Kate was just starting to turn when they felt a jolt.
‘Christ!’ Lou exclaimed.
There was loud crunch from the rear of the Toyota as the car rammed them again.
‘What the hell’s going on?’ Kate exclaimed.
They could see almost nothing behind except for the outline of a vehicle and the dazzle of its powerful headlights.
Lou gripped the wheel. ‘I’m going to pull over.’
‘You sure that’s the right thing to do?’
‘Well, I can’t outrun them in this tin can.’
He put his headlights on full beam, lighting up a larger patch of road ahead. Fields lay each side skirted by wire fence. He was about to yank the wheel round when the car hit them again, much harder this time. They heard the grating of metal, the smash of glass. Something broke away from the car and clanked along the road behind them.
Kate screamed as Lou lost control. The Toyota spun a hundred and eighty degrees, and for a second they were travelling backwards along the highway, the other car, a white Cadillac, bearing down on them. They skidded to the left and ploughed through the wire fence and into a field, the car’s suspension grating. The drive shaft disengaged and the engine squealed like a pig. Two airbags inflated and the Toyota rolled once, twice, then stuttered to a stop a hundred feet from the highway.
17
Lou opened his eyes. Everything was a blur of colour. Then he smelled petrol.
He turned and saw Kate’s face partially concealed by an airbag. He did a mental check. He could feel pain, but it wasn’t intense — a stabbing in his left wrist. He could move, so he found the seat-belt buckle and released it. He felt around for the door handle, pulled and then pushed and the door fell away. He crawled out and around the car to the passenger side.
Kate’s door was stuck fast. But he wrenched it and it swung out. Leaning in, he saw that Kate was regaining consciousness. She opened her eyes as he reached around her and unclasped the belt.
The smell of petrol was growing stronger. Lou heard a hissing sound coming from the front offside tyre. Gripping Kate’s lapels, he pulled her away from the airbag, helping her out of the car. She groaned and mumbled something unintelligible.
He saw a light. It came from about fifty feet away, up towards the road and the ripped-open fence. The light bobbed about. Then he saw another. Torches. The beams swept the wreck of the car. Lou ducked and pulled Kate to the hard ground beside him. Looking down, he could see her face, eyes half-closed. She winced. Lou put a finger to his lips and Kate realized what was happening, gripped Lou’s arm, and together they scrambled away from the Toyota.
They headed towards an oak tree fifty yards into the field. Lou stopped. ‘The documents,’ he said and started to turn.
‘Lou… No!’ Kate grasped his arm.
The car exploded in a great ball of yellow flame. The heat hit them and they shielded their eyes from the burst of light. Lou glimpsed two dark figures running back towards the highway.
Gripping Kate by the shoulders, he looked into her eyes. ‘You all right?’
Her face was smeared with grease and mud and a line of blood trailed from her nose to her mouth. She was clutching her side with her right hand. ‘I think I’ve cracked a rib,’ she rasped. ‘It’s agony to breathe.’
Lou helped her up and went for his mobile. ‘Damn, I left my phone in the car.’
Kate searched for hers, pulled it from her pocket. The screen was shattered. She tapped it. It was dead.
‘Can you walk?’
She nodded then noticed blood running down Lou’s cheek. ‘You’re hurt.’
He touched a spot above his ear and gasped. ‘Ow!’ He lifted his left hand. ‘I think I’ve damaged my wrist too.’
They looked back to the devastated car, fire engulfing the chassis. A second explosion ripped through the night, followed by a roar of flame. They lurched back from the intense heat. A sound came from up on the highway: a car accelerating away, its tyres screeching on the tarmac. They saw a flash of white then red rear lights disappear into the darkness.
Lou supported Kate under her shoulder and helped her up a gentle slope leading away from the wreck. Keeping a safe distance from the Toyota, they picked their way through the damp undergrowth, brambles scratching at them in the dark. The ground was stodgy and wet; mud clung to their shoes.
They reached the highway, looked back and saw the red and yellow flames still feeding off the petrol spilled from the Toyota, the burning rubber and the plastic turned to stinking black smoke. They sat beside the road. Lou put his arm around Kate. She was shaking. He took off his ripped flying jacket and wrapped it about her shoulders.
Lou had no idea how long they sat there. Both of them felt too traumatized to speak, and when he saw the lights of a car approaching his first emotion was fear. He got up and was about to help Kate into the shadows when he realized the car was not the Cadillac that had followed them but an SUV. It started to slow. They could see a man and a woman in the front, two kids in the back.
The car stopped and the driver, a middle-aged man in a windcheater, jumped out and ran over to them.
‘You folks OK?’ he said.
Kate was clutching her side and looked very pale.
‘I’m all right,’ Lou said. ‘But my friend…’
‘I’m fine,’ Kate said — and fainted.
‘Wake up, sleeping beauty.’
Kate recognized the voice immediately, opened her eyes and saw Captain Jerry Derham staring down at her.
It took her a few moments to comprehend where she was and what was happening. She made to get up.
‘Easy, Kate. You’ve got a nasty concussion.’
She brought a hand to her head. ‘Lou?’
‘I’m here.’
She turned and saw him sitting on the other side of the bed. He lifted his left arm to show her a bandage about his wrist. ‘Nothing broken. We both got off pretty light.’
‘How long have I been out?’
‘A couple of hours. Doctors checked you over. Two cracked ribs, cuts and bruises. Lou’s filled me in on what you learned from Professor Campion.’
Kate began to get out of bed.
‘Hey, hey… where do you think you’re going?’ Derham began.
She glared at him. ‘I’m not hanging around here.’
‘Just—’ Lou began and stepped forward.
‘I’m perfectly OK!’ Kate pushed Lou’s hand away. ‘Hasn’t it occurred to either of you that the Campions might be in danger?’
Lou turned to Derham. The captain sighed.
‘The bastards who ran us off the road knew who we were. It wasn’t an accident. They must have tailed us from the base.’ Kate’s expression hardened. ‘Someone has betrayed us.’
Lou stared at her. ‘Newman,’ he said. ‘Professor Newman.’
Derham strode towards the door and out into the corridor beyond, pulling out his cell phone as he went.
Lou left Kate to get dressed. A nurse stopped him at the door. ‘What the hell is—’
‘We’re leaving,’ he said matter-of-factly.
‘We’ll see about that—’
‘No, we won’t,’ Lou snapped, blocking the door.
Kate appeared, looking pale.
The nurse turned and left.‘I’m fetching the consultant.’
Derham appeared around a corner close to Kate’s room. They could tell from his expression that something was very wrong.
‘Newman has vanished,’ he said. ‘My people are searching the base. I’ve sent men to his home. Another team is checking security footage at the base and from cameras on the roads around it. No one’s seen the man since he left the base twenty-four hours ago, soon after we talked to him.’
Kate turned on her heel and walked away towards the exit. ‘Get me to my godparents,’ she said without looking back.