“What about that red Mercedes?” Ty asked grimly. “The one you stole in Oxnard.”
Tiburon shrugged. “Okay, so I steal a couple cars myself when they don’t got no cars ready for us. It was dumb. I louse it up anyway.”
Jupiter said, “If you turn state’s evidence and testify in court against Hatch and his gang, the judge will give you a break for sure.”
“Don’t listen to them!” Jake Hatch cried, pulling away from Pete and lunging toward Tiburon. “I’ll give you a raise. All of you. You’ll be the richest wetbacks in town.”
Tiburon looked at Hatch, at Jupiter and Ty, then at the Piranhas behind him. He shrugged.
“Okay, smart Anglo, let’s go talk to the cops.”
Ty lowered his gun. Pete grinned. Bob and Jupiter breathed more easily. Kelly ran to Pete and threw her arms around him. Pete blushed bright red. Kelly laughed, kissed Pete, and stepped back.
Jake Hatch suddenly jumped and grabbed Kelly. He held her in front of him, twisted her arm behind her, and backed toward the elevator. Anybody who tried to shoot him would hit the girl.
“Everyone stay right where they are! Anyone comes near me, this little lady gets hurt. You got that?”
No one moved as Hatch backed into the elevator with his hostage. The wall slowly closed on him and the terrified Kelly.
17
The Hottest Wheels
In the chop-shop there was a shocked silence. Pete ran to the closed wall.
“How do you open this? Quick!”
He stared at Tiburon, who shrugged. “I don’ know, man. Someone always open it for us.”
Joe Torres laughed. “Figure it out yourself, hot-shot. ”
“The boss is too smart for you punks,” Max the gunman sneered.
The two mechanics shook their heads. They didn’t know how to open the hidden door. Jupiter whirled to face Tiburon.
“How did you get in here?”
“The office over there,” Tiburon said. “Same way we always go out.”
“Office? Where?” Pete said. “Show me. Hurry!”
“Sure, man, only the stairs down come out on the wrong street, you know? I mean, you gotta go all around to the front to get in the garage.”
“Show me!” Pete cried.
“I’ll go with you,” Ty said, tucking one pistol into his belt and handing the other one to Bob. “They’re tied up good, but keep an eye on them.”
Tiburon took Ty and Pete to the alcove in the far corner of the room, opposite the wall with the elevator. The door to the office was out of sight around the alcove’s corner.
“You gotta know the trick,” Tiburon said. He pulled a small fire extinguisher on the wall. The office door opened.
Pete and Ty raced through a small business office and down the stairs into the night. A moon had come up, lighting their way in silvery blue. They ran around the building, past Pete’s Fiero parked on the side street, to the front of the garage.
The double doors were still closed and locked!
“He’s got to be inside!” Pete said.
“Unless there’s another way out we don’t know,” Ty said. “Be careful, Pete. He’s got Kelly.”
Pete nodded. He tried the small door. It was unlocked. They stepped through into the parking floor. Only one night light was lit, far to the rear, near the elevator.
They listened in the darkness.
There was no sound.
“He’s gone,” Pete moaned in despair. “And Kelly’s with him.”
Ty listened. “I’m not so sure. Hear that?”
Pete heard the small tapping sound. Like something light hitting metal. It seemed to come from the rear of the room to the right of the elevator.
“It’s a fingernail hitting a car!” Pete said. “It’s Kelly. Come on.”
He hurried among the cars with Ty close behind. They came out in the rear at the open aisle near the elevator. They stood in the aisle and listened.
Car lights suddenly blazed on their right.
Lights aimed directly at them along the cross aisle where they stood!
A car at the far end of the aisle roared into life. There was a scream of tires as it shot toward them, gaining speed at every foot.
They jumped back out of the aisle as the silver car slammed past and screamed to a halt, smashing into parked cars at the far end of the aisle.
“It’s a Rolls-Royce!” Pete exclaimed.
He had no time to say anything more. The Rolls backed, turned, screamed in a circle, smashing more cars, and thundered back toward them.
“He’s going to try to crush us between cars,” Ty cried, “jump!”
They scrambled again as the Rolls slammed into the car they had been hiding behind, crushing it into the next one and the next.
They ran.
But wherever they ran the Rolls-Royce pursued them, crashing into cars, slamming cars into each other, tearing off fenders and bumpers.
Ty pulled Hatch’s pistol from his belt and tried to get a clear shot at the charging Rolls as it pursued them around the dark garage.
“Kelly’s in there!” Pete yelled. “Don’t shoot!”
“I’ll try for the tires,” Ty cried, and sprawled again out of the path of the relentless Rolls.
It was turning into a wreck itself, but the powerful handmade car kept moving. It was far too strong to be as badly damaged as the cars it hit.
Suddenly Ty saw a clear shot at its tires. He fired twice.
“Missed!” Ty groaned.
The Rolls lurched off and sideswiped four more cars, slamming them into one another in a tangle of torn metal.
This time it did not try to follow the guys. Instead, it moved toward one of the cross aisles.
“He’s going to get out!” Pete shouted.
“It’s the gun!” Ty cried. “He won’t risk the gun.”
The Rolls raced down the cross aisle that led to the main front aisle. Ty and Pete pounded through the mangled cars to cut it off.
“He’s got to get out to unlock the doors!” Pete shouted. “We’ve got him!”
They had almost reached the double doors when the Rolls squealed in a sharp left turn and came down the exit aisle at full speed.
“He’s not going to stop!” Ty yelled.
At high speed, yet almost in slow motion, the great silver car smashed straight through the heavy wooden doors.
“Back to my car!” Pete cried. “Hurry!”
“No time,” Ty said, panting. “He’s going to get away.”
Pete didn’t answer. He ran through the smashed doors.
The silver Rolls, going too fast, had failed to make the full turn into the street. It had skidded into the fence on the other side and was backing and turning to drive away. Pete ran along the street and around the corner to his Fiero.
“He’s got too much head start, Pete,” Ty cried as they tumbled into the Fiero.
But as they rounded the corner the Rolls was still there! It swayed and wobbled and jerked along the street like an injured duck.
“It’s damaged.” Ty grinned. “We — ”
“No, look!” Pete cried.
Inside the car, shadows struggled.
“Kelly’s fighting him. Trying to stop him.”
Even as Pete spoke, the passenger door of the Rolls flew open and Kelly sprawled onto the street.
The Rolls-Royce raced away.
Kelly jumped up right in the path of the Fiero. Pete skidded to a stop. He leaned out.
“We’ll catch him, Kelly!”
Kelly pulled the passenger door open and tumbled over Ty into the narrow backseat.
“Not without me you don’t,” she snapped, and smiled breathlessly at them.
Pete grinned at her.
“Hang on, then,” he said. “This is going to be a dynamite ride.”
Pete caught up with the battered Rolls in less than three blocks. Even Ty was pale as Pete drove like a madman, following the great silver machine through every twist and turn it tried to make.