Sharp Shot (3 page)

“He's still breathing,” said Jade, kneeling to examine
the man. She felt his pulse, and it was strong if a bit fast. Then again,
Jade wasn't really sure what was normal.

“He's in that picture,” said Rich. “One of Dad's
friends from the army. The SAS.” He turned out the lights.

“Hey, what did you do that for?” Jade demanded.

“If there's someone else out there with a gun, we don't want
them finding us too easily.”

The man was coming round. He blinked and shook his head, pulling
himself into a sitting position.

“Hey, steady,” said Jade. “Rich—get him some
water.”

Rich hurried to the kitchen and was straight back with a tumbler of
tap water. The man accepted it gratefully, though he spilled quite a bit
down his muddy shirt. He was shivering despite the fact it was a mild
evening, and he was wearing a heavy leather jacket.

“John Chance,” he gasped again. “Got to get to
John Chance.”

Jade nodded. “He's not here. He's away.” She glanced at
Rich, before adding: “Can we help? I'm Jade and this is Rich—
John's our dad.”

“Away?” The man looked annoyed as much as frightened.
“Why didn't I know?”

“Probably because he's on a secret mission,” Rich
muttered. “No one is supposed to know.”

Jade glared at him. This wasn't the time for criticism. “Can we
help?” she asked the man again. “What's the matter? We heard
shooting—is someone after you?”

“They'll kill me,” the man said. He looked nervously
over to the doors. The patio was still lit up by the security light; the
door was swinging back and forth in the breeze, its catch broken.
“If they find me, they'll kill me. I thought Chance would help. I
have to get away
from them.” He grabbed the sleeve of Jade's
sweatshirt. “You have to help me. Get me away from here.”

There was a rattle of machine gun fire from somewhere outside—
closer than before. Rich hurried to the windows and looked out.

“Can't see anyone, but we have to assume they'll find us. Were
they close behind you?”

The man shook his head. “But they'll be here. We have to go.
Now!”

Rich nodded. But to Jade's surprise he opened the desk, and hunted
through for a photograph.

“This isn't a Kodak moment,” she told him. “It's a
get the hell out of here moment.”

Rich had found what he was looking for. It was a faded photo of four
men standing by a wall in the desert. He pointed to one of the men.

“That's Dad. And that's Dex Halford…And that…” He
tapped the man standing beside their dad, then pointed to the man sitting
on the floor.

Jade took the photo and held it so the man could see. “So, are
you Mark or Ferdy?”

The man blinked. “McCain—Ferdy McCain. That was in Iraq, back
in 1990 with the Regiment. We took out a secret nuclear facility.”

“Hey, cool,” said Rich.

“Yeah, OK—in that case you really are a friend of
Dad's,” said Jade. She gave the photo back to Rich who stuffed it
in his pocket. The she helped Ferdy McCain to his feet. “Now, let's
get you out of here and call for help.”

“Got my phone,” said Rich. “We'll do it on the
way.”

Outside, the security light had gone out. With the lights in the room
turned out too, they could see out into the gloom of the garden. Jade was
sure she could see movement, down by the fence. “Time to go,”
she said urgently.

“I'll be all right,” McCain assured them. “I've
been through worse. Just tired.”

Rich led the way out of the dining room and into the hall. The front
door had a frosted window set high in it. Through the glass they could see
the silhouette of a man's head and shoulders.

The sound of the doorbell was deafeningly loud, and made Jade flinch.

“Gunmen,” Rich hissed.

“Who ring the bell?” said Jade. “Yeah, right.”

“You're not going to answer it?”

Jade didn't reply. She marched down the hallway and opened the front
door. Outside was a man in uniform. He turned towards them and smiled.

“Supermarket delivery. From our shop to your step,
guaranteed.” His uniform was bright green and he was holding a
clipboard. “We didn't have any concentrated vita-mineral supplement
drink, I'm afraid.”

From the dining room came the sound of breaking glass followed by a
shout.

