Chaos Theory by Graham Masterton

backward, past the hotel entrance, and Charles yanked the handbrake so that it slewed around in a semicircle.
    Just as he was spinning the steering wheel to turn them towards the hotel exit, however, the windshield shattered. Adeola saw it in slow motion, millions of fragments of glittering glass, tumbling over and over. Charles’s jaw was blasted away, and then another bullet hit him in the right ear. The Range Rover ran over the herbaceous border that surrounded the hotel lounge, and then collided with the wall.
    Rick yelled, ‘Adeola! Open the door! Drop to the ground and roll under the vehicle!’
    Adeola tugged at the door handle. As she did so, another shot thumped into the Range Rover’s bodywork, with such impact that the vehicle swayed. Although the Range Rover was jammed against the side of the building, Adeola managed to open the door wide enough to force her way out of it, one hand reaching down to the ground first, to support herself, and then her head and her shoulders.
    She dropped into the wet herbaceous border, and wriggled herself underneath the Range Rover’s running board. She heard yet another shot, and another, and she heard Jimmy shouting, ‘Miko? Miko! ’
    ‘Rick?’ she called out. ‘Rick – where are you?’
    She saw Rick’s feet as he jumped down from the Range Rover’s front seat and came running around to the back. He crouched down and said, ‘Come on – we have to get out of here!’ His left cheek was decorated with blood.
    ‘Are you hit?’ she asked him.
    He touched his cheek with his fingertips. ‘No. This is Charlie’s. Come on, we have to go. If we stay here, they’ll come right over and shoot us at point-blank range.’
    ‘Oh, God!’
    ‘Just keep your wits about you. Stay close behind me. Stay low. And keep running.’
    ‘Rick—’
    ‘Save it. Come on, now. On three.’
    She crawled out from under the Range Rover and crouched down next to him. It was raining harder now, but apart from the gurgling of the gutters and the drainpipes, the hotel and the grounds around it were strangely silent. Nobody was shouting. Nobody was coming out to see what had happened. There was no sign of Jimmy or Miko.
    She could hear somebody’s cellphone warbling but that was all. It sounded like Nesta’s.
    ‘OK,’ said Rick. ‘ Three! ’
    He took hold of her left arm and dragged her out from behind the Range Rover into the open. Crouching down low, they scurried along the front of the hotel towards the entrance.
    ‘Not inside!’ said Rick. ‘They’ll have somebody waiting for us!’
    They hurried past the front door. As they did so, Adeola heard a flat, distinctive crack, and a chunk of stone flew across the driveway in front of her. There was another crack, and a privet hedge shivered, as if it were alive.
    Rick pulled her across the tennis courts, their feet splashing in shallow puddles. Then they dived down a flight of wet stone steps, and into a series of ornamental gardens.
    ‘Keep running!’ he told her.
    The gardens were overgrown with large, dripping trees. Adeola saw sundials and blind cherubs and unicorns with moss on their backs. She stumbled and lost one of her shoes but Rick wouldn’t let her stop to pick it up. She hopped for a few paces and then kicked the other one off.
    Adeola didn’t say anything, didn’t ask questions. She knew that it was Rick’s job to protect her and her best chance for survival was to do what he told her.
    They came running out of the gardens to the water’s edge. A plank causeway led along the side of the estuary, towards a cluster of small, dark, densely-wooded islands. They ran along it hand in hand, with Adeola’s bare feet slapping on the wet planks. They reached the first of the islands, where there was a small bathing hut and a wooden bench. Rick quickly looked around. ‘Bastard! He’s coming after us. He’s not going to give up, this guy.’
    Adeola started to turn her head, too, but Rick wrenched her hand and pulled her