Andy McDermott - The Tomb Of Hercules

He saw one, parked at the side of the road as its owner talked on a mobile phone. It wasn’t what he would have picked in an ideal world, but he didn’t have enough options to be choosy…

“You must be joking!” Sophia said, looking aghast at the little red delivery moped. A large wooden box with a crude painting of a tiger on the side overhung the back wheel by almost two feet, the whole thing looking ridiculously unbalanced.

“It’s all there is!” Chase ran past the rider, who stared in surprise for a moment before realizing that he was being carjacked and shouting angrily. Chase briefly considered drawing the gun to enforce the issue, but instead reached into a pocket, drew out a wad of banknotes, and tossed them to him. “I need to borrow your bike!”

The man caught the money, regarded it in bewilderment for a moment, then smiled ecstatically and gave Chase a thumbs-up. Chase mounted the bike and started the engine, Sophia climbing on behind him. He was about to set off when something occurred to him, and he took another roll of banknotes from his pocket. “Shit!”

“What?” asked Sophia.

Chase looked around for the delivery boy, but he was already racing down the street as fast as his legs would take him. “I meant to give him Chinese money!”

“What did you give him?”

“Five thousand dollars! It was emergency cash-that’s going to be fun to account for on my expenses!”

Sophia almost laughed, but then saw the guards still running after them. “It still is an emergency, Eddie!”

“Let’s hope this thing’s worth five grand, then!”

He revved the engine, which responded with an ear-splitting whine and a cloud of blue smoke from the exhaust, and released the brake. The rear wheel squealed against the pavement, then the moped shot off down the street.

Chase tried to get his bearings. They needed to head southeast… “Hang on!” he shouted as he swerved the moped off the pavement and into traffic. Horns blasted as he swept past the slow-moving cars, the box on the back of the bike almost scraping against them.

“Where are we going?” Sophia demanded.

“The maglev station! It’s the fastest way to get to the airport!”

A car ahead was up on the curb, blocking their path. Chase made a frantic turn, cutting in front of another car and moving farther out into the road. They were now surrounded by traffic on both sides, and Shanghai lane discipline was far more ragged and disorderly than in England or America.

A car tried to force its way into the inside lane. “Knees in!” was all Chase had time to yell as they shot past, his elbow missing the car’s side mirror by a fraction of an inch-only for the wooden box to shear it cleanly off the side of the vehicle.

“That’s what happens when you don’t signal!” Chase yelled. The traffic ahead had stopped at lights. He needed to turn at the junction-

A cacophony of horns behind caught his attention. “What was that?”

Sophia looked around. “I think we have company!”

Chase risked a look back. A car-no, two cars had driven up onto the pavement and were racing past the stationary traffic, pedestrians leaping aside. Yuen’s security forces had done some carjacking of their own.

“Well, that’s bloody marvelous!” They reached the junction, Chase putting out one leg to support the little bike as he leaned over and swept it into the turn.

Cars were coming the other way through the intersection, headlights blazing-

Chase turned harder, his heel scraping along the ground. The moped wobbled, threatening to flip over, before he regained control just in time to dart in front of a car. Its front mirror clipped a corner of the wooden box, spraying splinters everywhere.

“Jesus!” Sophia gasped. Chase fought to keep the moped upright as he guided it between two more lanes of vehicles. He heard tires screech behind, and more angry bleats of horns. A brief glance in the moped’s round mirror told him that the two cars were still pursuing them, driving against the oncoming traffic.

And there was another white light among all the flaring red, the single headlight of a motorbike joining the pursuit. A real bike, not the crappy little 50cc toy he’d been stuck with.

The traffic slowed again. He looked ahead. Red traffic lights, another junction. A crossroads, the road he was on meeting a wider street, buses and trucks zooming along it.

And an illuminated sign above the pavement. The entrance to a subway station.

“Hold on!” He pulled hard on the brake levers, the moped juddering as it sloughed off most of its speed. One end of the handlebars scraped against a car, prompting a howl of protest from its driver. Chase ignored him and guided the bike between the traffic until he reached the roadside, then bounced it up over the curb. People stared in disbelief, only jumping out of his way when they realized that he really was going to ride along the pavement. The buzzing whine of the moped’s little engine echoed back at him as they whipped past shop fronts, the street still busy even at night.

“They’re catching up!” Sophia warned. With traffic on the other side of the road stopped by the lights, their pursuers now had a clear run.

The crossroads was just ahead, traffic speeding through it. The subway entrance yawned on the corner. “This’ll be bumpy!” warned Chase. He stood up on the moped’s running boards. Sophia did the same, still clinging to his back.

Concrete steps pounded beneath the bike as they dropped into the underpass. Pedestrians tumbled after them.

The moped landed on the flat floor with a bang. Chase grimaced as he was slammed down onto the thinly padded seat, but he forced back the pain and twisted the throttle to weave through the throng. He found the button for the horn and pushed it. The sound was as weedy and annoying as the engine note, but it did the job, encouraging people to dive out of his path.

To his relief, directly ahead was a ramp up to the other side of the crossroads. He gunned the engine and sounded the horn in a frenzied staccato rhythm to clear his path. “You all right back there?” he called out to Sophia.

“Oh, it’s just like old times!” she replied sarcastically.

Chase grinned. “You love it really!” he said as they reached street level again. He looked back for their pursuers.

The first car surged across the lanes of traffic on the main road, barely avoiding collisions with several cars as they locked their brakes. The second cleared the first lane-

The hulking flat nose of an articulated truck smashed into its side. The car flipped and crashed down on its roof, the passenger compartment pounded flat in an explosive halo of shattered glass.

“One down!” Chase crowed. In the mirror he saw the truck jackknife and come to a stop, blocking the junction. At least nobody else would be able to follow…

Except the guy on the bike. The single headlight picked its way through the slew of stationary cars before accelerating after him.

With traffic behind stopped, Chase’s side of the road was clear for the next few hundred yards. He swung off the pavement and sped up.

But the first car and the bike now had a clear road too, and they could go much faster. Headlights filled his mirror.

He couldn’t outrun them. Which meant he had to out-maneuver them.

A dark alley between two buildings, coming up fast-

Chase didn’t need to tell Sophia to hold on-she’d already guessed what he was about to do and tightened her grip around him. He turned the bike as hard as he could, the handlebars shuddering in his grasp. The running board rasped against the road, the sudden drag almost pitching them both off.

Chase yanked at the handlebars. The moped lurched, centrifugal force pulling its riders upright again. He fought with the steering, trying to bring the bike back into a straight line before it rammed into the wall.