The Illuminati Sanctum (The Relic Hunters 6) David Leadbeater (new reading .txt) 📖

Still dazed, he wiped his eyes, trying to clear away the fog. His brain wasn’t quite able to keep up with his body. The car bucked and weaved, squeezing by other cars and eliciting waves of horn blaring.

“No way we’re gonna get rid of that chopper,” he said. “Unless... Cassidy?”

“Yeah, yeah, Cass get your gun out, I know.”

The American wound down her window and angled her body so that she could squeeze out whilst looking backward. It wasn’t easy, and she complained a lot, but Bodie was glad she’d retained the concentration levels to manage it. He could barely cling on to the wheel.

In the back seat, only Yasmine looked fully alert, the other two were sitting with glazed eyes. Bodie slammed his own horn as a car weaved in front of others, partly in anger, partly to snap Lucie and Jemma out of their pensiveness.

“The SUVs can’t be far behind,” Yasmine reminded him.

“If anyone has any bright ideas...” Bodie said. “Now’s the time to shine.”

Cassidy squeezed off a couple of shots before sliding back into her seat and muttering about only having a couple of bullets left in the mag. Bodie knew that he too was running low. Yasmine and Lucie were the only others to still have their backpacks.

“Load up,” he told them. “I don’t like the way this is going.”

The car weaved through traffic, hitting a clear patch of road that allowed Bodie to take the engine to the red line. The vehicle streaked clear, but the chopper only rose again and loomed larger in their rearview, keeping pace. As Bodie stole snatched glances through the mirrors, he saw men edging out of the doors, and one even stepping down to stand on the skids.

All carried guns.

“Shit,” he said. “I thought clearing the traffic would spell trouble.”

“There’s more ahead,” Cassidy pointed out.

Bodie saw it too, but they all knew it would take more than a minute to catch the tail end of it. A bridge loomed in the distance. He wracked his brains for a solution but was all out of ideas.

“We keep going,” Cassidy said. “Every second, every minute means something might turn in our favor. Never give up.”

Bodie wasn’t about to. The Seat responded nimbly to his demands; the small engine surprisingly reactive. Even above its screeching though, he could still hear the roar of the chopper.

“What next?” Lucie asked.

Bodie pushed his foot hard down on the gas pedal. “Catch the next bunch of cars,” he said. “And hope.”

CHAPTER ELEVEN

The bridge came up fast.

It was a long, curving span, suspended between mountains, its cables and supports brightly lit as darkness took hold of the night. Cars dotted its twin carriageways, blocking the way ahead, but Bodie approached it at top speed, trusting that they deserved at least a modicum of good luck. After all, they’d had none so far.

Before full dark fell, as a streak of crimson illuminated the western horizon and shed bloody shards across the land, Bodie drove the Seat at high speed onto the spectacular bridge. The pursuing chopper followed, nose down, rotors thudding, men hanging out of its doors with their guns readied.

Only a minute or so behind, six black SUVs powered after them in a brutal, bullying line, their front ends and sides battered from forcing slower cars aside.

Bodie kept going, there was no other option. Either they found a way out of this, or they’d be captured, or worse. There was no backup, no support. The elaborate plan they’d conceived, that had brought them all the way to Mexico, had ensured that.

“Faster!” Lucie cried, staring out the back window.

“Foot’s almost through the floor,” Bodie reported. “This is as quick as she goes.”

They were approaching the tail end of the next bunch of cars. Maybe flitting among them would earn some respite from the chase. Bodie urged their car faster through will alone, flicking the lights to full beam to encourage drivers to get out of his way. Those that didn’t might pay a hefty price.

There was a sudden heavy clunk and the car swerved. Bodie saw their roof buckle. “Bloody hell,” he said. “Did they just—”

His words were cut off as bullets sprayed the road all around them. Gunfire rang in their ears. The roar of the chopper then eclipsed all other sounds and Bodie could see its shadow on the road, a surreal black and deadly silhouette hanging over their own car, swallowing it whole.

“Shit!” he cried. “I can’t—”

And then speeding metal was everywhere, skimming past them at over a hundred miles an hour. Six big SUVs flew by, inches apart, the lead cars almost shearing off both the Seat’s side mirrors. The Seat was buffeted by their wake, squirming along the road, Bodie clinging onto the wheel and trying to keep it steady.

The SUVs closed ranks ahead, three abreast, just inches separating them.

Their brake lights came on, a blinding display of red lights that assaulted Bodie’s eyes. He hit the brake pedal a little too hard, making the wheels slide, but caught the car before it got out of hand.

“They’re forcing us to stop,” Cassidy needlessly pointed out.

“I know that!” Bodie cried. “So how about putting some bullets in them!”

Cassidy was already on it, leaning out her window and firing at the SUVs which, unwittingly, made great targets. Two rear windows blew out, as well as the taillights and passenger-side tire of the third. Burst rubber shredded, flying up into the air. The vehicle slewed to the right, opening up a gap, and then struck the central reservation.

Bodie shot into the gap it left, coaxing every last ounce of power from the engine, edging past the SUVs for now.

“Don’t forget we’re on a bloody bridge.” Lucie was agitated.