Cliff Ryder - The Finish Line

Fritz looked up, his unlined face furrowed as David and Jay ran over. "That bastard nailed him pretty good, threw him hard into the wall. He's got broken ribs, maybe a punctured lung — I'm not sure."

Indeed, Julio didn't look well at all, gasping for breath as his normally caramel-colored face turned a flushed pink. His voice still worked, however. "Get — that — motherfucker…" he gasped in between breams.

Jay produced a small medical kit and tossed it to Fritz. "Call the local hospital. They can send an ambulance. Use the Good Samaritan cover. We'll grab the SUV and go."

Fritz had pulled open Julio's shirt and was gently probing his abdomen, eliciting small gasps of pain when his fingers touched the other man's skin. "We'll be all right. Get after them, before they get away," he said.

Jay slapped David's shoulder. "Let's go."

David followed him to the SUV, which bore plenty of evidence that their enemy had tried to take it out. The grille was punctured and broken from multiple bullet hits, but Jay barely glanced at it as he ran to the driver's side. "Come on!"

David scrambled for the passenger's seat, getting in as Jay fired the engine and took off, rocketing onto the road in a squeal of tires.

"How's your side?" Jay asked.

David grimaced when he saw how far the bloodstain had spread. "It hurts — a lot."

"Are you good to keep going?"

David probed his side, and gritted his teeth. "I'm okay, but I could use a pick-me-up."

"There's a case in the back — get what you need there."

David turned in his seat and saw a small case, similar to the one Jay had tossed Fritz, on the seat behind him. Grabbing it, he pushing it open and found the stimulant he needed, popping the small red pill out of its foil and swallowing it dry. Tucking his pistol away for the moment, he leaned back in the seat and buckled up as Jay pushed the SUV harder after the fleeing van.

Anthony cursed as he saw Gregor fall off the roof. Pressing on the gas, he headed for the road, but stopped when he saw the SUV parked outside the front of the house. Rolling his window down, he sent a burst of bullets into the front of the vehicle, hoping to disable it, but no sooner had he started firing than the van shook from the impact of bullets hitting its roof and side. Growling, he hit the gas again and roared onto the road, the vehicle slewing back and forth as he headed due west.

In the passenger's seat, Maggie was huddled against the far door, curled in on herself. The blood on her face had clotted and caked, making her look as if she had smeared dark, reddish-brown lipstick all over her mouth and chin. She didn't move, didn't look at Anthony, which was just fine with him. Having broken her, he was concentrating on one thing only — getting to the helicopter and getting the hell out of there.

It had been a near enough thing already. Despite hitting the back door right after throwing that frag grenade into the front room, they had nearly been caught in the ambush by the other two shooters. If Gregor hadn't been able to drive the one on the right corner back under cover for a moment, allowing Anthony to keep the left one's head down, he never would have made it to the van. The thump as he had rammed the guy on the left had been most satisfying, but not at the cost of Gregor's life. Unfortunately, there was nothing to be done about that now — not when he had what he had come here for, risked his life for and would now deliver safely to his company, no matter what the cost. Anthony had the girl and her computer, and no one was going to prevent him from getting her back to Mercury headquarters.

In the passenger's seat, the girl's head rose a fraction, and she seemed to be looking at something other than the floor. Anthony checked his rearview mirror.

"Goddamn it!"

Coming up behind them was the same dark gray SUV, with the old man and that fucking guy again, and it was gaining fast.

In the heavy, slower van, Anthony had no hope of outrunning them. But he had another trick up his sleeve. "Okay, boys, come on — just a little bit closer." Opening the glove compartment, he pressed two buttons, then gripped the joystick that popped up when he activated the defense system. His lips peeled back from his teeth in a feral grin as the SUV grew larger and larger in his mirror. Just a little closer, he thought. Then you're gonna get the surprise of the rest of your very short lives.

"Pop the storage compartment in the cargo area. We're going to need something bigger to take this thing out," Jay said as he leaned forward in his seat, as if he could somehow help the SUV go faster.

David reclined his seat and scrambled into the rear passenger's compartment. The pill was already working, reducing the aches in his side and shoulder to mere twinges. He felt energized, wide-awake and ready to take on anyone. He knew that was also a notorious side effect of the medication, and tried to keep his mind clear so that he wouldn't go charging off into certain death. Reaching down to the floor of the cargo area, he pulled up the rough cloth covering, revealing the crosshatch-stamped metal covering of a secret compartment.

"Standard code?" he called out.

"Yeah," Jay replied.

The codes to unlock certain parts of a Room 59 vehicle varied, depending on what day of the month it was. David ran the equation in his head and punched in the numbers. The panel recessed and slid away. "Yeah, this'll definitely help." He bypassed the submachine guns and rifles in favor of a drab green-and-black weapon that looked like a bulky, futuristic automatic shotgun. Grabbing a magazine, he slammed it into the empty well in the weapon's stock, then primed it.

"I just heard from Fritz. The Brussels police are on-site, and so is an ambulance. They're radioing the surrounding towns to be on the lookout for us, so — Gott in himmel. "

Jay's abrupt utterance made David turn to look out the window. What he saw made his jaw drop, the XM25 grenade launcher almost forgotten in his hands.

Jay had approached to within twenty yards of the van, which would have been almost too close to use the launcher in the first place. However, a large panel had opened up on the top of the van, and David saw something he hadn't expected to see outside of armored personnel carriers in Third World countries.

A large machine gun, mounted on an independently moving pintle and frame, had popped out of the roof, its perforated, air-cooled barrel pointing directly at them. Jay swerved the SUV to the right just as the automatic weapon roared, releasing a burst of bullets that slammed into the road next to them, blowing chunks of asphalt into the air.

"Jesus Christ, is that a Ma Deuce?" Still holding the grenade launcher, David turned around in the backseat and opened the door, locking it in place. He flipped down the platform that would enable him to stand behind the door to use it as cover while he fired at the van. Even though the SUV was covered in Level 4 armor, he also knew that if a .50-caliber shell hit the door, it would punch right through it, and him, as well.

"Yes, it most certainly is." Even with this new development, Jay's voice remained calm. "Good thing he doesn't have a copilot in there, or we'd be dead already — he must be aiming it himself." The German cursed and wrenched the wheel over, nearly dislodging David, who had just managed to buckle himself in to the safety strap on the reinforced door. "You better take that gun out quick — I don't know how long I can keep playing hide-and-seek."

"Can you get alongside? Better chance of trying for a tire." The wind rushing around the door whipped past David's head, making him squint as he focused on his target weaving back and forth on the road ahead, trying to line them up in his sights.