Stephanie Doyle - Calculated Risk

“Get your coat.”

Sabrina picked up the coat from where she dropped it on the floor. The Colt still deep in its pocket bumped against her thigh. The situation worked to her advantage. With the two of them isolated in the car all she needed to do was take out Q. But as she followed him to the car she had to consider why he wanted them to be together in the first place.

Comfortable, my ass, she mused.

“It’s the silver sedan,” Patterson pointed out.

Quinlan nodded, then tossed the keys to Sabrina. “Why don’t you drive?”

This had her stopping in her tracks. “You want me to drive?”

He looked over at the two agents, who had paused by their car, a green sedan of the same model, to observe the exchange.

“I’m beat. You’re a little more alert than I am. You drive.”

Instantly, she understood. With a casual shrug of her shoulders she circled the car and got behind the wheel. Quinlan was already buckling himself into the passenger’s seat.

“You’re sure you want to do this?” she asked him. She didn’t need to clarify what this was. And she wasn’t sure why she was giving him an out when this was exactly the outcome she wanted. Maybe it was because she knew that he was probably going to pay a price one way or the other for disobeying orders even though Krueger was counting on him to do exactly that.

“Am I sure? No.” He turned his head to study her for a moment. “You better be able to bring him here.”

“He’s waiting for an e-mail.”

“Then let’s go send him one,” he said grimly. “It’s been a while since you’ve had to do this, too. Think you still got it?”

Sabrina smiled devilishly and turned the key in the ignition. “Q, as I once explained to you a long time ago, driving, like shooting, is all about physics. And I’m a whiz at physics.”

“Don’t get crazy,” he warned her. “Just lose them.”

Sabrina pulled out of the motel slowly and waited at the entrance to the two-lane highway for a few cars to pass. As she waited, she considered her options. There were only a few exits off this highway that led to some small towns, most of those towns consisting of a main street surrounded by culs-de-sac of single-family homes. Not the best place to lose a tail. Especially considering the agents following her were no doubt highly skilled in evasive maneuvering driving. Though it was doubtful they had her particular edge.

With her ability to see distance accurately, and her understanding of physics and how the car would react given its approximate weight and the speed at which it was traveling, she always knew just how much she could accelerate through a turn and still make it and also when she needed to brake in order to stop the car before collision.

Quinlan was an excellent evasive driver. But she was better. It was why he had wanted her to drive and how she knew that for all his doubt and mistrust, he’d essentially agreed to help her. For that, she wouldn’t let him down.

“You know,” she said as a car sped past and she was able to pull out on to the highway. “Not only are you going to get into a shitload of trouble for disobeying Krueger’s orders, but all the macho guys at the Farm are going to give you hell for letting a woman drive.”

She glanced over quickly and saw his sour expression. “I know.”

In the rearview mirror she could see that Patterson had pulled out directly behind her. For a time she drove carefully, just a notch over the speed limit and did nothing to raise any suspicions. It was best to let them think that she was on board with their plan, lulling them into a sense of comfort, so that when she did make her move, they would be slower to react.

Twenty minutes later Quinlan was beginning to get anxious. “Okay, you did understand what I meant when I said lose them.”

She flashed a smile. “I’m waiting for the right moment.”

“If you wait any longer we’ll be at Langley. There,” he said pointing. “Take that exit for 95 South.”

“Is that the way to Arnold’s?”

“Yes. We need to get to a small town in Maryland called Havre de Grace, but it’s also the exit we would take to get to Virginia.”

Sabrina hit her blinker and watched the car behind her do the same. Slowly, like a careful little old lady driver, she pulled the steering wheel to her right. She’d slowed down so much that Patterson had been forced to brake. Which was exactly what she’d been waiting for.

“Ready?”

She didn’t know why she bothered to ask because she didn’t give him time to answer. Instead she slammed her foot on the gas and waited until the influx of fuel into the carburetor did its thing. The car lurched forward into a high speed and the sound of tires screeching along paved road signaled their escape.

She calculated the turn at the top of the exit to be an eighty-two degree angle and watched the speedometer. Five more miles per hour, maybe seven. She hit the wheel hard and the car careened around the turn propelled by the acceleration it had going into it.

The ramp dropped sending them onto the busy interstate highway. Checking the rearview mirror again, she could see that Patterson was struggling to keep up. Sabrina glanced at the right side mirror and saw traffic approaching and determined, as the lead car moved closer, the speed at which it was traveling. She checked the speedometer again. Another five miles per hour. She hit the accelerator and watched the needle jump, then she didn’t look at all behind her as she hit the left hand merge lane at full speed barely sneaking in front of an oncoming SUV.

A horn blared behind her. No doubt the guy driving the SUV was furious, but there was no time for apologies. She watched as she quickly came up on a car in front of her. Looking again to her right she saw the hint of an opening between a cherry-red Volkswagen and a Jeep in the center lane next to her.

“You’re not going to make it,” Quinlan hissed, his hands now positioned on the dashboard in front of him-as if that would do him any good in a crash.

“Hey, who is driving?” she barked.

“I’m just pointing out that us dying does absolutely no good.”

Sabrina checked the gap again and swung the wheel hard to the right. The sedan sat on the Volkswagen’s bumper and the Jeep immediately careened off into the far right lane.

Sensing her urgency the Volkswagen also moved to the right and Sabrina was able to leave both cars in a blur behind her. She barely registered the obnoxious gesture she’d been given by the driver of the Volkswagen.

“Where are they?” she asked as she quickly came up on another car. This time she pulled the wheel hard left and the car swerved into the left lane. As soon as she passed a black Mercedes, she scrambled back into the center lane where there was more room to maneuver.

Quinlan turned in his seat and peered out through the back window. “About four cars back.”

Sabrina took in the information and contemplated her next move. Traffic was too heavy on the highway to lose the tail with speed and maneuvering. Eventually, she was either going to clip or get clipped by, another car.

The highway consisted of two sides of three lanes each separated by a stretch of grass in the center. She could cross the median, but the oncoming traffic was too thick to hope that she would make it across without getting hit.

On either side of the highway was a smattering of trees and the remnants of a woods. Sabrina saw a green sign looming about a mile up, which meant they were coming to an exit. Working on the assumption that at the point of an exit the trees would have to be cleared even more to make room for the gas stations and convenience stores that typically occupied that real estate around a highway exit, she made her decision.