Free The Secret of Excalibur by Andy McDermott

sword!’
    ‘All right, Jesus Christ!’ His grandmother gave him a stern look. ‘Sorry, Nan. Where does this road go?’
    ‘The top end of town,’ Nan told him - but Chase was no longer listening, his attention caught by a skirl of tyres and a flash of movement in the mirror. A black Jeep Grand Cherokee swept in behind them from a side road.
    Someone was leaning out of the passenger-side window—
    ‘ Get down! ’ Chase screamed, left arm snapping across to shove his grandmother’s head down. The rear window burst apart, glittering fragments of safety glass showering over Nina as she ducked.
    Another bullet plunked through the Focus’s hatchback door, cracking against the hard plastic of the seat back. Hunching low, Chase caught a glimpse of the shaven-headed gunman in the wing mirror. He was only armed with a pistol, but at such close range it was enough.
    ‘Who the hell are these guys?’ yelled Nina.
    ‘More Russians!’ Chase guessed. One group to carry out the hit and get the disc - and a second team to make sure nobody stopped them from escaping with their prize.
    ‘Oh, great! I don’t suppose you picked up a gun from the supermarket?’
    ‘This is England! The only people with guns are farmers and hoodies!’
    Traffic waited at a set of lights ahead, an approaching truck filling the other lane. The Jaguar braked hard and made a sharp right turn, going the wrong way down a one-way street. Chase followed suit, slamming down through the gears into a screaming, barely controlled drift after it. Nina was thrown bodily against the left-hand door, loose bottles and boxes battering her. The Focus juddered as its tyres struggled for grip, Chase battling with the wheel to hold it on the road.
    He looked ahead - and saw a bus rounding another tight corner. The Jaguar’s brake lights flared as the orange-haired woman swerved and slammed it up on to the pavement to guide it into a narrow gap between the shopfronts and a line of bollards. People screamed and dived aside as the XK raced down the hill.
    ‘Hold on!’ Chase shouted as he aimed the Focus after it.
    ‘It’s too narrow!’ Nina protested.
    ‘If they can fit, so can—’
    The passenger-side wing mirror clipped a signpost and flew off in a shower of glass and plastic. Nan gasped in fright.
    ‘Okay, I should’ve gone a bit further over,’ Chase admitted as he guided the car through the line of bollards and on to the pedestrianised area beyond. He recognised where they were - at the top of the street where he’d bought Holly her phone. Behind him, the Grand Cherokee slowed to squeeze through the gap, its bodywork scraping against the shopfronts.
    Nina looked ahead in horror as Chase accelerated again and blasted a frenzied tattoo on the horn. The street was still busy, shoppers reacting in panic as the cars raced at them. ‘Eddie, stop before we kill someone!’
    ‘If we stop, we’ll get killed!’ he countered. The black SUV had cleared the bollards, the shaven-headed man raising his gun again.
    The Jaguar weaved down the road, horn blaring - less out of concern for the lives of pedestrians than because hitting them would slow it down. Past the XK, Chase saw the clock tower overlooking the Square almost straight ahead, another road curving away to the left - but more bollards blocked the way, and the end of the pedestrian zone was blocked by a large metal gate—
    With nowhere else to go, the orange-haired woman aimed the Jaguar to the right of the gate and speeded up. People jumped aside, but one man was too slow and bounced off the bonnet to crash through the window of a Burger King. Chase grimaced, both his passengers reacting in shock.
    They cleared the gate. Chase glanced in the mirror. The Grand Cherokee was gaining, but the gap was tight even for a car, never mind an SUV - maybe too tight . . .
    The Jeep suddenly fell back, braking hard. But again the gap was just wide enough for it to fit through - it would be back in the chase very