Page 118 of King’s Ransom

I said, ‘Heidi, give me your gun and speed up. Get on the left side of the ambulance.’

‘Copy that.’ She handed me her Glock 43 and gunned the accelerator.

As our little car sprang forward, I opened the passenger-side window, leaned out and fired Heidi’s short-barrelled pistol at the Ford F-150 on the left side of the ambulance.

I hit both its rear tyres and they blew out.

Then I shot its driver in the back of the head.

Blood splattered all over the inside of the truck’s windshield and now it veered left, its driver dead, away from the ambulance, and slammed into the concrete divider.

‘Heidi, go! Get in close to the ambulance’s driver-side door while we have an opening!’

‘On it!’ Heidi replied.

‘What are you doing?!’ Georgy exclaimed.

‘I’m not gonna let Audrey get kidnapped without a fight!’ I said. ‘Heidi, hit the fucking gas!’

Heidi hit the fucking gas.

As the mighty pylons of the George Washington Bridge appeared ahead of us in the night, our little red car zoomed up to the left side of the ambulance, the only flank free of enemy trucks.

The compact size of our car helped me the most, because the ski mask–wearing man now driving the big ambulance didn’t see me creep up alongside him till it was too late.

Of course, by now the trucks in front of me had seen one of their number go crashing into the divider and were visibly slowing to see what was going on.

Which meant I only had a few seconds to do what I needed to do.

The roadway whipped by below me in a blur of speed as Heidi brought me in close to the ambulance’s driver-side door—

—just as the truck directly ahead of her reduced its speed to come and investigate.

‘Heidi!’ I called over the wind. ‘See if you can distract those two trucks in front of us!’

‘You got it!’

I leapt across onto the ambulance’s running board.

Its masked driver didn’t see me until I’d swung open the door, raised my gun and shot him in the chest.

He flopped across the front seats of the ambulance, dead. I saw that he wore black fatigues and combat boots plus black goggles over his ski mask.

A professional assassin.

I kicked him further across the cabin and took the wheel.

(Outside, Heidi whipped away in the Yaris, driving it like an absolute maniac—which was normal driving for Heidi—zinging it around and in between the two trucks ahead of my ambulance, driving them crazy and, most of all, distracting them.)

In the cab of the ambulance, concerned for Audrey, I glanced into the rear section—

—to see the male paramedic crouched over Audrey on her gurney, holding her protectively as the locked-down wheeled bed rocked with our speed.

‘What the hell’s going on!’ the paramedic yelled.

‘Some bad guys are trying to kidnap her!’ I called back.

‘Who are you!’