Michael (The Airel Saga, Book 2) - By Aaron Patterson Page 0,34
turning around in his seat and looking back through the rear windows, trying to see what it was.
The rain just hammered away at us. I could see steam rising from the engine in the single crooked beam of light. I flashed back to a horror movie, one where some hooded man with a hook stalked dumb blondes and hacked away at the car trying to get in. I shivered and felt my heart pound in my chest.
I looked out my side window and saw movement. I did a double take. What’s out there? Then I saw it again: something big, all right. Big and dark. I gasped.
Before I could say anything about it, the whole inside of the car lit up from behind. A car? It was on our back bumper—right on top of us. How…?
A loudspeaker came on: “THIS IS THE FBI. EXIT THE VEHICLE WITH YOUR HANDS ON YOUR HEAD.”
“Go!” Ellie yelled, grabbing Michael by the shoulders and forcing him to face front. “Go Michael, NOW!”
Michael stomped the gas pedal to the floor. The engine roared like a beast, the tires howled, and the SUV launched forward.
“Those are the cops!” I said.
“The FBI will take care of itself,” Ellie said. “DRIVE!”
I could feel it. It was in the space around me, reaching into me and drawing me down, consuming me. And I knew: “The Brotherhood. They’re here.”
“Oh, God,” Kim said in a small voice. She gripped the back of my seat.
Kreios’s bashed-up SUV howled into action, rocketing us into the darkness. As I glanced at the speedo, I saw the needle moving briskly past 80 and carrying on from there into the hundreds. I didn’t know how Michael could see. The rain…. “Michael?”
He turned toward me. “It’s okay…”
I turned back to see the headlights, the FBI. Now red and blue strobes flashed above them. My heart sank as I thought of my parents. Are they okay? The FBI had been tailing us the whole time. The whole time! For how long? And they weren’t stopping now. They were right on our tail.
The SUV shifted into top gear, pushing me back into the seat again. I couldn’t bear to look.
CHAPTER II
WHATEVER THAT WAS, IT was pretty big. Did I even see what I think I saw? Rawlins wondered to himself.
Hammer down. Triple digits in the rain.
He wished he had time to call in the pursuit. But he was gonna bag this little teenaged miscreant in just a few, and then he’d call it in. They wouldn’t be able to get very far with a damaged vehicle.
He reached over and switched on the lights. There was something magical about those flashing lights. What a rush.
Michael wanted to ease Airel’s mind a little, but deep down he knew that this might very well be their end, on this road, tonight.
It was wet, water stood on the road in the ruts. He put one set of tires on the double yellow, the high ground, as the speedo swept well past 120. What did Kreios install under the hood of this thing?
A train snaked along in the night not far away; he could see its lights stabbing steady through the night in his rearview mirror. It was a peaceful counterpoint to the thrashed chaos in which he felt immersed.
There were no other cars on the road except their relentless tail. It had been hours since he’d seen anything but that stupid pair of headlights. He knew he was right to be suspicious of that car. But he could never have guessed what would happen. Why hadn’t he done something? But what?
It was hard to see through the windshield, especially with the broken headlight on his side.
“What did we hit?” Kim sounded worried. “Are you sure it wasn’t just a deer or something?”
Michael didn’t answer her. He didn’t want to.
Airel turned and gave Kim a look that said it all anyway. It was a look that said, we’re in big fat trouble, girl.
Just ahead, the road peaked in a gentle rise that Michael thought could pose problems at this speed if they caught too much air. Plus there was a spray of light blooming up from beyond it: oncoming traffic. He backed off the accelerator and coasted a bit, moving back into his lane.
It got brighter, closer.
He slowed still more, easing the brakes, down to 80.
It was a truck. A big one. Michael could see the orange clearance lights on its roof break just on the other side of the rise, and he braced