Read World of Fire (Dev Harmer 01) for Free Online Page B

should flip out.”
    “Should?” said Kahlo.
    “Will. If the grenade goes off in just the right spot.”
    “That’s a stupid plan,” said Stegman.
    “Do you have a better idea, sergeant?” said Kahlo.
    “No, ma’am. Not as such.”
    “Then give him the other damn gun-stun.”
    “Thanks,” said Dev, as Stegman passed the grenade over. “Now, I’ll need you to hold my legs this time, sergeant, so I can lean further out.”
    Dev crawled out onto the rear of the pod again. He felt Stegman clamp arms around his knees. He teetered over the space between pod and shuttle, which was down to one metre. The track blurred by below him, dizzingly close.
    One shot.
    If he missed this time, there wouldn’t be another attempt. It would be too late. The shuttle would rear-end the pod, and that would be that. The tunnel walls would be decorated in various shades of human.
    The pod shook and leapt. Dev, hanging out the back, was flung around like a wagging tail. If not for Stegman, he would have been thrown loose. The police sergeant was good for something, at least.
    Steadying himself against the pod’s turbulence, Dev extended his arm. Carefully, with as much precision as the situation allowed, he took aim.
    He let go.
    The gun-stun was sucked into the gap between the shuttle and the guideway and detonated, unleashing its burst of energy, shutting down the levitation coils in a section of track.
    The shuttle was knocked off-course.
    Slightly off-course, but that was all it took.
    The shuttle’s skirt dug into the guideway on the opposite side. There was a shrieking, a rending. Metal curled like potato peel. The entire vehicle trembled, as though in mortal pain.
    It veered. It slewed and slithered crazily.
    Then it sprang aloft, hitting the tunnel ceiling, and began to disintegrate.
    Dev watched from far too close for comfort as the shuttle shredded itself to bits against the tunnel’s insides. There was no flame. Nothing combustible in the shuttle’s structure. Only coachwork, chassis and electrical mechanism to be destroyed. The train became a bolus of fragments barrelling along the tunnel at breakneck speed, large chunks whittling themselves smaller, a relentless, roaring unravelling.
    This torrent of torn, howling metal looked set to overtake and engulf the pod.
    But then it began to lose impetus and subside. The pod pulled away, putting the maelstrom of ruined shuttle behind it. Its progress smoothed until it was sailing serenely along the track as though nothing had happened, the terrible near-miss now far behind.
    Dev slid back through the windscreen frame, aided by Stegman.
    “That was...” – Dev groped for an adjective – “exponential.”
    “You mad bastard, Harmer,” gasped Stegman.
    “Coming from you, I’m going to take that as a compliment.”
    Utz’s grip on the pod’s acceleration lever loosened, colour returning to his whitened knuckles. “Another five minutes to Calder’s Edge. Man, I’ll be glad to stop and get out. I don’t think I ever want to drive one of these things again. Captain? Oh, sorry, you’re making a call.”
    “Hang on.” Kahlo held up a hand. “Right. Done. I’ve just been informing the rescue crew about the second shuttle. They’ll cordon off the tunnel. That should hold things ’til the rail controllers sort their shit out. What is it, Utz?”
    “Nothing. Just – earthquakes were bad enough. Now we’ve got homicidal trains?”
    “Quite. This has to stop. It’s like the whole of Alighieri is turning against us.” She leaned round in her seat. “And the situation has got measurably worse since you showed up, Harmer.”
    “Whoa, hold on,” Dev said. “The implication being that I’m responsible somehow? We all nearly just got killed, remember?” He jabbed a finger at his chest for emphasis. “Me included.”
    “Can you even get killed?”
    “Of course I can. What sort of question is that?”
    “I mean, you data ’ported in. Can’t you just data ’port