Triple Threat (19 page)

She reached for her seatbelt buckle.

“Don't take it off!” he yelled.

“I'm just loosening it.” She tugged on her seatbelt, then swiveled in her seat. “They're a little closer.”

Josh was crazy to be driving nearly sixty miles per hour on this city street. But whoever was driving the sedan must be a madman.

The light ahead of them turned red. “Hold on, Kate.” He hit the brakes and scanned the side street.

One vehicle had nearly reached the intersection. Josh gunned the engine and shot through the intersection a second before the vehicle arrived.

“He's in trouble. They're sliding,” Kate said between heavy breaths.

The sound of screeching tires reached them.

Josh pushed the pedal to the floorboard to capitalize on the situation behind them.

“He missed the car entering the intersection.”

“Do you remember how far it is to the freeway from here, Kate?”

“We've gone a mile, so it's about two and a half miles.”

“Great! Feel free to pray, Kate. I would appreciate it if—”

“Pray. Yeah. I'll do that. Because…”

He waited.

“Kate, you can't leave me in suspense like that. Because why.”

“I think were both in suspense, right now. And it's going to get worse. They've closed to within half a block.”

“Now I know he's a madman.”

“I could tell you he was mad the minute he flew out the door of the motel.”

“Crazy, Kate.”

“I am not.”

“
He
is.” Josh accelerated again, throwing Kate back in her seat.

“Oh, him. Yeah, he has to be crazy to keep up this pace.”

Josh encountered a car ahead of them. He passed it on the right.

The driver hit his horn.

“I thought Canadians were polite. Didn't honk.”

“But they know that you're an impolite American. Just be glad it's nearly 1:00 AM, and you don't have to dodge any—”

“Truck!” Josh swerved, straightened the wheel, and hit the brakes. “Blasted truck!”

The big semi's air brakes hissed and its air horn blew a long disapproving note.

“I guess there
are
trucks out at 1:00 AM. Josh…they're closer now.”

“Yeah. The truck stole most of my lead.”

“One of them is leaning out the passenger side.”

“Get down, Kate, until I say you can come up.”

“No. I've got to—”

He shoved Kate's head down to the seat with one strong motion of his right hand.

“Stop it! That hurt!”

A loud crack sounded.

Shards of safety glass sprayed the back of Josh's head. Holes in his back window and windshield told him the bullet came through the space occupied by Kate's head a second before.

She remained down, her head hugging Josh's leg. “I'm sorry, Josh.”

“Please stay down, Kate. They're right behind us, and the lady is hanging out the window with a handgun. At least it's not an automatic.”

He pulled the steering wheel side to side, sliding Kate back and forth in the seat.

“What are you doing?”

“Making it harder to hit us.”

“It must be working. She hasn't shot again.”

Two more loud pops sounded. Apparently these shots missed his car.

“Good job. I'm coming up now so I can—”

“No, you're not!” He pinned her head to his leg with his right arm.

“Josh, I'll duck when she aims.”

“You're not coming up here. She keeps the gun trained on us all the time…or tries to. You're staying down!”

He needed to get out of firing range. “Hang on, Kate.”

“To what? Your leg?”

“Just hang on.” He yanked the wheel hard right, tires screaming as they slid onto a side street.

The big sedan overshot the turn. It was braking to a stop when he lost sight of it. It would backup and follow them.

“What did you just do?” Kate sat up in the seat.

He let her remain sitting. “I'm trying to lose them before we hit the freeway. It's only a short way ahead.” He cut left through an alleyway and gunned the engine, smashing a plastic garbage can. It flew over the top of his car. Apparently, it was empty.

Josh braked to a stop and cut the lights and engine. “Feel free to pray again, Kate. You know, pray that they'll go by and won't see us. Never mind. They just did.”

“Did what?”

“Went by.”

“So, what now?”

“We play hide and sneak.”

“You mean hide and seek?”

