“Maybe they’ve got a chop operation. Or they’re movin’ some kind of product through here and need eyes on the corridor.” Onyx shrugs. “I can’t tell you which yet. I can tell you Coal’s got way more money than he should have, which means he’s either got cartel money comin’ in or he’s already doin’ illegal shit in our territory.”
“Fuck, I hope he’s not operating an illegal chop operation in our territory. Jasper will lose his fuckin’ mind.”
Onyx asks, “You’ve been ridin’ the county line. What’s the road tellin’ you?”
I lean over the map he’s got laid down on the end of our long counter. I know these roads better than anyone else in the club. I know every blind curve, every scenic overlook, secondary road, and every place that could house an illegal operation out of the sight of the law.
“The brothers are reporting all Hyena sightings. The only cluster that’s not near their clubhouse is here.” I trace one finger along the back road east of town. “This is an old industrial route nobody’s used in years. There’s an old cannery out that way that could be used for a chop shop. If so, that extra activity might be them guarding the road to keep it a secret.”
“I’ll call Jasper. We should have a look out that way.”
“I’ll see what I can do about plannin’ a route that gets us near the cannery without crossing their patrols,” I tell him.
He comes back with Jasper on speaker phone. “Jinx, I want you to take a small crew. This is intel gathering only. Do not engage with the enemy. See if they’ve set up shop out that way and if so, what the fuckers are up to.”
“You got it, Prez,” I respond.
He adds, “Take Onyx and a couple more club brothers. If you see anything you can’t handle, you turn around. Otherwise, I want to know what the fuck is going on out that way.”
“Don’t worry, Jasper. There ain’t no way in hell we’re gonna start a fuckin’ gang war all by ourselves in the middle of nowhere.”
When Jasper hangs up, I tell Onyx, “Speak for your fuckin’ self, brother. After what they did to our shop, if I find they have a fuckin’ business in our territory, I’ll burn it to the damn ground if I get half a chance.”
Onyx gives me a feral grin. “Yeah, of course. If the opportunity’s good, we’ll go for it. Not even Jasper would begrudge us a little payback after what they did to our parts store.”
Of course, I’d love to drive home how much I don’t appreciate them tryin’ to force Nora into a marriage she didn’t want, but I keep that part to myself.
***
The five of us roll out within the hour, leaving my employees to run the parts store. It’s dreary and raining today. That means the air’s cold and wet. For a while there’s no one but the five of us and the road. Then I hear a bike behind us. It sounds far away but it has that throaty roar of a Hyena bike with no muffler. These fuckers ain’t stealthy in the least. I recognize the sound. The Hyenas get some sick twist from buildin’ a bike out of three other junked bikes. I don’t understand the thrill of that, like at all.
For some reason, the bike tailing us doesn’t close in on us. A man wanting to jump you closes the gap when the road goes empty. This one is hanging back, keeping pace with us and letting us see him. It occurs to me that he’s herding us like a sheepdog.
I gesture to the others that there’s a trap. We all slow down and so does the bike trailin’ us.
I look ahead and see that the road’s creating a funnel. The guardrail is on the right and there’s a steep bank on the left. I already know that up past the bend the road narrows down into a single lane between two loading docks. It would be the perfect kill box if we were stupid enough to keep going. I’ve ridden this road a hundred times, so I’m certain of what I see happening here.
There’s a farm cut on the left. It’s a tractor-sized gap in the cut bank. A person would miss it flying down the road at fifty miles an hour. I’ve taken this shortcut for my entire life. I take it again today. Throwing my hand out flat, I peel left into the gap. My club brothers follow me because they have faith I’d never lead them astray. We drop off the industrial route onto a dirt path, and behind us the Franken-bike blows past the gap because the rider didn’t know it was there.
Through the trees we catch sight of two bikes parked sideways across the neck of that single lane. They’re sitting right there, where I knew they’d be, along with a pickup truck that looks like it’s seen better days.
“Ambush,” Onyx says at my side. “You smelled it.”
“Yeah, but it ain’t the end of our problems today, brother.”
I point up because I hear the whir of a drone. It’s flying over the treeline. The drone is a fat black quad with a camera gimbal. It’s not lost. In fact, it’s tracking us as we slide along the farm cut. I’d bet my bottom dollar they’re feeding our position to whoever’s sitting in that truck. My phone buzzes. Striker is back at the junkyard. He’s watching the same feed we’re living right now.
I hear him through my earpiece. “They’ve got eyes on you. The drone’s relaying your position in real time. Take it out before they can mobilize.”
I lead my club brothers to an old stone bridge. It’s low, with a thick cluster of trees growing overhead. The drone can fly over it, but it can’t see through the trees without getting snared in the branches. If it manages to get close, we’ll be able to fire on it from a safe position.
“Get under the bridge,” I say into my mic, gesturing to make my club brothers understand. “Then kill your engines.”
We all slide under the bridge into the dark, damp, quiet space. We cut our engines and sit right in the drone’s blind spot. I hear it whirling away above us like an angry hornet. Whoever’s operating the drone is crisscrossing its own path, looking for four bikes that just dropped off the face of the earth.
I pull my rifle out of its side pocket on my bike and wait patiently for the opportunity I know is coming. They won’t give up. They want us too badly. When the drone drifts low to check the underpass, I take my shot. It resonates through the stillness and when the drone falls to the ground there’s another unmistakable ruckus.
I ride out to confirm the ambush bikes are giving up the fight. Since I just shot their drone down, they no longer have the one thing that gave them a true advantage today. So, yeah, they’re taking off like a bat outta hell.
