Robert Ludlum's the Bourne Evolution - Brian Freeman Page 0,97
down the fence as it plowed forward, and dragged it behind them before finally breaking free. They were on a divided road not far from the casino entrance road, which was hidden behind the mesa. There was no other traffic.
“Pull onto the median and wait. Keep the lights off.”
Abbey followed his instructions. Not long after, Bourne saw the armored SUV pass through the stoplight ahead of them, leaving the casino and heading west.
“Give them plenty of space, but you can use your headlights now.”
She switched on her lights and bumped off the median onto the road. At the stoplight, she turned right, and Jason could see the taillights of the SUV half a mile away, bending around a curve past housing developments that butted up to the hills. Abbey stayed behind the truck for another mile, and there were still only the two vehicles on the road. He knew that made their pursuit obvious.
“The driver will be a pro,” Jason said. “Odds are, he’s already spotted you back here. He knows you picked them up right outside the casino, and that’s going to raise a red flag.”
“Does he suspect we’re following them?”
“He will if we stay on the same course much longer. We’re far enough away that he can’t see what we’re driving, and that’s a plus. But in another minute or so, he’ll start slowing down to draw you closer so he can ID the vehicle.”
“And then what?”
“Then he’ll see if we stay behind him. If we do, either he’ll ambush us himself, or he’ll call ahead and have someone waiting to take us down in the desert.”
“So what do we do?”
“Hang on.” Bourne took out his phone and began checking maps of the area.
“Jason, he’s slowing. Should I slow down, too?”
“No. Then he’ll know it’s a tail.” He glanced up and spotted the SUV a couple of hundred yards ahead of them, and the gap between the two vehicles was closing fast. “There’s a cross street ahead. Start signaling right, and then you can slow down.”
Abbey used her turn signal and tapped the brakes.
“Turn here,” Jason told her.
She swung into the turn lane and turned right. Ahead of them, the taillights of the Volvo got smaller as the SUV accelerated again.
“Now what?”
“There’s a sharp left ahead. Take it, and keep driving as fast as you can.”
Abbey accelerated, and the Land Rover fishtailed as she turned the wheel hard at the next left. She followed the road through an empty shopping complex. As they approached another intersection at high speed, Jason told her, “Go right and then take your next left and turn off your lights again as you do.”
She followed his instructions, and a few seconds later, she braked to a stop at a major intersection.
“Go across the street, and make an immediate U. Then put your lights back on and turn right. If he sees you behind him at all, it should look like you’re coming from a completely different direction.”
“You think he turned, too?” Abbey asked, eyeing the lonely road as she crossed the intersection in the darkness.
“I think he’s heading for the freeway.”
Soon Abbey was back on the road with her lights on. Jason used the binoculars to identify the taillights of the Volvo, which was now almost a mile ahead of them. As he expected, the SUV made a right turn to merge onto I-15, heading west through the mountains toward Las Vegas. Abbey accelerated to narrow the gap. Even in the middle of the night, there were other cars on the freeway, giving them cover. The developed land ended quickly, and they found themselves in the middle of rocky desert, pitch-black except for the lights of the vehicles around them.
“We’ll be out here for a while,” Jason said.
And they were. They passed a couple of other small towns on their route, but the towns came and went quickly and left them back in the dark hills. The driver of the SUV gave no indication that he was aware that he was being followed; he kept the vehicle at a constant speed through the empty land. More than an hour went by before they saw the sky brightening as they neared the fiery glow of the Las Vegas valley.
“You’ll need to get closer,” he told Abbey. “It will be easy to lose them in traffic as we hit the city.”
She gradually pulled within a few car lengths of the SUV, but she kept at least two other vehicles between them. Jason smiled; she had