Stefan relayed this to Panich who, unknown to either party at the time, was less than twenty minutes ahead of Lewis. Panich’s earlier gamble to head to Kent to interrogate the nurse began to have the look and feel of a stroke of genius. By the time that Panich had navigated the streets around Canterbury and located the correct house, his time advantage over Lewis had been reduced to ten minutes.
Panich rang Holly’s front door bell but there was no answer. This was not entirely unexpected given that it was the middle of the afternoon but it did pose a couple of follow-on questions for the Russian. Should he break into the house and search it? Or else wait in the vicinity for a short while just in case the woman made an appearance? He wasn’t convinced that breaking and entering was going to make him any the wiser in his quest for Lewis. Nor did waiting for a prolonged period seem sensible. In the end, he decided on a compromise. With Lewis heading in the general direction of Canterbury, Panich concluded that he should sensibly stay in the area a short while and see what happened. He needed to park his bike away somewhere, somewhere where he could wait discretely without attracting undue attention.
A short distance from the house was a small alleyway. It was wide enough to conceal a bike and had a tall fence along one side that provided ample cover. It would also enable Panich to answer an urgent call of nature, the result of too many earlier coffees whilst sitting in the Kensington safe house.
The alley was a narrow cul-de-sac. It led to a small lock up garage and communal refuse area belonging to an adjacent house. Panich manoeuvred the bike into the alley, turning it around so that it was facing outwards once more. He removed his bike helmet, took a packet of cigarettes and his disposable lighter from his jacket and lit up. He inhaled hard on the unfiltered cigarette. Then he walked to the rear of the alley and relieved himself against the fence, quietly amused that the simple pleasures in life could give so much instant gratification.
It was whilst in the middle of this that he heard the sound of another bike. Unable to see over the fence, he had to wait precious seconds until he was finished before investigating. He eventually peered around the corner of the alleyway. There was a man standing in the nurse’s front porch holding a bike helmet. He couldn’t see his face. Could this be Lewis? The other bike was positioned in such a way that two parked cars obscured it from his view. Panich felt in his jacket pocket for his GSh-18 pistol. Instinctively he slid the safety catch to the ‘off’ position. Returning to his bike he hit the electronic ignition and began inching the machine forward. The front wheels emerged onto the pavement in front of the alleyway.
The window of opportunity was small. Panich needed to be one hundred per cent certain that this biker was Lewis and not some unfortunate friend or acquaintance that happened to be calling. If it were Lewis, then Panich faced a decision: whether to shoot him from some distance on foot or else kill him at close range whilst he sped past on his motorbike? In Panich’s mind taking a shot as the bike sped past in front of him was the only sensible option. The other bike was facing in his direction: it would soon be leaving and the road was a one-way street. When it passed the entrance to the alleyway, there would be time enough to identify whether it was Lewis or not. If it was, Panich, waiting astride his own bike, engine on and quietly ticking over, the GSh-18 already in his hand and pointing, would take careful aim and fire: two, if not three, shots in rapid succession.
It was time this irritating British fucker was out of the picture.
77
Canterbury
Why do the obvious when the unexpected is more interesting?
This is the Ben Lewis philosophy, a survivor’s mentality, doing what was least anticipated, putting your adversaries on the back foot.
The obvious thing to do would have been to drive down the one-way street past the alley with the protruding motorbike. The unexpected would be to make a U-turn, ignore the one-way system and head back to the main road in the opposite direction to where he is currently facing. Going from A to B, via E, where E is in the completely opposite direction to B.
Checking one final time that there is no one coming down the road in his direction, Lewis deftly executes the unexpected. The one hundred and eighty degree manoeuvre and subsequent acceleration away are both implemented in one seamless transition. In the rear view mirrors, he watches for the other bike but can’t see it. He reaches the main road quickly and makes a left turn, not certain whether he is yet being followed or not. Up ahead on the left is a petrol station. Lewis pulls into the forecourt, reversing his bike so that it is tucked inside the left-hand wall of the garage. If the other biker has chosen to follow, he should pass directly in front of Lewis. With luck, he will not see Lewis until too late, if at all.
78
Canterbury
Lewis’s rapid U-turn caught Panich completely by surprise. It took precious seconds to put away his gun and move his own bike onto the road in pursuit. He was cursing loudly for having missed an opportunity to kill Lewis – all because he’d been taking a much-needed piss break. Shit, this Brit was annoying.
He quickly lost sight of Lewis’s bike. As he approached the major road junction at the end of the street, he had no option other than to head left. The road was a dual carriageway with fencing down the middle of this particular section. Panich’s eyes scanned left and right in search of the other bike. There was a garage up ahead on the left but he quickly dismissed it: a single car was refuelling on the forecourt and there was no sign of a bike that he could see from his angle. Only once he had passed the garage and was starting to accelerate away did he spot him in the mirror. The bike had to have been tucked in close to the garage’s boundary fence. Now that Panich had sped past, the other bike was trying to slip away. Panich watched as Lewis made an an illegal right turn across the central reservation, crossed over a low pavement that separated the two carriageways and turned onto the busy road, heading off rapidly in the opposite direction.
