Page 29 of Time of the Warlord (Stones of Scotland #5)

S adie screamed as the gun fired, but it had missed Ciaran by a long way. He slammed into Henry before the smaller man had a chance to fire a second time, and the gun went skittering across the floor. Sadie seized it with shaking hands. She didn’t really know how to use it, but surely it couldn’t be that hard. Besides, it didn’t look as if she would need it. With one punch, Ciaran sent Henry flying halfway across the room. The engineer crashed into the machine with a sickening thud.

“Let’s get out of here,” Bethany said, not even turning to look at him. “I’m sure there’s some kind of security in this place, and we don’t want to be around when they turn up.”

Sadie thoroughly agreed with that statement.

Bethany led the way, navigating unhesitatingly through long corridors and half a dozen doors. Everything looked identical to Sadie, but Bethany seemed confident of the way.

“I made a map of the place while I was planning to leave Lucan,” she explained. “You can never have too much information. Of course, I had to burn the thing to stop him finding it, but I memorized everything first.”

Sadie was impressed. If she’d still been investigating Lucan Edmondson, Bethany would have been an invaluable ally. The woman seemed to know everything.

“And here we are,” Bethany said triumphantly, throwing open a nondescript door at the bottom of a narrow staircase. “I knew he wouldn’t have told the others about them.”

Sadie’s jaw dropped. She was looking at an entire garage of sports cars. She didn’t know anything about cars, didn’t know a BMW from a Jaguar, but even she could tell that these were expensive .

“Do these belong to Professor Edmondson?” she squeaked.

“They certainly do,” Bethany said brightly. “His secret vice. He wouldn’t have told any of his staff, in case they took them for a ride. Choose which one you like.”

“You want me to drive?” Sadie squeaked, her voice even higher.

“We’re going to take a car each,” Bethany explained. “Make it harder for them to follow us. But I don’t imagine Ciaran can drive, so he’ll have to go as your passenger.”

“What are these things?” Ciaran asked, poking at one shiny door. “Are you saying that they move?”

“You’re in for quite an experience,” Bethany said with a grin. “Choose a car, Sadie.”

Feeling even more panicked and overwhelmed than when faced with a gun, Sadie picked a car at random. Bethany reached over and programmed a destination into the GPS.

“See you there,” she said, her grin broadening even further. “I always wanted to drive one of these.”

Bethany’s chosen car roared to life with a snarl like a big cat. Ciaran jumped backwards with a gasp, and Sadie couldn’t help but laugh.

“Sorry, Ciaran, but this might be a little bit terrifying.”

Bethany zoomed off, the automatic garage door lifting to let her through. Ciaran’s jaw dropped as he watched her go.

“No time to gawp,” Sadie said, hustling him towards the passenger seat. “Get in and buckle up.”

“Buckle?”

It took a moment to get Ciaran strapped in - and another moment for Sadie to gather her courage. She could do this. She was a perfectly decent driver. They could take it easy.

“Hey! Stop there!”

Of course. A group of men in fluorescent vests burst into the garage. Bethany had been right about security.

“No more time to wait,” Sadie muttered, and they were off.

The car accelerated so fast that the garage door barely had time to open. Ciaran screamed out loud as they flew out into the street and careened around the corner. The GPS shouted frantic instructions, but Sadie was too busy trying to figure out this car. Someone honked their horn at her, then someone else.

“Calm down!” she shouted, half to Ciaran and half to herself. The GPS kept on chattering and Sadie tried to focus on the instructions. No one was chasing her yet. They’d left the security guards far behind.

She calmed down enough to pause at the next traffic lights. She had to turn left here. She glanced in the wing mirror idly - and saw the fluorescent-garbed security men, all piled into a fancy vehicle just a few cars back.

Sadie swore. No time to worry about traffic regulations. She flew forwards, straight through the red light, and whirled around the corner. Then another left, and a right. And then, suddenly, she was outside the town, the busy roads fading away into country lanes. She slowed down a little, concentrating on navigating her way around the winding roads.

“Are we still alive?” Ciaran asked cautiously, as if he doubted the fact.

“For now,” Sadie said. “And I think we lost them. We can only hope that Bethany was just as lucky.”

She finally took a second to check the destination on the GPS. Castlerigg Stone Circle, Cumbria. They were going all the way to Cumbria? At least the security guards were unlikely to follow them that far. Surely they were not paid enough for cross-country chases. They could turn this one over to the police.

With their journey now a little less urgent, Sadie found she could actually relax. She wouldn’t quite say she enjoyed herself, but there was something oddly pleasurable about driving such a powerful car. The permanent expression of shock and wonder on Ciaran’s face was even better.

“How is it possible to move so fast?” he asked, his head whipping backwards and forwards as he stared at things outside the window.

“Modern technology,” Sadie said with a shrug. “You get used to it.”

“Oh, no,” Ciaran said, shaking his head. “I could never get used to this.”

Sadie just laughed and found the button for heating the seats. Perhaps she could get used to driving a car like this.