‘Okay, but pedantry aside, ballpark figure?’
‘It will easily exceed two hundred miles per hour. Our simulations suggested the potential to reach two hundred and seventy. We intended to beat the world record for a road car.’
‘Don’t think we’ll fit the bloke from Guinness in here with us,’ said Eddie. He returned his attention to the Emir. ‘Okay, let’s see what we’ve got.’
He opened Fadil’s jacket and peeled back the bloodied material, then carefully unfastened his shirt to expose his chest. The object in the monarch’s pocket had both slowed and deflected the bullet, the entry wound angling into his flesh. Blood oozed out, but to Eddie’s relief it was not gushing. He felt the skin around it. The Emir moaned, but the Yorkshireman’s fingertips sensed a bump against his ribs that did not belong. ‘I can feel the bullet,’ he said. ‘Gideon, I need forceps or tweezers.’
They had taken an emergency kit from the medical centre. While Lobato searched through it, Eddie took a moment to see what had saved the Emir’s life. He removed the rectangular object from his jacket . . . and let out an unexpected laugh.
‘What is it?’ Nina asked.
‘The thing that stopped the bullet?’
‘Yeah?’
He held it over her shoulder. ‘It’s that book Macy made for him!’
The little volume was mangled and blood-soaked, a charred hole almost ripping it in half, but still recognisable. ‘You’re kidding! He still had it?’
To their surprise, Fadil spoke. ‘I thought it was . . . sweet,’ he whispered. ‘So I left it in my pocket and . . . just happened to choose this suit today. Divine guidance, perhaps . . . or luck. It was indeed . . . useful.’
‘Macy’ll appreciate that,’ said Nina. ‘Although I might leave out the gory details when I tell her.’
Lobato found a packet containing a pair of stainless-steel tweezers. Eddie opened it. ‘I’ll be as careful as I can, but this’ll hurt,’ he warned the Dhajani. ‘You ready?’
The Emir grimaced. ‘Do it.’
‘Okay. Nina, hold us steady.’
‘Not a problem.’ The test track was possibly the smoothest road Nina had ever driven on, and the Raiju’s active suspension and aerodynamic aids made it feel as though it was floating above the surface rather than on it. ‘But we’ll have to turn soon; I can see the main gate.’
‘How far?’
‘Couple of miles – so at this speed you’ve got maybe a minute.’
‘Slow down, just until I’ve done this.’
She was shocked to find that without conscious effort she had taken the car to almost a hundred and fifty miles per hour. Bringing it back below the ton now felt as if they were moving at walking pace. ‘Okay, I don’t want to go any slower – those guys behind’ll catch up.’
‘This is fine. Right,’ Eddie told the Emir, ‘here goes.’
The Dhajani clenched his teeth as the Yorkshireman slid the tweezers into the bloody wound. Lobato looked on in white-faced fascination. Eddie kept gently pushing until he felt resistance. His patient let out a strained moan. ‘That’s the bullet,’ he said. ‘Let’s get it out.’
He gripped the piece of metal, slowly squeezing until the tool had a firm hold, then started to pull. The Emir let out a choked cry. Eddie drew in a sharp breath, but continued.
‘Eddie,’ said Nina.
‘Just a sec,’ he told her, easing the tweezers upwards.
‘Eddie!’
‘What?’
‘There are two jeeps coming to the gate!’
‘Nothing I can do about it.’
‘Oh, thanks!’ Nina stared ahead. They were rapidly approaching the intersection of the test track and the access road. Uphill, two military vehicles were heading for the perimeter barrier – which was lowered, blocking the exit. ‘How the hell are we going to get out? Don’t suppose this thing has a universal garage door opener?’
‘It was not on my list of priorities,’ said Lobato.
‘Eddie, I’ll have to brake for the turn. Hold on—’
‘That will not be necessary,’ Lobato interrupted. ‘The ground-effect system will maintain full grip even at this speed.’
They were still doing over ninety. ‘You’ve gotta be kidding,’ said Nina in disbelief.
‘Trust me.’
The tweezers were inside the injured man’s chest. ‘If you’re wrong, it’s the Emir’s life,’ Eddie warned.
‘He is my friend,’ said the billionaire simply. ‘I do not want him to die – so trust me.’
