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tortured by a cold-hearted sadistic bitch and her sidekick to extract information I simply didn’t have. That very soon I was going to die in agony without ever knowing who I really was.
    Which was when I noticed movement behind her. It was Tom. The big lug might have taken a headshot but it had clearly missed his brain. His legs were moving slowly but perceptibly, as if he was waking up, and he was trying to lift his head.
    The guy holding me noticed it as well and his grip loosened. ‘Shit,’ he said aloud.
    Pen turned round to see what he was referring to and, grunting something, picked up the gun and went over to where Tom lay.
    With her back to me, I knew this was my chance. I either took it or I died. It was that simple.
    Without warning, I slammed my head back into the guy holding me. We were pretty much exactly the same height and I connected perfectly with the bridge of his nose. Nothing broke, but he let out a low grunt, and before he had time to right himself, something happened that surprised me: pulling an arm free, I reached round behind, positioned the side of my thumb beneath his nose and pushed upwards with all the power I could muster.
    This time he let go of me completely as he struggled to get away from my grip. Turning, I punched him once, very hard, again on the nose; then, before he could regain his balance, I pulled him round so that he was between me and Pen, making myself as difficult a target for her as possible. I caught a brief glimpse of her trying to get a shot in without hitting her accomplice, a startled look on her face, and then I was running in a crouch towards the huge bay window that looked out on to the front lawn.
    I dived into it, shoulder first, at the point where the curtains meet, just as a shot rang out with an angry hiss. The window exploded outwards and the next second I landed in the flowerbed, my body crunching on the glass beneath me as I rolled over, trying to get as far from the window as possible. Adrenalin was fuelling me totally now and I was up on my feet in an instant. But there was a carefully honed instinct for survival too – one I’d never realized I had. Somehow I knew not to make a dash straight across the lawn towards the trees because I’d be far too easy a target that way. Instead, I crouched down so I couldn’t be seen through the windows and ran round the edge of the house towards the back, counting on the fact that in the confusion they weren’t going to know where I was heading. As soon as I was level with the kitchen, I sprinted the short distance across the back lawn and into the trees without looking back.
    I kept running, fear and real determination driving me on. Pen had confirmed that Jane wasn’t my sister, but the burning question I now had was why had I been set up like this?

Five
    I was following the woods round the northern side of the house in the general direction of the road that led off the peninsula when I heard a car starting somewhere off to my right, and I guessed they were trying to cut me off.
    I stopped, getting my breath back, and watched through the trees as a car – a big black four-wheel-drive, its headlights off – made its way slowly along the driveway some forty yards away, making very little noise. It was impossible from this distance to see whether there were two people inside it or not, and as I watched it disappeared from view into the woods. The problem now was that it was positioned between me and the mainland. If I were them, I’d have had one person trying to pick up my trail from the house, and the other parking the car and doubling back through the woods to trap me that way. At their widest point the woods were only a hundred yards across, and there weren’t that many places to hide. And out here in the middle of nowhere, time was on their side.
    Unless …
    I had an idea. I found a spot among some ferns in a shallow dip behind a tree, where I had a good view in both directions, and lay down flat on my