“They are, if you don’t catch them just right,” Jerricho said. “But they’re extremely nimble when you need them to be,” he said. “Most civilians don’t know how to drive them.”
“I’m glad you do,” Killian said. “I haven’t had too much experience with a civilian Jeep.”
“That’s too bad,” he said. “You should take one of these babies out in the dunes.” He added, “They are something.”
“If you say so.”
Up ahead Jerricho slowed because of a red light, and the vehicle in question had slowed. He popped down the visor in front of him to block anybody trying to look at him. “Can you see him?” Jerricho asked Killian.
“Yep. They don’t appear to be very interested. I’m running the plates now.”
At that, Jerricho’s phone rang. “Answer that for me, will ya?”
Killian pressed Talk.
“Who is this?” Jerricho asked.
An exasperated man answered. “This is MI6. Who the hell is this?”
“Hey, Jonas. How are you doing?” Jerricho said.
There was a moment of silence, and then Jonas exploded, “Jerricho, is that you?”
“Yep, it is.”
“What the hell are you doing in my country and not telling me?” he growled.
“We were just coming through,” he said. “And I would have made a stop to see you, but things turned ugly real fast.”
“Remember that deal about you let us know when things go ugly before they go ugly?”
“You want to tell the bad guys that?” he snapped. “Even right now I’m behind somebody. I need you to run plates.”
“I’m not your busboy,” he said.
“This one could very well be taking intel, American intelligence information, out of the country. And using your country to get through what he needs to get done.”
“What’s the plate number?” Jonas asked.
Killian ran it off. “That’s my buddy, Killian,” Jerricho said. “Be nice.”
“I’m always nice,” Jonas said, “and I’ll be nice even as I throw your ass in jail.”
“Not this month,” he said.
“You can’t keep coming through my country and causing chaos.”
“It’s not always me,” he protested.
“It’s you enough,” he said.
“You know I’ll just say, Deal with it, right?”
“I’ll deal with it already.” Then his tone changed. “The vehicle’s stolen,” he said. “Where are you? I want a location, and I want it now.”
“Whose vehicle was it?”
“Doesn’t matter,” he said, “but it was taken from one of our government buildings.”
Jerricho snorted at that. “So now the cyberthieves are even playing with you guys. That’s pretty apropos.”
“I want the details, and I want them now,” Jonah said in a warning voice.
“Killian can fill you in. I’m a little busy,” Jerricho said. And suddenly the vehicle in front of them realized that they’d been made, and the gunman took off, just as the light turned green, and ripped down the street, well past twice the speed limit.
“When you hear the cops hollering about my speed,” Jerricho snapped, his voice rising, “remember that I’m only following this asshole.” And he ripped off past everybody else in the lane.
Chapter 12
Brenna woke up, her body bouncing from side to side. She cried out. Immediately a man appeared, peering over the front seat. “It’s okay,” he said. “We’ve strapped you down. Just take a few minutes to wake up.”
She gazed, bleary-eyed, at the out-of-focus face, but the voice was somewhat familiar. “Killian?” she questioned.
“Yes,” he said, “it’s me. We came in just after you were kidnapped.”
“It’s the only reason I opened the door,” she said, struggling to sit up, only to realize that they had buckled her in with both seat belts.
“Stay where you are,” he warned. “You’re still groggy. They drugged you to get you out of the room.”
She cast her mind back and nodded. “He put something over my mouth and basically threw me over his shoulder. It happened so fast,” she said. “I didn’t even have time to react.”
“This is also what they do,” Killian said.
“And you didn’t catch them?”
“We did, but he had a partner in the garage, and that’s who we’re after now.”
She lay here quiet, as the wind whistled around her. “At this speed?”
“Yeah,” Killian said. “Jerricho is on the hunt. He’s pretty sure he has the vehicle in front of us, so he’s trying hard not to let them get away.”
“But apparently they obviously know that he’s got them made,” she said, struggling to sit up. As soon as she managed to unbuckle the one seat belt, she pivoted around and sat back up again. She rebuckled herself in, the normal way, and looked outside. The wind caught her in the face, helping her to wake up almost instantly. “Where are we?”
“Still in town,” Killian said, “but we’ve got MI6 involved now.”
“Great,” she said, with a yawn. “I’m sure they’re thrilled.”
“Not really,” he said cheerfully.
At that, Jerricho asked, “How are you feeling?”
“My stomach would be a whole lot calmer,” she said, “if I wasn’t being jostled from side to side.”
“Too bad about that,” he said cheerfully, “but I’m not letting this guy go.” And just then the other guy made a move to speed up even more but caught a corner of a curb and spun out really bad. He hit several vehicles before flipping in the air and landing upside down. The silence was deafening.
She cried out, “Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God.”
Jerricho quickly brought his vehicle to a stop off to the side. He looked at Killian and said, “Stay here.” He bolted outside, racing toward the driver. As he got there, a shot was fired. He ducked and dashed to the side, even as another shot was fired.
She looked to Killian. “Shouldn’t he have backup?”
Killian turned around, shook his head, and said, “Nope, he’s got this.” And Killian tapped his temple.
She stared. “It doesn’t matter if he’s got brains or not,” she wailed. “He shouldn’t have to deal with this alone.”
He burst out laughing. “I’ll just get in the way.”
As she watched, Jerricho dragged the driver from the vehicle, the weapon he was carrying kicked off to the side, and, with one solid punch, Jerricho had knocked out the guy. “And what if the driver was seriously injured from that crash?” she asked quietly.
“He’s a little more injured now.”
Jerricho looked around at the sound of several vehicles racing toward him. Two men hopped out and held out their guns. He raised his hands. “I’m not armed,” he said, recognizing MI6 from head to toe. Another vehicle pulled up, and Jonas stepped out. He walked over, took one look, and said, “Did you have to kill him?”