CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!
Ripley’s pistol tore at our eardrums again and again, causing Theo and I to recoil in abject shock. Colson swore, scathingly. The Suburban’s engine screamed…
Somewhere behind us, a violent collision occurred. It was followed instantly by a cacophony of panicked shouts and breaking glass.
“Got ‘em.”
I could make out the words, over the high-pitched ringing. Hands still over my ears, I glanced back and saw our lone pursuer’s vehicle. The front end was crumpled forward, wrapped almost entirely around a tree.
“You’re a fucking maniac!” Colson roared back. “You know that!?”
Beneath his smug smile, Ripley said nothing. He merely put his gun away, and turned to face the onrushing darkness.
Theo closed his laptop. He did it slowly, with the cool calm of someone accustomed to stress. It made me wonder just how long he’d been working for Donovan. All three of them, really.
“So what happens now?” I asked aloud.
Colson’s steel blue eyes met my gaze in the rear-view mirror.
“Now, we run.”
Run.I’d been running for less than a day and I was exhausted already.
But Theo, sitting alongside me, slowly shook his head.
“No,” he countered. “Now we disappear.”
He opened the laptop again, and began hammering away at the keys. I found the sound — not to mention the look of determination on his face — oddly reassuring.
For the first time in what felt like forever, I actually felt hope.
Donovan’s still never going to stop looking for you.
No, I knew that he wouldn’t. Even now he was out there plotting his next move, planning the best way he could drag us back.
But now, thankfully, I was no longer alone.
