The Orpheus Legacy

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

The superdrone zipped around above them, flitting from side to side and destroying any chance of Hawke being able to get an accurate shot at Kashala’s fleeing van. “Some evasive manoeuvres please!”

“All right,” she said. “But don’t say you didn’t ask for it, Josiah!”

Without another word, she swung the e-scooter to the right. Tires squealed on tarmac and Hawke felt his stomach turn as they almost tipped over. They each put their right leg out instinctively but Lea knew what she was doing, and sped around the north end of a small park. Straightening up again, she increased power and maintained her pursuit of the Mercedes Sprinter but the drone easily flew over the top of the trees in the park and resumed its position behind them.

“It’s still on our arses, Lea!”

The superdrone swung down like an eagle moving in for the kill. Level with them now and no more than three car-lengths on their tail, the machine gun swivelled around until it was aiming straight at them and opened fire.

Rounds peppered the asphalt directly behind them, racing in a perfectly straight line up the road on their way to the scooter.

Hawke squeezed Lea’s waist. “Turn!”

“If we turn off now we’ll lose the Merc!”

“If we don’t we’ll lose me!”

She took the hint and made a sharp turn to the right, pulling off into some community gardens. Speeding up, she weaved the scooter in and out of some trees before bursting out into a skate park full of sombre-looking teenagers. They started shouting at them to slow down and get out of the park.

Lea ignored them, revved the scooter and ploughed it down one of the massive concrete half-pipes. They sped down the pipe and then raced back up the other side, launching off the top of it and flying for a few seconds in the air. The denim and leather-clad teenagers gave them more abuse but dropped the attitude when Hawke twisted on the rear seat and fired on the drone. As the kids sprinted for cover, hands clamped over ears, his rounds went high, missing the airborne killer.

“Damn it!”

The scooter crashed back to earth as the teenagers made themselves scarce. Above in the sky, the superdrone zipped to the left and gained altitude to avoid some trees but quickly returned to its original vector right behind them. The machinegun spun around and fired again, its heavy calibre rounds chewing into the asphalt footpath and then blasting the concrete rim of the halfpipe.

Lea flicked her head to the left and saw the Sprinter on the main road at the east end of the park. Rapidly moving out of sight, they both knew if they lost it they also lost Jazmin and the location of Hades.

She spun the scooter to the left and raced down a quarter-pipe before shooting up into the air on the other side and smashing back down on the asphalt in a cloud of burned rubber smoke and exhaust fumes. Behind her, Hawke desperately clung on to her to stop himself falling off the back of the scooter. “Oh yeah, sorry — hang on!”

“Next time, maybe tell me that before we go flying through the air?”

“You got it.”

She swerved the scooter back onto the main road and revved the throttle, dropping a gear and speeding up to close the distance between them and the Sprinter. With the eye of a hawk focussing on a running rabbit, she weaved the e-scooter in and out of the busy traffic cruising along Andrássy út, never once taking her eye off the Mercedes van.

Behind them, the superdrone closed in and fired on them again. Rounds ripped into the concrete and sprayed up the side of a car driving behind them. The bullets ate into the steel panels like a hot knife cutting through butter. The car swerved off the road and in a hail of diesel and smoke, smashed into the front of another car passing on the other side of the road.

Both vehicles now spun around in a cloud of smoke with the impact of the crash and skidded to a smouldering heap in the center of the road, blocking all other traffic. The sound of emergency vehicles’ sirens filled the air as the municipal authorities struggled to respond to what was unfolding in their city.

“Time’s running out, Lea.”

“Tell me about it! Can’t you hit that frigging drone and take some of the heat off?”

Reaching the end of the road, the Sprinter cut across six lanes, rammed a kerb and smashed back down on the city’s famous Heroes’ Square. A UNESCO world-heritage site featuring the iconic statue complex Seven Chieftains of the Magyars, the square always drew a lot of natives and tourists alike and today was no exception.

“Holy crap!” Lea said. “They’re just driving right through anyone who gets in their way!”

Hawke peered over her shoulder and was sickened by the sight of people bouncing off the hood of the Sprinter. He took aim at one of the rear tires but before he could squeeze the trigger, he was suddenly aware of more machinegun rounds raking the ground a few inches to his right.

