Sharp Shot Read Online Free PDF

door
shut.
    â€œNot with a freezer compartment stuck on the back,”
McCain told him. The lorry was picking up speed. The lights from the car
behind were approaching rapidly, dazzling in the mirror.
    There was a loud bump from the back of the lorry. Jade could see in
the wing mirror that plastic crates were falling out of the back,
scattering across the road.
    â€œThat was your pizza,” she told Rich.
    The car had to slew
and weave to avoid the fallen crates. It was catching them up, but there
was noway it could get ahead of them in the narrow lane. The lorry was
picking up speed.
    Then Jade realised something that made her throat go dry.
“Where exactly are we going?” she asked.
    Rich worked it out at the same moment. She could see it in his eyes,
the way he had gone pale. There was a rattle of gunfire, and the wing
mirror crazed. The glass held for a moment, a spider’s web criss-crossing
it, then it fell away.
    â€œThis is a dead end,” said Rich. “It doesn’t go
anywhere—just a gate and field and the brook.”
    â€œNow you tell me,” Ferdy said. “Still, she’s a big
powerful beast.” He dropped down a gear and the engine roared.
    A metal field gate loomed in the headlights. The lorry shuddered as
it slammed into it. The gate squealed and ripped free, flying sideways.
The lorry lurched, skidded on the muddy field, but kept going down the
shallow incline. Sheep scattered.
    â€œA brook won’t give it much trouble,” said McCain
confidently.
    â€œ ‘The brook’ is just a name,” Jade told him.
“It’s a river. A big river. And we’re heading
straight for it!”
    The headlights were bouncing as the lorry bumpedacross the uneven
field. They shimmered on the wide stretch of water beyond the trees ahead.
McCain swerved to avoid a tractor parked at the side of the field, before
lining up with a gap in the tree line.
    What wasn’t obvious until they were too close to stop was the drop
from the field down to the level of the river. Jade felt the moment the
front wheels left the ground. The front of the lorry hung in the air for a
moment, then crashed down.
    The cab lurched, and the muddy edge of the river rushed towards the
windscreen. There was a terrific crunch of metal.
    Jade’s legs jarred painfully against the dashboard. Instinctively she
braced with her hands, just stopping her head from hitting the windscreen.
Rich wasn’t so lucky—he banged his head hard against the tape deck as
the impact threw his body forwards.
    The windscreen crazed, then shattered. Water splashed in. The lorry
skidded onwards for a few more metres, sagging to one side as the axle
gave way. A wheel bounced ahead of them into the water. The sound of metal
on mud, then on stones, then on water, was deafening. Steam erupted from
the bonnet of the lorry, rising in front of them.
    Then one of the headlights went out. Silence. For several seconds all
was still.
    â€œYou OK?” Jade asked Rich.
    He raised his hand to his head, and felt the blood trickling from a
miraculously shallow cut. He winced. “Yeah, just about.”
    â€œOut—we have to get out!” McCain yelled.
    The door beside Jade had buckled and wouldn’t move. McCain bent
round, braced himself against Rich, and kicked at his door with both feet.
It fell from the side of the vehicle and clattered and splashed into the
river.
    They hauled themselves out. The lights of the pursuing car were
sweeping across the field above and behind them.
    â€œWhat now?” Rich wondered.
    â€œSorry, guys,” said McCain. “We might have to swim
for it. But I’m afraid we’ll be sitting ducks.”
    â€œSwimming ducks,” said Rich. “Ducks don’t sit on
the water. It just looks that way.”
    â€œOh shut it,” Jade told them both. “We’re getting
out of here.” She was already running.
    Rich hurried to catch up.