Free The Secret of Excalibur by Andy McDermott Page B

Cherokee powering down a hill to a second bridge, about to rejoin the hunt.
    Nan had been right - this route was shorter. They were gaining on the Jaguar. Ahead, Chase saw the elevated road over the pierfront esplanade, their hotel to the right. ‘We’re going round in bloody circles!’
    Both cars raced under the raised roadway, the pier entrance directly ahead. Stalls channelled them towards the beach, but these were semi-permanent structures backed by brick and concrete, no way to simply smash through. The Jaguar’s driver frantically looked for an exit as more sirens approached.
    Chase’s mirror suddenly filled with broken chrome teeth, the Jeep’s mangled grille snarling at him. The more powerful Grand Cherokee had caught up.
    A shot punched through the roof directly above his head and blew a hole in the windscreen. Nan screamed. ‘Eddie!’ Nina cried as he swung the car over to the driver’s side of the Jeep to deny the gunman a clear shot. Cans and bottles clattered against her. ‘Are you okay?’
    ‘Yeah!’ was all he had time to say. The Jaguar reached the end of the stalls, skidding round them to head up an access road beside the Imax. The Jeep’s engine roared right behind the Focus. If Chase turned to follow the XK, he would put everyone in the car in the gunman’s line of fire, at almost point-blank range . . .
    Some mad inspiration struck Nina, and she hurled a tin out of the shattered rear window. It hit the Jeep’s windscreen, crazing it. Startled, the driver instinctively swerved away.
    Chase saw his chance and hauled on the wheel to bring the Focus round the stalls after the Jaguar. The Grand Cherokee went wide, tilting heavily on its suspension before coming after them again.
    Nina grabbed the heaviest item she could see, a bottle of Pimm’s. The amber liquid sloshing as the car juddered round to pursue the Jaguar up the hill, she prepared to throw it—
    A man directly ahead jumped away - revealing a woman with a baby in a pushchair right behind him. Chase braked, desperately swinging the Focus . . . back into the gunman’s sights.
    Caught unawares by the sudden braking, Nina threw the bottle. It fell short, smashing on the paving.
    The gunman aimed—
    The Jeep’s front wheel ran over the jagged shards.
    The tyre exploded. The driver lost control, sawing at the wheel as he tried to bring the two-ton-plus SUV to a stop, but it was too late.
    The Grand Cherokee flipped over and barrel-rolled through the glass façade of the Imax building. It slammed into a wall - and exploded.
    The raging fireball roiled through the foyer, every pane of glass shattering and raining down on to the esplanade. ‘Bloody hell!’ said Chase, looking back at the smoking structure.
    ‘It’s an improvement,’ his grandmother said quietly.
    The Jaguar made another turn, into the exit road from a small car park. On the far side, Chase realised, was the road where he’d been caught by a speed camera less than five minutes - though it felt like five hours - earlier. From there, the dual carriageway out of town was only a couple of roundabouts away.
    He threw the Focus round the corner after the Jag, knowing that once the convertible was free of the twisting urban roads he would never catch it. The orange-haired woman turned right to head uphill, out of the town centre. He followed, a car coming down the hill barely missing him.
    More police sirens, growing louder . . .
    A roundabout ahead. The Jaguar went left - but racing straight for Chase were two more police cars, the lead one swerving the wrong way round the roundabout to block his path as the second went the other way, boxing him in—
    ‘Fuck a duck!’ Nan shrieked.
    ‘ Nan! ’ yelped Chase shocked, as he yanked the handbrake—
    The skidding Ford smashed headlong into the side of the first police car. The airbags deployed with a bang, cushioning the occupants of the front seats. Nina threw herself flat just before impact and was flung into the rear