Nina swallowed. ‘Okay . . .’ she said, forcing herself not to brake as they swept into the intersection. Instead, she turned the wheel to bring the car down an off-ramp. To her amazement, it obeyed without the slightest fuss. She was expecting to have to grapple with the wheel, but the Raiju might as well have been on rails, the suspension adjusting automatically to minimise the lateral G-forces. ‘Jeez! Is this for real?’
‘It could go even faster in autonomous mode,’ noted Lobato. ‘The computer can drive better than any human.’
‘We’ll put it into KITT mode when we don’t have anyone shooting at us,’ said Eddie. He looked past Nina. ‘Which is going to happen any second!’
The car swept out of the bend on to the access road. The two guards hurried from the gatehouse, the jeeps approaching the other side of the barrier – which was still down. ‘Oh crap!’ said Nina. ‘What do we do?’
Eddie stared at the striped pole. ‘It’s about waist-high – Gideon, how tall’s this car?’
He was not surprised to get more than an approximation. ‘One thousand and fourteen millimetres.’
‘So, a metre – Nina, go under it!’
‘We’ll never make it!’ she protested.
‘The front’s sloped, it’ll act like a wedge.’
‘Okay, but everyone better keep their heads down!’
They hunched as low as they could as she aimed the car at the barrier, Eddie hurriedly withdrawing the tweezers. The guards waved for her to halt, then ran clear when they realised she was not going to stop—
The supercar’s nose whipped under the barrier – then the polycarbonate windscreen struck the metal pole itself. The whole car shook, the window’s top crazing with the impact, but the obstruction was flung upwards. Nina gasped in fright, but kept going, swerving around the jeeps as they tried to block her way and reaching the open road beyond.
She stamped on the accelerator. The car leapt forward, shoving her back into the seat. ‘Easy, easy!’ Eddie shouted. ‘There’s a man here with a hole in his fucking chest!’
She lifted her foot off, bringing the Raiju more gently up to a hundred along the road into the mountains. A hard-edged trill came from the dashboard, a speed limit sign flashing up on one of its displays; the car was warning her that she was breaking the local traffic laws now she was on a public road, but she didn’t care. ‘Okay, we’re clear,’ she said, checking the rear-view screens. ‘So where are we going to go? Meet Rahji and get back into Saudi Arabia?’
‘No, no. If . . . we can get to Dhajan City,’ the Emir whispered, speech a strain, ‘I know a . . . place that will be safe.’
‘That’s a big if,’ said Eddie.
‘You have got me . . . this far. I have faith. It is . . . all I have!’
Nina checked a large touchscreen to the right of the wheel. It showed a map, the highway a straight line heading north. She pushed a button to zoom out until the series of curves descending towards the coast came into view. ‘We’ve got a couple of miles before things get twisty,’ she said. ‘If you’re going to get that bullet out of him, now’s the time.’
Eddie looked back at the Emir. ‘You holding up?’
‘No,’ he replied. ‘But the pain means . . . I am not dead!’
‘It’ll be over soon. Hopefully in the good way.’ The Yorkshireman brought the tweezers back to the wound. ‘I’ve got to find the bullet again,’ he told the Dhajani, slipping the bloodied metal pincer back into the hole.
The Emir tensed, trying not to cry out. Eddie probed deeper. The tweezers found the bullet where he had been forced to leave it. The tips caught it, then slipped off. He tried again—
‘Got it!’ he exclaimed as they found a firm hold. ‘Okay, let’s get it out.’
He eased the piece of metal upwards, only for a rivulet of blood to sluice from the wound. The Emir spasmed. Eddie halted. He had to apply pressure to slow the bleeding while he worked, but in his awkward position he needed his other hand to support himself. ‘Gideon! Put your hand above the hole and press on it.’
Lobato twisted and tried to reach past the Englishman with his uninjured hand, but there was not enough room. ‘I can’t.’
‘Shit!’ Eddie attempted to straighten, but the cabin roof was too low. ‘Nina, he’s bleeding, but I can’t do anything about it like this. You’ll have to stop so I can—’
‘Wait, wait,’ she said. ‘Gideon, the auto-drive – it’s really as good as you say?’
‘It is,’ Lobato replied.
‘Okay, how do I turn it on?’
‘Hey, car,’ he said. An airy chime came from the dash in response. ‘Auto mode.’
