Shaun Hutson - Knife Edge

Bullets struck the car once more.

Brenner was slammed back in his chair as one of the 9mm slugs powered into his chest.

It felt as if he'd been struck by a hot hammer.

The bullet tore through him, burst from his back and lodged in the driver's seat.

He slumped forward over the wheel, still conscious, bleeding badly.

Garside grabbed for the wheel, trying to keep the spinning vehicle under control.

There was a terrifying impact from behind as the second police car rammed the first, the metal of its chassis simply buckling. The front bumper tore away in the impact.

Neville glanced once again over his shoulder and saw the two stricken emergency vehicles, the second ploughing into a parked car as the driver wrestled with the wheel.

In the Astra, Garside shouted in horror as he felt the car flip.

It struck the right-hand kerb doing thirty, its momentum causing the two offside wheels to rise off the ground.

In one manic second, the Astra was on its side.

Garside fell against his companion, looking down at Brenner who was bleeding badly from the bullet wound in his chest. Blood bubbled on his lips every time he tried to breathe through his mouth.

The driver of the second car, his head split from hairline to eyebrow, staggered from the vehicle clutching the wound, blood pouring through his fingers.

He stood in the centre of the road glancing around him.

Shocked. Dazed.

Garside pushed his way through the shattered windscreen of the Astra and fell forward onto the pavement.

His head was spinning. He knew he was going to pass out.

People were walking towards him, as if in slow motion.

He could see the other wrecked police car, the driver now on his knees in the road, his head bloodied, his companion still slumped in the passenger seat, motionless.

Garside wondered if the man was dead.

He glanced back into the car and saw Brenner, head lolling uselessly on one side, blood dripping from his mouth.

And somewhere, it sounded like a million miles away, he heard the crackle of the radio.

'Puma three, come in, over.'

The world was spinning before him. His cheek hurt where the glass had cut it and, when he looked at his hands, he saw that they were like red gloves, pieces of glass sticking out of the flesh in many places.

'Puma three, come in, over.'

The voice on the radio was insistent.

Garside didn't care.

There was nothing he could do about it.

The people around him were still moving in slow motion but they seemed to be running now.

Some of them.

'Puma three.'

Fuck off, Garside thought.

He fell forward onto his face, the stink of burned rubber and petrol still strong in his nostrils.

We lost him, he thought, but the words wouldn't form on his lips.

We fucking lost him.

Garside blacked out.

Of Neville there was no sign.

As Doyle emerged from the men's toilet on Euston station he caught sight of DI Calloway.

The policeman was standing talking to three uniformed men, one of whom was a fireman. As Doyle approached the little gathering the uniformed men scurried away towards the front of the building.

'We're not going to find it in time,' Calloway said flatly. 'I've given the order to get everyone off the station.'

Doyle nodded.

'Even if we did find it now there wouldn't be time to defuse it,' the DI continued. 'The fucker's won, hasn't he?'

'It's only the first round,' Doyle said quietly. 'There's a long way to go.'

Calloway allowed himself a sigh.

'No luck with the dogs?' Doyle asked, glancing first at his watch then at the clock high above them on the Arrivals/Departures board.

Calloway shook his head. 'We didn't have long enough.'

'I think we did,' Doyle said. 'Neville knew we'd come here. He knew we'd trace that call. It's all part of the game.'

'Some fucking game. What makes you so sure?'

'I told you before, I know how he thinks.'

'Well, it's a pity you can't read his fucking mind. Maybe we'd have found that bomb.'

'Maybe,' Doyle mused.

As he glanced around he saw more and more officers leaving the station. It seemed an orderly if somewhat speedy retreat.

'Doyle. What if the bomb isn't here?' Calloway said anxiously.

'Then we're in deep shit. Because if we can't find this one, chances are we won't be able to find the others either.'

'Could he be bluffing about the others?'

'What do you think?' Doyle began walking towards the exit. 'Come on, let's get out of here.'

They were among the last to leave the building, Doyle glancing around at the deserted station. At the shops, the ticket offices, the cafes.

'Where is it, you bastard?' he murmured under his breath.

As they stepped from the main doors, Doyle noticed that the gardens and concrete expanse which fronted the terminus were deserted, but the streets on either side and beyond the high hedge at the front were clogged with emergency vehicles of all kinds.

Fire engines. Ambulances. Police cars.

'We closed off all roads within a radius of half a mile,' Calloway briefed him. 'Just in case.'

'Any news on Neville?'

'He got away. We've got descriptions of him though, and the motorbike he was riding. We've even got the reg number. It's only a matter of time before we get him.'

'You sound very confident,' Doyle said, reaching for his cigarettes.

'He's put four of my fucking men in hospital, one of them is critical. We'll get him. He can't hide forever,' Calloway said angrily.

'He doesn't want to hide.'

The two men walked down the flight of stone steps that led into Eversholt Street.

'I thought you said you'd get him,' Calloway chided.

'I will. Whether I get him in time is another matter. He's got seven more bombs to play with after this one.' Doyle looked at his watch.

Almost time.

'Someone like Neville knows how to disappear in a big city,' he told the DI. 'Fifty thousand coppers couldn't find him if he doesn't want to be found.'

'But you can?'

Doyle didn't answer.

He glanced again at his watch.

Two minutes to detonation.

They waited.

She realised that the smell was coming from the man beside her.

Cathy Cremer wrinkled her nose and glanced at the man who was flipping through the racks of compact discs.

He was in his late twenties, as she was, dressed in faded jeans which hung lower on his hips than they should. Especially when the T-shirt he wore was so short. Cathy glanced down and saw that more than the requisite amount of bum cleavage was on view.

It was all she could do to stop herself laughing.

However, the smell helped.

She tried to concentrate on the CDs which she herself was flipping through, but the overpowering stench of body odour finally became too much for her and she stepped away from the man, shooting him one final disgusted glance.

She pulled a handkerchief from the pocket of her jacket and wiped her nose, the smell of freshly laundered linen helping to dispel the stink of the individual now standing opposite her. She read the slogan printed on his T-shirt. i'm too sexy for this shirt it proclaimed in bright red letters.

Cathy finally managed a snigger.

She tried to concentrate on choosing more of the discs but found that a tall, blonde girl with a mountainous back-pack was blocking her path to the discs labelled pop and rock.

Cathy moved further down the racks. She'd already selected four discs from the discount section of Tower Records in Piccadilly. That added up to about three hours of listening time, she mused. Scarcely enough to fill the time it would take to reach Singapore.