The Russians were now out of sight. ‘We’ve lost them!’ Nina cried in dismay.
‘No we bloody haven’t,’ he insisted. He powered their little vehicle down the length of the ivy-covered Radisson hotel — then made an abrupt stop. The Twizy skidded sideways, ending up pointing straight at the hotel’s main entrance.
‘Oh, you’re not…’ she moaned.
‘Oh, I am!’ Eddie stamped on the accelerator. The Twizy bounded over the low kerb and raced through the doors into the hotel’s lobby.
Guests screamed and dived aside as the little Renault zipped through the building. Eddie sounded the horn in a shrill tattoo. ‘Get out of the way!’ An elderly couple were too slow and befuddled to react, forcing him to swerve. The wet tyres slithered on the tiled floor, and the buggy wiped out a table and sent a tall lamp flying before he regained control. ‘Come on, shift your arses!’
‘Sorry,’ Nina added.
More yells and shrieks followed them as the Twizy continued through the lobby. The reception desk loomed at its end, staff gawping as the buggy charged towards them. Eddie made another hard right turn, fishtailing around a corner and scattering someone’s luggage. ‘Hope there’s a way out down here,’ he said.
‘Oh, now you’re thinking about that?’ Nina shot back.
‘You’ve known me for six years — how often have I ever planned anything in advance?’
‘If we have kids, you’re going to have to start!’ She spotted a sign on the wall with an arrow pointing right. ‘There’s an exit down that corridor.’
‘It’ll just take us back the way we came,’ Eddie objected. He saw a set of doors ahead and aimed for them, sounding the horn again. ‘This looks better.’
‘No it doesn’t!’ But it was too late to stop. She braced herself—
The Twizy rammed the doors open, almost ripping one from its hinges. Waiters leapt away on the other side, plates scattering. The couple had burst into a restaurant, what had once been a courtyard now protected from the elements by a glazed ceiling high above. Diners reacted in shock to the unexpected intrusion.
Eddie weaved between the tables. ‘Where’s the bloody way out?’ Large parts of the walls were covered by black curtains. He finally spotted the glow of an exit sign through a gap in the drapes and angled towards it.
‘Ah, don’t mind us,’ said Nina, cringing at the stunned gazes of the patrons. Some displayed recognition: she was, after all, a public figure. ‘Oh boy. Another day in the papers.’
‘Thought you’d be used to it by now. ’Scuse me,’ Eddie added, sounding the horn again to prompt a waiter to clear his path. The man had been carving a roast on a trolley beside a table; an idea came to the Englishman, and as the Twizy passed he snatched up the big knife.
‘What’re you doing?’ Nina asked.
‘Planning ahead!’ He wedged it blade-down beside his seat and steered between the curtains towards the exit. To his relief it was a swing door, the buggy barging it open and humming through. A long corridor stretched out ahead. He accelerated. ‘Where are we going to come out?’
‘I don’t think the app covers the insides of buildings,’ she complained as she checked her iPhone’s screen again. ‘Hold on… okay, this corridor looks long enough to go to the back of the building, so…’ She rotated the image, getting a better angle on the 3D representation of the hotel. ‘There’s a parking lot at the back — if we can get into that, then if we go right we’ll be back on that one-way street.’
Eddie bleated the horn again, more hotel staff jumping out of their way as the Twizy entered another lobby at the hotel’s rear. A large arched doorway led outside. A man with a staff name tag rushed to the exit as if to block their escape, but when the Renault showed no sign of slowing thought better of it and threw the doors open to save them from damage. ‘Cheers, mate,’ the Englishman said as he whipped past.
Nina gave the man an apologetic look. ‘I feel like we should have tipped him…’
Cold air hit them as they emerged into the open. The paved area between two wings of the hotel was indeed a small parking lot, a gate open to a road. Eddie drove through it, turning right, then immediately left to rejoin the one-way street. He zipped between the oncoming cars. ‘Okay, which way?’
‘Straight on,’ Nina told him. ‘If they followed the waterfront around, they’ll be coming from the left.’
He nodded in acknowledgement. ‘Hope we’re still ahead of ’em.’ The right lane was now clear of traffic; he swung into it. They were approaching a busy intersection at one end of a bridge over the river, cars and buses milling.
No sirens — or angry horns. The kidnappers hadn’t got here yet. But with their massive speed advantage over the little electric buggy, they couldn’t be far away. Steeling himself, Eddie pushed the Twizy to its full speed and shot out of the side street on to the waterfront.
Now he heard horns, furious blasts sounding to his left. ‘Here they come!’ Nina yelled, seeing a sleek black shape carving through the traffic towards them.
‘Hold tight!’ Eddie warned, sweeping across the lanes to intercept the Audi. It was already almost upon them, engine snarling. He grabbed the knife as the S4 skidded through the intersection.
The Twizy was distinctive enough to have stuck in the kidnappers’ minds. The driver reacted with surprise on seeing the Renault again, then veered sharply at it. Eddie jerked the wheel, swinging away. The Audi’s front wing scraped the pod-like body. ‘Shit!’ Nina yelped as the Russian straightened, then made another attempt to sideswipe them.
Her husband was less worried about the driver than the man beside him. The front passenger window whirred down — and a gun emerged, pointing at him—
Eddie braked hard — and stabbed the knife into the Audi’s rear tyre as it shot past.
Pain exploded through his fingers as the blade slashed the rubber before being snatched away. The larger car shimmied, knocking the Twizy into a skid — then the damaged tyre ruptured with a flat gunshot bang.
The Russian driver sawed at his steering wheel, but not even four-wheel drive could help him keep control as the speeding Audi slewed around on the wet surface. The man in the front passenger seat was thrown against the door, dropping his gun. He tried to pull back inside the cabin — then screamed as he saw what was rushing at him—
The Audi slammed side-on into an articulated bus. Windows shattered and showered passengers with glass. The S4 bounced off and spun to a standstill in the middle of the road. The gunman slumped dead out of the battered side of the car, his face and most of his arm embedded in the shredded concertina connecting the bus’s two halves. The car’s other occupants were left stunned by the impact.
Their pursuers had not escaped a crash either. Despite Eddie’s best efforts to counter its skid, the Twizy wobbled, then overturned—
He gripped the wheel, Nina clinging to his seat to hold herself up as the buggy rasped across the road on its side. It hit a kerb, the Renault’s curved roof absorbing the blow with a vicious crack.
Passers-by ran to help, worried faces peering down into the vehicle. Eddie winced as he moved; the pain in his left hand had been joined by a throb in his right shoulder where he had scraped the ground. But nothing was broken. His concern was more for his wife. ‘Nina!’ he gasped, struggling upright. ‘Are you okay?’
‘No, I’m frickin’ not!’ she cried as the onlookers helped her up. She had struck her head on the icy road, blood running from a gash above her temple. She put a hand to her forehead, and immediately wished she hadn’t as more pain stabbed through her skull. ‘Son of a bitch, that hurts!’