Read Online Crocodile Tears by Anthony Horowitz - Free Book Online Page A

the air bag out of the way and reached for the glove compartment. Somehow he managed to get it open, and more water poured out. God! They couldn’t have more than a few minutes left. The water had already risen over the edge of his seat, rushing between his legs. It was unbelievably cold.
    The whole lower part of his body no longer belonged to him.

    But he had found what he was looking for. A heavy rubber cylinder. He flicked it on and to his utter relief it worked. The beam leapt out of his hand.
    Alex had experienced more than enough in the past year, but he would never forget what he saw right then. It was the perfect nightmare.
    The car was already half filled with water, which looked as black and as thick as oil. More of it was pouring out of the ventilation ducts, coming in two steady streams. Outside the windows there was nothing. The glass didn’t even look like glass. They could have been buried alive rather than deep under the surface of Loch Arkaig … it would have made no difference. The two air bags took up most of the space in the front of the car. Edward Pleasure was slumped against his, a great gash on the side of his head. Alex undid his seat belt and twisted around. Sabina was looking more frightened than he had ever seen her. She had drawn up her legs as if she were cowering away from the water, but it had reached her anyway. It completely covered the backseat. The bottom of her silver dress was soaked.
    She was shivering with cold and fear.
    They were in a tomb. And they were alone. Nobody would have seen them leave the road. Nobody would ever find them. It would simply seem that they had vanished into thin air.
    “ Alex …” Sabina was staring at the flashlight as if it could somehow save her life. “What happened?”
    “ I don’t know. The car lost control.”
    “ Is Dad … ?”
    “ He’s okay. He’s still breathing.” The light flickered and for a brief second the darkness rushed in. It couldn’t go out now! Alex tightened his grip as if he could somehow will the batteries to keep working.
    “We’re going to have to open the window, Sabina.”

    “ Why?”
    “ It’s the reason the doors won’t open. We have to make the pressure inside the car the same as the pressure outside.”
    “ But then we’ll drown.”
    “ No.” Alex shook his head. “We didn’t sink that far. I don’t think we can be more than sixty feet down.”
    “ Sixty feet is a long way, Alex.”
    Alex drew a breath. He knew that there couldn’t be too many more breaths in this cramped compartment available to him. The water was rising all the time, the air space beneath the ceiling becoming narrower and narrower. But once the water reached the level of the air vents, it would stop.
    They would be sitting in a bubble of air that would quickly diminish as they breathed out carbon dioxide. Sabina had been wrong. They wouldn’t drown. They would suffocate.
    “ We have to get out of the car and swim for the surface,” he said. “It’s the only way.”
    “ What about Dad?”
    “ Don’t worry. I’ll look after him.”
    “ But how do we open the window?”

    All the windows in the Nissan were electrically operated, and even if the battery still had power, it wouldn’t have been enough to move them. The pressure outside was too great. A manual handle would have been equally useless. They had to break the glass. Alex thought about leaning back and kicking out, using the heel of his shoe. But he knew it wouldn’t work. He couldn’t get the right angle, and anyway, the glass was reinforced. He’d never have the strength.
    He needed a hammer or an ax. Something metallic. A fire extinguisher? There wasn’t one. Golf clubs?
    Edward Pleasure had brought golf clubs with him, but they weren’t in the car. He’d left them back at Hawk’s Lodge.
    Then Alex remembered.
    “ Sabina, where’s your dad’s walking stick?”
    “ It’s here.”
    “ Pass it to me.” He couldn’t keep the panic out of his voice.