He broke the trigger twice in quick succession and the target vehicle immediately swerved to the right, slamming into a row of parked cars before bouncing back into the road and accelerating towards the park.
Jennifer slowed, letting the other car get ahead of her, then accelerated again, matching its pace. The Renault hit the curb of the park at full speed, plowing over it before smashing into the iron fence surrounding the grass. It flattened the fence and bounced over the metal, continuing into the park.It careened forward out of control before slamming into a large Jacaranda tree, sending metal and glass flying.
Jennifer slowed, the people in the park running for their lives and the cars at the intersection all slamming on their brakes. She saw the passenger door open, then the female get out and begin to run in a halting manner.
At first, Jennifer thought she was injured, then realized she was trying to dial a phone as she ran. Aaron recognized what she was doing as well, shouting, “Hit her! She’s trying to set off the bomb!”
Jennifer goosed the gas pedal of her vehicle, lining up on the path the Renault had laid. She bounced over the curb, ground across the fence, then swerved to the concrete path the woman was shuffling down.
She heard the vehicle coming and turned. She stopped running, held the phone in the air and screamed like a feral animal, her face a mask of rage. Jennifer floored the pedal, hitting her full on and throwing her body in the air just as a massive explosion erupted behind them.
The overpressure flung her vehicle sideways, the body of the woman smashing into the windshield and bouncing away. The car spun a half turn before coming to rest, bouncing Jennifer off the steering wheel.
She looked behind her and saw the Renault burning furiously, pieces of metal still falling around her vehicle. She turned to Aaron, saw he had a cut above his eye, but was otherwise okay, and said, “That was the dumbest damn plan I have ever heard.”
He touched his brow and looked around the park, searching for bodies but seeing none. He said, “Yeah, but it just might have worked.”
Chapter 65
After spending a minute trying to get Jennifer, I cursed and said, “What the hell is she doing?”
Since our encrypted radio network slaved off the local cell system, I wondered if maybe Veep hadn’t somehow tanked the cellular towers using the Rock Star Bird. I was hoping that was the case, because the last thing she’d told me on the net was that they had been compromised by the suspected VBIED.
I was regretting my command to give chase. Since our communication with the aircraft was straight line-of-sight radio, I said, “Call Veep and see what he has. See if he’s crashed the network.”
Still wearing the headset, Shoshana did so. She listened for a minute, then said, “He says network is running fine. He’s sucking in and spitting out numbers like before, but he said the target phone has dropped off the net.”
Shit.That wasn’t good. I got back on comms and said, “Koko, Koko, status report, over.”
Nobody answered. Shoshana stood up, then pointed at the television showing a breaking news story. There had been an explosion in downtown Buenos Aires. I ran over and turned up the volume, but the reporter was speaking Spanish. I asked, “You speak Spanish?”
Shoshana shook her head, saying, “No, but don’t panic yet. It’s just an early report. You made a correct call. They weren’t suicide bombers. If it went off, all it means is that they managed to evade surveillance.” She tried to project a confidence I could tell she didn’t feel.
Finally, my earpiece came alive, “Pike, Pike, this is Koko, over.”
I felt a flood of relief, but still gave her hell. “Where have you been? What’s the status on the vehicle? I’m seeing news reports about an explosion and Veep says the target phone is dead.”
She said, “Sorry. My phone was knocked out. I had to reboot it. We had a little bit of high adventure here.”
She then proceeded to tell me what happened, and my jaw dropped. When she was done, I said, “Both of you are okay?”
“Yeah, but the rental’s totaled. Sorry. We’re across the street. So far, no police but I can hear the sirens.”
I was torn between giving her high accolades or verbally tearing her apart for the recklessness, but we had no time for that. Thinking furiously about the problem set, I said, “What was the scope of the damage? How many did they harm?”
“I don’t know about anyone injured from flying debris, but believe it or not, we haven’t seen any signs that anyone was killed. The VBIED apparently wasn’t packed with explosives. It only had enough to set off the LNG tank, so it wasn’t like something from Iraq.”
That was good news. I said, “No sign of the Ghost?”
“No. It was just the two who rented the hotel rooms with that burned credit card.”
“Can you get back into the park?”
“Yeah, for the next thirty seconds. Why?”
“Get that cell phone the woman used to detonate the vehicle. It’s our last link to the rest of the crew.”
“Pike, I flattened her with my car, and then she was tossed by the explosion. I have no idea where the phone is and the police are on the way.”
