Page 120 of King’s Ransom

I called to Audrey and the paramedic. ‘Hang on!’

Then I yanked the steering wheel hard over, slamming the assassin on my flank against his own black Ford.

He dropped off with a scream—

—as my ambulance took the off-ramp, with the right-hand chase truck glued to my side, taking the exit with me—

—and with the Yaris close behind us.

I saw the truck’s driver with his bloody wounded hand trying to push back.

I stomped on the gas, and as we both sped down the curving off-ramp, I kept ramming his pickup further and further to the right until—bam!—it crashed head-on into a cluster of water-filled safety tanks at the fork in the interchange and came to a jarring halt in a geyser of exploding water.

I was clear.

As I came off the ramp, I saw Heidi and Georgy’s red Toyota Yaris in my side mirror.

I waved for them to drive up beside my window.

‘Heidi!’ I called. ‘Follow me! We gotta dump these vehicles!’

‘You betcha, little man!’

Peeling out of the interchange, I zigzagged through a few side streets until I brought the battered ambulance to a halt between some dumpsters in an alley not far from Columbia University.

As we lurched to a stop, I reached over and yanked off the ski mask of the dead assassin slumped on the passenger seat.

An Asian face stared at the ceiling with blank dead eyes.

A Chinese assassin?

I made to step into the rear section of the ambulance to get to Audrey but when I turned she was already beside me, crouched in the space behind the two front seats.

She was wearing a hospital gown over her underwear.

‘You know, you’ve got a really good chance of winning Boyfriend of the Year,’ she said. ‘Thanks.’

As she said this, the red Yaris squealed to a stop beside us.

‘We need to go,’ I said to Audrey. ‘We gotta abandon this ambulance and get out of here before those bad guys figure out where we went.’

I nodded to the paramedic. ‘Sir, thanks for your help, but I suggest you go on foot to the hospital from here. It’s not safe to stay with this ambulance. Those assassins will be coming soon and the only person they want alive is Audrey. They will kill you.’

‘Jesus . . .’ he said.

I added, ‘When you get to the hospital, call the FBI and ask for Director Longmuir. He’ll have heard about what happened on the parkway by now. Tell him you left us here, that Special Agent Mills is safe, and that you don’t know where we went.’

‘You okay with this?’ the paramedic asked Audrey.

Audrey nodded. ‘Yep. I’d rather be with Sam.’

The paramedic nodded and sprinted off toward New York-Presbyterian.

I took Audrey’s hand and pulled her out of the ambulance. ‘Can you walk?’

‘Yeah, but not very fast.’

‘It’s okay, I’ve got you. Let’s go.’