Shouts suddenly congested the comms: warnings of oncoming enemies carrying weapons. The thieves were the least of their worries.
Alicia turned swiftly to see black-clad forms emerging from the long, grassy strip of the National Mall and the roads beyond. Almost immediately they opened fire, peppering the museum’s walls with bullets. Alicia ducked, but kept the presence of mind to turn her attention back to the two thieves. This was what they had been waiting for.
Gunfire filled the area, seeping around the corners of the big building too. Somebody was firing along Constitution Avenue, distracting the authorities placed there. Alicia watched as the two thieves now darted with renewed purpose.
“Russo.” She nudged him. “Look.”
“I am looking. That big bastard over there has a friggin’ Gen 6 Glock, the new one. It’s not even for sale yet.”
Alicia jabbed his ribs. “Not over there, you fool. Here.”
The two thieves moved closer still, sprinting fast and staying low. Alicia saw their forms clearly now: one lithe and short, the other muscled and agile.
“Wow,” she said. “That girl can sure wear a catsuit.”
Bullets poured from the direction of the mall, aimed high for the most part, but Alicia saw some of their own men go down. This was no simple distraction — it was an attack. The thieves veered away now, and it was clear they were carrying something heavy between them.
Heavy. Long. Rolled up. “If that’s not the banner,” Alicia said, “I’ll snog you, Russo.”
“If you think I’d let those fish lips anywhere near—”
“C’mon!”
They rose, still wary of the bullets but assuming none would be sent in the direction of the thieves. Lee, the woman, and Cutler, the man, she assumed. She saw them break cover, run quickly across a narrow gravel path and then slip in amongst another set of trees. She chased them, cutting the gap but taking it steady so as not to arouse suspicion. By the time she entered the trees the thieves were gone again, dashing across another wide pathway. To their right, black-clad men kept the cops and the FBI pinned down.
The comms were ablaze with feisty dialogue.
But it was all defensive, everything concentrated on the new threat, and Alicia didn’t blame them. She counted over a dozen armed men coming at the Smithsonian. Two were down but the rest were nestled in good cover. Sirens split the night, howling as they approached the scene. Alicia kept her head down as Russo contacted Crouch and told him where they were.
“Coming to you now,” Crouch said. “We’re already across Constitution.”
Alicia had been here before and had studied the mall’s pathways and surrounding roads. Ahead lay Madison Drive, a one-way street, but it was dissected by 12th, 13th and 14th Street and then Jefferson. One thing was plain — they had to have an escape vehicle close by. Alicia broke cover again, now racing after the two thieves and broadcasting her intentions across the comms system. Russo was at her side, keeping pace. Crouch and the others were just a few minutes behind. The male thief — Cutler — glanced back and spotted them.
A gun appeared in his spare hand, which he discharged randomly into the skies. Still, Alicia had to take cover. A stray bullet could kill as easily as a targeted one. When the man stumbled and focused again on running, she took off in hot pursuit. Now the female — Terri — looked around and tried to increase her pace.
They ran with their burden along a tree-lined path, jumped over a low wall and then raced through a gate. They were on a sidewalk now, streetlamps glaring down, where traffic moved along slowly, and some vehicles were parked up. Alicia fully expected them to make a beeline for one of the vans, but the thieves only chose the nearest sidewalk and kept on running.
Behind, the gunfire continued, increasing in sheer volume now as more authorities arrived. Alicia could see and hear two helicopters approaching the scene, one a police chopper and the other adorned with the logo of a local news channel. She shook her head as the chopper drifted closer.
“Why would they think—”
Before she finished, the gunmen behind started firing at the chopper. Alicia saw sparks and then glass smashed. Before she could see any more the thief ahead again turned, struggling now with the weight of the object he carried. Again, he fired. Again, the bullets shot wide, smashing car fenders and a windshield. Alicia dived to the floor, scraping her arms, and rolled against a car.
“You got a gun, Russo?”
“Nope, you?”
“ ’Course I bloody haven’t. I only arrived an hour ago. You’ve been here — what? Best part of three hours?”
“Nah, we got here just before you.”
“Crap.”
“You wouldn’t shoot him in the back anyway.”
“The way he keeps trying to kill me — I just might.”
Russo looked over the fender of a car. “I think he’s trying to miss us. They’re warning shots. His aim can’t be that bad.”
It was a fair point. “Let’s ask him, shall we? Whilst we dangle him upside down off a three-story building.”
“Only three stories?” Russo glanced over as he started to move off again. “You must be mellowing.”
Alicia wondered if that were true. Her life had certainly undergone changes through the last five years, mostly for the better. The friends they had lost along the way still lived in their hearts, but the deaths of close ones changed a person. Alicia guessed it depended on their personality, their character, as to how they dealt with it. She knew Zack Healey would never truly die, for she remembered him every day.
They jumped up from behind the car and started to close the gap again. The thieves were about one hundred paces ahead now, still running hard with their load, still checking all directions to make sure they were free. Alicia saw pedestrians here and there, some gathering because of the noise at the mall and the overhead choppers, but others just out for the night. She checked on Crouch’s position.
“I can see you anywhere. Don’t stop though.” He was panting.
“Do you have a bloody gun?”
“Yeah, of course.”
“Ah, thank crap for that. Hurry the fuck up will you. We need to find a safe place to shoot and slow these assholes down.”
“Just keep them in sight.”
Alicia ran harder, torn with the knowledge that it would be much easier with a weapon. Terri and Cutler pounded ahead, impressively fit, strong and oddly alone. Alicia couldn’t imagine where the hell they might be going.
CHAPTER TWO
Terri Lee was a nobody. Born to an ordinary family that lived in an ordinary street in the heart of chaotic Tokyo, she never excelled at anything, and she never failed at anything. Her father worked in a low-key position for a video games company; her mother painted nails and sold jewelry. In the big scheme of things, she lived off the radar, quietly, unnoticed behind the surging tide of those that sought meaning, adventure, wealth and experience.
Not surprisingly, she was happy. Family life was mundane, but comforting; structured and strict, but loving. Security and peace came with the knowledge that her parents were always going to be there.
The meeting with Paul Cutler was entirely unexpected.
He was a young, brash American. Confidence radiated from him like heatwaves from a fire, and he presented the kind of figure that both men and women admired. He could be a friend, a confidant, always there in times of trouble. He was also reliable, humorous, resourceful. Cutler started working at the new coffee shop down the road, which was far from local, but Terri’s feet often found their way past that fresh, pristine threshold.
Eventually, he took his short breaks with her; the two of them seated across a small round table, sipping chai-tea lattes. Terri wondered if she might be able to apply for a job to work alongside him, but guessed her parents would never allow it.