‘Can’t you get this damned thing to go any faster?’ fretted Della, as the Jeep ground laboriously along the track.

‘With two flat tyres? You want miracles?’

‘For God’s sake! We’d be quicker on foot.’

A hail of machine-gun bullets smashed the back windows of the Wagoneer, and showered them with broken glass. Ed pressed the gas pedal flat to the floor, but although the engine screamed, and the back wheel rims screeched on the road, he couldn’t get enough traction to take them clear of the running raiders. If the Jeep hadn’t been four-wheel-drive, they probably couldn’t have got it to go at all.

Two well-aimed rifle bullets penetrated the driver’s door, with a sound like warping tin, and one of them buried itself in the upholstery of Ed’s seat. He said, ‘That’s it. We’ve had it That’s the end.’

But Della whooped, ‘We’re losing them! Ed, look we’re losing them!’

Ed turned. They were travelling at almost twenty-five mph now, and the raiders were gradually falling behind. One or two of them had stopped already, and were raising their rifles and their machine-guns to their shoulders to give the Jeep a final scattering of fire.

‘It’s too far now,’ said Della, with relief, settling back in her seat. ‘They’ll never get the range. Not with those peashooters.’

It was then that the Jeep’s tortured transmission gave out a hideous clashing noise, and locked solid. The vehicle jolted to a stop, and wouldn’t budge, even for Ed’s frantic jugglings with the T-bar shift.

‘Out!’ Ed shouted at Della. ‘We’ve got a good start on them – we can still make it!’

They were out of the Jeep and running before any of the raiders realised what had happened. But as they pounded along the dirt track towards the dark huddle of the farmhouse buildings, they heard the sporadic crackling of M3Als behind them and the denser, sharper report of rifles. Ed – even though he was running – could feel the night air herringboned by bullets. For the first time that night, he thought, ‘God – they’ve got me now. I don’t stand a chance. I’m going to die right here, right now, as suddenly as Michael died in his car.’

He could hear Della running along beside him – her bare feet slapping on the track. He could hear his own painful gasps for breath. He closed his eyes and pelted along faster, totally intent on survival, totally intent on living and on seeing Season and Sally again.