The escort car made a sharp turn and charged their pursuers. The big rifle fired twice. Read saw the Belderkan cars scatter. Suddenly machine-gun bullets cracked and whined beside him.
"Evade," Rashid said. "Don't go down."
Without losing any forward speed, the driver took them straight up. Read's stomach bounced.
A shell exploded above them. The car rocked. He raised his eyes and saw a long crack in the roof.
"Hit the floor," Rashid said.
They knelt on the cramped floor. Rashid put on his gas mask and Read copied him. Umluana breathed like a furnace, still unconscious from the injection Rashid had given him.
I can't do anything, Read thought. They're too far away to shoot back. All we can do is run.
The sky was clear and blue. The jungle was a noisy bazaar of color. In the distance guns crashed. He listened to shells whistle by and the whipcrack of machine-gun bullets. The car roller-coastered up and down. Every time a shell passed, he crawled in waves down his own back.
Another explosion, this time very loud.
Rashid raised his eyes above the seat and looked out the rear window. "Two left. Keep down, Read."