Tim Stevens - Severance Kill

Calvary dropped into the driver’s seat just as a shot passed above his head from behind. Gaines was in, and Calvary got the key in the ignition on the first attempt and fired the engine, mashing down on the accelerator and swinging the wheel to the left rather than rightwards, aiming for the pavement. The corner of the bumper hit the car in front but tangentially enough that Calvary was able to get clear. He weaved to avoid the low wall on the other side and then straightened out so that the car was pointing directly down the pavement. Then he hit the accelerator again, hard.

The pavement was wide enough to accommodate the car, but only just. Gaines cringed away from the window, shielding his face, as the pickup scraped past the cars lining the road and one side mirror after another smashed off, car alarms firing in a bizarre and discordant attempt at harmony. Calvary swung the wheel a fraction to the left and the panels on the left-hand side of the car scoured against the low ainrror aftewall in a grinding shriek of metal, his own side mirror catching a gate post and spinning away. In the rear view mirror he saw frantic manoeuvring in the road, the car that had mounted the opposite pavement trying to move out of the way so that the car that had been behind them — a huge beast of a vehicle, an American Hummer — could take off along the road in pursuit.

At the end of the pavement there was a lamp post. Calvary swerved in time to miss it and clipped the front bumper of another parked car again before pulling free. They were back on the road, just in time to see the headlights of the Hummer behind them advancing at speed.

‘Get down in your seat,’ Calvary said. Gaines didn’t move.

Calvary punched him on the shoulder. ‘Sir Ivor. Get down.’

He ducked below the headrest, burrowing into the back of the seat.

Ahead loomed the river, curving eastwards. Calvary tried to remember the geography of the area from the maps he’d looked at. He spun the wheel and took them through ninety degrees to the right, gunned the engine.

The lights came round the corner behind them quickly, too quickly. The Hummer was bigger and faster than the pickup, but that might be an advantage as it was possibly less manoeuvrable. Calvary floored the pedal and the needle on the dial crept past eighty kilometres per hour, then ninety, but the truck behind was gaining. In their wake he could see a trail of lights coming on upstairs in the houses.

He fished one of the mobile phones out of his pocket and dialled and switched it to the speaker function and laid it on the dashboard.

She answered immediately, a frantic yell. ‘Yes?’

‘Nikola, it’s me. Calvary.’

‘Martin?’ There was undisguised joy in her voice, shot through with relief. And he had to admit he felt a jolt himself, hearing her. She was alive, at least.

‘Can you talk? Did you get clear?’

‘Yes, I — ’

‘Did Max and Jakub get free?’

‘Both are with me now.’

Thank God.

‘I have Gaines. I think the Russians have got Blazek. They’re after us now, several cars. We’re heading eastwards along the river, on the northern edge of Josefov. I need to know the best direction to take to lose them.’

He heard her voice off in the wings, talking to somebody in the background. She came back: ‘There is no best way. Max suggests taking the Hlavka Bridge across the river, then left into the Letna district. You are more likely to lose them there if they are based this side of the river.’

‘Got it. I need something else. Can you check something for me? An internet search, as quick but as thorough as possible?’

He told her.

‘Of course.’ Then: ‘We will come find you.’

‘No, you need to keep away.’

‘We will come. What are you driving?’

‘A black Ford pickup.’

‘Martin?’

‘Yes.’ The Hummer was gaining ground, and something was happening at the passenger window.

‘Thank you for what you did for Max and Ja-’

He hauled the wheel over as the flash of the shot blazed behind them and heard the bullet sing past the side of the car. The movement threw the phone to the floor, cutting off the call.

Gaines was craning his neck, trying to look through the gap between the seats and out through the rear window. Calvary snapped, ‘You’ll get one in the eye if you’re not careful.’

As if they had heard him there was a brittle crack followed by the thump of the shot. In the mirror Calvary saw the glass of the back window craze and star. Reflexively he pulled his head down on to his neck as the bullet embedded itself in the soft padding of the interior of the cab above their heads with a thwock .

His attention was riveted suddenly, shockingly, to the scene directly ahead as the nose of another car appeared from a sidestreet to the right. When Calvary saw it wasn’t going to stop he ground down on the pedal. The engine roared like a beast, the rev counter going wild, and the front bumper of the pickup clipped the other car at an angle, its headlight exploding in a shower of glass. The impact had done little damage to the other car, a Toyota, and it pulled out in pursuit of them, the Hummer dropping back to let it in.

Up ahead Calvary could see the Hlavka Bridge spreading across the river to the left, lit up in gold against the black haze of the sky. It crossed an island in the middle of the river before reaching the opposite bank. He jerked the wheel to angle them up the approach, avoiding the tunnel that loomed ahead dropping below the bridge, and he gunned the car straight at the traffic lights beyond which a left turn would take him on to the bridge, a right back towards the Old Town. He leaned on the horn so that a pair of cars waiting at the lights peeled aside frantically, and jumped the red light, angling rightwards, the Toyota close behind. Calvary lifted the handbrake as smoothly as he could manage and the back of the pickup slewed round to the right. As it hit ninety degrees Calvary released the handbrake and the pickup shot down the road to the left and across the bridge.

Behind them Calvary saw in the mirror that the Toyota had overshot, taken in by his feint, but the Hummer braked in time and swung round to follow, less elegantly and thereby losing a few seconds. Calvary was able to pick up speed, but there was traffic at the end of the bridge and within moments he was backed up against a slower driver, while cars flashed in quanta of light and metal in the opposite direction so that he was unable to overtake.

The Hummer was gaining. Calvary slipped out the SIG and twisted in the seat, took aim through the shattered rear window and squeezed the trigger twice. The shots were almohotgainingst intolerably loud in the confined space of the car and he saw Gaines duck his head. Calvary was off-centre and thought he’d hit the frame above the windscreen with one of them because he heard the whine of a ricochet, but the lights dropped back. Just then there was no oncoming traffic, so he went for the gap and overtook the car in front of him and was off again, weaving round a second car and putting space between him and his pursuers.

The bridge became a broad road running straight ahead on the north bank, perpendicular to the river. Again the Hummer was closing on him. Calvary saw a narrower street leading off on the left and did another handbrake turn, timing it less well this time so that the rear end fishtailed. The Hummer was anticipating something like this because he saw in the mirror that it managed not to overshoot and roared round the corner after the pickup. The end of the street was coming up and Calvary was headed for a T-junction. He decided on a left turn again because it would represent a fairly tight doubling-back which might throw the Hummer.