“Make a deal,” Ridley demanded. “Choose one of them.”
Ridley nodded at the computer screen with its surveillance camera images.
Ahab turned to the screen. “You choose. Russians or Chinese. Who do you want?”
Ridley looked at the screen once more, his eyes darting back and forth as if perusing a menu. In this instant of distraction, Ahab grabbed a snub-nosed pistol that he kept at the ready. He fired two shots at Ridley. The bullets were small caliber, they were fully jacketed, they went right through him.
Ridley stumbled back in disbelief, grasping at his stomach. Hecrashed through some of the boxes and tumbled to the ground. He pulled his own weapon and fired at Ahab, missing to the right and blasting the video screen.
The room went dark. Ahab seemed to vanish into that darkness.
Expecting another bullet, Ridley scrambled toward the back exit, where he tumbled down the steps. Getting to his feet at the bottom of the stairwell he pushed through the inner door, knocking over a waitress who was carrying a tray filled with glasses back to the bar. They crashed to the ground. The waitress screamed. With a half dozen people looking at him, Ridley took off in the other direction, bursting through the outer door into the frigid night.
Chapter 33
Kurt heard the shots, and the crash of glasses, and the scream of the waitress. He rushed to the back side of the tavern, where he found a young woman in a white smock half-covered in blood. Helping her up, Kurt realized it wasn’t hers.
“He went out,” the waitress said, pointing at the back door.
The door was slightly ajar. Kurt ran to it and stormed out into the frigid night air. He saw a man running near the far side of the parking lot, hopping the curb, and then climbing into the delivery van, where it sat parked out in the street. The lights came on, and the tires spun in the snow as the man put the van in gear and tore out of the parking spot.
Before Kurt could take another step, the Big Orange Rig slid to a stop beside him. He pulled the front door open and hopped in. “That was the driver.”
“We know,” Joe and Paul replied in unison.
Kurt was surprised to see Paul in the back.
“He was also one of the hijackers,” Joe said, getting on the gas and chasing after the van. “A guy named Ridley.”
Kurt was astounded.
“Any idea who shot him?” Paul asked from the back seat.
“No,” Kurt said. He was surprised to see Paul without his wife. They often seemed inseparable. “Where’s Gamay?”
Paul grimaced. “She’s, ummm…”
“Don’t tell me she’s in the van.”
“We saw Ridley come out for a smoke,” Joe said. “We thought we’d set a trap for him.”
Kurt offered a withering stare.
“What do you want from me?” Joe said. “I’m the driver. Paul’s the eye in the sky. And she’s the only black belt among the three of us.”
“Plus, she wouldn’t take no for an answer,” Paul added.
“That part I believe,” Kurt said. “Well, we better catch that van before Ridley finds her, crashes, or runs into whoever tried to finish him off.”
Chapter 34
Kurt held on to a grab bar as Joe ran through the gears, bringing the big vehicle up to speed as he followed the van. Despite Joe’s efforts, it was impossible to close the gap. The van was swerving all over the place, making one late turn after another, which was not the big rig’s forte.
Before long it found the coast road and sped off with a surprising amount of pep. Joe put the hammer down, but the off-road machine was not optimized for speed, either.
Even as they accelerated, a pair of cars rushed past them. One car sped by on the left, the other zipping by a second later on the right. The cars had closed in unnoticed, driving in the dark with their headlights off. The passes took everyone by surprise.
Now in the lead, the cars turned their lights on and formed up in a staggered position so the lights from the second car wouldn’t blind the driver of the first. It took only a second to recognize the distinctive pattern, which gave them away as the latest models from a rapidly expanding Chinese manufacturer.
