The Hunted

74

DeSantos watched with a gaping mouth as he saw the assassin’s hands around Harper Payne’s throat. But not until Waller screamed did he realize just how awful the situation really was.

“Engine’s on fire!”

Flames danced from beneath the Navigator’s hood as the SUV plowed through the dense underbrush.

“How fast are they going?” Knox asked.

DeSantos glanced at his airspeed, which was holding at 70 knots. “About eighty,” he shouted.

Waller leaned into the front seat. “We’ve got to stop it and get Payne out of there before it blows.”

“I’ll bring us about, you take out the tires,” DeSantos said. As the chopper maneuvered alongside the SUV, Waller leaned out the doorway and fired off several rounds, puncturing the radials and sending the vehicle into a frenzy, bouncing hard as it slowed to a still-torrid fifty-five miles per hour.

“Trees!” Knox said.

DeSantos pulled on the cyclic and the helicopter immediately strained skyward. Knox’s face sagged in anguish when he turned and saw the thicket up ahead of the Navigator, seconds away from impact. As they ascended above the height of the trees, DeSantos closed his eyes and waited for the sound of crunching steel, knowing there was absolutely nothing he could do.

Knox motioned toward the clearing in front of the thicket. “Get us down, get us down!”

DeSantos lowered the craft rapidly and set it amongst the brush thirty yards from the Navigator. The SUV was a crumpled mass of metal, its engine compartment wrapped around a large-trunked spruce. Smoke billowed up into the soupy night air as flames engulfed the entire front end and seared the lower branches of the neighboring trees.

Knox remained in the helicopter and radioed their position as DeSantos and Waller ran toward the flaming wreckage, guns in hand, anticipating… just about anything.

Waller knew there wasn’t time to follow established procedure, and judging by the look on DeSantos’s face, he was not alone in that thought. They hurdled a fallen fir tree and were immediately hit by a plume of thick black smoke. DeSantos fell to his knees in a coughing fit. Waller stumbled but continued on, approaching the wreck in a crouched position.

He grabbed the door handle and pulled it open.