The Great Cleanup - стр. 12
The driver of the right-hand car rolled down his window and waved for Herman to get on the drawbridge and onto the bed. Yet the motorcycle would not come closer to the lorry. The waving got more insistent, but Herman just responded with his trademark one finger salute again. Next, the passenger of the left-hand car waved politely – this time with the business end of a gun.
Herman and Anna turned their heads quickly, looking in all directions with desperation. Something had to be done. The cars surrounding them were so close that there was absolutely no way to slip between them. And yet Herman did not hasten to move onto the lorry. Anna realized he was looking for a way out. Looking, and yet not finding one.
Suddenly the motorcycle swayed. Herman stabilized it with a light movement of the bar. A look at the rear view mirror showed Anna that the dump truck was pushing them. Its driver, noticing that the motorcycle would not obey, decided to push it into the lorry's bed – or to crush it.
Anna turned her head back to look at Herman. He just chuckled:
“Hold on tight to the handles, Mathilda!”
Why Mathilda? Anna thought. Perhaps that's what people say in situations like that, “Hold on tight to the handles, Mathilda”? She thought of asking Herman for a bit of clarification, but he suddenly pinned her to the iron steed with his body, twisting the accelerator handle abruptly. The motorcycle started off like a rocket, flew over the drawbridge and into the bed of the lorry, but did not stop there. Herman pulled up the handles strongly and, swaying his own powerful, springing body up and down, raised the obedient iron steed into the air. As if holding its “hooves” up, the steed flew right over the front board of the bed, rolled the rear wheel on the lorry's cabin, and broke away into empty space.
This was real proper flight, and neither an airplane nor a roller-coaster would stand any comparison. It took Anna's breath away, and she saw everything in slow motion. Here was the bed of the truck under them, then the cabin, and then the road approaching. Very slowly.
Anna noticed not just the blackness of the asphalt road surface, but even single gravel fragments joined by the bitumen. They were closer and closer. Then came the impact. Anna would have hit her head on the fuel tank or handle bar, but instead her face ended up softly meeting Herman's hand, which was placed in the right place at the right time.
The bike landed on the asphalt with both wheels at once. It was pulled to the side, but Anna's saviour reacted immediately, stabilizing it easily. They were speeding on an empty highway again. Now their speed was so immense that cars moving in the same direction appeared and disappeared momentarily, as if they were oncoming. Yet Anna had nearly no fear anymore, taking a full, free breath in and out. Then she turned to express her admiration to Herman. He had his own reading of the look on her face, breathing into her ear:
“Not much left now. We just need to make it to the crossroads!”
Their pursuers had to know that their mark could slip away soon. In less than a minute the same two powerful cars caught up with the motorcycle and drove by its sides again. Windows rolled down. Another wave from the right-hand car invited the riders to turn onto the side of the road and stop. Herman shook his head in refusal. Then the barrel of a gun, which Anna already saw before, appeared from the window of the left-hand car. Noticing it, Anna's saviour pushed her down to the motorcycle again. She understood that he was covering her with his powerful body.