1 Life 2 Die 4 Read Online Free PDF Page B

laughing it off
later with some mates or their partners and promising they’d try to
get more sleep in future.
    I was different though. Following my
experiences during the last few minutes, I was now a veteran of
‘impossible’ things, which made me far more accepting of what my
eyes told me. I nudged Veronica and nodded in the stranger’s
direction. Wearing a baggy black jacket and jeans, he had a small
moustache and was busily searching the wide, packed corridor
through eyes that brought to mind a snake’s dull, emotionless gaze.
The second Veronica spotted him she spun away and herded me in the
opposite direction. We had almost reached the exit onto Roma Street
when I felt something bump my arm and whoosh past an instant before
the sound of a gunshot reached my ears. Ducking down, I glanced at
my forearm to find blood oozing to the surface of a shallow gash. I
was lucky - a centimetre to the left and I’d have been seriously
wounded and in need of medical attention. Twenty and I’d have
been dead .
    In a heartbeat, Veronica had her gun aimed
through the parting crowd of panicking pedestrians. When I glanced
round, I wasn’t too surprised to see brilliant flares of light
erupting from just behind us as her shield-field halted Snake Eyes’
next volley in mid-air.
    The second the guy released the trigger, she
lobbed a smoke bomb over the top of her force-field and we bolted
for the street.
     
    *****

7
    Two more smoke
bombs saw us safely down the steps and across the street, racing
down Makerston towards the River. While we ran, I imagined the
Queensland Police Headquarters suddenly bursting to life on our
right … armed officers pouring onto the street from every exit to
protect us. But I knew it wasn’t likely. Nearly every last one of
them had probably evacuated a couple of minutes earlier, heading
for Post Office Square, on Queen Street. By now there’d be no one
left but a bunch of pencil pushers filling out paperwork while they
waited for retirement.
    My thoughts were cut short by a strafing
burst of gunfire that sent us diving for cover behind a parked blue
Commodore. Fortunately, a quick glance back through its windows
confirmed the smoke-screen was still making it impossible for our
pursuer to get a bead on us. It had just been a shot (or more
accurately, about twenty!) in the dark.
    Raising her gun above roof level, Veronica
returned the gesture, rather eloquently impressing upon Snake Eyes
that he should probably think twice before plunging through the
smoke-screen after us. She was still firing as she dragged me to my
feet and we sprinted off down the street.
    Seconds later, we swerved left onto North
Quay and began weaving our way to the other side through thick
streams of traffic. Fortunately, everything was almost at a
standstill, the interest created by our smokescreens having added
the killer punch to an already sluggish stream of afternoon
commuters. Before long we were two blocks down and heading onto
Kurilpa Bridge, one of two CBD pedestrian overpasses spanning the
wide, silt-laden city reaches of the Brisbane River. Following our
mad sprint, I was breathing heavily and it looked like a
particularly long way to the other side. Beside me, however,
Veronica seemed as relaxed as ever while she glided along, her wary
eyes darting about us in search of danger.
    As we sprinted along the gentle incline and I
looked across at GoMA (the Gallery of Modern Art) on the opposite
bank, our run of luck finally ended. I heard the whoosh of the
missile moments before I realized its laser was painting the back
of my hoodie! And I panicked. I could clearly remember what one of
its mates had done to that solid metal bus back in Queen Street.
Now this one was coming for me at about the speed of sound and I
was betting the thin fabric of my hoodie wouldn’t lessen the impact
anywhere near as much as the bus had!
    Instinctively (and quite pointlessly,
considering I had never run faster than the speed of sound