“Don't think we'll be needing it,” Jade told the man,
and pushed him out of the way.

“Healthy exercise coming up,” Rich agreed, as he and
McCain ran past.

The supermarket lorry was almost blocking the narrow lane. The
delivery man wouldn't be so happy, Jade thought, when he found out he had
to back nearly a quarter of a mile before he could turn it round. Quarter
of a mile to the main road through the village.

A quarter of a mile they were never going to make. A car was coming.
Its lights raked across the hedges either side of the lane as it slewed
along having taken the corner too fast. The roar of its engine was louder
than the idling of the lorry.

“Not going that way,” said Jade.

“What's going on?” the delivery man called. His voice
was drowned out by the sound of gunfire from inside the cottage. The
dining room window overlooking the lane exploded. Bullets ripped into the
tarmac close to where Jade and Rich were standing.

McCain was already running. “Come on!” he yelled,
hauling himself up into the cab of the lorry.

“Hey!” the delivery man yelled, running after them.

Jade and Rich were round the other side of the lorry, pulling
themselves up into the cab as it started to move off.

“You driven one of these before?” Rich asked as he sat
in the middle of the wide bench seat. Next to him, Jade heaved the door
shut.

“Not with a freezer compartment stuck on the back,”
McCain told him. The lorry was picking up speed. The lights from the car
behind were approaching rapidly, dazzling in the mirror.

There was a loud bump from the back of the lorry. Jade could see in
the wing mirror that plastic crates were falling out of the back,
scattering across the road.

“That was your pizza,” she told Rich.

The car had to slew
and weave to avoid the fallen crates. It was catching them up, but there
was no
way it could get ahead of them in the narrow lane. The lorry was
picking up speed.

Then Jade realised something that made her throat go dry.
“Where exactly are we going?” she asked.

Rich worked it out at the same moment. She could see it in his eyes,
the way he had gone pale. There was a rattle of gunfire, and the wing
mirror crazed. The glass held for a moment, a spider's web criss-crossing
it, then it fell away.

“This is a dead end,” said Rich. “It doesn't go
anywhere—just a gate and field and the brook.”

“Now you tell me,” Ferdy said. “Still, she's a big
powerful beast.” He dropped down a gear and the engine roared.

A metal field gate loomed in the headlights. The lorry shuddered as
it slammed into it. The gate squealed and ripped free, flying sideways.
The lorry lurched, skidded on the muddy field, but kept going down the
shallow incline. Sheep scattered.

“A brook won't give it much trouble,” said McCain
confidently.

“ ‘The brook' is just a name,” Jade told him.
“It's a river. A
big
river. And we're heading
straight for it!”

The headlights were bouncing as the lorry bumped
across the uneven
field. They shimmered on the wide stretch of water beyond the trees ahead.
McCain swerved to avoid a tractor parked at the side of the field, before
lining up with a gap in the tree line.

What wasn't obvious until they were too close to stop was the drop
from the field down to the level of the river. Jade felt the moment the
front wheels left the ground. The front of the lorry hung in the air for a
moment, then crashed down.

The cab lurched, and the muddy edge of the river rushed towards the
windscreen. There was a terrific crunch of metal.

Jade's legs jarred painfully against the dashboard. Instinctively she
braced with her hands, just stopping her head from hitting the windscreen.
Rich wasn't so lucky—he banged his head hard against the tape deck as
the impact threw his body forwards.

The windscreen crazed, then shattered. Water splashed in. The lorry
skidded onwards for a few more metres, sagging to one side as the axle
gave way. A wheel bounced ahead of them into the water. The sound of metal
on mud, then on stones, then on water, was deafening. Steam erupted from
the bonnet of the lorry, rising in front of them.

Then one of the headlights went out. Silence. For several seconds all
was still.

“You OK?” Jade asked Rich.

He raised his hand to his head, and felt the blood trickling from a
miraculously shallow cut. He winced. “Yeah, just about.”

“Out—we have to get out!” McCain yelled.