‘Destination?’ a female voice asked.
‘Dhajan City.’
‘Confirmed.’ The displays in front of Nina changed colour, taking on a purple tone. Simultaneously, the mood lights around the cabin did the same.
The wheel twitched in her hands. ‘Whoa!’ she yipped.
‘You can let go,’ Lobato told her. ‘The purple lights mean it is now in fully autonomous mode.’
‘But it’s slowing down.’ The speedometer dropped to precisely one hundred and twenty kilometres per hour.
‘It is programmed to obey national speed limits. If we need to go faster, you can deactivate it.’
‘The Emir’ll be deactivated in a minute,’ Eddie warned impatiently. ‘Nina, can you help me?’
‘Hold on.’ She unfastened her seat belt, then, fighting every instinct gained in years of driving, pulled herself around to face backwards, trusting the computer to do its job. To her relief, it continued along the road without so much as a twitch. ‘Okay, where do you want me to press?’
‘Just above the wound,’ he told her. She held her hand against the Emir’s chest. He flinched, drawing in a shuddering breath. Blood was still trickling from the bullet hole, but the pressure had slowed the flow. ‘Thanks. Just keep it there for a minute . . .’ Eddie teased the bullet upwards. ‘Nearly got it, nearly . . .’
‘Oh!’ Lobato said in alarm. ‘Look!’
‘Little busy, Gideon,’ Nina hissed.
‘But there is another helicopter!’
She glanced ahead. The angular black dot of an aircraft was visible above the mountains, coming straight towards them. ‘Crap! Eddie, I think it’s another gunship.’
The Yorkshireman couldn’t look away, a glint of metal visible within the gore. ‘Get back on the wheel.’
‘But he’ll start bleeding again—’
‘We’ll be bleeding if they shoot at us! We need to go faster – and start dodging!’
Nina reluctantly withdrew. A gush of trapped blood immediately escaped from the wound. Eddie had no choice but to ignore it. He worked the tweezers upwards, the bullet taking on form inside the wet redness. ‘Almost got it, almost . . .’
His wife took the wheel. The helicopter – another Apache – was dropping towards them. ‘How do I take back control?’ she asked Lobato.
‘Just push the brake,’ he said.
She tapped it gently. The purple lighting instantly reverted to its earlier colours. ‘Manual control restored,’ the car told her breezily. ‘Please use caution.’
‘Sorry, car, not happening,’ she replied, accelerating again. Her gaze snapped between the approaching gunship and the road, watching for the first sign of cannon fire—
The chain gun flashed, smoke belching out behind it. Nina swung the car to the other side of the road as a line of tracer rounds streaked down at them. ‘They’re shooting, they’re shooting!’
‘Yeah, I gathered!’ Eddie snapped, bracing himself. A series of crackling detonations came from outside as the incoming shells hit the road beside them. Shrapnel clattered against the car’s flank, but it was already powering clear.
He looked back at the Emir’s chest. The bullet was almost free. One last pull. He steadied himself, then eased the tweezers upwards—
‘Gotcha!’
The Emir gasped as he tugged the bullet clear, and held it up to the light. Macy’s book had robbed the round of much of its lethal force, the piece of lead mashed flat. ‘The bullet’s out,’ he announced. ‘I’ll bandage him up – you get us out of here!’
Nina saw more fire erupt from the chain gun. ‘Hang on!’ She darted back across the road, shells bursting along the car’s previous course, then accelerated hard. More searing rounds streaked directly overhead to explode behind them. The Apache continued its descent towards the road, as if trying to physically block their path. ‘It’s coming straight at us!’
‘Just keep going,’ said Eddie. He pressed his hand over the Emir’s wound. ‘Gideon, bandages! Now!’
She weaved from side to side, using the road’s whole width to avoid the lancing cannon rounds. The gunship rushed at her, still dropping – then suddenly pulled up. Lobato shrieked as the car whipped beneath it, a rush of rotor-blasted sand and spent shell casings battering the windscreen. ‘Holy crap!’ Nina cried. ‘That was too close!’
She checked the rear-view screens. The Apache was turning in place. She jammed her right foot down, hard. The Raiju’s motors whined to full power, again throwing everyone backwards. This time, she didn’t ease off. The speedo shot past one hundred, one-fifty, and kept rising. The helicopter fired again, but the cannon rounds hit nothing but the empty road behind them. It tipped nose-down and climbed in pursuit.
