Sovereign Hope (27 page)

I couldn’t
tear my eyes from the scene. Jerry tried to stand, but Agatha was
behind him. She brought the butt of her gun down over the back of
his head with a sickening crack. His body sagged to the ground,
slumping over Oliver.

“
Get ready to move,” Agatha said, all business. She slipped
the gun back into her waistband and rolled Jerry off Oliver. “Are
you okay?” She offered her hand out to him. He lay slack-jawed on
the floor, staring at the sticky red mess that was pooling around
him.

“
No…Uh, I think—”

“
Never mind. Just get up. You’ll be fine.”

Oliver looked
at her like she was crazy for suggesting he might live but slowly
took her hand and struggled to his feet. “Will someone tell me
what’s going on? Please?” He looked to Tess who had blanched so
white she looked on the verge of passing out. She stumbled to him
and wrapped her arms around his waist, his blood staining the shirt
she wore. “Hello? Was that my uncle’s friend? Why did he just stab
me?” Oliver repeated.

Agatha ignored
him. “We have to move, Farley. Now. It won’t be long before the
real troops show up. They won’t be as easy to disarm as the scout.
I don’t think Oliver knows anything. It might be a good thing if he
came along with us.”

Her logic
seemed sound. We couldn’t be sure what he knew. He could simply be
acting out a pretty good show, but we couldn’t hang around to find
out. He was injured and not much of a threat as far as I could
tell.

“
Please come with us,” I begged Tess. “It’s really important
that you trust me. It would take too long to explain right now.
Agatha’s on our side. She’ll take care of us, but we have to go
now. Please?”

“
Fine. You’ve got to help him, though.” Tess gazed up at her
boyfriend’s bloody shoulder and visibly balked.

“
That would be nice,” Oliver agreed. He had gone a pallid grey
color.

I raced
upstairs with Tess while she threw on some dark blue jeans, and we
ran back down with one of Mr. Kennedy’s t-shirts for Oliver. We
were in the car and tearing off down the street in seconds. Agatha
barely slowed as she hung a left at the bottom of the first
intersection and nearly crashed into the hulking hood of a sleek
black SUV. She slammed on the breaks just in time. The car
protested loudly as she wrenched the steering wheel around. She
turned right instead, the tires smoking as we sped off.

“
Looks like we’ve got a bit of a chase on our hands,” she
said. She shifted up a gear and the car’s engine roared. I cast a
glance in the
rearview
to see the black SUV was
right behind us, inching closer. The tinted windows hid our
pursuers, but I could imagine their faces all too well.

The roads were
busy. As we approached a set of traffic lights, Agatha hit the curb
and mounted the sidewalk, slamming the car’s underside down on the
concrete with a worrying crunch. Tess leaned forward and grabbed
hold of my arm. One look in the rearview showed that she was
terrified.

“
Agatha? Agatha, what’s the plan?” I squeaked.

“
This
is the plan.” She broke
suddenly, swinging the car through another left. Oliver cried out
in pain, and I looked back again to see that his head was tipped
back against the seat, his face ashen. Viscous red fluid worked its
way through his fingers as he clutched at his shoulder, to run down
his forearm.

“
We need to lose these guys and get to the hospital,” I told
Agatha. The tiny woman didn’t respond. The car sped up, bringing a
busy intersection into view. “Please tell me you’re not going to—”
but before I could finish the car flew off the sidewalk, straight
into the oncoming traffic.

“
Agatha!”

A boxy red
Nissan ploughed straight for the passenger door. Agatha tore
through the intersection, and the other car fishtailed, slamming
into a black Ford on the other side of the road.

“
They’re still there!”

“
We’ll lose them on the highway.”

I spied the
turnoff rapidly approaching. “How can you lose them on the highway?
There’s nowhere to go!”

“
You’d better do something then, kiddo.”

My hands were
trembling. I shook them out, hoping to regain some control over
them as I reached again for the gun. Agatha saw me pull it out.

“
Aim for the tires.”

