CHERUB: The Sleepwalker - Robert Muchamore Page 0,35

vision, he was stunned to see the pair running right at him. They were two metres apart, and they held a thick branch between them at shoulder height.

McEwen ducked and went for his rifle, but he was too slow. The branch smashed into him. As he tumbled off the quad and on to his side, his boot caught the hand throttle and the quad engine roared. Dana moved fast, landing heavily on McEwen’s stomach and knocking the wind out of him.

‘I’m under attack,’ McEwen shouted into his mouthpiece. ‘Get some backup over here.’

McEwen was much bigger than Dana and she knew he’d beat her if she gave him time to catch his breath. Kevlar armour covered all of McEwen’s vulnerable body parts, so Dana went for his goggles, punching them with such ferocity that the plastic bridge between the two sides cracked and blood spewed out of his nose.

‘Where are you, James?’ Dana screamed, as she looked around briefly before grabbing the handcuffs off McEwen’s belt and locking them over his wrists while he was dazed.

Getting the better of McEwen felt good, but they needed the quad to get home. James had made a lunge as it began to roll, but it was heavy and his fingers had no grip after being out in the cold. He ended up sprawled in the grass.

As he scrambled to his feet, the rolling quad’s front end turned gently into the slope and gathered speed as it rolled downhill towards the lake. James broke into a sprint, but couldn’t make up any ground. His last hope was the hedgerow along the lakeside. With luck it would be enough to stop the quad, or at least slow it sufficiently for him to catch up and grab hold of it.

The muddy front tyres reared up as evergreen leaves rustled and branches crunched. All four wheels were off the ground as James made a desperate final charge. He reached out to grab the fender over the back wheels, just as the front wheels tilted forward and raised it beyond his grasp.

The gravel path between the hedge and the lake was fairly flat and the quad crept towards the water less than two metres away. James vaulted the breach in the hedge, confident that he had time to catch up and grab the handlebars before it crashed into the lake, but as he moved out a simulated round thumped him in the back.

James collapsed as a second slammed the back of his bare leg. He spun around and saw Ryan Smythe and another red-shirt girl running downhill towards him. After straightening his safety goggles, James ducked behind the bushes as the front of the quad tipped over the edge of the lake. The water was almost a metre below the embankment and the quad teetered precariously.

The red shirts were too titchy to risk hand-to-hand combat, but they stood their ground until they spotted Dana charging down the hill towards them. One girl made a run for it, but Dana flew in with a two-footed tackle and knocked Ryan flying.

‘Goggles and rifles, short arse,’ Dana yelled, as she held Ryan down. ‘Make it snappy or I’ll throw your butt in the lake.’

James thought about going after the red shirt who was running away, but Dana had now floored McEwen and a red shirt. He figured they had two rifles and two sets of night-vision goggles, so he decided to rescue the quad bike. However, the red shirt who was on the run knew the quad would enable James and Dana to get back to the main building. When she noticed that James wasn’t coming after her, she dropped into a firing position and took aim.

The quad was an easy target and James turned around in time to view the rapid succession of shots. The first hit the back wheel, but the rest punched the metal bodywork. The simulated rounds turned to powder on impact, but had enough power to give the quad a final nudge into the water.

James dived for cover as rubber and metal hit the surface of the lake. Ducks started quacking as a huge splash spilled up the embankment, giving James a soaking. Even if they could drag the quad out without getting shot to pieces, the engine would be flooded.

‘Why didn’t you grab it?’ Dana screamed, as the two red shirts sprinted up the hill.

James was half drowned and limping from where he’d been shot in the leg. ‘What do you think I was trying