Amy took a deep breath. The way Rahul had designed the TurboChaser to fit any situation, with all his little add-ons, was incredible, but she was still the one who had to drive it.

And even if he had somehow been expecting that they might have to drive through a field, she had not.

Certainly not a field of cows.

But there seemed to be little choice, except turning back and giving up. Amy was not going to do that. So she turned the steering wheel to the left and pushed the direction lever forward, driving towards where, as the lights on the front of the vehicle showed, a small track led to the field. Of cows.

“Take it slowly,” said Jack.

“Thanks, Jeremy Clarkson,” said Amy.

They went through on to the grass. She could feel how different it was straight away – the car rolled and dragged, the tyres slipping and sliding over the damp terrain. It was harder to control.

“Um … where am I going?”

Rahul hit the screen.

“OH MY GOD! YOU’VE GONE OFF ROAD! I HAVE NO IDEA WHERE YOU ARE! WHAT’S GOING ON?”

“Hmm,” said Rahul, “something seems to have happened to the sat nav.”

“TURN BACK! JUST STOP! PLEASE! THERE COULD BE COWS IN HERE AND EVERYTHING!”

Rahul hit it again.

“Parhewch am filltir …”

“Ah … what did that mean again?” said Amy.

“Continue for a mile,” said Jack.

“Thank you.”

“Happy to help.”

“OK. I’ll just go in as straight a line as I ca—AAARGH!”

That AAARGH was because, in the middle of the line of straightness she was trying to go in, was a cow, quite clearly lit by the bright moon and the headlights.

For those of you interested in cows, it was a Friesian, with black patches on a mainly white body. But really all you need to know is that suddenly there was a big wall of leather, and they were heading right towards it.

Amy swerved to the right, where there was another cow, staring at her in a kind of “this is interesting” way. She swerved again. Everyone in the car screamed. Her hand moved the direction lever forward, slowly, making the engine roar, but without moving forward.

“Why are you revving up?” shouted Jack. “I said take it slowly!”

“I’m trying to get away from the cows! Plus if you knew anything about driving, you’d know I can’t drive too slowly on this grass! We’d get stuck!”

“We’d get stuck!” said Jack sarcastically.

“Yes, we would, actually,” said Rahul, which made Jack shut up quite quickly, because, cool and sarcastic fourteen-year-old or not, he really didn’t want to get stuck in this field in the middle of the night.

Amy swung the car left, then right, slaloming like she had through the dustbins, but now through the cows. It was a great piece of driving, and she seemed to have got them through the field safely. Most of the cows just watched them go by, glad to have something a little bit different going on to break up the evening.

But suddenly …

“OK,” said Rahul, pointing. “If you go through that gap in the hedge there, we’ll be through this field, and we can go out to the road beyond—”

“What’s that noise?” said Jack.

“Sorry, that was me,” said Janet. “I had beans for dinner.”

“No, not that noise – that one; the one that sounds like snarling. And panting.”

“It’s that!” said Amy, pointing directly in front of them.

Janet and Jack leant over from the back.

Lit up by their own headlights, and by the powerful light of the moon, was another pair of eyes, only this time angry, staring, not friendly. Below the eyes was a wide black nose, pierced with an enormous metal ring; and, above, a set of large, sharp horns.

“Hmm. That’s a strange-looking cow,” said Janet.