Sharp Shot

by Jack Higgins

  “Chance!” the man gasped. “Looking for John Chance. He’s the only person who can help me now.” The man collapsed to his knees, then toppled forwards to fall motionless at Rich’s feet.

  2

  “He’s still breathing,” said Jade, kneeling to examine the man. She felt his pulse, and it was strong if a bit fast. Then again, Jade wasn’t really sure what was normal.

  “He’s in that picture,” said Rich. “One of Dad’s friends from the army. The SAS.” He turned out the lights.

  “Hey, what did you do that for?” Jade demanded.

  “If there’s someone else out there with a gun, we don’t want them finding us too easily.”

  The man was coming round. He blinked and shook his head, pulling himself into a sitting position.

  “Hey, steady,” said Jade. “Rich—get him some water.”

  Rich hurried to the kitchen and was straight back with a tumbler of tap water. The man accepted it gratefully, though he spilled quite a bit down his muddy shirt. He was shivering despite the fact it was a mild evening, and he was wearing a heavy leather jacket.

  “John Chance,” he gasped again. “Got to get to John Chance.”

  Jade nodded. “He’s not here. He’s away.” She glanced at Rich, before adding: “Can we help? I’m Jade and this is Rich— John’s our dad.”

  “Away?” The man looked annoyed as much as frightened. “Why didn’t I know?”

  “Probably because he’s on a secret mission,” Rich muttered. “No one is supposed to know.”

  Jade glared at him. This wasn’t the time for criticism. “Can we help?” she asked the man again. “What’s the matter? We heard shooting—is someone after you?”

  “They’ll kill me,” the man said. He looked nervously over to the doors. The patio was still lit up by the security light; the door was swinging back and forth in the breeze, its catch broken. “If they find me, they’ll kill me. I thought Chance would help. I have to get away from them.” He grabbed the sleeve of Jade’s sweatshirt. “You have to help me. Get me away from here.”

  There was a rattle of machine gun fire from somewhere outside— closer than before. Rich hurried to the windows and looked out.

  “Can’t see anyone, but we have to assume they’ll find us. Were they close behind you?”

  The man shook his head. “But they’ll be here. We have to go. Now!”

  Rich nodded. But to Jade’s surprise he opened the desk, and hunted through for a photograph.

  “This isn’t a Kodak moment,” she told him. “It’s a get the hell out of here moment.”

  Rich had found what he was looking for. It was a faded photo of four men standing by a wall in the desert. He pointed to one of the men.

  “That’s Dad. And that’s Dex Halford…And that…” He tapped the man standing beside their dad, then pointed to the man sitting on the floor.

  Jade took the photo and held it so the man could see. “So, are you Mark or Ferdy?”

  The man blinked. “McCain—Ferdy McCain. That was in Iraq, back in 1990 with the Regiment. We took out a secret nuclear facility.”

  “Hey, cool,” said Rich.

  “Yeah, OK—in that case you really are a friend of Dad’s,” said Jade. She gave the photo back to Rich who stuffed it in his pocket. The she helped Ferdy McCain to his feet. “Now, let’s get you out of here and call for help.”

  “Got my phone,” said Rich. “We’ll do it on the way.”

  Outside, the security light had gone out. With the lights in the room turned out too, they could see out into the gloom of the garden. Jade was sure she could see movement, down by the fence. “Time to go,” she said urgently.

  “I’ll be all right,” McCain assured them. “I’ve been through worse. Just tired.”

  Rich led the way out of the dining room and into the hall. The front door had a frosted window set high in it. Through the glass they could see the silhouette of a man’s head and shoulders.

  The sound of the doorbell was deafeningly loud, and made Jade flinch.

  “Gunmen,” Rich hissed.

  “Who ring the bell?” said Jade. “Yeah, right.”

  “You’re not going to answer it?”

  Jade didn’t reply. She marched down the hallway and opened the front door. Outside was a man in uniform. He turned towards them and smiled.

  “Supermarket delivery. From our shop to your step, guaranteed.” His uniform was bright green and he was holding a clipboard. “We didn’t have any concentrated vita-mineral supplement drink, I’m afraid.”

  From the dining room came the sound of breaking glass followed by a shout.

  “Don’t think we’ll be needing it,” Jade told the man, and pushed him out of the way.

  “Healthy exercise coming up,” Rich agreed, as he and McCain ran past.

