The Tomb of Hercules_A Novel

by Andy McDermott

  Floors flashed past. Windows cracked and shattered in their wake as they skidded over them, a line of destruction gouged out of the face of the building. The wind blasted at Chase’s face. He had no idea how fast they were traveling, only that it was too fast and his escape plan was looking like a very bad mistake—

  The curve of the wall shallowed, forty-five degrees, less, as they hurtled past the halfway point.

  But they weren’t slowing.

  The artificial lake at the bottom of the wall grew rapidly, a glowing swath of surreal colors. Getting closer, closer…

  They shot off the end of the last floor and hit the water, still moving fast. The window imploded behind them. A huge plume of spray burst from the front of the sled as they aquaplaned across the surface.

  Slowing rapidly, but the lakeshore was still rushing at them—

  “Jump!” Chase roared, leaping off with Sophia still clinging to him. They landed on soft grass, rolling clear of their ride as one corner bit deeply into the turf and flipped the whole thing end over end in an eruption of soil.

  “Bloody hell!” said Chase as he sat up, bruised but unbroken. “That was better than Disneyland!” He saw Sophia nearby and quickly went to her. “You okay?”

  “I’ve been better,” she said groggily. Chase lifted her to her feet. She grunted in discomfort but didn’t cry out, which he took as a good sign.

  He looked back at the Ycom building. The path they’d taken down the building was clearly visible, people gawping out through the broken glass on several floors. “We’ve got to get back to Mei’s taxi. Where’s the nearest entrance to the parking lot?”

  Sophia raised a shaking hand. “That side—”

  As if on cue, several men ran around the side of the building where she was pointing.

  “Hellfire!” Chase grabbed her hand. “Okay, plan B.”

  They hurried across an ornamental lawn. Busy roads ran along two of its edges. Chase made for the nearer one, looking first for unoccupied taxis and then, more pragmatically, for any vehicle they could commandeer.

  The traffic was too dense, too slow moving. They wouldn’t be able to make much headway in a car. What he needed was a motorbike…

  He saw one, parked at the side of the road as its owner talked on a mobile phone. It wasn’t what he would have picked in an ideal world, but he didn’t have enough options to be choosy …

  “You must be joking!” Sophia said, looking aghast at the little red delivery moped. A large wooden box with a crude painting of a tiger on the side overhung the back wheel by almost two feet, the whole thing looking ridiculously unbalanced.

  “It’s all there is!” Chase ran past the rider, who stared in surprise for a moment before realizing that he was being carjacked and shouting angrily. Chase briefly considered drawing the gun to enforce the issue, but instead reached into a pocket, drew out a wad of banknotes, and tossed them to him. “I need to borrow your bike!”

  The man caught the money, regarded it in bewilderment for a moment, then smiled ecstatically and gave Chase a thumbs-up. Chase mounted the bike and started the engine, Sophia climbing on behind him. He was about to set off when something occurred to him, and he took another roll of banknotes from his pocket. “Shit!”

  “What?” asked Sophia.

  Chase looked around for the delivery boy, but he was already racing down the street as fast as his legs would take him. “I meant to give him Chinese money!”

  “What did you give him?”

  “Five thousand dollars! It was emergency cash—that’s going to be fun to account for on my expenses!”

  Sophia almost laughed, but then saw the guards still running after them. “It still is an emergency, Eddie!”

  “Let’s hope this thing’s worth five grand, then!”

  He revved the engine, which responded with an ear-splitting whine and a cloud of blue smoke from the exhaust, and released the brake. The rear wheel squealed against the pavement, then the moped shot off down the street.

  Chase tried to get his bearings. They needed to head southeast… “Hang on!” he shouted as he swerved the moped off the pavement and into traffic. Horns blasted as he swept past the slow-moving cars, the box on the back of the bike almost scraping against them.

  “Where are we going?” Sophia demanded.

  “The maglev station! It’s the fastest way to get to the airport!”