“
Farley! What are you doing? Come back in the car!” Tess
screamed, but it was too late. Twisting around in my seat, I leaned
out of the window as far as I dared before aiming at the looming
black monster behind us. I squeezed the trigger and then cursed.
The safety. A stupid, rookie error. I felt for the snick of the
metal catch as it slid into place and then squeezed again. This
time the gun exploded in my hand, throwing me back against the
dashboard, punching my arm back to aim at the sky. I threw myself
forward, searching to see if I’d hit my mark. The tire remained in
motion, undamaged. Instead, there was a flowering splinter on the
tinted windshield.

“
Damn it!” Of course their windows would be bullet proof. I
took aim again as a huge, muscled guy appeared at the window with a
gun of his own and aimed it straight at me
.
There was no feeling or emotion in
his cold eyes. Only shining slivers of silver, banding his
irises.

Immundus.

His hands were
steady, not shaking with fear like mine. I pulled off another
round, remembering not to lock my shoulder this time. When the gun
kicked my arm back, it was only thrown a little wide. A high
metallic zip buzzed in my ears, and the bullet made contact with
the low metal grill to the front of the car, missing yet again.

The Immundus
fired again, his bullets much closer to their mark than mine. The
wing mirror smashed into a thousand pieces, the small shards of
glass glinting brilliantly as they caught the sun. They splintered
through the air in slow motion as I ducked back into the car,
crouching behind the headrest and covering my head with my
arms.

“
Get down!”

Bullets
impacted with the rear windshield, shattering the glass into a
spider web of fractures. Thankfully it held. Oliver snapped back to
life and pulled Tess down in the back seat, covering her body with
his own. He gave me a wild, fearful look and then hunkered down as
a fresh hail of fire rained down on the car.

“
Farley! The tires!” Agatha screamed again.

The highway
was clear. Unbelievable luck. There wasn’t time to think, only to
act. I inched back out the side of the car window. Once, twice,
three times I squeezed the trigger blindly, every one of the shots
missing. The Charger started to pour black smoke. It tasted bitter
on my tongue, and could only mean bad news. I had to do
something.

Taking a deep
breath, I pulled myself further out of the window, my torso fully
out in the open. I leaned back against the doorframe, focused, took
aim, and fired. This time I wasn’t aiming for the tires. This time
I aimed straight for the gunman, and this time I didn’t miss.

The Immundus’ head jerked back and a spray of blood and bone
blossomed out behind him. His body was suddenly limp. He slumped
sideways out of the window, his dead arm still gripping hold of his
gun. There had been no reaction when the bullet hit him; he died
instantaneously. His eyes didn’t look any deader than before, but
it was still terrifying. I’d just…I’d just
killed
someone.

I was still frozen, staring, when the Ducati Monster ripped
around the side of the car. Its engine’s throaty snarl startled me
out of my daze. The rider was dressed head to heel in black.
Daniel.

Before I could
blink, the motorbike moved between the Charger and the SUV. He
stared straight at me. It was amazing how he could convey an angry
look even through a blacked-out visor.

Behind him,
the slumped figure of the man began to move. For a moment I thought
the gunman was somehow still alive and about to shoot Daniel in the
back, but within a second the body hit the tarmac. It bounced hard
and tumbled as it lost speed behind the car. My relief was short
lived. As soon as the window was clear, a gaunt, pale woman took
position. She began firing, her thick, plaited rope of blonde hair
streaming out behind her.

Daniel didn’t
seem to notice the shots at first, but as soon as one hit the rear
of his bike he spurred into action. He sped up the inside of the
car and leveled out alongside me. When he pulled his visor up, I
was almost more afraid of him than the Immundus. At least those
guys kept their feelings to themselves.

“
Get. Back. Inside. The. Car.”

I immediately
shrank back, knowing that he wasn’t above shoving me back in
himself. When I turned to face the road, I caught sight of Agatha.
Her face was awash with relief.

“
What now?” I hollered above the engine.

“
He’ll take care of it,”

“
How? He doesn’t even have a gun!”

“
Just wait.”

