Amazing Mrs. Pollifax by Dorothy Gilman Page B

already passed them: the sound of a second bullet rang
ping!
against the rear of the van.
    In alarm Mrs. Pollifax turned and saw that Colin was reacting with astonishing efficiency; he had remembered that he had a gun, too, and now he was slashing at the glass in the round porthole window in the back; as she watched she saw him lift the gun he had taken from Stefan and push it through the window. She thought he fired it, but there was too much confusion to know. Sandor was swearing as he fought the wheel again, turning the van to head it back to the road.
    “Look out!” screamed Mrs. Pollifax as the van swung around, for the ancient dust-ridden car had also turned and was heading toward them at accelerated speed, hoping to ram them if it couldn’t shoot their tires first. For a second the van’s wheels spun uselessly in a gully, then Sandor roared the engine and the van shot back on to the road just as theelderly Packard left it. A bullet zoomed over Sandor’s head, again just missed Mrs. Pollifax and went out the open window. But Sandor had fired, too. He seemed to have three hands, one for the gearshift, one for the wheel, and one for firing. With a wrench of the wheel he turned and backed the van and tried to shoot down the car but the Packard swerved, circled and returned to the road to face them head-on.
    They remained like this for several seconds, each car facing the other on the road with a distance of perhaps twenty yards between them, each driver revving his engine and waiting. Then with a burst of noise the Packard started down the road at full speed, heading directly toward them.
“Hooooweeeeee,”
shouted Sandor, his eyes shining—it was clearly a game to him—and he recklessly steered the van straight at the Packard, not giving an inch. Mrs. Pollifax screamed and slid from seat to floor. From here she looked up to see a familiar face—Otto’s—almost at their window, saw the Packard hurtle past them, barely missing them. As the Packard passed from sight she heard Colin’s gun begin firing from the rear window, heard the scream of tires, a terrifying sound of metal twisting and turning, twisting and rolling, and Mrs. Pollifax put her hands to her face. “They’ve turned over,” cried Sandor, braking, and leaped out.
    Mrs. Pollifax slid from her side of the van and jumped to the road. The Packard was lying upside down in the dust after rolling over several times. Mrs. Pollifax began to run. “We must help them,” she cried, and then suddenly the silence was rent by a great explosion and flames turned the Packard into a funeral pyre. Mrs. Pollifax stepped back and covered her eyes. “Did anyone get out?” she gasped in horror.
    Colin was beside her with a hand on her shoulder. He looked pale and shaken. “No,” he said. “I watched. It was Otto driving, and a man I’d never seen before doing the shooting.”
    Sandor said belligerently, “What the hell goes on here, they maniacs? Nuts? They tried to kill us!” He looked incredulous. “What the hell they want?” he said, shaking a fist.
    “Us,” Mrs. Pollifax told him in a trembling voice.
    He gaped at her. “Those jerks were gunning for
you
?”
    Mrs. Pollifax nodded a little wearily. “Yes. First they sentthe plane—there must have been radio communication, and then—”
    Sandor looked from her to Colin and back again. “But why?” he demanded indignantly.
    Mrs. Pollifax said weakly, “They apparently didn’t want us to get to Ankara.”
    “That I could see for myself but what the hell’s going on?”
    Mrs. Pollifax hesitated and then recklessly took the plunge. “You might as well know, Sandor, that not only
those
men are after us but the police, too.”
    “Police!” He stared blankly. “You?”
    “Yes.”
    His mouth dropped. “You
did
shoot the guy you was unloading in the cemetery!”
    “No,” she said patiently, “but Otto did—the man driving the Packard.”
    A light of comprehension dawned in Sandor’s eyes.