“So you got the drone then?” Lea said with a sigh.

“Take it easy for a few seconds.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?”

Hawke took his hand away from her waist and spun around on the seat one-eighty degrees until they were back to back and his legs were dangling over the back of the scooter. Raising the gun into the aim, he slowed his breathing and fired on the drone one more time. He winged it, smashing the landing gear to smithereens, but it wasn’t enough.

Wherever he was hiding, the drone’s unknown operator reacted fast, banking to the left and gaining some altitude to make the next shot harder.

He’s good, Hawke muttered, I’ll give him that.

The scooter lurched to the left, nearly throwing him off the vinyl seat and tumbling onto the square.

“Easy!”

“I’m doing my best!” came the reply. “And by the way, we’re going down a kerb now!”

He turned his head. “Down a wha….”

The scooter smashed down a kerb as Lea followed the Sprinter out of the square and into a massive, sprawling park.

“I said we’re going down a kerb, ya eejit!”

He clung on for his life and fired on the drone once again, this time with more success as his rounds blasted the camera and then the main case. The drone exploded in a shower of plastic and screws and fell from the sky like a dead kite.

“Did you get rid of it?”

“I did indeed,” he said as he turned around and slipped his hands back around her waist. “A shame really as I was enjoying the target practice, but some people just keep droning on.”

Lea turned her head. “For fuck’s sake, that’s terrible!”

“Look out!”

She turned back to see they were heading straight for a footbridge. Too late to change direction, she rammed the scooter up the steps, over the bridge and back down the other side at full speed. The thud thud thud of the stone steps came up through the suspension and banged on their backsides but Lea was more interested in the lake that was rapidly approaching them.

Catching the Sprinter in the corner of her eye, she steered the scooter hard to the left and skirted the artificial lake’s smooth shore. Cutting in and out of tourists enjoying the sunshine, she never took her eye off the fleeing van. She stamped her boot down and floored the accelerator, sending them both lurching backwards as the scooter surged ahead. The tires spun and a cloud of burned rubber smoke streaked out behind them like a jet plane contrail.

“Woo-hoo!” Lea yelled. “This is more like it.”

“Sometimes you’re even crazier than Cairo!”

“Thanks!”

“Where the hell did they go?”

They got their answer when the Sprinter’s nose emerged at speed from a side street and headed straight for them.

They had no need to speak. Hawke knew Lea would swing to the right and she knew he would be on it with the gun. As she steered away, he twisted to his left and raised the gun but it was too late. The impact was inevitable.

The Sprinter’s front fender made contact with the scooter’s rear tire and spun it around like a coin. Hawke clung onto Lea but the force of the impact was too great. He sailed through the air and crashed to the tarmac on the other lane. A dozen high-speed barrel-rolls later he came to a stop in the gutter in a cloud of dust and curses.

He sat up and raised his gun, refusing to be cowed by the electric pulsing he felt all over his battered body. Blood ran into his eye from a cut on his forehead and he realized his hands were trembling as adrenaline coursed through his system.

Everything was spinning — his head, the scooter and the Sprinter. After hitting them, the merc at the wheel had slammed on the brakes and steered hard to the right to avoid crashing into a line of cars parked on the side of the road. He was too slow to avoid his fate and now the Sprinter spun out of control and smashed into the cars side-on.

Turning to the right, he saw Lea was still spinning on the scooter. She steered into the spin and brought the machine under control, kicking down on the asphalt to keep her balance and then steering it back over to him.

She pulled up beside him and let the revs drop. “Talk about sitting down on the job.”

“Funny,” he said, staggering to his feet.

“How are our friends?”

“You tell me.”

The Sprinter was stationary now, steam coming from the radiator grille and the stench of burned rubber drifting around its rear. Lea climbed off the bike and they both approached the vehicle with their guns raised.

The stolen van suddenly burst to life. In a hail of spinning tires, rubber smoke and rattling tailpipes, it made a tight circle and headed back up the road. As it passed them the rear doors burst open to reveal several mercs with guns. They fired on them without mercy, spraying automatic gunfire all over the street and determined to kill them both.

“Cover!” Hawke yelled.

And then they were in the bullet-storm from hell.