Eye of the Storm by Mark Robson

holding David, who was protesting and struggling in vain to escape Nipper’s iron grip. Sherri leapt on board, with
Sam hard on her heels. No sooner was he in through the door than Newton slammed it shut and the car accelerated away so quickly that Sam had no time to find any sort of balance. He stumbled and
fell, landing in a crumpled heap on the floor at the back, adding more bruises to his rapidly growing collection.
    ‘Owwww!’ he groaned, struggling to find his feet.
    Sherri had been more prepared. As she had entered, she had grabbed for a handhold and managed to retain her balance. Even as the car zoomed away from the science labs, she pulled a cloth from an
inner pocket and clamped it over David’s mouth and nose. He struggled for a few more seconds and then slumped, unconscious.
    ‘I should have done that to begin with,’ she muttered. ‘Are you OK?’
    ‘Nothing broken,’ Sam groaned, rubbing at his back where it had smacked into the rear seating. He recovered his balance enough to climb into a seat and gain a solid handhold for
balance. The car seemed even more manic in its headlong race through the city than the last one Sam had ridden and he rocked as the cab flung them through the streets and on to the madcap racetrack
that was the main thoroughfare through the city.
    ‘So why didn’t you use your knockout stuff earlier?’ he asked. ‘Or your gun? David would have been a lot easier to handle if he’d been out cold, or looking down the
barrel of your pistol.’
    ‘I hoped he might join us willingly,’ she replied. ‘My mistake – sorry. He’ll be out for a while and he’ll probably have a nasty headache when he wakes
up.’
    Sam nodded and looked out through the back window of the cab. ‘Do you think we’ll be followed?’
    ‘It’s possible, but unlikely,’ said Sherri. ‘I think we took them so much by surprise that they’ll have problems tracing us. While we were looking for David, Newton
made some quick modifications to this car to make sure it’s not easy to follow. We’ll ditch it in a minute and send it on around the city. When they finally do work out how to follow
it, the car should lead them on a merry wild goose chase while we take to the under-city tunnels.’
    Sam nodded. Despite a few unforeseen glitches, the operation had worked almost exactly as they had planned. He felt like a secret agent, or a member of an elite squad like the SAS. All he was
lacking was a gun and if he could convince his mum he was responsible enough, he might be allowed to have one of those soon. Although he was hurting in several places, he felt a rush of elation
unlike anything he had ever felt before.
    If I’d known being an eco-warrior could be this much fun, I’d have signed up to Miss Turner’s Go Green Club years ago, he thought, clinging on to his handhold as the cab
swerved right without warning . But somehow I can’t see Miss Turner organising the school’s Go Green Club to leap off buildings and kidnap scientists. It’s a shame – she
would probably get a lot more members if she did.

CHAPTER EIGHT
    The approaching wail of a siren woke Niamh from deep sleep with a start. Hurling off the duvet, she began scrambling into her clothes, eyes searching for her footwear and the
nearest escape route. Why hadn’t she thought to plan for this before she went to sleep? Fumbling with the button on her shorts, she barged through the bedroom door and all but fell into the
hallway even as the sound of the siren passed the house and began to recede into the distance.
    Heart pounding and breath rasping, she leaned against the wall for a moment and slowly sucked in a shuddering, chest-filling breath of air as she fought to regain some composure.
    ‘Mornin’, Niamh. You OK? You look like you just saw a ghost or somethin’.’
    As far as Niamh could tell, Carrie had not even noticed the siren. She did her best to give Carrie a smile, but she could feel that her face wasn’t