  The supermarket lorry was almost blocking the narrow lane. The delivery man wouldn’t be so happy, Jade thought, when he found out he had to back nearly a quarter of a mile before he could turn it round. Quarter of a mile to the main road through the village.

  A quarter of a mile they were never going to make. A car was coming. Its lights raked across the hedges either side of the lane as it slewed along having taken the corner too fast. The roar of its engine was louder than the idling of the lorry.

  “Not going that way,” said Jade.

  “What’s going on?” the delivery man called. His voice was drowned out by the sound of gunfire from inside the cottage. The dining room window overlooking the lane exploded. Bullets ripped into the tarmac close to where Jade and Rich were standing.

  McCain was already running. “Come on!” he yelled, hauling himself up into the cab of the lorry.

  “Hey!” the delivery man yelled, running after them.

  Jade and Rich were round the other side of the lorry, pulling themselves up into the cab as it started to move off.

  “You driven one of these before?” Rich asked as he sat in the middle of the wide bench seat. Next to him, Jade heaved the door shut.

  “Not 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.

  “That 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 no way 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.

  “This is a dead end,” said Rich. “It doesn’t go anywhere—just a gate and field and the brook.”

  “Now 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.

  “A brook won’t give it much trouble,” said McCain confidently.

  “ ‘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 bumped across 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.

  “You 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.”

  “Out—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.

  “What now?” Rich wondered.

  “Sorry, guys,” said McCain. “We might have to swim for it. But I’m afraid we’ll be sitting ducks.”

  “Swimming ducks,” said Rich. “Ducks don’t sit on the water. It just looks that way.”

  “Oh shut it,” Jade told them both. “We’re getting out of here.” She was already running.

  Rich hurried to catch up. “How?”

  “Tractor!” she yelled back at him.

  It would be close, she could tell. But they could make it to the tractor before the car reached them. The car was moving slowly, cautiously, skidding across the muddy field. The driver must be afraid he’d lose control. And he could see Jade, Rich and McCain running towards him. He must think they were coming to surrender.

  “Hope the keys are in it,” said Rich. He was gasping for breath as they ran.

  “You should get some exercise,” Jade told him.

  “What do you think I’m doing?”

  The tractor was a dark silhouette against the lights from the approaching car. Jade leaped up on to it, Rich close behind. McCain was round the driver’s side. He heaved himself up into the cab. It was tight, but they all just managed to squeeze in. Jade and Rich had to stand, squashed behind the driver’s seat.

  “The keys there?” asked Jade.

  “Who needs keys?” McCain was fumbling under the steering wheel, ripping out wires and twisting them back together. The engine spluttered into life.

  The lights were bright—dazzling Jade when she looked back at the car. She could just see the dark shape of someone leaning out of the passenger window.

  “Down!” she yelled.

  Bullets smashed through the glass of the cab, as the tractor started to move. The car hurtled towards it now as the driver accelerated. The lights disappeared, below the level of the tractor cab and too close for Jade to see.

  But she felt the impact as the car smashed into the back of the tractor.

  “That won’t do them any good,” said McCain grimly.

  The tractor was moving faster now, its massive tyres gripping easily in the muddy ground while the car slewed off to one side. It had lost a headlight and the bonnet was crumpled.

  More gunfire. But it went wide. The car was out of control, sliding across the muddy field.

  The tractor bumped down the bank to the river, its huge wheels managing what the lorry couldn’t. When they passed the shattered remains of the lorry Jade was surprised they’d even got out of the broken cab, let alone without serious injuries. But even as she thought it, she could feel her shoulder throbbing. There was blood on her hands, and she realised she must be bleeding—cut by the glass from the windscreen. Great.

  McCain took the tractor slowly through the river. “It’s wide, but is it deep?” he wondered.

  “We’ll soon find out,” said Rich. His voice was muffled and Jade saw he was eating a bread roll.

  “Where did you get that?” she demanded.

  He pointed back at the crashed lorry.

  “It’s not yours,” she told him.

  “Might be. I ordered some.” He shrugged. “Anyway, no one else will want it now.”

  Further discussion was cut off by more gunfire. The water either side of the tractor was chewed up by bullets. Several pinged off the tractor’s side.

  “Hold on!” McCain shouted.

  The roar of the engine deepened. Water washed across the floor of the tractor’s cab. Jade didn’t like to think what would happen if it reached the engine.

