Free The Reluctant Knight by Amelia Price Page A

cars here and there, not one of them tried to pull them over
for speeding. Just as they were watching the Russians' car speed
past, and not doing anything more than reporting on their progress,
they were reacting the same way to Mycroft's bullet-proof Bentley.
It seemed like the Ukrainians had decided to stay out of the car
chase happening on their roads and hope it moved into Russia
swiftly.
    We're about
twenty-two minutes behind,” Sherlock said, looking at the stopwatch
he'd just pressed halt on. The last time Amelia's car had been
mentioned, Sherlock had pressed go. They had just passed the same
stationary police car.
    An hour later and
a few minutes into the new day they heard the engine slow as the
car halted somewhere.
    “They at the
border?” Daniels asked.
    “No. They should
still be a few miles away,” Sherlock replied before Mycroft
could.
    “Are they changing
car again, then?”
    “It would be the
most logical assumption.”
    They fell into
silence again, listening as Amelia wiggled a little, but nothing
else happened for several minutes. Finally someone opened the
boot.
    An argument
started up in Russian when one of the men blamed another for doing
a bad job of tying her up. Amelia still didn't react.
    They continued to
listen as Amelia moved and brought the attention back to herself.
Mycroft found he was barely listening to the feed. As long as he
picked up on the important information, he just wanted to get there
as swiftly as possible. Just as he was about to turn it down,
Amelia started running.
    A thud echoed out
in the car as she hit the ground with both feet and then the bug
bounced along against her skin in rhythm to her movements. In
between each bounce they picked up on the yells.
    “She's buying us
time. Floor it, Daniels,” Sherlock said, and then closed his eyes
to better concentrate on the noise being fed through to them.
Mycroft didn't bother; he could easily picture the exact scene.
    Every few steps
Amelia grunted when she tripped or caught a foot, and then they
heard a loud whmmph as Amelia went over. Another loud thud and then
the sound of close Russians yelling their triumph let them know
what little extra time she had got for them was now over.
    Mycroft considered
turning the feed down for a second time instead of listening to
Amelia being punished once more, but he couldn't quite bring
himself to do it. When no severe beating came, Mycroft raised his
eyebrows.
    Either they knew
that Mycroft was close to catching up and didn't want to waste time
or her punishment was something other than a beating. Whichever it
was, he would have to wait to find out.
    As they passed a
sign saying the border was only eight miles away he clenched his
jaw. It took all his restraint to fight the emotions coursing
through him and sit in the same position and wait, but with each
mile that ticked by he managed to hold it in.
    “There, up ahead,
I think that's them,” Daniels suddenly yelled when he saw a car
drive onto their road from a slipway a quarter of a mile up ahead.
Sherlock and Mycroft both sat forward to get a better look.
    “Yes, that's the
car. Drive faster, man.”
    “I'm going as fast
as I can.” Daniels stomped his foot on the accelerator, but he was
telling the truth. They couldn't get any more out of the car.
    Mycroft could only
watch and will the car closer with his mind while they caught up
metre by metre to the also speeding car in front. When they were
still two hundred metres behind, they caught sight of the Russian
border control. It would all come down to how the guard standing by
the little hut reacted.
    “Come on,”
Sherlock said, echoing everyone's thoughts as the Russians got
closer to the border and the guard stayed in his building. As the
guard came out of the hut and finally looked at the incoming cars,
Mycroft exhaled the breath he didn't notice he'd been holding.
    Instead of
stopping the car to check their passports, the guard waved his arm
and ushered them through. As