But the gap between the car and the chopper was still widening. ‘How fast can an Apache go?’ Nina asked.
Eddie put a gauze pad over the wound. ‘I dunno – two hundred knots or so?’
It took her only a moment to convert the measurement. ‘That’s about two hundred and thirty miles per hour – we can outrun it!’
‘We can’t outrun its gun, though.’
‘But if we get far enough ahead, it can’t lock on to us. If it just keeps firing and trying to get lucky, it’ll run out of ammo!’ She pushed her foot all the way down. The desert became a blur.
‘How long before we get to the twisty bit, though?’
‘A couple of—’ She checked the map, and saw they were almost at the weaving section of road. ‘Seconds! Oh shit!’
The landscape opened out as the Raiju rocketed towards the end of the high plain. Nina slowed, hard, panels on the car’s rear popping up to act as air brakes. One-fifty, one hundred, the first bend swinging away to the right. She had to fight with the wheel to maintain control. ‘Shit, shit!’ she gasped as the barrier came closer, the chevron signs flicking past like a stroboscope. ‘Come on, come on . . .’
The car lurched as all four wheels finally regained grip. She gasped, sweeping through the bend – only to have to slow again as the road snaked back the other way around the canyon’s edge. ‘What happened? It felt like it was glued to the road before!’
Lobato’s eyes were as wide as an owl’s. ‘I do not believe it is a fault with the car.’
‘Oh, so I’m a bad driver?’ she shot back. ‘I’d like to see you do any better!’
‘I doubt I could – but the computer can. Hey, car.’ The chime sounded again. ‘Assisted mode.’
The displays and lighting changed colour again, this time turning turquoise rather than purple. The wheel squirmed in Nina’s hands once more. ‘What’s that?’ she asked suspiciously.
‘The car will steer itself, but you control the speed,’ he replied.
‘How fast can we go?’
‘I do not know, but it will not let you crash.’
&nb
sp; ‘Sure, and the Titanic was unsinkable,’ she retorted. But she lifted her hands from the wheel, unable to escape a sense of unease as it turned without her assistance. The speedo read barely forty-five. She cautiously lowered her right foot. The needle rose, the car continuing to navigate the road with no difficulty. Sixty, now past the point where her own nerve would have failed, but it followed the lane perfectly. ‘This is just . . . weird.’
Eddie had a more pressing concern. ‘Where’s the chopper?’
The answer came as the car swept around a tight bend – and the Apache came into sight off to their left, charging down the canyon after them. ‘You had to ask!’ Nina complained, accelerating again—
Nothing happened. The chiding alert sounded. The automatic systems not only warned the driver about speed limits; they enforced them. ‘Oh come on!’ she shouted. ‘Go faster, you stupid—’
‘Wait, wait!’ said Lobato. He reached past Nina to a dashboard panel. As well as the inevitable touchscreen, this had a small cross-shaped joypad and some buttons. He hurriedly tapped at them. ‘Up, up, down, down, left, right . . .’
The helicopter was rapidly approaching, but held fire. Nina wondered if it was low on ammo, or if the gunner simply wanted to get in close to prevent the supercar from taking evasive action. Not that it could. As long as the computer was in control, she was limited to going slower or faster, and right now couldn’t even manage the latter. ‘What’re you doing?’ she demanded.
‘. . . and A!’ Lobato concluded. ‘Hey, car! Disable speed limiter!’
‘Disabling the speed limiter may result in legal penalties,’ the car replied. ‘Lobato Inc. cannot be held liable—’
‘Confirm, confirm!’
‘Speed limiter disabled. Please drive responsibly.’
‘God, it’s as annoying as its creator!’ Eddie sniped.
‘Now what?’ Nina asked.
Lobato sat back. ‘Go!’
She shoved down the pedal just as the helicopter opened fire.
Cannon rounds exploded behind the Raiju as it surged forward, the needle leaping past the speed limit – and well beyond as it kept accelerating. Nina had to force her hands away from the wheel as they swept into a seemingly suicidal series of turns. But the car remained planted on the road, the computer’s icy confidence unshakeable.
The Spear of Atlantis (Wilde/Chase 14) Page 42