Swearing angrily, Panich performed a rapid one hundred and eight degree turn and crossed the central reservation as well, narrowly missing a fast-approaching lorry. As he sped away, blaring twin-horns of the lorry sounded off loudly in his wake.
79
Canterbury
Lewis is weaving his way around the busy A28 road that runs around the southern perimeter of the city. Twice he turns down residential side streets allowing him to navigate two sides of the same square but avoiding some of the congestion of the busy main road. He sees to his dismay that he is losing some of his initial advantage, the other bike still remaining stubbornly on his tail.
A plan is beginning to shape. It is a bit sketchy, and elements will need to be made up on the fly, but it might yet work. It will require a mixture of skill and most definitely luck for Lewis to be able pull it off. Lewis wants to lure the other biker on the A28 towards Margate. This is a road that he knows is straight but where there are numerous country lanes and cut-throughs that feed off it that meander around small tributaries of the river Stour. The plan is to draw the other bike onto the narrow, twisty side roads causing the other rider to have to change gears a lot. Changing gears is good. It means that his pursuer will need both hands on the handlebars in order to operate both throttle and clutch controls - and thus be unable to use his gun.
Once clear of the city, Lewis opens up the throttle. He alternates his position on the road between staying tight on the centre-line of the highway and hugging the curb. The former gives him the advantage of a clear line of sight for overtaking – but it also makes it easier for his pursuer to see where he is and what he is doing. Traffic is light, the two bikes quickly able to reach speeds in excess of the legal limit as they play their lethal game of cat and mouse.
Slowing to negotiate a mini roundabout, Lewis sees the other bike gaining ground. Lewis’s left-hand mirror suddenly disintegrates. One moment it had been there, the next a jagged end of metal is all that
remains. It had to be a bullet from the Russian’s gun. Lewis’s reaction is to accelerate once again, weaving his bike on the road to make him a less obvious target. One that he hopes will be increasingly difficult for Panich to aim at.
The junction he wants is fast approaching. It is a hook right-hand turn that will take him into the Kent countryside. These are roads that meander around the edges of irregular-shaped fields with tall hedgerows along the roadside. It is a landscape that Lewis hopes will make it difficult for the Russian to maintain a clear line of sight as he follows. Lewis takes the turn and risks a glance to his right as he does so. The other bike feels alarmingly close given the speeds they have both been travelling at. His pursuer’s left hand is waving what Lewis assumes to be a gun. He doesn’t wait to find out.
Accelerating down the narrow road, his memory has served him well. He is soon passing over a railway crossing, part of the main link between London and Ramsgate on the Kent coast. The crossing is clear but helpfully, the red warning lights begin to flash as he passes over the tracks. It is what he had hoped for, an indication that a train will soon be coming. Good, perhaps he has some luck left in the tank after all. His plan now has a decent chance of coming together. He reduces speed momentarily to check whether the Russian has also made it across the crossing. In response, two more shots are fired, the bullets wide of their intended target. With the Russian closing fast, Lewis pulls away again.
Approaching a three-way junction, Lewis bears left rapidly. The road turns in a gradual loop back in a direction that Lewis is hoping will eventually cross the railway line once again – this time, however, about a mile or so to the east of the other crossing. He puts on a burst of speed and the bike behind him temporarily becomes a distant blur. Lewis is in little doubt that that won’t last for long, as being chase bike is always easier than being pacesetter. The good news is that Lewis finds he needs to change gear a lot – which has the benefit that there are less bullets flying in his direction. The next part of the plan was the coin toss. From which direction would the train be coming? If it was coming from Ramsgate in the east heading towards Canterbury in the west, then his luck was out and he was going to need a new plan and quickly. If the train was heading in the other direction, then he could be in luck. In that scenario, the train would either be about to cross, or might already have crossed, the first level crossing. Which would mean that in the next twenty to thirty seconds it would be expected to arrive at the level crossing now only about three hundred metres ahead of him, around the next bend in the road.
Assuming of course, that the train was heading from west to east.
Something that he would only know once he was around the corner.
If his luck was in, the level crossing lights would be flashing and the barriers would still be down.
If his luck was out, the train would have already passed, the barriers would have been raised once more and the odds of the Russian putting a bullet in his head would have shortened.
80
Canterbury
Panich had been pleased. Twice when Lewis had dived into the side roads and backstreets he thought he might have lost him, only to discover that he’d been able to close the gap on both occasions. That was the beauty of having a fast and manoeuvrable bike. Stefan had been the bike fanatic and had made several modifications. One of which had been to tune the bike engine to peak performance. Another had been to disable the anti-lock brakes. This increased the range of options at his disposal for manoeuvring in tight and difficult situations. Panich would be able to lock up the rear wheel and even contemplate slide turns if needed.
