to catch the first part of the bomb, but the second part was thrown more on target. She quickly checked that the bomb and the trigger matched, then opened the rear storage area of the patrol car and removed the corpse, replacing it with the bomb. She then threw the corpse over her shoulder as if he weighed no more than a sack of potatoes, and she turned around to face the direction the patrol cars were approaching from, watching for any movement.

There they were; the three cars that had been following her so closely had been followed by a fourth. They had probably seen her, but then she had wanted then to see her.

She turned and headed down the footpath after Kitty as the passenger of the lead car appeared to be preparing to fire on her again. The footpath would be too narrow for the patrol cars to follow, so if the police wanted to follow further they’d have to do it on foot too.