Read Online Blood Sun by David Gilman - Free Book Online Page A

but he recovered, kicked down on the pedals and felt the tires bite into the frozen sludge. Sucking in air, he kept going as fast as he could. Gran was right! A bomber’s moon brought the enemy right down your throat! Where were those clouds?
    He dared a look over his shoulder. The man was closer. A horrible sensation gripped Max. The man pursuing him with such relentlessness must be superfit. Not only had he kept a fast pace going across difficult ground, but also he had increased his speed. He obviously had untapped reserves of stamina.
    Max knew he was not going to outrun this man.
    Know your ground, use your mind. Survival needs more than guts and strength . Dad whispered in his mind like a guardian angel.
    Max knew where he was. He had run these hills and paths ever since his dad had placed him in school here. Dartmoor had dozens of danger zones. Military no-go areas, old mine shafts, bogland—there were plenty of nature’s traps ready to snare the unwary.
    Where to go ? Max’s mind raced faster than his legs. Get off the path ! Make it difficult. Make him look where he’s going ! Make him take his eyes off you!
    Cold, raw air scoured his lungs. Pedal harder! No need to turn and look now . He could hear the man’s boots brushing aside the frozen gorse. Carrying the bike again would slow him down, but he had to take the risk. He couldn’t ride here. The crossbar dug into his shoulder. He dipped left, downward past an outcrop of knuckle-like boulders, saw the edge of the moon smiling its farewell as clouds crawled all over it. Darkness! He needed darkness. Another twenty meters. In the distance, the woods, spiky grassland in front, a last glint of light to help confirm what he saw in his mind’s eye. He veered right, banged his shoulder on an unseen fist of rock. It threw him off balance. But he was almost there. Now he ran straight, right out into the open where the man could not fail to see him.
    He turned and faced his pursuer. Like a cornered rat.
    “Who are you? What do you want?” he yelled, shaking with exertion, offering himself to the predator, who was less than fifty meters away. The man was expressionless. His eyes locked on to the seemingly helpless boy.
    Max saw the ground in his head, remembered it indaylight, watched his finger trace the map as he took part in orienteering. Saw the places to avoid.
    The mantraps.
    As the darkness blanketed the moor, Stanton watched through night-vision binoculars. One of the ghosts had stopped. The other, a silvery, fast-moving apparition, raced toward it. And then floundered, half of its ghostly image disappearing from view.
    Drew was down.
    Stanton turned the ignition key.
    Max gasped in air, letting his lungs settle, watching as the man spluttered and gagged on the foul bog water. The craters were deep, some of them bottomless, according to local legend. This was Blacksnake Mire, one of the primeval pockets of sludge, camouflaged by a covering of vegetation.
    The man was trying to clamber out, but there was no means of reaching the edge. He trod water, except there was no buoyancy. The glutinous liquid was like quicksand.
    “You’re going to die. You can’t get out of these mires unless someone helps you,” Max said evenly, surprised at the objective tone of his voice. Death was part of nature, and this hunter was about to be taken into a foul grave.
    Drew spat out vomit-inducing mud and swore at Max with an even more evil spewing of expletives.
    “Why were you chasing me? Tell me!” Max demanded.
    Drew stayed silent. He was convinced he had the strength to get out of this, but the mire was sucking him down. Maybe he wasn’t going to make it.
    “Gordon! Get me out, kid.”
    Max was surprised to hear the man call him by name. “Tell me!” Max yelled. He could hear the purr of a powerful engine some distance away. It wouldn’t be a farmer. Their old workhorses coughed and spluttered through thirty years of use. This was controlled power. Like a Range