Poe

Chapter Forty-One

Frida followed Powell, El-Hashim, and their new boyfriend all the way to the end of the tunnel, staying just far enough back to not be noticed.

She knew taking El-Hashim’s life in the tunnel was no longer an option, but she had never aborted a job before, and wasn’t about to now.

Once they had all exited out of the hole in the roof of the tunnel, she stood below it and listened to their conversation. When the man expressed the need to get out of there as soon as possible, Frida knew it could only mean that guards had begun searching for the missing prisoners. They had probably discovered the body of the nurse. Not really unexpected.

She waited until she was sure they gone before climbing up. She found herself in a small room in what turned out to be a stone-sided building. She hadn’t made it very far from the room when she heard the motor. To get a better view, she headed up to the rickety second floor, and moved over to one of the holes where a window had once been. Staying out of view, she peered outside. There were two vehicles, heading toward the building she was in. The first was about two minutes ahead of the other.

More than enough time, she thought.

She was in position well before the first vehicle arrived. As she had guessed, the four guards who had been inside split up so they could cover more ground. She targeted one at random, and moved in behind him.

It was so simple, it made her brain hurt from inactivity. She came at him from behind, and swung to the side, grabbing his gun hand and pointing the barrel of the weapon at his chest before he even knew what had happened.

“Bye-bye,” she whispered as she forced her finger over his and pressed the trigger.

As he fell to the ground, she ripped the gun from his hand, and moved around the corner of the building.

His buddies came quickly, first one, then the other two.

Bam. Bam-bam.

It wasn’t even a fight.

She took off in their vehicle a full minute before the second group of guards arrived.

No matter how Alex asked the question, El-Hashim kept her mouth shut.

There had always been the possibility that this mission would end without Alex learning any more about her dad, but she never truly thought that would happen. This was why she had come here. This was why she had said yes.

But short of jamming a gun down El-Hashim’s throat — a tactic that probably wouldn’t work, either — Alex now knew she would come up empty. She should have followed Deuce’s advice and stayed home, taken Danny to the ballgame, and not had her hopes raised.

Knowing she’d receive the same nonresponse again, she decided to ask one more time, for her brother’s sake.

No, for her own, too.

“My father left us when we were teenagers. My mother was already dead. He’s the only parent we have. I’m not asking because—”

She heard the revving of a motor. A second later, the car leaped forward with a loud crunch as something smashed into the back of their sedan. Alex flew into El-Hashim, her knees slamming against the bottom of the trunk.

Before they had a chance to recover, there was another crash.

Wind suddenly whistled through the trunk as the lid buckled upward an inch on both sides. Alex could hear Cooper and Deuce shouting in the front of the car, but there was too much other noise to understand them.

Without warning, their sedan swerved to the side, as if dodging an obstacle in the road. At the same time, Alex heard the sound of the second motor again, racing back toward them, but instead of once more smashing into their rear end, it passed alongside them.

Metal crunched again as the other car swerved sideways into the sedan’s back panel. Alex could feel Cooper fighting for control of the vehicle, the tires skidding sideways before finally biting the road again.

Another side slam, but while the car didn’t fishtail as much this time, the trunk popped open. Alex grabbed the lid to keep it from flying all the way up. As she did, the vehicle that had been ramming them swung back and behind again.

It was one of the prison jeeps. The sedan’s taillights illuminated enough that Alex could see it wasn’t a guard behind the wheel, but Frida.

The jeep came forward again. Alex tried to hook the trunk lid down, but the latch was bent and wouldn’t catch. Something pierced the lid only a foot away from her, punching a hole in the metal.

“Are you kidding me?” Alex said under her breath.

Frida was armed.

The jeep started rushing forward again.

“Hold on!” Alex yelled as she let go of the lid and ducked down.

Frida smacked into their rear bumper again, sending the lid of the trunk flying all the way up.

As the jeep fell back a few feet, Frida stuck a gun out her window and let off another shot. This one went into the trunk itself, puncturing the floor right where Alex had been lying moments before.

As soon as Alex saw Frida pull the gun out of sight, she hopped up on her knees and reached for the lid to pull it back down.

The jeep sped forward again.

Realizing there was no way she’d get hold of the lid in time, Alex did the only thing she could. She crouched, her feet poised and ready. Right before Frida’s vehicle hit them again, she jumped.

She almost blew it. Her jump had been too good, sending her all the way over the jeep’s hood into its windshield, nearly bouncing her off the vehicle altogether. The only thing that saved her was throwing her arm around the top of the windshield at the last second and hanging on.

“If only I had a camera,” Frida shouted. “YouTube gold!”

She pointed the gun directly through the glass at Alex, but instead of pulling the trigger, she jerked the steering wheel first one way, then the other.

Alex’s feet swung out over the edge of the car, then slammed back into the front fender, but she didn’t let go.

Frida smiled. “Oh, you’re good. How about we go again?”

When Frida jerked the wheel again, Alex was ready. Using the swerving vehicle’s momentum, she swung around the windshield and dropped into the front passenger seat. Caught off guard, the grin on Frida’s face disappeared as she whipped the gun toward Alex. Alex shot her hand out, grabbing the woman’s wrist, and pushing it into the dash. The gun went off, the bullet slicing its way through the passenger door and into the night.

“Stop the car!” Alex yelled.

Frida laughed. “Does that really work? Do people listen to you when you say stupid things like that?”

Alex slammed Frida’s wrist against the dash again, trying to dislodge the weapon, but the assassin held on tight. Realizing she needed a different strategy, Alex swung her left leg into the driver’s side footwell and shoved it toward the brake.

Frida blocked it with her own foot, kicking it to the side. That was fine by Alex. She hadn’t thought it would work, but she knew it would provide the distraction she needed to grab the emergency brake handle.

She yanked it up.

The tires screamed and the smell of rubber filled the air. Frida let up on the gas as she tightened her one-handed grip on the steering wheel and fought for control. Alex moved her foot over to the regular brake and slammed it home.

The car came to a screeching halt in the middle of the road, the vehicle spinning sideways until it was almost perpendicular to the lanes.

Frida let go of the steering wheel and twisted to the side, pulling with all her strength to free the hand holding the gun. When she was finally able to yank it away, the momentum brought her arm upward, pointing the gun at the sky.

Alex thrust forward and reached for it. She wasn’t able to get hold of the weapon, but she was able to knock it out of Frida’s hand, sending it tumbling onto the jeep’s floor.

Both women scrambled for it. Alex got there first, but Frida’s hand was right on top of hers. The gun rocked back and forth on the floor of the vehicle, its barrel pointing skyward again. Alex felt Frida’s finger slip over the trigger, so she shoved at the weapon just as it went off.

The bullet passed through the front lip of the driver’s seat before cutting a hole through Frida’s thigh. The second shot entered Frida’s body, just below her rib cage, traveling through a lung, nicking her heart, and finally coming to rest against the C4 vertebra of her spine.

She didn’t die right away, but it was only a matter of seconds.