1 Life 2 Die 4 by Dean Waite Read Free Book Online Page A

looked down, we were already about
forty metres above the ground, the air tearing wildly at our
clothes as it raced past.
    For a moment, despite rocketing forwards, we
seemed to hang in the air while I glanced around at the stunning
view of the City. Then my stomach rose into my throat as we began
dropping towards the large, flat roof of the State Library. I
peered down at the solid concrete roof far below us and reality hit
hard - we had zero chance of surviving when the bike landed. By the
time we fell that far, it’d be like dropping out of a five storey
window onto flat concrete! Sick at the thought of all those
splintered bones, I stood up, preparing to dampen the impact as
much as I could with my legs. If I timed it just right, perhaps I
could avoid compressing
all
of my vertebrae! For a moment,
I kidded myself that if I was really lucky I might even walk again
someday; but the truth was that once we crashed, we’d be sitting
ducks for Redhead and his mates.
    I pulled myself a bit more tightly into
Veronica, her body feeling just that little bit more fantastic
thanks to the knowledge I might never feel anything from my neck
down ever again. Then I was caught completely by surprise when I
heard a sudden whirring sound and the wheels began reaching down
towards the roof! It took me a moment to register that the stems on
which they were mounted were growing longer. Once the whirring
stopped, they were at least three metres long, and when we hit the
roof a moment later, the impact was cleverly absorbed as they
returned to their normal position, obviously under the intricate
control of some cunningly designed computerised suspension system.
Incredibly, it felt just like we’d landed on a gently sloping
ramp!
    Hardly bothered by the impact, we sped on
along the roof and I heard myself laughing out loud, ecstatic that
we were both still in the game!
    Veronica glanced questioningly back at me
before grinning. Then her eyes focused behind me and her face
twisted into a fearful scowl. I heard the ‘whoosh’ before I had a
chance to look around. When I did, I got a strong and unwelcome
sense of déjà vous - another evil red laser beam stretched from an
incoming missile straight to my back! Behind it, I could just make
out a dark silhouette of Redhead standing in the shattered GoMA
window we’d recently driven through. Already he was too far away to
make out properly, but I could imagine his evil, victorious grin
and I wished to God there was some way of turning that missile
around and sending it straight back down that ugly throat of
his!
    Despite our bike already moving incredibly
fast, I felt it burst forward as Veronica slammed the throttle to
the max. When I peered ahead, the far edge of the library was
coming at us more swiftly than I’d thought possible. For a moment I
even felt like we might outrun the missile. Then I looked back and
saw that it was still gaining on us at a frightening rate.
    Remembering how the earlier missile had been
locked onto my hoodie, I tried to work out whether I could get my
shirt off without toppling from the speeding bike. If I fell at
this speed, I knew I’d be dead. But if I did nothing, I was about
to experience extreme acupuncture with a high-explosive needle! It
didn’t take Einstein to tell me I had to at least try.
    Just as I was about to let go of Veronica, I
heard a tiny explosion from beneath me. My head whipped round and I
saw something flying lazily back towards the incoming missile.
    While I watched, it seemed to expand and at
first I couldn’t work out what was happening. Then, as the lethal
missile closed on the mysterious object, I realised it was a net,
with strands so fine they were near-invisible. A moment later, the
missile hit the net and detonated.
    “Thanks!” I yelled to Veronica as I turned
back round. Then the sound of the explosion caught up and its
powerful shockwave slammed into my back.
    I felt the bike swerve suddenly, but
thankfully I realised Veronica