`Stop, Major!' Martin's command cut through the evening air. The Agent halted in midstride, looked around, then broke into a renewed sprint, his car key extended before him.
As John Torrance glanced up in surprise at the commotion, the detectives and the soldier began to run too, like hunters towards their prey.
They were sixty yards away, but the blast from the Alfa still took them off their feet, and its heat seemed to sear their lungs.
They picked themselves up, staring in horror at the roaring fireball. At its heart, they could see the outline of the car's skeleton, and of the dark, twisted shape behind the wheel. The Jaguar, which had been its neighbour in the park, lay on its side, with flames licking at its undercarriage.
Alison!' Neil Mcllhenney screamed, high-pitched. He broke into a lumbering run, but Andy Martin floored him with a rugby tackle before he had gone ten yards. As they hit the ground, the petrol tank of the Jaguar gave a dull, muffled 'Crump!' and a second column of flame shot fifty feet into the air.
The two policemen lay on the tarmac yard, with the Sergeant still struggling in the Chief Superintendent's iron grip. Still deafened by the first explosion, they did not hear the sound of Elliot's Rover as its heavy diesel engine barked into life. With eyes only for the horror of the inferno, they did not see it as it bore down on Adam Arrow, standing in front of the gateway.
The little soldier stood his ground, an automatic pistol in his hand as if from nowhere. The Rover, roaring in second gear, picked up speed across the yard. It was almost upon him when he fired three shots, 'Crack! Crack! Crack!' in less than a second.
They were perfectly grouped, just above the centre of the windscreen, to its left, directly above the steering column.
At the last instant, Arrow threw himself to one side, feeling the rush of air as the car swept past him, and rolling over to see it crash into one of the huge iron gates, tearing it from its hinges, and hurling the dead driver over the wheel and through the windscreen, to lie, shapeless, across its twisted hood.