“I do know her,” Dani whispered.
Quinn turned and found her staring out the side window.
“Did know her,” Dani said.
“She’s dead?”
A nod, her gaze still on the dark hills.
“Who was she?”
A long pause. “My sister.”
“I’m sorry,” Quinn said, meaning it.
“Thanks,” she whispered.
He hesitated a moment before asking, “So your last name’s Trudeaux?”
“That’s…complicated. It was our mother’s maiden name. Marianne and I used it sometimes. It was…easier.”
“Easier why?”
Bright lights suddenly filled the cabin of the Lexus.
“Hold on!” Nate yelled as he slammed on the brakes.
With the tires screaming against the road, Quinn flew forward, his seat belt the only thing keeping him from smashing into the dash.
Plopped in the middle of the road directly in front of them was the large helicopter they’d seen in Ellensburg, a spotlight on the side of the aircraft aimed at them.
“Back!” Quinn yelled.
He yanked up the bag that contained his gun as Nate threw the car into reverse, but they had barely started to move when gunfire ripped into the front and rear of the Lexus, piercing the engine and hitting at least one of the tires.
“There are more behind us!” Dani yelled.
Nate hit the brakes at the same moment the engine gave out.
Quinn looked back. Sure enough, two men were on each side of the road, armed with automatic rifles.
“Out of the car, hands on your head.” The voice came from a speaker on the helicopter.
“What are we going to do?” Dani asked.
In addition to the four men behind them, Quinn counted the silhouettes of four more by the helicopter.
“You can’t let them take me,” Dani said.
“Out of the car now!” the man at the helicopter ordered.
Bianca had the advantage of not being surrounded by the metal and glass of a car as she followed a quarter mile behind the Lexus. Even through her helmet, she was able to pick up the faint whoop-whoop of the helicopter.
She took glances at the sky to the south, until—
There, she thought as she spotted a dark blob moving fast against the background of stars.
She had been hoping Morse’s men wouldn’t make a reappearance, but so be it.
The helicopter raced ahead, disappearing in the night.
She increased her speed again, closing the distance between her and the Lexus to just over two hundred yards.
Things were about to get interesting.
Orbits spat an unending string of curses as he sped down the highway.
God only knew how far he had to go. He had seen absolutely no sign of Quinn’s vehicle yet. If Donnie had led him astray again, the kid would soon be spending a lot of time in physical therapy.
Orbits leaned forward, his hands clutching the wheel like he’d never let go.
How far should he give it before going back? Five miles? Ten?
“Where are you, dammit?” he yelled at the windshield. “Where the hell are you?”
Ahead, the Lexus took a curve around a hill, moving out of sight.
Bianca was about to close the distance a little more when suddenly a bright halo of light spilled onto the road from the other side of the hill. As she heard a screech of brakes, she brought her bike to a quick stop.
She was dismounting when automatic rifle fire erupted, the bullets ripping into metal. She opened the seat and the kit that had been waiting with the gun.
“Out of the car, hands on your head,” an amplified voice ordered, echoing around the curve.
She moved up the hill in a crouch and worked her way forward until the road beyond the curve came into view.
The helicopter was sitting right in the middle of the highway, the Lexus skewed on the road in front of it and lit up by a spotlight from the aircraft. She counted three heads inside the car, two men in front and the woman in back. They all appeared to be alive. Apparently the gunfire had simply been a warning.
She took stock of Morse’s men. Four at the helicopter and four more behind the car — every single one of them focused on the Lexus.
“Out of the car now!”
It was an impossible situation for the targets. The attack squad may have been ordered to avoid injuring the woman, but it would have no qualms about hurting her companions. Morse’s people undoubtedly had both men already locked in their sights. If the targets tried anything, it would be over in seconds.
She set her gun on the ground and opened the kit. Inside were three mini flash-bang grenades and an equal number of smoke bombs. She removed two of each, then, in quick succession, tossed one flash bang toward the men behind the car and the other toward the helicopter. By the time the canisters landed on the road, she’d already thrown the first smoke bomb and was readying the other. Right before it left her hand, the flash bangs exploded.
“What are we going to do?” Dani asked, desperate.
Quinn looked around again, hoping for another way out, knowing they had only one option.
“That’s a lot of manpower,” Nate said.
“Yeah,” Quinn agreed.
“Government?”
“Let’s hope so.”
If the squad surrounding them was tied to US intelligence, Quinn and Nate might actually live through this. The fact that they hadn’t already been shot supported the possibility.
“I don’t see where we have a choice,” Quinn said.
Dani’s eyes widened. “Wait. No way. You can’t let them get me. You can’t!”
“Dani, if you have an idea about how we can get out of this, I am all—”
Even shielded by the car, the bang behind them was thunderous. As they ducked, a second went off in front of them.
“Flash bangs,” Nate said.
Quinn raised his head and looked out the window. Through a stream of rising smoke, he could see that the men by the helicopter were on the ground, stunned. He looked out the back. Two of the four men there were in the same condition. The other two, however, were scanning the area, guns raised. More smoke was rising directly behind the Lexus.
Quinn’s first thought was that Orlando and Daeng had arrived, but he knew that was impossible. They were too far away. For the moment, it didn’t matter who it was.
“Everybody out,” he said.
The car was angled so that Quinn’s side was the one most shielded from the men behind them. He opened his door and motioned for Nate to follow him out. Dani had her door open a second later.
The smoke had built up enough so that they could no longer see the helicopter, but the rear cloud had not yet built to the same level. Quinn caught a glimpse of the two men who hadn’t been dazed rushing toward the Lexus.
Thup-thup.
Both men dropped to the ground as muted gunshots cut across the road.
Quinn looked toward the hill, searching for the source, but his eyes had been affected by the spotlight and he could see little in the darkness beyond.
“Hold on to me and stay low,” he said to Dani.
When she had a grip on his jacket, he signaled Nate to follow and led them around the front of the car.
Another thup, and a few seconds later, a fourth, both coming from behind the vehicle.
Quinn sneaked toward the edge of the road opposite the hill. His thought was if they could get into the field and work their way around the helicopter, they could lose themselves in the countryside beyond.
“There!” a man shouted.