“You tell her,” Dwight said.
“We were put together during a job in Panama a few years back,” Reese said. “Back then we were both working for the same organization, but we’d been considering going freelance — individually, mind you — for some time. Moneywise, there’s no comparison. You can make as much as you want working for yourself.”
She wasn’t surprised it was all about the money to them. It had been to Juliet, too. Or, at least, that’s what the woman had told her. Allie had taken everything she’d said with suspicion. It wasn’t hard to do, considering the other woman’s history.
She looked back at the rear windshield now, at the semitrailer behind them. Just a small dot, but its black and red paint job made it easy to pick out from the traffic, including all the other semis moving back and forth around them.
“You never told us where you know Juliet from,” Reese said.
“Same as you two; we’ve crossed paths in the past, and when she couldn’t take the job, she called me,” Allie said. The lie came easily; and it should, since she had rehearsed it numerous times in her head. “She’s taking twenty percent of my share.”
“Twenty percent for doing nothing?” Dwight chuckled before glancing over at Reese. “Maybe I hitched my ride to the wrong trailer.”
“I know you don’t mean that,” Reese said.
“You don’t think so?”
“We’ve been through too much together.”
“Yeah, well, I bet Juliet wouldn’t let me do all the driving.”
“But you’re a very good driver, Dwight.”
Dwight smirked. “Do you even know how to drive? I mean, you do know we drive on the right side of the road here, right?”
Reese smiled. “So I’ve been told.”
Listening to them bicker back and forth as if they were on a Sunday drive and not escorting young girls to a destination that might be worse than death made her want to gag. More than that, it made her want to reach for the P250 and end it all right here and now. Even if she couldn’t save the girls, whatever happened to them out here in the open roads had to be better than the life waiting for them at the end of it.
She hadn’t realized how much she had talked herself into acting until the radio on the dashboard squawked, and she reflexively froze just as one of her fingers made contact with the grip of the pistol holstered behind her back.
“Leader, looks like we may have a problem,” a male voice said through the radio. She recognized it as belonging to one of the two men in the van at the back of their caravan.
Reese picked up the radio from the dashboard and keyed it. “What kind of problem?”
“I got a state trooper behind me.”
“What’s he doing?”
“I think he’s following me. He’s moving pretty fast…”
“Maintain your speed and let him pass.”
“Gotcha—” He stopped in mid-sentence, then said, “Shit, I think he’s slowing down to match my speed.”
“Stay calm, Vanguard,” Reese said.
Vanguard was the codename for the minivan. The semitrailer was called Nest because, she assumed, of the little “chicks” being transported. It was all perfectly (and nauseatingly) logical.
“What’s going on?” Dwight asked, looking over.
Reese shook his head.
“Trouble?” a new voice said through the radio.
“Maintain your speed, Nest,” Reese said.
“Roger that.”
“Vanguard, what’s the trooper doing now?” Reese said into the radio.
“I don’t have a clue,” Vanguard said. Then, less than two seconds later, “Crap.”
“Status.”
“He just lit me up.”
“Fuck me,” Dwight said.
Reese sighed and seemed to take a moment to collect himself.
“What should we do?” Vanguard asked.
“Pull over,” Reese said.
“You sure?”
“Yes.”
“Pull over?” Dwight said. “That’s the last thing he should be doing.”
“Chances are the trooper’s already punched his license plate into his database and called in a description of the vehicle,” Reese said. “The plate will run fine; it’s legit, so there’s no reason to panic.” He keyed the radio: “Nest, there’s a rest stop coming up in three miles. Pull into it and wait for us.”
“Understood,” Nest answered.
“Vanguard, go radio silent.”
“Going silent,” Vanguard said, and Allie detected a noticeable quiver in the man’s voice for the first time. He might not have been scared, but he was definitely spooked.
“Now what?” Dwight asked.
“Slow down,” Reese said. “Let Nest past us by, then make a U-turn.”
Dwight took his foot off the accelerator. Allie twisted in her seat and watched as the red and black semitrailer caught up to them, then moved over to the next lane before passing them by. A man with a red beard and a beat-up ball cap in the front passenger seat of the big rig’s cab gave their car a nod out his window just before the large vehicle overtook them.
The Ford slowed down further, Dwight watching the oncoming traffic, before making a quick (and very illegal) U-turn. He hit the gas and they shot back down the road.
“Slow down,” Reese said. “I just want to see what’s happening, not draw the cop’s attention.”
Dwight took his foot off the gas until they were barely doing three miles over the speed limit.
“This went to shit fast,” Dwight said quietly, almost to himself.
“Nothing’s gone anywhere yet,” Reese said.
Reese, Allie noted, had remained impossibly calm. She marveled at the man’s control and at the same time reminded herself that if she ever had to pick who to shoot first, it would have to be Reese. She didn’t ever want to end up in a gunfight with this man.
“How are we going to handle this?” she asked.
“Without a firefight, if at all possible,” Reese said.
“That’s the trick, isn’t it?”
“Indeed.”
“Not exactly part of my job description…”
“Hopefully we won’t have to expand your duties,” Reese said.
As the familiar flashing of red and blue lights came into view about half a mile in front of them, Allie couldn’t decide if she was glad or petrified by the turn of events. Did she want this to happen? Was this the best thing to happen, or the worst? On the one hand, being out here alone among wolves was terrifying despite everything she had been through and done, and the prospect of having allies was exhilarating. But if they were stopped here, if she was forced to show her hand, all her plans to rescue Faith would go up in smoke and she would have to start all over again…
Sara. Think about Sara and the others. If you can save them here, now…
She wrapped her fingers around the grip of her gun and mentally readied herself for what was coming next, what she would have to do. She focused on the back of Reese’s head, in front and slightly to the right of her, just barely visible behind the front passenger seat’s headrest.
One to the back of the head. Whatever you do, take Reese first. Take Reese first.
“Easy does it,” Reese was saying from the front seat as they neared the police lights. “Don’t attract any unnecessary attention.”
The state trooper’s squad car was parked behind Vanguard’s van, both of them idling at the shoulder of the road as Dwight drove the Ford past them. She spotted two troopers still sitting inside their vehicle, and the last thing Allie saw was the slightly anxious face of Vanguard’s driver, standing outside the van, the driver-side door open behind him, as he looked back at them as they drove by and kept going.
“Go for one more mile, then turn back,” Reese said.