1 Life 2 Die 4 Read Online Free PDF Page A

unpainted
bobsled. All the surfaces I could see were bare shiny metal and I
noticed there was a section of railway line beneath it which ended
abruptly at the far wall.
    How did this thing get here?
    “Hop in front,” Veronica said before I had a
chance to ask.
    She jumped nimbly into the back seat and as I
climbed awkwardly into the front, I was just opening my mouth to
demand some answers when I heard an explosion from behind us. My
head whipped round and I saw that the door just behind us was
closing … and that beyond it, the one we’d dived through from the
railway tunnel had just buckled inwards alarmingly! Just before the
inner door closed completely, I saw the damaged outer door topple
forward and caught a glimpse of Baseball Cap man standing behind it
with his monster gun raised towards us!
    Thankfully, the next moment the gap sealed
and the inner door seemed to absorb his bullets without too much
fuss. Then the smoothest, most powerful ‘whir’ you could imagine
began building steadily beneath me, and when I turned back round I
saw that another door had opened ahead of us.
    “Better buckle up and get your helmet on,”
Veronica warned. When I glanced back at her, she flashed me an
adorable smile.
    I started to smile back then kinked my neck
as our ‘bobtrain’ lunged forward and I was shoved roughly back into
the padded seat. While we raced into the murky darkness of a narrow
tunnel, I had a heck of a time wrestling with my seatbelt and
helmet.
     
    *****

5
    I felt the
bobtrain veering gently to the left before a dim crack of light
appeared ahead of us and rapidly grew wider. Thankfully I’d managed
to get both my helmet and seatbelt on by the time I was close
enough to see that our small tunnel was about to merge with a
second railway tunnel. I couldn’t help thinking that if there was a
train coming along this one then I may as well have strapped myself
in with strands of spaghetti and put an eggshell on my head. The
next second we were hurtling along the empty tunnel in the
direction I estimated would take us towards Roma Street
Station.
    The cool air raced past at incredible speed
and the surprisingly quiet, unbelievably powerful whir of the
‘bobtrain’ hardly had a chance to echo off the side walls before
we’d left it behind.
    I twisted round as far as possible and could
just make out Veronica from the corner of my eye.
    “We made it!” I shouted triumphantly. There
was no way in the world those guys were going to catch us now!
    “Don’t bet on it,” she replied simply.
    I couldn’t believe it - her tone left little
doubt that, as far as she was concerned, we were far from out of
the woods.
    When would all this madness end?
    While we rocketed onwards in silence, I felt
as deflated as a balloon in a prickly pear patch. But at least I
finally had a chance to think through everything that had happened.
Where had this gorgeous woman and those two terrifying bad guys
come from? And why had Veronica grabbed me and brought me with her?
How did she keep making these impossible escapes through doors and
tunnels which simply shouldn’t be there? Sadly, it quickly became
clear that all I had were questions. What I needed were
answers .
    Despite the noise, and the fact that Veronica
was behind me, I was about to try asking her when the words died on
my lips. Ahead of us, the tunnel was emerging from beneath the
ground. The sunlight was blindingly bright following the dull
subterranean light I’d grown accustomed to, but it wasn’t hard to
make out a second train hurtling towards us round a slight
bend!
    I expected Veronica to slam on the brakes,
but to my astonishment she did absolutely nothing. I had precious
little time to worry about it though. Unlike our foot-sprint
towards the first train, at this dizzying speed I barely had time
to close my eyes and wonder how good Brisbane’s forensic guys were
– they’d need to be absolute legends to identify our remains after
we hit the train at what