  A car ahead was up on the curb, blocking their path. Chase made a frantic turn, cutting in front of another car and moving farther out into the road. They were now surrounded by traffic on both sides, and Shanghai lane discipline was far more ragged and disorderly than in England or America.

  A car tried to force its way into the inside lane. “Knees in!” was all Chase had time to yell as they shot past, his elbow missing the car’s side mirror by a fraction of an inch—only for the wooden box to shear it cleanly off the side of the vehicle.

  “That’s what happens when you don’t signal!” Chase yelled. The traffic ahead had stopped at lights. He needed to turn at the junction—

  A cacophony of horns behind caught his attention. “What was that?”

  Sophia looked around. “I think we have company!”

  Chase risked a look back. A car—no, two cars had driven up onto the pavement and were racing past the stationary traffic, pedestrians leaping aside. Yuen’s security forces had done some carjacking of their own.

  “Well, that’s bloody marvelous!” They reached the junction, Chase putting out one leg to support the little bike as he leaned over and swept it into the turn.

  Cars were coming the other way through the intersection, headlights blazing—

  Chase turned harder, his heel scraping along the ground. The moped wobbled, threatening to flip over, before he regained control just in time to dart in front of a car. Its front mirror clipped a corner of the wooden box, spraying splinters everywhere.

  “Jesus!” Sophia gasped. Chase fought to keep the moped upright as he guided it between two more lanes of vehicles. He heard tires screech behind, and more angry bleats of horns. A brief glance in the moped’s round mirror told him that the two cars were still pursuing them, driving against the oncoming traffic.

  And there was another white light among all the flaring red, the single headlight of a motorbike joining the pursuit. A real bike, not the crappy little 50cc toy he’d been stuck with.

  The traffic slowed again. He looked ahead. Red traffic lights, another junction. A crossroads, the road he was on meeting a wider street, buses and trucks zooming along it.

  And an illuminated sign above the pavement. The entrance to a subway station.

  “Hold on!” He pulled hard on the brake levers, the moped juddering as it sloughed off most of its speed. One end of the handlebars scraped against a car, prompting a howl of protest from its driver. Chase ignored him and guided the bike between the traffic until he reached the roadside, then bounced it up over the curb. People stared in disbelief, only jumping out of his way when they realized that he really was going to ride along the pavement. The buzzing whine of the moped’s little engine echoed back at him as they whipped past shop fronts, the street still busy even at night.

  “They’re catching up!” Sophia warned. With traffic on the other side of the road stopped by the lights, their pursuers now had a clear run.

  The crossroads was just ahead, traffic speeding through it. The subway entrance yawned on the corner. “This’ll be bumpy!” warned Chase. He stood up on the moped’s running boards. Sophia did the same, still clinging to his back.

  Concrete steps pounded beneath the bike as they dropped into the underpass. Pedestrians tumbled after them.

  The moped landed on the flat floor with a bang. Chase grimaced as he was slammed down onto the thinly padded seat, but he forced back the pain and twisted the throttle to weave through the throng. He found the button for the horn and pushed it. The sound was as weedy and annoying as the engine note, but it did the job, encouraging people to div
e out of his path.

  To his relief, directly ahead was a ramp up to the other side of the crossroads. He gunned the engine and sounded the horn in a frenzied staccato rhythm to clear his path. “You all right back there?” he called out to Sophia.

  “Oh, it’s just like old times!” she replied sarcastically.

  Chase grinned. “You love it really!” he said as they reached street level again. He looked back for their pursuers.

  The first car surged across the lanes of traffic on the main road, barely avoiding collisions with several cars as they locked their brakes. The second cleared the first lane—

  The hulking flat nose of an articulated truck smashed into its side. The car flipped and crashed down on its roof, the passenger compartment pounded flat in an explosive halo of shattered glass.

  “One down!” Chase crowed. In the mirror he saw the truck jackknife and come to a stop, blocking the junction. At least nobody else would be able to follow …

  Except the guy on the bike. The single headlight picked its way through the slew of stationary cars before accelerating after him.

