Cliff Ryder - Aim And Fire

“Slow down, too fast and—”

“I know, I know, I might get cramps.” Tracy took one more big gulp of water, then looked around. “What happened? The last thing I remember was Nate going into a small room….”

“We heard an explosion. When we found you, Briggs was knocked out, lying on top of you—we think he tried to get you out of harm’s way—and there was what was left of a person blown across the hallway. Uh, don’t look over there.”

“Nate…oh, my God…” Tracy’s gaze involuntarily went to the red spray against the far wall. She winced and looked away and swallowed, trying to control the bile rising at the back of her throat.

“Was that his name? He must have triggered some kind of booby trap on the hatch in the floor. It collapsed the entrance to the tunnel or whatever’s down there. He took the brunt of the blast, too, actually ended up protecting both of you. I’m afraid that’s what’s left—it was pretty nasty, sorry.”

“What about the rocket?” Tracy asked.

“We couldn’t stop it in time. It’s already launched.”

“Can’t we stop it from here?”

“They’ve locked us out of the system. No one’s willing to give up the codes to gain access. They say they’re all willing to die for Allah.”

“Shit.” Tracy pulled out her cell phone, hoping it hadn’t been broken in the impact. It rang just as she flipped it open. “Stephanie?”

“Tracy, we’ve stopped the rocket. It’s splashed down in Illinois, and we’ve got people heading over there right now. Is the compound secure?”

Tracy asked the SWAT member who nodded. “Yeah, but al-Kharzi got away. He took off in a bolt-hole that led to an escape tunnel—Nate was killed going after him.”

“How’d you like to catch up with him?” Kate asked.

“What do you mean?”

“Our plans show the main tunnel under the building. It goes north, and comes out near a normally unused access road. If you hurry, you might be able to intercept him. Take him alive, if you can.”

Tracy rose, fighting off a wave of dizziness. “I’m on it.

Thanks, Stephanie, for everything.”

The SWAT officer eyed her dubiously. “Where are you going? You need to lie down, and should really have someone look at your head. You’ve probably got a concus-sion—”

“I’ve got one more thing to take care of. You got keys to a vehicle?”

“Well, yeah.”

Tracy scanned the corridor for her pistol, finding it a few yards away. “Hand them over.”

“What?”

“Listen, Officer, the man behind this entire plan, who almost destroyed half of the United States, is about to get away if I don’t stop him. I’d hate to have to tell my superiors—and yours—that he got away because I couldn’t get a vehicle. Now hand over those keys, dammit!”

Stunned by her commanding tone, the officer produced the keys. “The truck is out by the back entrance to the compound. Two doors down, turn right, go past the huge room and out the back—you can’t miss it.”

“All right. If your superiors ask, Agent Tracy Wentworth commandeered your vehicle. If they want to make an issue of it, have them contact the FBI. Who’s your commanding officer, so I can let them know who to expect to hear from?”

“Lieutenant Marcus. Uh, ma’am, shouldn’t I accompany you, for reinforcement?”

Tracy was already trotting down the hallway. “Thanks, Officer, but you’ll probably be in enough trouble as it is.”

Besides, I’m not planning on capturing him alive, she thought.

Following the officer’s directions, Tracy quickly made her way out of the main building, flashing her badge at any SWAT or Border Patrol agent who even looked at her.

Another minute brought her to the armored vehicle, which was being guarded by another officer.

“You Collins?” she asked, reading his name tag on his shirt pocket.

“Yes, ma’am.”

Tracy showed her DHS badge again. “Your commanding officer, Lieutenant Marcus, is here. He wants to see you inside. I’ll keep a watch out here.”

“Thanks.” He jogged inside, and as soon as he was out of sight, Tracy got into the truck, turned the key, strapped herself in, flicked on the headlights and gunned it into the desert.

The trip through the barren land was much like the first one she had taken only a few hours earlier, but now Tracy drove without hesitation, without any fear at all. The events of the past twelve hours had changed her in some fundamental way—shattered her preconceived notions of how things operated in the field. What she had seen had reshaped them profoundly. Everything she had seen and done, from the illegals to the break-and-enter to the assault on the compound, had altered her view on a lot of things, and it was all about to culminate in the next few minutes.

The truck dipped and bounced as it bulled its way across a rutted desert plain, carved out by a flash flood thousands of years ago.

Her phone rang, and Tracy risked taking one hand off the bucking wheel to flip it open, leaving it on the seat beside her. “Yeah?”

The cell automatically went to speaker. “Tracy, it’s Stephanie. He’s almost at the end of the tunnel, and will be reaching his truck soon. We’re sending a helicopter to back you up.”

“They already shot one down, but I’m almost there—just give me another minute. He’s not getting away this time.”

“Remember, take him alive if you can—he’ll be a wealth of information if we can interrogate him,” Kate said.

“That bastard just killed a Border Patrol agent, almost killed me and came within a hairbreadth of wiping out much of the East Coast, and you want me to go easy on him?”

Stephanie’s calm voice almost soothed Tracy out of her plan. “I understand you’re upset, but you have to look at the bigger picture. Al-Kharzi is a link in a bigger chain, connected all around the world. The people who took that bomb and sent it to his people in Texas, and the people all across the world who funnel them money, those are the people that we’re trying to stop. The ones behind all of this.

But we need the people who know them, who can tell us who they are, to get to them.”

“Well, I’ll see what I can do. I just found him.” Tracy pressed the accelerator to the floor, and the truck leaped forward, its headlights illuminating an unarmored pickup truck. A startled face looked at her from the driver’s-side window. “Yeah, you better look surprised, you prick.”

“What was that?” The phone bounced on the seat, and Tracy thought Stephanie’s voice might have taken on a concerned tone. She smiled grimly. “Have sighted suspect and am in pursuit. Will call after apprehension is made.”

Tracy flipped the phone closed and tossed it on the floor, removing the last distraction from the chase.

There was a small ditch separating the road from the desert, and she didn’t hesitate, pushing the truck as fast as it would go to clear the obstacle. The plain she was on was higher and she cleared the trench and landed on the road with a bone-jarring crash, feeling the stiff suspension bottom out for a moment. Tapping the brakes just enough, she forced the truck into a bootlegger’s turn, slewing it around ninety degrees and ending up facing the direction al-Kharzi had gone. The steering felt looser, and she thought she’d totally fucked up the alignment, but the truck was still moving forward, and that was all she cared about.

Stomping the pedal to the floor, Tracy shifted into two-wheel drive and raced after the fleeing terrorist. No doubt he was heading for the border, but if he thought he’d be safe there, she had a big surprise for him. Tracy had already made up her mind; she’d chase him all the way to Mexico City if she had to.