But the animal was going too quickly, it was charging, galloping, and then all he could see through the sight was the fierce visage of Adams as he rode the horse hard towards the van.
And then they were all there, almost on top of him, and he had to pull himself back into the van, out of harm’s way, as the horse seemed to jump straight at him, hooves scraping the hood.
And then Renfrew looked up, and the horse and the two riders were gone, now on the far side of the van, galloping with the traffic north up the Maturana.
Eldridge was definitely not going to be happy.
Within two minutes the van was full, Eldridge’s team all back inside as Renfrew piloted it into the Maturana traffic, following the fugitives north.
Eldridge was getting constant feedback on the horse’s location, but it wasn’t necessary; out of the windshield ahead of him he could see the animal galloping down the boulevard, Adams and Lynn tight on its back. He could also hear the sound of sirens, converging from the rear and sides.
Damn. It appeared that local law enforcement was getting involved, which might cause a whole host of problems.
‘Faster,’ he ordered Renfrew.
‘Hey, I’m trying,’ Renfrew objected as he wove the large van in and out of the constant stream of vehicles. ‘There’s a hell of a lot of traffic.’
Eldridge looked in the wing mirror, seeing the flashing lights behind them, closing in. ‘Ram the other cars off the road if you have to,’ he ordered. ‘We need to catch that damn horse!’
The horse was nervous, Adams knew, and he couldn’t blame her. The road was jammed up, and he had to guide her at a gallop through tons of moving steel, the sound of growling engines and blasting horns being enough to make any animal nervous — humans included, Adams thought as he struggled to control their unconventional transport.
Behind him, Lynn was keeping him posted on what was going on in the street. ‘The van’s getting closer, even nudging other vehicles out of the way now,’ she yelled into his ear. ‘Police cars too, coming up fast behind them.’
Adams nodded his head, watching the road. He then turned to Lynn quickly.
‘Hold on!’ he yelled as he pulled down to the left, the unbridled mare turning with his will, straight across the oncoming traffic of the Compañia de Jesús.
Adams was glad that Lynn couldn’t see what was happening in front of them, as a huge Ford RV headed straight for them down the busy street. He leant in close to the mare’s neck, coaxing her onwards, until she reared upwards and vaulted the massive vehicle in one smooth motion.
‘Matt!’ Lynn cried out as the horse landed and then immediately veered sharply around another car. As Adams turned to Lynn, he felt her grip slipping from his waist, and his eyes went wide as he saw her slide straight off the side of the horse.
‘She’s going!’ Eldridge announced to the teammates in the rear of the van as they rounded the corner, forcing their way on to the Compañia de Jesús. ‘She’s going!’
In the front cabin, Eldridge and Renfrew watched as the horse miraculously vaulted the front of a huge 4x4, then snaked lithely around another car, and then — yes! — as Evelyn Edwards lost her grip on Adams and plummeted towards the hard concrete street below.
As soon as Adams felt Lynn’s grip go, his body reacted instinctively, and instantaneously.
Gripping the mare’s thick mane in one hand, he shifted his weight to the side, digging his knees in to tighten his grip, his other arm shooting out towards Lynn.
Just as she left the horse’s back, Adams clamped down on her forearm with his powerful grip, leaning halfway down the animal’s flank. The horse continued to gallop along the street, and Lynn secured her other hand over Adams’ outstretched arm, screaming as she was dragged along, feet banging painfully against the rough asphalt.
Adams grimaced in pain himself as he struggled to pull Lynn back up, still trying to control the unsaddled horse. As he pulled, Lynn’s hands clawing up his arm, he glanced forward, gasping as he saw the truck bearing down on them, its huge steel mass threatening to smash straight into both of them.
Lynn followed his eyes, her own going wide as she saw the truck. Adrenalin pouring into both of their bodies, Adams pulled with all his might, Lynn grabbing him tight, as he lifted her higher, higher, until finally she was up and Adams swung her on to the back of the horse once more, pulling his own body back out of the way as the truck blared its horn and passed them, just inches away.
In the van, Eldridge at least had the satisfaction of knowing that the police were no longer on his tail — Jacobs must have somehow called them off.
It was a blessing not to have to worry about the city’s own police force; if it had been planned from the start to be multi-agency, that would have been different. But if additional elements started to get involved once the mission was already in motion, then things would definitely get screwed up.
More screwed up, Eldridge corrected himself, because of course things were already screwed up royally. The escaping targets had not only got through the intersection with the Ricardo Cumming unscathed, weaving their way almost magically through the oncoming vehicles, their unlikely transport had now disappeared from view entirely. Luckily, the voice through his earpiece was able to update him with an instant fix, informing him that the horse had taken a sharp right up Arz González, towards Catedral. Unfortunately, it also seemed that the distance between them was steadily increasing.
‘Come on,’ he urged Renfrew. ‘Can’t this heap of junk go any faster?’
Renfrew was ignoring Eldridge at this point, concentrating with everything he had just to keep the unwieldy van on the road. But he was determined to catch them. He’d never be able to live it down if he failed to catch a horse, driving a vehicle with a five-litre V8 under the hood. But the horse did have its advantages; it was far more manoeuvrable than a motor vehicle, for a start, able to weave in and out of traffic with ease. But surely the horse would begin to tire at some stage, and then Renfrew would have them.
As the horse pushed on towards the end of Arz González, it seemed to slow. Was it getting tired already? Renfrew gunned the engine harder.
And then something happened that caused both him and Eldridge to gasp out loud.
Adams saw it from a distance, and it took him only seconds to make the decision.
The entrance to the Cumming metro station was right there ahead of them, across the Catedral that transected the end of Arz González.
He slowed the mare as they reached the end, checking the traffic on the Catedral and, seeing that it was mercifully light, speeded up straight across the street, over the sidewalk, and down the steep stairs that led to Santiago’s underground rail system.
11
The Metro de Santiago is South America’s most extensive metro system. Its five lines have more than a hundred stations and over a hundred kilometres of track; servicing over two million passengers per day, it is the city’s lifeblood.
As Adams led the loyal mare on to the platform, past the screaming, pointing, awed spectators, he was pretty sure that this would be the first time a horse had been on the tracks. He didn’t even know if the horse would be willing to leave the platform and make the jump between the steel rails, but he knew he had to take the chance — the rest of his plan depended upon making it to the tunnels.
Lynn holding tightly to him, he pulled the horse in short on the edge of the platform, and then they jumped from the safety of the platform to the tracks beneath.
The operators in the Nevada intelligence section were having their work cut out for them.