“No.” He hit the ignition and rolled out of alleyway without the headlights on and without using the brakes. Josh turned left, heading back to Kingsway.

He accelerated on the side street and slid onto Kingsway avoiding the brake pedal and praying there wasn't a car coming.

But one car was coming. About three blocks down the side street he saw the now familiar headlights of the sedan grow larger in his rearview mirror as the vehicle flew toward Kingsway.

“They know what I'm up to, Kate. I guess we just head for Highway 1 and lead them on a high-speed chase to the border.”

“Do it, Josh. You've done great. Even if I was a little…ungrateful.”

Was that a smile on Kate's face? She thought he had done something well? Something that might have come from crazy Kate's repertoire of risky escapes.

“You saved my life, Josh.” She squeezed his shoulder. “There's the on ramp. Let's see what top-end looks like for your car.”

“There's a limiter on the engine. Top end is 115 miles per hour.”

“What if you need to go faster?”

“The drive shaft flies apart and pieces of it penetrate the passenger compartment.”

“A hundred and fifteen sounds fine to me.”

“I thought it would.”

Several blocks behind them, the sedan skidded around the corner and onto Kingsway as Josh accelerated up the on ramp. The needle on his tach moved toward the red line at seven thousand RPM.

 

 

 

 

24

 

Katie leaned over and read the speedometer. “One hundred fifteen miles per hour Josh, and you're close to the red line.”

“I know, but they are still gaining on us. There's been no traffic since we crossed the toll bridge. But, if they catch us, we're toast.”

She put a hand on Josh's tense shoulder. “You can do this. Pretend it's the last lap in a car race and you're in the lead. What would you have to do?”

“Block them. Keep them from passing.”

“Do it. And keep on doing it. The lights ahead, on the right, are Surrey. Highway 13 is only five or six miles ahead.”

“But, Kate, that's about four laps around a racetrack.”

“If it's just the woman with a pistol, maybe we can make it.”

“They know were headed for the border, so they know which exit I'm taking.”

“Then it's time for a little deception.”

“Great. First, I need to be a race car driver, and then turn into a magician and make my car go poof just before we exit.”

She squeezed his shoulder. “Or after we exit.”

“After?” He glanced at her. “You're a genius, Kate.”

“That's what they tell me. But sometimes I'm not so sure. We could sure use a cop right now. Where are they when you really deserve a speeding ticket?”

“Evidently, we're not speeding enough. The sedan is making a move on us, and I'm at top end.”

“You played tight end on offense, didn't you?”

“Yeah.”

“So block the guy. Really hard.”

“You need to look back there, Kate. Tell me what that woman is holding.”

Kate swiveled in her seat and tried to identify the long object the woman had just poked out the passenger side window. “This isn't good. I think she has an assault rifle. Maybe she dug it out of hiding after we hit the freeway.”

They both ducked their heads when a spray of bullets struck the rear of Josh's car.

“I was right. But look, it's only one mile to the Highway 13 exit. That's only thirty seconds.”

“Hang on, Kate. I've got an idea.”

“Don't wait too long. With another burst they could hit the gas tank or…”

“Yeah,
or
…”

Josh slowed as if planning to exit.

The sedan pulled close behind. A gun jutted out the passenger side window.

Josh hit the brakes. They skidded until he released the brakes.

The sedan slid end for end, the driver losing control in the panic stop to avoid a collision.

Now past the exit, Josh stomped on the gas pedal. Wheels squealed and clouds of smoke billowed from the tires as they accelerated down Highway 1.

“I've been watching the median. I think we can get through it without rolling the car. I'm going to cross over after we clear the hill ahead. They won't be able to see us for a while. If we make—”

“
If
we make it?”

“Yeah, if…so maybe you should pray about that. Then we'll head back toward the exit in the other lane with our lights out. If we're lucky, we'll pass them in a spot where the bushes in the median will hide us.”

