Death Run

A patter of dust sprinkled across Ralph’s shoulders. He looked up.

At the same moment, the curtain began to tear. Jade could hear the threads ripping apart. She felt the curtain fall, jolt to a stop, then start to fall again. She was accelerating rapidly as the material ripped under her weight.

“Jade!” Rich shouted.

Ralph was staring up at her in surprise.

Then the curtain gave way entirely and Jade was falling.

Ralph gave a cry of realisation. But it was too late – Jade fell right on top of him. Her feet cannoned into the man’s bulky form and sent him sprawling backwards. Jade was on her feet at once, running to where Rich was tied to the chair. She tugged at the knots.

Several metres away, Ralph struggled to his feet. Then a massive moth-eaten theatre curtain landed on him, burying him in dusty, ragged material.

“Come on!” Jade yelled as she finally prised apart the knot.

The curtain heaved as Ralph tried to get out from under it. His hand clawed through the decayed fabric, clutching at the air. In a moment he’d be out and free.

“Thanks. That was pretty neat,” Rich gasped, as they ran for the back of the stage.

“That was pretty scary.”

Rich was grinning. “Looked it. There must be a back way out of here.”

Behind the stage was a corridor. They sprinted along it, Rich rubbing at his sore wrists, Jade punching Dad’s number into her phone. At the end of the corridor was a fire door. As they approached, it sprang open.

“Back the other way!” yelled Rich.

But Jade skidded to a halt. “No – wait.” She could hear a phone ringing. “It’s Dad!”

And sure enough, Dad appeared in the doorway. “Quick. Someone vandalised their car, but they’ll be back soon.”

“Wonder who that was,” Rich said as they emerged blinking into the bright sunlight beside a narrow canal.

“Same guy as lied about drinking, gambling and kidnapping in Mont Passat,” Jade said.

“Not fair. It was a rescue, not a kidnap,” said Chance.

“Whatever.”

“Later!” Rich yelled at them both.

At the same moment, there was another shout. The skull-faced man had appeared down the side of the theatre ahead of them. He was holding a gun.

“Later,” Jade agreed.

The other Mafia men were close behind Skull-face. They didn’t look happy. Rich, Jade and their dad turned and ran. Ahead of them, the pavement ended in a small wooden jetty. Beyond that was the canal. They were trapped.

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“I am not swimming,” Jade said. “Got that?”

“Not a lot of choice,” Rich told her.

“There’s always a choice,” Dad shot back. He was in the lead, running full pelt across the jetty – heading straight for the canal. And when he got to the edge, he kept running.

Rich was waiting for the splash, but as they reached the edge of the jetty, he could hear Dad yelling at them to hurry up. Somehow – impossibly – Dad was standing on a narrow strip of pathway further along the canal. He looked completely dry.

Three strides on to the wooden jetty and Rich could see what he’d done. There was a line of five gondolas moored next to the jetty – a bridge across to where Dad was standing. Except the gondolas were bobbing in the water and there was a gap of a metre or more between each.

The boards were wobbling under their feet, but Rich and Jade ran faster – right to the edge of the jetty. And jumped.

“Oh, my God!” Rich said. His foot jarred painfully as it hit the bottom of the first boat. The gondola heaved beneath him and he almost fell. Water in the bottom of the shallow boat washed over his shoes. Jade clutched at him as she landed too. They both leaped for the next in the line.

Again, it was a jarring moment as they landed. But immediately they were on to the next. Rich could hear the thump of heavy footsteps on the wooden jetty behind them. He did not look back.

On the third gondola, Jade sprawled forwards and Rich grabbed her, dragged her to her feet. He was breathing heavily. “Nearly there.”

“You think?”

Rich turned to see what she meant. There were two more gondolas to go. The next one was decked out with garlands of white flowers. A black coffin lay in the middle of it – right in their path. On the middle of the coffin, there was a single wet footprint.

“Oh, great,” said Rich. He took Jade’s hand and together they jumped again.

The coffin was polished and slippery and Rich felt his foot slide from under him. He pushed off as best he could. But he knew at once that he wasn’t going to make it across the next gap. The final gondola was moving. It wasn’t moored like the others – there was a man in black trousers and a striped shirt sitting back in the boat close to the single large oar. He was staring in open-mouthed astonishment at Rich and Jade as they flailed in the air.

The gondolier grabbed the oar and heaved hard. The boat swung sideways. Somehow Rich was almost on it. His foot caught on the side and he was flung forward into the boat. His wrist cracked painfully on the side of the boat. Jade landed heavily beside him. A moment later two large, heavy feet landed squarely between them. A familiar voice shouted in Italian at the gondolier.

Dad hauled Rich and Jade to their feet. “Good idea,” he said.

The gondolier was on his feet now and working the oar like his life depended on it. Maybe Dad had told him that it did. The gondola moved surprisingly fast through the water. The skull-faced man was on the boat next to them and, with a shout of rage, launched himself across the canal straight at Rich.

Again the gondolier heaved sideways on the oar. Skull-face landed on the boat, and the whole gondola tipped under his weight. The gondolier heaved again, and Skull-face, off balance from his landing, staggered backwards. He fell over the side with a stream of angry Italian followed by a loud splash.

“Oh, yuck!” Jade wiped her sleeve across her wet face.

The gondolier laughed and shouted something to Dad, who laughed back. “Grazie, Giuseppe,” he said.

“You know him?” Rich asked in surprise. He rubbed at his wrist, annoyed to see the impact had cracked the glass of his watch.

“I do now.”

Two angry men in suits were standing on the jetty watching them as the gondola moved lazily away. A third was helping Skull-face out of the water into one of the moored gondolas.

“Where are the others?” Jade wondered.

“Well, it was curtains for Ralph,” Rich said. “Don’t know about the other guy.”

“I do,” Dad said. He was pointing to a steeply-arched bridge in front of them. On it stood a tall thin man in a dark suit. Next to him was Ralph, slowly clapping his hands.