I waited for
what felt like forever but was in reality only two heartbeats, and
then Daniel ripped past us, speeding into the open road. He tore
ahead, and within moments the distance between the bike and the
Charger grew from five to fifty feet.

“
He’s leaving?” I yelled, watching the bike rapidly move
away.

“
No. Just wait.”

In the
distance Daniel must have slammed the breaks on hard, because the
bike slid out from underneath him in a thick plume of white smoke.
It was just gone from between his legs, and he was somehow standing
in the middle of the road ahead of us, the bike careening on its
side down the road without him. The gap between us was closing
rapidly. Agatha hit the gas, speeding up.

“
You’re gonna hit him!” I cried.

She wasn’t
listening. She was laughing, her foot flat to the floor, and Daniel
was getting closer by the second. He stood unwavering in the road
with his visor down, staring at the SUV. I had no idea what was
about to happen, but hell if it didn’t look like Daniel wasn’t
making it through the other side.

We were only
ten feet away when Agatha swerved. Daniel dropped to one knee as
the car flew past, bringing his closed fist down to strike the
tarmac. A complete silence fell over everything. The noise of the
chase, car engine, guns, shouting and screaming, were all
extinguished. There was nothing but the thud of my own heartbeat
and a dull roaring in my ears. Agatha was screaming something but
her voice was stolen away. Then the car was sliding, spinning
around until it faced Daniel again.

He was
crouched in the road. Something didn’t look right, like the sky and
the tarmac were being pulled inwards, distorted and stretched. The
SUV was almost on top of him now. I screamed, but there was no
sound, just the raw pain of it in my throat. He was going to
die.

The air around
Daniel pulsated once…twice…and then a brilliant white, burning
light erupted from him. It was everywhere all at once. The
intensity of it scorched my eyes. I screwed them shut, holding my
hands over my face, but it was no use. It pried at me, alive,
searching out the cracks. It was gone in an instant, but the echo
of it burned through my body and left me feeling like I was
falling. Falling forever.

When I opened
my eyes, the SUV was on its roof, smoking, the front end partially
crushed. The road before it was rippled and cracked like the site
of a meteor impact. Daniel was striding over to the Charger with
his bike helmet in his hand, but I barely saw him. My brain was too
numb, unable to piece together what had just taken place.

“
Farley?” My name sounded distant, as if I was sinking to the
bottom of a swimming pool.
“Farley?”

I looked at
Agatha and blinked.

“
We have to get out of here before the cops show up. Are you
hurt?”

After a quick
mental inventory, I shook my head. Daniel arrived at Agatha’s door.
“Will the car run?”

“
Yes,” she replied. “The bike?”

“
It’ll be fine. Let’s go”

He gave me a
look that I couldn’t quite read and then vanished. Agatha started
the engine, turned the car, and we were moving. Daniel’s bike
roared up behind us and then sped off down the long, straight road
until he was nothing more than a black speck on the horizon.

“
Is someone going to tell me what just happened?” Tess’ voice
quavered. She cradled Oliver’s head in her lap and held her hand
over his shoulder whilst he winced in pain.

“
I wish I could,” I murmured. “I
really
wish I could.”

CHATPER TWENTY-SEVEN

Giving it Back

The ride back
to the silo took longer than Agatha would have liked. The number of
patrol cars that kept speeding in the opposite direction clearly
unnerved her, and we kept to the speed limit. It was pitch black
when we turned off the highway onto the invisible dirt track, and
we sat in silence for half an hour as she navigated her way in the
dark over the rough ground towards safety.

I was so
exhausted I could barely keep my eyes open. When we rolled to a
stop outside the decaying metal silos, it was Agatha’s hand on my
arm that woke me from a dreamless sleep.

“
Daniel’s already inside.”

Her voice was
tired. From the worn look on her face, she’d had way too much
excitement for one day. We heaved ourselves out of the car and
helped Tess and Oliver towards the entrance of the silo, but when
we got inside the hollow metal shell Agatha froze, the beam of her
flashlight fixed straight ahead.