An opening between bushes in the median appeared a short way ahead. “In about five more seconds, Kate.”

“Josh…if we don't…I mean…I want you to know that—”

“Save it for later.” He stomped the brakes, slid for about fifty yards, then steered through the median.

His vehicle bounced over a small drainage ditch and shot up the rise into the westbound lanes, lanes which were dark ahead for as far as he could see.

Josh cramped the wheel hard left and mashed the pedal to the floor, executing a half doughnut on the pavement. He cut the lights.

Katie took a breath. “We made it?”

“Yeah. I saw a scene in a thriller movie where somebody did that.”

“But they couldn't have done it any better than you just did.”

“No. In the movie, Kate…the guy got killed.”

Her shadowy head turned toward him. “After what you just did, you aren't allowed to call me crazy anymore.”

“They say if you want to learn, learn from a master. Hey, they just passed us going at least a 120 and I don't think they saw us.”

She stared at Josh, her mouth open, but unable to utter the words she wanted to yell at him. This was probably what it felt like for him in Whistler, when she dragged him through one hair-raising event after another.

Josh took the Highway 13 off ramp and gave her a couple of strange glances. “Kate, I know what you're feeling.”

A few moments ago, yeah, maybe he understood that. But Josh's heroics had saved them and had rooted this man still more deeply into her heart. Katie was falling hopelessly, helplessly for Josh. It wasn't supposed to be like this. If things didn't work out for them, her heart would be—she couldn't dwell on that now. They needed to get to the border and get protection. But first, she needed to call Agent Peterson.

As Josh sped down Highway 13 toward the Lynden border crossing, Katie pulled out her cell phone.

 

 

 

 

25

 

Katie scanned the straight stretch of highway behind them. “There's no one following us, Josh. I'm calling Peterson now. We need protection and we've got to get the FBI involved to shut down this operation before they pull the trigger.”

“The cat's out of the bag, Kate. It might force the terrorists to start the attack now. But Peterson's not going to be happy about—”

“I know.” She paused before pushing the call button. “I've never so blatantly disobeyed his orders.”

“What about at Key Arena?”

“That was different. But I did point the business end of an AK-47 at him once.”

“You've got to be kidding.” Josh glanced at her. “You're not, are you?”

“No. But somehow crossing the border into Canada seems a lot worse.”

“It wouldn't if you were the person on the business end of the assault rifle. Just call him, Kate. We're only about five minutes from the border.”

She pushed the call button and waited for the reaction of a man whose disobedient understudy was waking him at 1:30 AM to deliver the wonderful news about her violation of his orders, and an imminent terrorist attack that could kill millions of people. Katie shuddered as she pressed the green call icon.

Four rings and she hadn't been transferred to voicemail yet. After the fifth rang, a raspy, sleep-filled voice spoke. “Peterson…and this had better be really important, Katie, or—”

“Just listen for a minute. You can get mad and do anything you want afterward. But hear me out first.”

The voice went from sleep filled to sharp edged. “I'm listening.”

“Josh and I detected more terrorist communications.”

“But you promised—”

“And you promised you would listen, first.”

“Blast it! Katie can't you ever…” There was a long pause. “OK. I'm listening.”

Katie took a deep breath and explained how she and Josh had found the Whistler duo in Burnaby. “There were indications they were switching to a peer-to-peer network for communications and that they were going to launch the attack. The only way we could determine the nature of the attack was to—”

“To hack them.” Peterson growled. “I'm the godfather of two cute twins and a world-class hacker.”

Katie decided to wait for him to end his rant before she dropped the bomb.

“Just tell it to me plain, Katie. What have you done, and what did you find out?”

“I got on the Wi-Fi and—”

“Wi-Fi? Where are you, Katie?”

“Headed south on Highway 13 about three miles from the Lynden border crossing.”

“Blast it all to blazes! You're in Canada! I'll have you arrested at the border—”