  With traffic behind stopped, Chase’s side of the road was clear for the next few hundred yards. He swung off the pavement and sped up.

  But the first car and the bike now had a clear road too, and they could go much faster. Headlights filled his mirror.

  He couldn’t outrun them. Which meant he had to out-maneuver them.

  A dark alley between two buildings, coming up fast—

  Chase didn’t need to tell Sophia to hold on—she’d already guessed what he was about to do and tightened her grip around him. He turned the bike as hard as he could, the handlebars shuddering in his grasp. The running board rasped against the road, the sudden drag almost pitching them both off.

  Chase yanked at the handlebars. The moped lurched, centrifugal force pulling its riders upright again. He fought with the steering, trying to bring the bike back into a straight line before it rammed into the wall.

  The protruding mirror hit the brickwork and snapped off, spinning past him. But the moped itself missed the wall by the barest fraction of an inch.

  He straightened out. Older buildings rose on each side, a jumbled mishmash of houses abutting commercial properties. The alley itself was strewn with rubbish, empty boxes and pallets, even washing lines hanging across it.

  Light shone down the alleyway from behind, shadows stretching away in his path. Chase looked back. The car had also made the turn and was coming after them. The bike shot past the alley, undoubtedly intending to turn at the next junction to intercept them.

  He twisted the throttle, but with two passengers the moped couldn’t match the car’s acceleration. Its engine roared behind them—

  Sophia shrieked as the car nudged the back of the moped, and even Chase let out an involuntary yelp. He regained control, but the car bumped them again, harder. The top of the wooden box popped open, flapping on its hinges.

  “What’s in the box?” Chase shouted.

  “What?”

  “In the box! Is there anything in it?”

  Sophia twisted around. “Food!”

  “Throw it at them!”

  He expected her to ask why, but instead she did as she was told and lobbed the contents of the box at the car like paper grenades. Bags of cooked rice and noodles burst open on its windshield, spraying stickily across the glass.

  The car dropped back, the driver’s vision impaired. Chase glanced at it. The wipers started up, smearing food across the windshield, but it would only take a few seconds to clear.

  He looked ahead again, saw a washing line spanning his path, the alleyway narrowing beyond it…

  Sophia was out of ammo. “Eddie!”

  “Hang on!” He reached up with one hand as the moped shot beneath the line, plucking a hanging shirt from its pegs and tossing it back over Sophia’s head. It landed on the car’s windshield, sticking to the glutinous mess and blocking the driver’s view.

  Chase swerved the moped over to the left to avoid a messy stack of barrels and broken planks. The car followed, the man in the passenger seat spotting the obstruction and yelling for the blinded driver to avoid it—

  Only to smash into the corner of a building jutting out from the other side of the alley.

  The car came to an abrupt and terminal halt. Both men were catapulted through the windshield in a shower of glass and blood.

  “Should’ve worn their seat belts!” Chase said as he reached the end of the alley and made a sharp turn back into traffic, once again heading southeast. He raced between more slow-moving cars and buses, the stink of fumes stinging his nostrils. “Not that far to go now—”

  The motorbike suddenly swept out from an adjoining street and cut in front of them. The rider grabbed for Sophia.

  “Shit!” Chase braked hard, swerving away from the bike and passing in front of a van. It didn’t stop in time, hitting the wooden box and ripping it from its mounts to smash apart on the road. Out of control, the moped skidded and crashed into the side of another car. Chase’s elbow slammed against it hard enough to crack the window.

  “Eddie, keep going!” Sophia cried. The bike’s rider, one of Yuen’s uniformed security guards, waved a gun to make the traffic stop and let him through.

  Grunting in pain, Chase shoved the battered moped off the car and looked for an escape route. There was nothing in sight. One side of the road was occupied by a shopping mall, all illuminated billboards and glaring neon.