For a right-handed man such as Panich, using the bike’s twist grip throttle control at the same time as holding on to and firing a handgun was impossible. The only solution was to hold the gun in his left hand. Not optimal, but not impossible. But only possible when he didn’t have to change gears. He had even risked a left-handed shot when they had been accelerating away from one of many roundabouts on the main road out of Canterbury at a time when there was no traffic around. He’d missed Lewis but thought he might have winged his bike. Lewis had then turned off sharply to the right and Panich had almost skidded out of control. He’d had to brake rapidly in order to follow, quickly putting his gun away and then changing down through the gears rapidly before making the turn. Both riders had slowed down as they had approached the railway crossing, Panich using the moment to fire off two more shots in rapid succession. Sadly for him, they had also both gone wild.
They continued their chase around the Kent back roads at dangerously high speeds. Panich kept his gun tucked inside his jacket with the front zip undone so as to allow easy access when the moment was right. He wasn’t good shooting with his left hand. Lewis seemed to know where he was going. Panich was as good as lost, the territory and landscape completely unfamiliar.
Crossing a bridge by a river, Lewis was now about a hundred metres ahead of him. The road was straight for a section before turning sharply to the left in the middle distance. Lewis was reducing his speed approaching the corner. Panich, sensing an opportunity, opened up the throttle, his left hand once more on the grip of his pistol tucked inside his jacket. The gap between the two was closing, now down to less than fifty metres. Panich continued accelerating towards the bend up ahead, Lewis’s tail brake light glowing red as he rounded the corner. Panich aimed a shot with his left hand, then needed to reduce his own speed given the curvature of the road. The sudden deceleration caused the shot once again to go wild. Panich swore, quickly putting the gun away before having to change gears as he entered the bend. The gap between the two bikes had narrowed.
Then he saw it. Up ahead. A short distance away in front there was another level crossing. This time, not only were the red flashing lights but also the barriers were down.
81
Canterbury
One of the dangerous parts was always going to be slowing down as he approached sharp corners. Especially the left-hand bend before the crossing. These are vulnerable moments, times when he knows he risks taking a bullet. As he exits the corner before the second crossing, he finds that he has been worrying needlessly. The Russian does indeed take a shot but aiming left-handed whilst riding a speeding motorbike was never going to be straightforward. Panich misses.
Once clear of the corner, Lewis finds that he has been holding his breath.
His luck is in.
The lights on the crossing up ahead are flashing and the barriers are down. A train will indeed shortly be approaching. He can actually see carriages moving in the middle distance, rounding a bend off to his left. The train will be on the crossing in the next ten to fifteen seconds. Timing is going to be everything.
A ‘go-decision’ suddenly looks courageous.
A ‘no-go decision’, however, looks even riskier.
They taught you some of this in the Marines. Making sense of relative speeds of different moving objects. You are on the water in vessel X, seemingly on a collision course with vessel Y. Both are travelling at some speed. How do you know whether you will hit or miss the other vessel? The answer is to ignore all of your surroundings and in particular how fast you are moving on the water. Instead you have to focus your eyes on simply one thing: the relative speed of the front of vessel Y compared to yours. If Y appears to be stationary relative to you, neither gaining speed nor slowing down, you have a problem. You steer into or avoid a collision by simply adjusting your speed. Accelerate or slow down, you either pass in front or behind. Get it wrong and there is going to be a collision.
With an approaching train, the length is the big unknown. Slowing down for a small boat to pass, and it is gone in a flash. With a train, slowing down is less straightforward. It takes a while to pass you, something akin to vessel Y being a super tanker, of unknown length, whilst vessel X is a tiny powerboat.
Lewis is watching the front of the train. Ten seconds
at most until it will be on the crossing. Relative to him, it appears stationary.
Currently on a direct collision course
He looks in his mirror. The Russian is closing in.
Time for a decision. It is, as they say, a no brainer.
Lewis twist opens the throttle and feels the adrenalin surge through his body.
82
Canterbury
He knows that he should be able to do this.
He’d had a training instructor at Lympstone who had been a bike fanatic, someone into all the tricks and stunts with a passion. One of this man’s favourites was the power slide turn, heading into a sharp corner at speed, feeling the rear wheel begin to slide. Most novice riders freeze up at this point, hitting the brakes and trying to re-establish control. Mastering the power slide turn saw you do the opposite. You actually forced yourself to let the rear wheel slide. If you were turning to the right you would countersteer to the left through the turn. Then, and here was the secret, you would open the throttle part way through, letting the rear wheel regain traction and accelerate you through to safety.
Lewis is hoping that if he is fast enough and flicks the steering sufficiently at the right moment, he will be able to make the bike power slide through the crossing – and most importantly avoid being hit by the train. Thankfully, there are no cars waiting on his side of the crossing. In order to get across whilst the barriers are down he will need to approach the crossing from the right hand side of the road and execute an S-shaped manoeuvre over the crossing. The barriers on this particular crossing are simple horizontal bars that cover one side of the road only – the left hand side.
The Dossier (Ben Lewis Thriller Book 1) Page 18