For the moment the only sound beyond gunfire was the muted roar of the approaching boats. It was then that a much louder noise shattered the once-tranquil bay — the noise of big, powerful engines.
Alicia swerved to the right to get a clearer view; Russo at her side.
A massive, midnight black Ford F150 Velociraptor burst through the forestation at the top edge of the bay. Alicia gawped. It was a huge, savage machine with enormous tires, a pickup-like bed on the back, and one of the loudest engines she’d ever heard. It was an animal, coming to attack them. It bounced over the hills and valleys from the island’s interior with ease as it made its way toward the terrorists, the driver wrenching the wheel left and right.
Alicia couldn’t make him out yet. Probably a local they’d paid to spirit them away to some remote cave system where they could lie low. Or… where they could finally burn the banner. Plan B.
The F150 careened over the landscape, hit the edge of the beach and kept on coming. Rooster tails of sand flew from underneath its tires. Terrorists started taking more chances as they tried to quell the aggressors and engineer themselves a way out.
If they make it to that car we’ll never catch them.
She crouched down at the front of a helicopter as the new vehicle flicked its tail out, swerving sideways across the back. From there it would be a relatively easy job to jump on board.
“Spread out.” Alicia waved to the other agents.
Austin and Caitlyn skidded to her side. The young driver whistled. “That’s one mighty fine piece of American muscle.”
Alicia gave him a glare. “Focus, kid. You lose focus on this beach today, you die.”
Austin nodded quickly. Alicia readied to move. “If it sets off we go for the wheels. Just the wheels. Got it?”
The roar of an engine signified that all terrorists and captives were on board. Alicia darted out of cover at that point and ran frantically toward the F150, which was only a helicopter’s length away.
The driver stepped too heavily on the gas. The car spit curtains of sand out from the rear tires whilst drifting slowly to the right, toward Alicia. She made out Ricci in the passenger seat, window down, and recognized the figures of Crouch and Terri in the back seats, both struggling. Three terrorists knelt in the rear bed, guns resting on the high sides.
She saw the driver too and almost lost her balance.
“No, oh for fuck’s sake.”
“What?” Austin’s head spun around as if expecting a surprise attack.
“That’s Cutler! Paul the liar Cutler, driving that vehicle. The bastard’s working with the terrorists.”
Russo grimaced. “Aw, shit, and Terri’s in there too.”
Alicia couldn’t keep the hatred from her face. “He’ll regret that decision.”
“Makes sense now,” Caitlyn said even as they lined up on the truck’s tires. “It’s why he kept going out of the Smithsonian, through the streets. He had orders to meet up with them. It’s why he escaped in the Stratosphere, so he could get away from us and organize this little escapade. Shit, we should have known.”
“Don’t sweat it,” Alicia said. “Terri didn’t know either.”
The F150 continued to slew around so that its entire right side was toward them. Cutler finally realized he was drawing down too much power and eased off. Alicia saw the tires start to get traction.
“Now!”
Guns pounded. Bullets ripped into the sand and the F150’s enormous tires. Cutler struggled with the wheel. The tires shredded quickly, exploding and then deflating, leaving the truck angled slightly down toward the ground.
One terrorist fell off the back of the truck. The others fell against the sides. Both Ricci and Cutler threw open their doors, leaving Crouch and Terri to their own devices.
This is our chance.
Alicia went from a standing start to a sprint faster than Russo could even blink.
CHAPTER FORTY TWO
Alicia hit the top edge of the beach very quickly. The terrorist who’d fallen out of the back reached for his gun. Alicia kicked it away. He lunged upward, kicking her in the stomach. She fell forward, dropping and then rolling into a better position. The terrorist was already in her face, sending a knee toward her cheek, which she pulled away from. At that moment, he simply jumped on top of her.
Russo raised his gun as Ricci staggered out of the oddly angled vehicle, but gunfire from the back of the truck made him dive to the right. The bullets, however, were destined for the four chasing agents that were coming around the other side of the chopper.
Two went down, clutching their chests. The rest jumped to safety. Behind them, the incoming boats were still five minutes away. Above the boats, police helicopters sped.
Russo gathered himself and rose but then Ricci was directly before him. The terrorist leader led with three devastating punches; the third of which made Russo drop his weapon. Ricci pulled out a knife. Russo staggered back and evaded the thrust, but only by millimeters.
“It’s bloody over,” the big man gasped. “Give it up.”
“You think I’m letting you take me back alive? All that matters is taking as many of you pigs as possible.”
Caitlyn and Austin approached the truck, seeing a brief window of opportunity. The terrorists in the back were concentrating their fire and energies at the agents, but Crouch and Terri were crawling slowly out of the rear doors. Caitlyn met Crouch’s eyes and saw intense pain there. She saw red flesh and bruising from his forehead to his throat. She saw how Ricci had hurt him simply because he enjoyed it.
Terri urged him on from behind. The black-haired woman looked wild, desperate to escape. Crouch fell into the sand and brush, face first.
Caitlyn crept carefully forward so as not to alert the gunmen.
Alicia grabbed her assailant around the waist and rolled over, staying on top of him. Without pause she swept down blow after blow, each one aiming for something sensitive — eyes, nose, ears — until the man’s leaking blood made her knuckles slick. He fought back, letting her hit him three times as he slipped a knife out from under his jacket.
Snarling through a red mask, he thrust the blade at her ribs.
She was ready for it, catching it with a firm right wrist, bending it and then reversing it into the man’s own body.
“Thanks for the knife,” she hissed. “Dropped mine down in the water.”
With gun and blade clasped in two bloody hands she rose, a contradictory vision of splendor and death.
Terri rolled out of the car, right over Crouch and ended up on her back, scrabbling for purchase. Finally, her legs dug in and she managed to heave herself upright. Uncaring of the terrorists firing to her left, uncaring of those that fought to help and those that fought to kill her, she vented all her anger, her disgust, and crushing disappointment at Paul Cutler.
“We were a team! I would have died for you! I gave up my family… for you!”
“It was the biggest score of my life.” Cutler climbed carefully out of the damaged F150, jumping onto undergrowth at the top of the beach. “Not even you could jeopardize that.”
“My only family…” Terri fell to her knees, sobbing.
Cutler split for the trees.
Alicia hauled Terri and Crouch up even as the terrorists in the rear of the truck set eyes upon them.
Russo landed crushing blows on Ricci, but nothing heavy enough to debilitate him. The terrorist leader ended up tripping Russo to the earth just as Cutler took flight.
Alicia couldn’t escape the bullets. Instead, she put herself in front of Crouch and Terri. Crouch reached for her but she fended him off. With no time to aim she fired anyway, her shots burying themselves in the sand and then dirt as they traveled in an upward arc.