  The man on the bike was now in their lane and riding towards them, gun raised—

  Chase revved the engine and turned the sputtering moped towards the mall, weaving between other vehicles. He heard the crunch of a collision behind him. The guy on the bike would be forced to go around the accident, but it would only take him a few seconds to catch up.

  Glass doors ahead. He hoped they were automatic—

  They parted just before the moped reached them, little more than an inch of clearance on each side of the handlebars as they zoomed through. Shoppers dived out of their path.

  “He’s still coming!” Sophia warned. Chase didn’t need to look back to know that the motorbike rider had entered the mall as well, the sound of the bike’s engine an echoing roar under the shrill stutter of his own ride.

  There didn’t seem to be anywhere to go, only a bank of escalators leading up to another level and the entrance to a department store—

  Chase gritted his teeth and rode the moped through the doors. He felt the little bike slithering as the surface beneath its wheels changed from tiles to cheap purple carpet. Racks of clothes whipped past, women shrieking and jumping out of the way as he sounded the feeble horn.

  He felt Sophia shift position behind him. “What are you—”

  She grabbed the clothes on a large rack as they passed. The rack toppled and crashed to the floor behind them. Chase heard the motorbike’s brakes lock, then a Chinese curse as the rider slammed into it and the bike instantly flipped end over end in the air, landing with a sickening crash on top of the driver. “Nice one!” he cried.

  “I’m more than just a pretty face, remember?”

  “Yeah, I remember.” They emerged from the other side of the store into a large atrium. Chase still couldn’t see an exit. “How do you get out of here?”

  “That way,” Sophia told him, pointing at a ramp on the other side of the atrium.

  Chase drove for it, keeping his thumb on the horn button. “Get out of the bloody way!” he roared at a group of dawdlers blocking the path, who seemed oblivious to the rapidly approaching bike.

  Sophia directed him up the ramp, following the signs for the exit. The mall’s security personnel were finally responding to the chaos, trying to close the doors and trap the moped’s passengers inside. Chase took out the gun and fired a single shot up at the ceiling, which prompted the guards to reconsider their actions and flee for cover as he rode past and out onto a street.

  He had a fairly good idea where th
ey were—Mei had driven him through this part of the city when she’d picked him up. They weren’t far from the maglev station. He rejoined the traffic and buzzed down the road. The buildings on either side were now mostly blocks of flats. He made another turn to get onto a wider highway—

  A rush of noise from above, then suddenly they were pinned in a circle of glaring white light. The spotlight of a helicopter.

  “Is that the police?” he shouted. The chopper was coming in low above the road, its rotors whipping up a fierce wind around them.

  “Worse!” Sophia yelled back. “My husband!”

  “Chase!” boomed Yuen, voice amplified through a loudspeaker. “Stop the bike and let my wife go, now!”

  “You up for that?” Chase asked. Sophia shook her head. “Me neither.” He darted the moped between the milling cars, squeezing through every gap he could find. The spotlight followed like the pointing finger of God.

  “Chase! Last warning! Stop right now!”

  “Keep going!” Sophia ordered. “We’re almost there! And he’s in a helicopter—what can he do?”

  The answer came a moment later as the chopper dropped even lower and roared overhead, barely above the height of the streetlamps and phone cables. The blinding spotlight was now pointing back at them.

  Chase screwed up his eyes against the glare, narrowly avoiding the back end of a sharply braking car as its driver was dazzled. He realized what Yuen had in mind—the chopper was heading for the concourse outside the station, either to hover just above it and block their path, or even to land so that more of his men could come after them.

  Vehicles screeched to a halt around them, their drivers blinded. The crunching bangs of collisions pierced the thunderous noise of the helicopter like gunshots. Traffic ground to a standstill, horns blasting.

  Chase could see the station now off to the right, the metal and glass facade of the terminal building in front of the huge elevated steel tube housing the actual platforms. The helicopter drifted sideways from the road, descending towards the concourse.