  Then they were climbing, up and out of the river and into the field on the other side.

  “We made it!” said Rich. “They must be awful shots.”

  Jade laughed with relief.

  “Still got to get out of the field,” McCain warned them.

  “Who are those people, and why are they after you?” asked Jade.

  Ahead of them, the tractor’s headlights picked out another gate. McCain stopped the tractor.

  “I’ll tell you once we know we’re in the clear.” He nodded at the gate. “Maybe we should open this one.”

  “I’ll get it,” said Rich. He pushed open the door, though he could probably have climbed through the empty space where the glass had been.

  A minute later they were driving along a country lane with steep hedges either side. The tractor almost filled the whole road.

  “We made it,” said Rich. “Amazing.”

  “Well done,” Jade told McCain. “Now perhaps you’ll tell us what’s going on.”

  “Got some bad guys after me,” said McCain.

  “We’d never have guessed,” said Rich.

  “Really bad guys. The worst. I was hoping John —your dad—could help me out.”

  “I’m sure he would,” said Jade, “but he’s away on…business.”

  “I can imagine,” said McCain, with a tight smile. The smile faded as he glanced over his shoulder, past Jade and Rich standing by the driver’s seat. “Sorry—looks like we spoke too soon.”

  Jade turned to look. A pair of powerful headlights was scything through the darkness behind them.

  “Could just be someone out for a drive,” said Rich.

  The car clipped a hedge as it took a corner too fast and too wide. A bullet slammed into the back of the tractor.

  “Or not,” Rich conceded, ducking down with Jade into as much cover as they could find.

  “They must have had a second car,” said McCain. “And it looks like this one is going to catch us.”

  3

  The car was weaving back and forth across the road as it came up behind them. But the tractor was so wide and the lane so narrow that there was no way past.

  “Only a matter of time before they hit a tyre,” said Rich. “Or one of us.”

  “Any suggestions?” asked Jade, her voice cracking. They’d been in trouble before—several times, in fact, since they’d come to live with their dad. But this was every bit as serious as it got.

  A bullet ripped into the metal cage surrounding the cab, making them both duck down even further. McCain was hunched over the steering wheel.

  Up ahead, at the limit of the headlights, Rich could make out a dark patch in the high hedge. It might be an opening. “Go right!” he yelled, as he saw it was a single-track lane leading off at right angles.

  McCain spun the heavy wheel, the tractor squealed as it turned. There was a smell of burning rubber as the tyres bit into the roadway. For a moment it looked like they weren’t going to make it. Then the tractor punched through the side of the hedge. Branches
and leaves raked through the cab, scratching Rich’s face.

  In a moment, they were through. The tractor roared as fast as it would go along the even narrower track. There was grass growing in the middle, and the gravel had worn away. The track was cratered with potholes.

  In the road behind, the pursuing car screeched, engine protesting as it tried to follow. And failed. There was an ear-splitting crash as it buried itself in the hedge.

  But at once it was reversing, lining up and hurtling down the track after them.

  “Farm buildings,” Jade shouted, pointing off to the left.

  The track swung in a shallow curve round towards the farm. But McCain headed straight for the buildings—across a ploughed field. The tractor lurched and bumped. There was no way the car could follow them—it would have to take the long route. McCain killed the headlights.

  “No point in telling them exactly where we are.”

  But even as he finished speaking, there was a flash of lightning, illuminating the scene brightly.

  “Even the gods are on their side,” Rich complained. “And any second we’re going to get soaked.”

  “Better than getting shot,” Jade told him.

  The buildings loomed closer, silhouetted against the deep grey sky. There was a farmhouse, several barns, outbuildings and a cattle shed.

  “Can we double back?” Jade wondered. “Get back to the road?”

  “They might have another car, waiting,” said McCain. “And it’ll take too long to turn round.”

  The tractor bumped up on to a paved courtyard outside the farmhouse. Chickens flew up in surprise and fright as the tractor woke them.

  “No lights in the house,” Rich realised. Now they were closer he could see it was in the process of being rebuilt. “Nobody home.”

  “Probably no phone either,” Jade complained. “Can you get a signal?”

  Rich had been trying. He’d called Ardman, their dad’s boss, but the phone wasn’t connecting. Maybe it was being jammed somehow, but most likely it was just rubbish coverage in the countryside. He checked again. “Nothing. You getting anything?”