Jake saw that five policemen had planted themselves in a line directly blocking off their escape route, in front of the open double doors. They held batons, and one of them looked to be armed and was taking a gun from a holster. There was no way the bike could squeeze past them!
Quickly, Jez veered the bike to the left. As he did so, the five policemen moved swiftly to form a line and try to block the bike’s escape. Jake expected Jez to turn and find another route to get away, but instead Jez opened the throttle and hurtled the bike directly at the policemen, aiming at the already closing gap between two of them. One of the policemen leapt out of the way of the fast-approaching bike, but the other swung his baton at them. Jake saw the baton bounce off Jez’s helmet, and then felt it hit the visor of his own, jerking him backwards. Jake clung on grimly, and felt the surge of the bike as it raced forward, heading for the large glass doors to the outside.
As they accelerated away from the police, Jake was worried that the automatic opening mechanism had been shut off, because the doors stayed shut and for a second he thought they were going to crash into the thick glass. Then, the doors opened and Jez was racing across the concrete towards a flight of steps. There was a roar as the bike left the ground, and once again they were flying through the air. The wheels hit the pavement. The bike bounced, and then Jez had turned it into the roadway, veering between the oncoming traffic.
They were away!
Chapter 29
Jez raced along the back streets and alleyways, along narrow rat runs where no car could follow, until they were well over a mile away from Euston station, before he pulled the bike to a halt.
‘You get it?’ he demanded of Jake.
Jake felt barely able to speak. The experience of clinging tightly to the bike as it had soared through the air, then crashed down to the hard concrete, had been one of the most terrifying experiences of his life.
No, he realised. His most terrifying experience had been the car ride with the men who had been going to kill him. But this bike ride had still left him shaking.
‘Yes,’ he managed to croak, and he held up the rucksack, which he’d been gripping so tightly his fingers seemed stuck to the straps.
‘OK,’ said Jez. ‘Time to phone your journalist friend and tell her to get to the place. Tell her twenty minutes.’ He grinned. ‘I’m going to do back lanes and walkways the whole way, so we don’t get picked up. So you put that rucksack on properly. We don’t want it falling off, not after all the trouble we’ve been through.’
Jake nodded and pulled the rucksack on to his back. Then he phoned Michelle, though he had trouble tapping out her number, his fingers were still shaking so much.
‘Yes?’ she said.
‘Where we said. In twenty minutes.’
‘It might take me longer. Traffic.’
‘As soon as you can,’ said Jake. ‘And when we’ve finished this call, disconnect your phone. Take out the batteries and the SIM card.’
‘Why?’ asked Michelle.
‘Because they might track you using the signal.’
He hung up. Then, just in case his trackers had been able to pinpoint his position from the mobile he was using, he did the same as he’d advised Michelle: took out the battery and the SIM card and dropped his dismantled phone in his pocket.
‘OK,’ he told Jez. ‘I’m ready.’
They pulled up outside the timber yard twenty-five minutes later, because of the number of detours that Jez had taken to throw off any possible followers. As Jake got off the bike, he wobbled; and only then did he realise just how much tension had been in his legs and arms as he held on during the ride. As he stood, taking off the crash helmet and recovering, he heard the sound of a car pull up, and automatically swung round towards it, expecting it to be trouble — maybe Gareth’s spooks. But it was Michelle.
‘This your lift?’ asked Jez.
‘Yes.’ Jake nodded.
‘OK,’ said Jez. ‘You gonna be OK now?’
‘I should be,’ said Jake.
Jez smiled.
‘Good,’ he said.
‘Listen,’ said Jake awkwardly, ‘I have to do something for you, pay you back in some way.’
‘Sure.’ Jez grinned. ‘You get to be a millionaire, you come and find me. Till then, you stay safe, and get that woman of yours back home.’
Jake looked at him, overwhelmed with emotion. This fifteen-year-old, who he didn’t know and had no ties of any sort to, had put himself in serious danger for him. And now he was just disappearing from Jake’s life.
‘I owe you, Jez,’ he said. ‘You and Ronnie.’
‘Our paths will cross, and when they do, you can help us out, if we need it,’ said Jez. ‘That’s the way the world is: we help one another out. We pass on the good thing. We do you a turn, you find someone else in trouble and you do them a turn.’