The door beside Jade had buckled and wouldn't move. McCain bent
round, braced himself against Rich, and kicked at his door with both feet.
It fell from the side of the vehicle and clattered and splashed into the
river.

They hauled themselves out. The lights of the pursuing car were
sweeping across the field above and behind them.

“What now?” Rich wondered.

“Sorry, guys,” said McCain. “We might have to swim
for it. But I'm afraid we'll be sitting ducks.”

“Swimming ducks,” said Rich. “Ducks don't sit on
the water. It just looks that way.”

“Oh shut it,” Jade told them both. “We're getting
out of here.” She was already running.

Rich hurried to catch up. “How?”

“Tractor!” she yelled back at him.

It would be close, she could tell. But they could make it to the
tractor before the car reached them. The car was moving slowly,
cautiously, skidding across the muddy field. The driver must be afraid
he'd lose control. And he could see Jade, Rich and McCain running towards
him. He must think they were coming to surrender.

“Hope the keys are in it,” said Rich. He was gasping for
breath as they ran.

“You should get some exercise,” Jade told him.

“What do you think I'm doing?”

The tractor was a dark silhouette against the lights from the
approaching car. Jade leaped up on to it, Rich close behind. McCain was
round the driver's side. He heaved himself up into the cab. It was tight,
but they all just managed to squeeze in. Jade and Rich had to stand,
squashed behind the driver's seat.

“The keys there?” asked Jade.

“Who needs keys?” McCain was fumbling under the steering
wheel, ripping out wires and twisting them back together. The engine
spluttered into life.

The lights were bright—dazzling Jade when she looked back at the
car. She could just see the dark shape of someone leaning out of the
passenger window.

“Down!” she yelled.

Bullets smashed through the glass of the cab, as the tractor started
to move. The car hurtled towards it now as the driver accelerated. The
lights disappeared, below the level of the tractor cab and too close for
Jade to see.

But she felt the impact as the car smashed into the back of the
tractor.

“That won't do them any good,” said McCain grimly.

The tractor was moving faster now, its massive tyres gripping easily
in the muddy ground while the car slewed off to one side. It had lost a
headlight and the bonnet was crumpled.

More gunfire. But it went wide. The car was out of control, sliding
across the muddy field.

The tractor bumped down the bank to the river, its huge wheels
managing what the lorry couldn't. When they passed the shattered remains
of the lorry Jade was surprised they'd even got out of the broken cab, let
alone without serious injuries. But even as she thought it, she could feel
her shoulder throbbing. There was blood on her hands, and she realised she
must be bleeding—cut by the glass from the windscreen. Great.

McCain took the tractor slowly through the river.
“It's wide, but is it deep?” he wondered.

“We'll soon find out,” said Rich. His voice was muffled
and Jade saw he was eating a bread roll.

“Where did you get that?” she demanded.

He pointed back at the crashed lorry.

“It's not yours,” she told him.

“Might be. I ordered some.” He shrugged. “Anyway,
no one else will want it now.”

Further discussion was cut off by more gunfire. The water either side
of the tractor was chewed up by bullets. Several pinged off the tractor's
side.

“Hold on!” McCain shouted.

The roar of the engine deepened. Water washed across the floor of the
tractor's cab. Jade didn't like to think what would happen if it reached
the engine.

Then they were climbing, up and out of the river and into the field
on the other side.

“We made it!” said Rich. “They must be awful
shots.”

Jade laughed with relief.

“Still got to get out of the field,” McCain warned them.

“Who are those people, and why are they after you?”
asked Jade.

Ahead of them, the tractor's headlights picked out another gate.
McCain stopped the tractor.

“I'll tell you once we know we're in the clear.” He
nodded at the gate. “Maybe we should open this one.”

“I'll get it,” said Rich. He pushed open the door,
though he could probably have climbed through the empty space where the
glass had been.

A minute later they were driving along a country lane with steep
hedges either side. The tractor almost filled the whole road.