The man slapped his palm against the door. “Detente! Alto!” He slapped the door again.
Marta kept driving, albeit slowly, raising one hand palm upward. “I don’t know what you’re saying.” She was getting closer to the vehicles in front of her. The other men were still checking the drivers and interiors.
When she’d caught up to the vehicle ahead of her, she stopped.
The two men beside her van gave her angry stares and walked around to the back.
A flash of movement caught her attention in the side mirror.
Raul and Crusher yanked the men behind the van. The van rocked as a body slammed against it.
The sedan in front of Marta moved forward, following the vehicle ahead through the border crossing.
The four remaining armed men turned their attention to Marta and the van.
“Here goes,” Marta murmured to herself as she eased her foot onto the accelerator, sending the van forward.
One of the men frowned as he neared the driver’s door and Marta. Like the other man, he motioned for Marta to roll down her window.
Again, Marta waved her hands and called out from behind the closed window, “I don’t understand.”
Suddenly, Crusher burst into view in the side mirror. He came in so fast that the two men carrying the guns had no time to react.
Crusher bulldozed into the two on the driver’s side, sending one flying backward to land flat on his back, with the wind knocked from his lungs. The other guy half-raised his rifle.
Before he got it high enough to be effective, Crusher slammed a fist into the man’s nose. Blood spurted out. The gunman dropped his rifle and clutched his hand to his nose.
The man he’d knocked onto his back scrambled to get up.
Crusher landed a side kick into the guy with the broken nose, sending him staggering backward, crashing into the man reaching for his rifle.
The two men landed in a heap, the one on the bottom shoving the guy with the broken nose to the side.
Crusher grabbed the rifle the broken-nose guy had dropped and brought the butt of the weapon down hard into the side of the uninjured man’s face. The man dropped, unconscious.
Crusher applied the same force to the guy with the bleeding nose.
Once both men were out, Crusher darted in front of the van and helped Raul finish off the other two.
Marta pressed her foot down on the accelerator, sending the van through the checkpoint, while looking for any more men who might jump out and accost her. As she passed through, she saw the bodies of two guards lying on either side of the road, unconscious, possibly dead.
Her heart squeezed hard in her chest as she glanced in the side mirror, praying Raul and Crusher were okay.
Once past the checkpoint, she slowed, waiting for them.
Several shots rang out.
Marta flinched. Oh, no. Please don’t be them.
Suddenly, the back door of the van opened.
Marta’s gaze shot to the rear-view mirror.
Raul dove in.
“Where’s Crusher?” Marta called out.
As soon as Raul was inside, Crusher jumped into the back of the van. “Go!” he called out.
