Gamay turned toward the partition, aimed the gun at the dashboard, and fired. The bullet exploded into a thousand fragments, as it was designed to do, much of the force mushrooming and rebounding back into Ridley’s face and eyes.
As Ridley reacted in shock, clutching at his face, Gamay reached through the gap, snagged the wheel, and wrenched it over to the right side. The van pulled hard, hitting the wall of snow and then grinding along it until it stalled out and stopped.
Gamay was tossed around in the back, hitting her head and bruising her knee somehow. Stunned but conscious, she looked up. The airbag had gone off, protecting and trapping Ridley for the moment. She looked out the open back of the van. The lights of the Chinese car were coming around the turn. She jumped out and ducked around to the side. She had a few seconds to run for it, but that would leave Ridley in their clutches.
With nowhere to hide, she dropped down and crawled under the van, pulling her feet in, just as the lights of the Chinese car settled on them.
The pursuit car came to a stop. The doors opened and three men climbed out. They remained behind the open doors for a moment and then spread out in a tactical formation, moving cautiously toward the wrecked van.
Gamay could see only their legs, but she had no doubt they were armed.
Three bullets, three targets, she thought. She would have preferred more of the former or less of the latter, especially as that didn’t leave her any way to deal with the driver if he joined the fight, but it was better than nothing.
As the men neared the van, a drop of hot oil dripped on her hand. She stifled a grunt and shoved her hand into the snow.
She inched to the side to avoid any more scalding drips and turnedher attention back to the approaching gunmen. She wanted to wait as long as possible. She knew Kurt, Joe, and Paul would get there soon, but she couldn’t wait for them to surround her.
Focusing on the leader’s boots, she aimed and pulled the trigger. The pistol sounded like a cannon shot beneath the van, and Gamay’s ears rang with the blast.
She saw a cloud of red as the man’s foot exploded with the impact. She turned to fire at the next target, but the men were running for cover. She saved her ammo.
They dropped in behind the doors of their car and opened fire at the van from both sides.
Gamay cringed at the sound of the automatic weapons in full throat, but so far they hadn’t realized where she was.
The wounded man figured it out as he slid himself back toward the car.
“She’s under the van.”
One of the men dropped down to look. Gamay fired at him, but the bullet hit the bumper and disintegrated. She fired again, hitting his leg. The man tumbled to the ground. He landed in the snow and ice and looked right at her. She pushed backward, trying to get out of the line of fire as he brought his weapon around. She saw the barrel pointing her way and closed her eyes.
A thunderous crash echoed before the gun was discharged. The Big Orange Rig had rammed the Chinese car from behind, pushing it into the ice wall beside it. The impact caused an avalanche as a ten-foot cap of snow slid down from the hill above the road.
It blocked her view instantly, filling the gaps between the cars and then piling onto the roofs of each vehicle.
Gamay had backed toward the hill, but there was no escape that way. She crawled forward now, scrambling to the open side of the van as the weight of the snow compressed its springs and shocks.Her jacket caught on the underside of the transmission. She wriggled free of it and kept going. Reaching the far side, she tried to squirm out from underneath it, but she’d only made it halfway out when the bodywork pressed into her back.
This time she shouted with everything she had. Snow began piling up around her face. She tried to push it free, but was suddenly buried in darkness.
Chapter 37
The return to plan A, energy transfer, had sent the Chinese car into the wall, with the van being an unintended victim of the impact, and the Big Orange Rig getting half buried in the snow.
Joe threw the sturdy vehicle into reverse and backed from the drift.
As soon as they were in the clear, Kurt and Paul jumped out. The Chinese car and the van were buried.
Paul raced forward and began digging in the snow with his hands. Kurt pulled a shovel off the side of the rig and ran over to help.
They went first to the back end of the van, breaking through the snow into the open, and only half-filled, cargo compartment.
Paul dug through some of the snow before stopping. “She’s not here.”
Kurt raced around to the front, digging with the shovel until he found the driver’s compartment. The snow had broken through the passenger side window and poured into the van, but not enough that it had filled up the entire compartment. Kurt pulled Ridley out and dropped him into the snow. “She’s not inside.”
“What if she was thrown out?” Paul said, looking back down the road.
“She’s here somewhere,” Kurt said. “These guys were shooting at someone.”
