The hapless man in jeans and a T-shirt was busily trying to figure out what to do with the spare.
“You need any help?” Sean asked after rolling down his window.
“Nah,” the plumber said. “I think I got it. Just frustrating. I have to get to a job here in the next thirty minutes, and this happens. That’s what I get for stopping for breakfast.” The man reached around his back in a motion Sean had seen dozens of times before.
Sean didn’t wait to see what he was grabbing. He mashed the gas pedal, squealing the tires briefly as he whipped the car out onto the street. “Get down!” he shouted to his occupants.
The words hadn’t come out of his mouth completely before loud pops started echoing from next to the white van. Rounds pounded the back of the Audi; a few spun through the rear window, shattering it into a tangled spider web of glass.
Coop and Charlie bent forward, while Adriana slid down in her seat. She reacted quickly after her initial defensive posturing, and pulled a Glock subcompact from an ankle holster.
Sean quickly put distance between the gunman and themselves, but up ahead, the road was blockaded by a white SUV. Two more men stood in front of it with pistols extended at the oncoming Audi.
They opened fire, sending rounds pinging off the hood and grill. One found the center of the windshield and went through to the back, finishing the job on the rear window and causing it to cascade to the ground in a waterfall of broken glass.
“No way the insurance company is gonna cover this,” Sean joked and slammed on the brakes. He spun the car around in a quick U-turn and accelerated the other way. The two men rapidly reloaded their weapons and continued firing.
The man by the white van had pursued on foot, but now Sean noticed another vehicle blocking the road in the other direction. Adriana rolled down her window and leaned out as they zoomed closer to the fake plumber. Bursts of flame erupted from her weapon’s barrel as she unleashed a hail of hot metal. Sparks shot up from the asphalt around her target. One bullet found the back window of the van. The man stood his ground, bravely returning fire at the oncoming vehicle until one of Adriana’s rounds found his leg. He dropped to the ground on one knee, but still fired off two more shots, emptying his magazine. Sean veered the Q5 at him. The target dove out of the way, rolling underneath the white van just before the front bumper of the SUV could strike.
“What in the blazes is goin’ on?” Charlie yelled from the back, still keeping his head down.
“Just stay low, Charlie. I’ll get us out of here.” Sean pressed harder on the gas pedal, then quickly let up.
On the road ahead, a silver sedan sat in the way, blocking both lanes. Standing by the broad side of the car was a man Sean had seen before. The Russian leveled a submachine gun, pointing it at the oncoming SUV and waited for them to be within range. Sean had to think fast and act faster. Within a few seconds, they would be peppered with a wave of bullets. He slammed on the brakes, bringing the Q5 to a skidding stop, and then shifted into reverse. The Russian up ahead didn’t wait any longer and started firing his weapon as Sean gunned his vehicle backward. As soon as he neared the front gate to his property, he hit the button to open it and swung the SUV around, pointing the nose at the driveway.
A slight flick of the wrist shifted the Audi back into drive, and he pounded the accelerator again. The gate doors were only half-open when he sped through. As a result, the two side mirrors exploded when they struck the wrought iron rods. Adriana winced and ducked her head to avoid the flying debris. Sean reached up and pressed a button on the light console. Behind them, the gate started closing again.
“That won’t hold them for long, will it?” Adriana asked, looking back at the metal blockade.
Sean sped up the driveway and glanced into the rearview mirror. “It’s stronger than you think. At worst, it will slow them down.”
Charlie looked up, noticing the immediate danger of flying bullets had momentarily passed. “We’re going back to the house? Now they’ll have us cornered like rats.”
“Back door to the bat cave,” Sean said, his face grimly focused on the asphalt in front of him.
“What?” Charlie said, but was involuntarily shoved against the door when Sean spun the steering wheel hard to the right, guiding the SUV around the house.
The trees and shrubs zipped by outside. Sean kept his foot on the gas pedal, forcing everyone in the SUV to lean to the right. A few seconds later, everyone jerked upright as Sean straightened out the vehicle and aimed it down a narrow drive through a thick stand of maples and hemlocks. Another gate lay closed at the bottom of the second driveway but began to open right after Sean hit another button on the overhead console. The rear gate differed from the front in that it was a single unit and slid open on wheels as opposed to the two doors that swung open on the other.
“Use this exit often?” Coop asked, finally brave enough to sit up straight.
“More often than I’d like,” Sean answered.
The SUV zipped through the opening and out onto the road, narrowly missing a sedan full of young commuters. The guy behind the wheel honked his horn angrily, which Sean responded to with an apologetic wave of the hand. “Sorry,” he said and pounded the gas again, whipping the SUV into the other lane.
“If they knew where we were,” Adriana said with a tone of warning, “they’ll probably know where we’re headed.”
A cough echoed from the back seat. She looked back where Coop sat clutching his left side. Thick crimson liquid seeped through his hands.
“Coop’s hit,” she said urgently.
Adriana opened the glove box, pulled out a fistful of napkins, and passed them back to the bleeding man.
“I’ll be okay,” he said, still trying to force a grin on his face. “Just drop me off at the hospital when you get a chance.” His casual demeanor would have been funny if Coop hadn’t been bleeding.
“Keep pressure on it,” Adriana said, pushing the napkins into the wound.
His hand futilely attempted to prevent the bleeding. “It’s only a flesh wound,” Coop said, gritting his teeth. It was evident he didn’t want to look down at the damage.
“Hold on,” Sean said. “There’s a hospital not far from here. Just hang on, Coop.”
Sean jerked the wheel down a side street, cutting off a produce delivery van in the process.
The Audi roared down the road, zipping by craftsman homes, restored modern ranchers, and old brick houses. Sean was forced to slow down upon reaching a busy intersection. He slammed on the brakes as the light turned red and patiently watched as a couple of young men in business suits strolled through the crosswalk. To the right, a young guy in a blue hoodie sat at a cafe, drinking a coffee beverage of some kind and typing furiously on his laptop.
“Sean, you need to hurry,” Adriana said, looking back at Coop, whose head was now slumping to the side.
“Yeah, screw this,” he said and stomped the gas again. He deftly swerved the SUV around a minivan that was creeping its way through the intersection and flew by it, clearing the crossroad in only a few seconds. Another car going the other way honked loudly, the driver clearly unhappy with Sean’s disobedience of the traffic laws.
He paid no attention and corrected course, getting his vehicle back in the correct lane and speeding toward the hospital. Sean guided the SUV through the North Druid Hills area of Atlanta, doing all he could to avoid slowdowns in traffic. With his intimate knowledge of side streets and driver tendencies, he was able to save precious time.
Ten minutes and several angry drivers later, the Q5 screeched to a stop in front of the emergency room at Emory Hospital, next to a parked ambulance. The tall white building overlooked the Atlanta skyline, standing between it and the burgeoning cityscape of Buckhead, just to the north.