Matt Reilly Stories Read Online Free PDF Page A

headshots, Mitch then leaned down and kicked
the driver clear out of the jeep. Then he dropped into the passenger seat while
Pi released the chute and landed in the driver’s seat and took the wheel.
    Pi
spun them around, and headed back for Westminster Abbey, the rest of the
motorcade in hot pursuit.
    They
skidded round a corner, shot past Parliament. Big Ben towering above them.
    Mitch
turned to Laura, ‘Hey there—’
    He
cut himself off, disturbed by a shocking sight in the distance.
    An
entire army of Allied and Nazi troops was crossing the Parliament Bridge,
coming right for them!
    It
was at least 40,000 men: on foot, on jeeps, in tanks and on motorbikes.
    ‘We
need to buy some time,’ Mitch said, thinking fast. ‘Pi, what’s the most
powerful RPG you’ve got?’
    Pi
pulled a rocket-propelled grenade from his belt. It had a glowing purple light
on it. ‘Liquid plasma. Blows big.’
    Mitch
took the plasma grenade and loaded it into his rocket launcher. Then, from the
passenger seat of the speeding jeep, he aimed it at Big Ben. ‘I can’t believe
I’m going to do this...’
    He
pulled the trigger.
    The
plasma grenade shoomed out from the launcher and slammed into the exact middle
of Big Ben just as the jeep zoomed past the historic tower.
    Impact.
Explosion. A starburst of bricks and glass blasted outwards from the historic
clocktower.
    Then,
like a slow-falling tree, Big Ben began to fall.
    Fatally
wounded in its middle, the great two-hundred-foot-tall tower toppled across the
roadway, hitting the ground with a momentous crash. The famous clock at the
summit of the tower shattered into a million pieces as it hit the bitumen.
    And
now the tower lay across the roadway, like a giant fallen tree, blocking all of
Mitch’s pursuers, exactly as Mitch had planned.
    Laura
looked sideways at Mitch. ‘You totally enjoyed doing that.’
    They
headed for Westminster Abbey.
    The
Abbey
    They
hit the Abbey at a sprint, clambered up the stairs, came to the chamber at the
top of the belltower...
    ...only
to find Humbert Hughes and his team of Nazi SS assassins waiting for them.
    ‘I
knew you’d come back here,’ Hughes sneered. ‘It’s the only way out. You’ve
fought gamely, Mr. Raleigh, but while I need Miss Bush, I have no need for
you.’ He turned to one of the Nazi men. ‘Sturmbann-fuhrer. Kill him, please.’
    The
Nazi raised his Luger and fired.
    Mitch
had no time to react.
    The
gun went off, just as a blur of colour swept in front of Mitch and he suddenly realised
that Pi had thrown himself in front of him, and taken the bullet!
    The
Nazi captain was stunned. So was Hughes.
    Mitch,
however, seized the opportunity and snatched an acid grenade from Pi’s belt,
pulled the pin, threw it. Then he yanked Laura down through the stairway hatch.
    Bam—splat!
    The
grenade went off, sending a powerful splatter of stinging sulfuric acid
spraying throughout the confined space of the belltower.
    Screams
followed.
    Mitch
burst up through the hatch, Remington shotgun booming, taking out the
acid-scarred Nazis on every side.
    Humbert
Hughes had also been hit by the acid grenade. He lay crouched in a corner of
the chamber, hands clawing at his eyes.
    ‘My
eyes!’ he screamed. ‘My eyes!’
    Mitch
leaned close and spoke...in German:
    ‘Herr
Hughes, come with me. The author is dead and we have the girl. But we must get
you to a field hospital. Come, let me guide you.’
    Blinded,
Hughes took Mitch’s hand and allowed himself to be lead...willingly...into the
Emergency Exit Portal in the corner of the chamber.
    With
Laura beside him, Mitch closed the booth’s door and hit the big red button
marked: EMERGENCY EXIT.
    The
chamber flashed white.
     
     
    Back
in the Real World
     
    Mitch
Raleigh’s eyes sprang open and he sat up from his dentist’s chair with a lurch.
    Then
he vomited.
    A
Time Tours technician helped him stand. ‘Welcome back, Mr. Raleigh. You’re a
goddamn hero.’
    Indeed
he was. The drama of Time