“Matt,” she called. “Matt, please.” But there was no answer from behind her and she felt panic rise up in her throat. Her heart was thumping hard and her arms and hands were tingling with adrenaline. A few cars flew past her on the other end of the highway in the opposite direction. Her Glock lay between her thighs. The van came up fast and rammed her again; this time so hard she involuntarily let go of the wheel for a moment and the car veered toward the shoulder. She caught the wheel and held the vehicle steady. The van was bigger and had a lower center of gravity; the driver was trying to get her to flip. Then when they were stunned or trapped in the vehicle, he’d walk up and kill them both. She could just barely see him in her rearview mirror, a large, dark, hairless form at the wheel. Terrified tears threatened then, but she held them back.
“No way,” she said out loud, gripping the wheel hard. “No fucking way this guy’s going to get us.”
But there was only silence in the back of the Explorer.
“Please, God,” she said, as she saw the van come at her again fast for another try. She sped up and veered into the right-hand lane. The exit she needed was less than a mile away; if she could get to it, she figured he wouldn’t follow her onto the streets. At nearly four A.M., the BQE was practically empty, with just a smattering of cars making their way through the dark morning. She hoped one of them had a cell phone and might call the police to report the van ramming her, two drivers racing out of control. Her own phone was out of reach in her bag on the floor, and she didn’t dare take her eyes off the road.
He rammed her again, this time harder, and she lost control of the Explorer for a second, felt the left side of the car leave the ground. She caught the wheel and righted herself. Something in the engine was straining hard.
“Jez,” said Mount from the back. “Slow down. Let him approach the vehicle and then blow his head off.”
She practically wept with relief to hear his voice. “Slow down? Are you crazy?”
“We can’t outrun him.”
“We can make it to the hospital. Just one more exit. Once we’re on the streets, he’ll pull away. He’s not going to follow us into a populated area where there’ll be good witnesses.”
“Just pull over. He’ll never expect you to do that.”
The van had dropped behind but was picking up speed again for another hit. Harder. It went against all her instincts screaming to drive as hard and as fast as she could. But she knew in her heart that Matt was right. They couldn’t outrun the van. They had a better chance if they stood and fought.
She let the vehicle slow and pulled onto the shoulder as if she was in distress. She reached quickly for her bag and dialed 911.
“This is Detective Jesamyn Breslow with the Ninth Precinct,” she said, watching the white van pull over a hundred yards behind her and sit idle. “Officers in trouble. We need backup on the Eastbound BQE, just before exit 121. Assailant in white van, armed.”
The dispatcher was saying something, but Jesamyn let the phone drop on the seat beside her. She turned around and used the back of her seat as a barricade, holding her gun over its edge. She looked down at Matt, who had his hand on his chest; his paper-white face seemed to float in the darkness.
“As soon as he starts to move on us, unload your weapon into him. Don’t wait for him to fire first. They want us dead.”
The door to the white van opened and a man identical in dress and hairstyle to the guy whose ass she’d kicked early, stepped out onto the road. An eighteen-wheeler whipped past them, horn blaring. Jesamyn felt the Explorer rock in its wake.
When he stepped into view, her heart did a flip from her chest to her stomach. He was taller than the other man, broader through the shoulders. She couldn’t make out his face very well in the dark but she could see clearly that he had some kind of huge gun in his right hand. She couldn’t tell what it was… a shotgun or an assault rifle; something big and nasty.
She breathed hard against the dread that was growing in her.
“Stay calm, make sure he’s in range, and then just let it rip,” Matt said weakly.
In the way far distance she heard the sound of sirens. They were far, maybe five or six minutes away. They won’t get here in time, she thought, as the monster lifted the gun and started moving toward them slowly.
“Stay down,” she yelled to Mount. She opened fire through her rear windshield and the air around them came alive with sound and light and a blizzard of glass.
Twenty-Seven
The Gulf slapped lazily against the white sand and a sliver of moon hung over palm tress that stood perfectly still in the windless night. Lydia lifted the beer to her lips. It wasn’t as cold as it needed to be and there was no lime but it still tasted okay. Jeffrey grimaced as he drank it.
“It’s warm,” he complained.
“It’s something.”
Lily was finally sleeping in one of the queen beds and Lydia and Jeffrey sat outside on the cinderblock patio in white plastic chairs drinking Coronas. Agent Hunt had left to return to the scene, leaving behind two agents to ensure they made good on their promise to stick around. Lily had had a tearful conversation with her mother on the phone and then collapsed into bed after Jeffrey called Striker, asking him to send someone to protect Lily’s mother and to send a lawyer down to Florida. Chances were the ATF would just let them go at a certain point, as long as things went their way. But you never could tell when federal agencies would be looking for a scapegoat; Lydia was glad Jeffrey took the precaution of getting a lawyer.
“What about Dax?” she asked.
“He’ll be fine,” Jeffrey said, turning to look at her.
“How did he know where we were?”
“Lydia,” he said. “Over the years I’ve learned that, with Dax, the fewer questions you ask the better.”
She frowned at him. “What kind of answer is that?”
“He saved our asses, right? He got us out of there. What more do you need to know?”
She looked at him, incredulous. “You’re kidding, right?”
He didn’t say anything, took a drink of his Corona and avoided her eyes.
Then, “It’s none of our business.”
She was quiet for a second. “So that’s what he does? He works for one of those Privatized Military Companies? So was he working for them tonight or was he working with us?”
Dax had never really answered her and now Jeffrey was being equally tight-lipped. She got the idea that he knew more than he was telling her and the thought made her crazy.
“So we’re going to start keeping things from each other now?” she asked.
Jeffrey turned his eyes on her.
“No, Lydia,” he said, softly. He reached for her hand. “I know as much about what he does as you do. But I know Dax. I trust him. I trust his friendship. And I figure if he needs to hold certain things back from us, then maybe it’s for our safety or for his. That’s okay with me.”
Her heart fluttered a little as a dark form emerged beside Jeffrey, stepping around from the side of the building. She stood quickly and then saw that it was Dax as he stepped into the light.
“But it’s not okay with you, is it, Lydia?” he said quietly, holding her eyes.
She sat back down and looked away from him. She was glad to see him, glad they’d let him go, but there was something between them now that prevented her from being entirely comfortable with him in the way she’d always been.
Jeffrey handed Dax a beer. He pulled up one of the plastic chairs and straddled it like he was mounting a horse. He popped the lid with his hand even though it required a bottle opener.
“We got what we came for, right? What are we still doing here?” he said.
“Waiting for you, for one,” said Jeffrey. “And we told the ATF we’d stick around for a while.”