As Sean offered to take James from the soldier, he was handed a cell phone instead.
“Sean,” the voice was very weak but Sean recognized it straight away.
“Vincent, how are you?”
“More worried than I have ever been in my life!” he replied.
“Jesus a heart attack isn’t going to kill you,” laughed Sean.
“Not me you idiot, Mike’s just taken me through his findings and he was right, we are fucked. You need to get back here asap before you head to Moscow.”
“I’m going to the beach, V. trust me I deserve it.”
“Sean, this is about you!”
“About me?”
“Have you ever heard of Dr Joseph Mengele?”
Chapter 63
Sean knew the name. Hell, everybody recognized the name but what the hell did it have to do with him? Vincent wouldn’t explain any more over the phone. Sean was just to get to Langley asap.
“Grab some of those Lexuses, we need to get to the airport,” shouted Sean.
As they careened their way down the hill, the Team Leader contacted his counterpart at the airport to tell them they were on their way.
James was laughing and bouncing on Sean’s knee as the Lexus clambered over the rough terrain. Their off-roading abilities were severely impacted by the weight of their armor.
As they neared the outskirts of the city and bumped onto tarmac, the ride improved, as did the speed of the small three-car convoy. The heavily laden Lexuses were not the most agile but on a straight road and given space, the speed certainly did improve.
“I’ll pass you over!” said the Team Leader, handing his headset to Sean.
“Where are you?” asked a voice Sean recognized.
“About two minutes out,” he replied, as the fencing surrounding the airport came into view. “Who is this?”
“Agent Smith,” replied Agent James Smith who had met Sean at the airport the previous day. The sound of gunfire at Agent Smith’s side of the conversation interrupted the introductions.
“Turn around, it’s not secure here!” Another burst of gunfire highlighted the point perfectly.
As Sean looked towards the access road to the airport, a convoy of pick up trucks was leaving, all filled with men carrying weapons.
“We’re leaving now!” shouted Smith above the engine noise of the aircraft. “We’ll pick you up at Laredo!” he managed before the line went dead.
Sean watched as a jet shot down the runway.
“Turn around!!!” he screamed as the first bullets began to ping off their armored plating.
James laughed as the bullets pinged against the windshield in front of him. Sean took him off his lap and handed him to the agents in the back where he was promptly strapped in.
Sean looked back as the chasers closed. The Lexuses were too slow. Their only hope was to get to the border before the pursuers got through their armor.
As they turned onto another road, two trucks barreled towards them. Their only option was to turn down another road, a narrower road where even more armed men lay waiting.
“What the fuck is going on?!!!” screamed one of the agents, verbalizing what everybody else was thinking.
“They’re corralling us to where they want us!” realized Sean. This was one very coordinated and impressive maneuver.
With each street, the chasing pack became larger; it was like some weird 'B’ movie where everybody had been infected by a homicidal virus. It seemed every living soul in Nuevo Laredo was determined to help kill them.
“Split up?” asked Sean to the team leader.
“Worth a try,” he replied and barked the order to the other two cars. At the next junction they split three separate ways. Sean watched as each and every car ignored the other two Lexuses and followed his.
“Shit!” he exclaimed, much to James’s amusement and warning that Mommy would be angry. Sean didn’t feel she’d be overly concerned given the current circumstance.
As they rushed towards another junction, another makeshift roadblock was forcing them right. The truck that blocked their way had left a small gap at the rear.
“Keep going for that gap and hold tight,” ordered Sean.
“That gap’s half the width of this car!” shouted the driver, in a panic.
“Yep, and hit the gas,” screamed Sean.
They hit the truck and spun it out of the way. The weight and momentum of the Lexus were too much for the empty truck.
“Jesus, if that had been fully loaded, we’d be dead!” screamed the Team Leader at Sean in frustration.
“And the back axle would have been riding much lower,” replied Sean confidently. Although he had no idea how low or high the axle rode on that truck. He just knew they were no longer going where the pursuers wanted them.
The road sign indicated 2 miles to the border. Sean looked back and could see that their maneuver had generated a little extra distance between themselves and their pursuers and hopefully enough to see them to the border.
“Fuck!!!” screamed the driver, standing on the brakes.
Sean whipped round as the Lexus struggled to stop against the momentum it had built up. The queue of traffic stretched off in to the American distance.
Sean yanked the steering wheel to the left and the Lexus bounced across the median to the oncoming lanes, empty thanks to the closed border. The driver floored it again. As Sean checked behind them again, the pursuers remained close behind. They were going to follow them all the way. Sean suddenly realized that there was no guarantee they’d actually stop at the border.
“Shit!” the driver shouted as he once again applied the brakes.
Sean turned expecting a queue of traffic, instead it seemed their pursuers had upped their game. The sight of a helicopter hovering ahead was bad enough but the two ominous pods protruding from either side had even the heavily armored Lexus petrified. The rockets would tear through it like a hot knife through butter.
“Fuck!” he added much to James’ amusement.
He watched in the mirror as the pursuers stopped a couple of hundred yards back, clearing the way for the helicopter. It really was a proper Mexican stand off thought Sean. Before he had a chance to crack a joke, the Team Leader was handing him his headset.
“It’s for you!” he said.
Sean took the headset and popped in the earpiece.
“Where are you?” asked Smith.
“In a bit of a situation at the moment!”
“We’re at Laredo, you need to get your ass here. I’ve to get you to Washington yesterday!”
As Sean kept an eye on both the chopper and the pursuers, he noticed the trucks and cars filled with gunmen began to close the distance. As they neared, so did the chopper. They were moving in for the kill.
“Any idea why everyone wants us dead?” asked Sean. At least he could die knowing why.
“About 25 million!”
“Sorry?” replied Sean. They didn’t know him well enough, even people who knew him for a lifetime couldn’t think of that many.
“Dollars. The new boss of Los Zetas it seems is very upset with you!”
“Shit!” shouted Sean as the rocket pods lit up on the chopper and began to spew their deadly fire. However, instead of tearing them apart, the pursuers began to explode in his mirrors.
“Jesus!” shouted Smith through the headset. “What the fuck is that?”
Before Sean could answer. “Is that the gunship the Mexican army sent to help you?” asked Smith.
“Floor it,” screamed Sean to the driver and thirty seconds later, they entered US soil, under the protection of the Mexican army gunship.
Chapter 64
James raced across the tarmac and jumped into Katie’s arms, the tears streaming down her face as she almost squeezed the life out of the son she feared she’d never see again. She mouthed a thank you to Sean who bowed his head as he accepted her gratitude. As Sean made his way to one of the sitting jets, James disengaged from Katie and raced to join him. “Where are we going, Daddy?” he asked as though the previous few hours and months had never happened.