The Project by Brian Falkner

The Project by Brian Falkner

Author:Brian Falkner
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9780375983504
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2011-08-22T22:00:00+00:00


23. UNDER ARREST

Luke heard the guttural shout behind him just as Tommy yelled in his ear, “He’s seen you! Run!”

A flick of his head, and he saw Mumbo leaping down the stairs from the second-floor office.

Luke ran. He had a small head start but not much. He ran from the hangar as fast as he had ever run in his life. His backpack bounced up and down, the straps cutting into his shoulders. The sunglasses flew from his T-shirt and disappeared somewhere behind him.

“He’s at the bottom of the stairs!” Tommy informed him.

The edge of the building flashed past, and he ducked into the gap between the two hangars. The smaller fence around the hangar area would be easier to climb than the larger mesh fence by the terminal building.

“He’s out of the hangar!” Tommy yelled.

Luke didn’t look back.

He could feel each throb of his heart within the wall of his chest. His ears drummed with each heartbeat. He cut close to the far corner of the first hangar and hurtled toward the fence. The jagged spikes on top looked vicious. There was a D-shaped hole in the gate where the lock was.

“He’s right behind you!” Tommy screamed.

Luke flipped off his backpack as he sprang at the fence, throwing it up on top of the spikes. His foot found the D in the gate, and he launched himself up, scrabbling over the spikes, protected by his backpack. A hand brushed at his ankle, but he was over.

He landed in another paratrooper’s roll.

The backpack was caught on the jagged barbs. He left it there.

Tommy was running down the stairs from the walkway and heading for the exit road.

“The bikes!” Luke yelled.

Behind him, Mumbo was fumbling with a key at the gate.

Tommy and Luke darted around the side of the terminal to where they had put the bikes.

They jumped on and raced onto the looping road toward the exit.

Mumbo was through the gate now and running across the grassy center of the road, trying to cut them off. He was going to make it, too. They had too much distance to cover.

“Keep going!” Luke urged Tommy. “Get out of here.”

Luke changed direction and bumped up over the curb onto the hard grass circle in the center of the road, heading straight for Mumbo.

Mumbo stopped, confused. If nothing else, that would give Tommy a chance to get away.

He was a big man and solid across the chest, a wrestler or a boxer, maybe. Definitely a thug. He turned to meet Luke, who was speeding straight at him over the bumps in the grass. His big gorilla hands came up to grab the bike as Luke closed in for the head-on collision.

The world seemed to slow. Mumbo’s teeth clenched in a grimace as he braced himself for the impact, and a flock of birds rose in unison from the trees behind his head.

Then the unexpected.

Luke gave a sharp twist on the handlebars just as Mumbo got within reach. The bike was no longer upright but was dropping, sliding horizontally right at Mumbo, taking Luke with it.



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