Free Slayers (Jake Hawkins Book 1) by Matt Rogers

right foot remained firmly on the accelerator.
    Jake turned in his seat and saw the police car closing in on them. He could make out the features of the driver. Bryce. Briefly, the two made eye contact. Jake gulped back fear. He reached out for a handhold and gripped until his knuckles turned white.
    Crank had now fully extended himself out the window, resting against the sill. He raised the pistol and pointed it at the pursuing police car. Despite the wind buffeting his body and the tarmac rushing past below him, his aim didn ’ t falter.
    Two shots spat out of the chamber. Jake saw the gun cough twice, but barely heard the sound.
    He did hear the bursting of tires.
    He twisted around just in time to see the police car career violently off-course. Its two front wheels were nothing more than loose, flapping rubber. Bryce had lost control. It pitched left, mounted the kerb, then slammed into a row of dustbins lining the footpath. Jake saw the airbags deploy as it came to a sudden stop.
    Crank slipped back inside the car just as it was approaching the next turn. He implemented the same tactic as before, ripping the handbrake and drifting the vehicle around the corner in a flurry of smoke. This time, Jake was strapped in.
    “ Here! ” Wolfe shouted, just as they straightened out into the next street. This street seemed more deserted than the last, a little more derelict, the shops clustered a little more tightly together. It was devoid of traffic. Wolfe had pointed to a small entrance in between two shopfronts. There was a concrete ramp leading down. Crank had to turn sharply once again, but he was accurate. The bonnet swung into the ramp, barely missing the walls pressing in on each side. The rest of the car followed. Then they were shooting down the ramp. Jake felt his stomach drop.
    They swung into a small underground car park, a cramped, concrete space with two industrial-sized dumpsters against the rear wall.
    “ What is this place? ” he asked, suddenly unsure, hit by the feeling that these three men were completely in control of his fate.
    “ A car-park, ” Wolfe said. “ You ’ ve probably seen them before, in shopping centres and airports and what not. ”
    “ Ha, ” Jake said.
    “ It did take us a while to find one without security cameras though. ”
    The only other vehicle in the car park was a red Holden Astra. Crank pulled to a stop in a space at the end. Before Jake had time to ask what they were doing, the three men were out of the car, wasting no time. He followed suit.
    The men worked in a tightly organised unit. While Crank pulled a set of keys from his pocket and unlocked the Holden, Wolfe and the other man ran around to the front of the four-wheel-drive, one on each side. They both tugged sharply and ran along each side of the vehicle, peeling off a sheet of black material as they went. The sticky cover sheet peeled off to reveal that underneath, the car was in fact a light shade of burgundy.
    By the time they balled the black sheet up and tossed it in the dumpster by the rear wall, Crank had fired up the Holden and reversed it out into the middle of the lot. Wolfe flung the door open and clambered into the back seat, motioning for Jake to follow. The other man stayed behind, fiddling with the front of the four-wheel-drive. Jake ’ s vision was obscured, but after he climbed in he saw the man lift off a false set of number plates and throw them into the same dumpster. Then he jogged over to the Holden and slipped into the front seat.
    Crank gunned the engine. The Astra took off across the car park. It mounted the ramp and pulled out into the street, heading in the same direction they had been travelling before.
    The whole ordeal had taken less than a minute.
    Behind them, Jake thought he saw a figure turn the corner. His heart skipped a beat, but by then Crank had turned left and they were out of sight.
     

 
    *
     
    “ They ’ re gone, ” Superintendent Bryce yelled as he sprinted into the