Page 31 of Tactically Acquired

I used the distraction and quickly hauled myself up and into the backseat, pulling my knife from my boot as I landed. The passenger swung around, ready to fire at me, but I was ready for him. I thrust my hand up into his wrist, then slammed my knife into his throat.

The man behind me screamed, but the woman was cheering me on for some odd reason. With so much yelling, I couldn’t fucking concentrate. I turned on the man and slapped my hand over his mouth.

“I’m gonna need you to stop yelling for five fucking minutes, okay?”

He nodded with wide eyes. I wasn’t sure his chest was even moving at this point, but if he passed out, that meant he wasn’t yelling anymore, which was fine by me. Then I spied his tie and quickly undid it.

“Thanks. I’ll return it when I’m done with it.”

After removing it from the man’s neck, I spun around, throwing the tie over the driver’s head as I held it taut in both fists, then pulled back tightly, using all my weight to crush his larynx. His fingers clawed at the tie, fighting to free himself from the constraints as it cut off all the oxygen, depriving him of the last glimmer of hope that he would survive. After a few gurgles, his head flopped to the side and the SUV swerved out of control. We were on a collision course with a semi that was sure to kill us all. I lunged forward, grabbing the wheel to jerk the SUV to the right, narrowly avoiding killing us all. There was no way for me to stop us—not with the driver still in the seat.

Thumper pulled up beside me, slamming his fist on the horn. He was yelling, but I couldn’t hear a damn thing he was saying. IRIS pointed ahead, yelling out the window, but it was no use. With the wind, I couldn’t hear anything.

“The barriers!” the woman shouted, pointing ahead of us.

I spotted the orange barriers up ahead and steered right for it. “Hold on!” I shouted. This was gonna hurt like hell. I wrapped my arm around the driver’s seat and held on for dear life. When we were just seconds away, I released the wheel and ducked behind the driver’s seat to protect myself as best I could.

We slammed into the barriers with what felt like the force of being hit by a semi. The back end of the SUV lifted off the ground before slamming back down. Blood filled my mouth as my teeth sliced into my tongue, but as we settled, I realized the worst of it was over and I was still in one piece.

I looked up at the man and woman in the backseat, checking them over to make sure no one had any metal sticking out of any eyeballs or organs. Thankfully, that wasn’t the case.

The back door groaned open and IRIS stood there with a grin on his face. “Man, that was some fancy driving. I mean, if it was me, I would have gotten in the front seat, but hey, you do you. Did you know you have a splotch of blood right there?” he asked, touching his finger to his shoulder.

I glanced over, looking at the spot. “That’s not a splotch.”

“It’s not?”

“It’s a blotch.”

“What’s the difference?”

“A splotch is something produced by one’s own body.”

He frowned at that. “Are you sure? I think you have that the other way around. I would think it would be a blotch.”

I shook my head, pretty sure I had that right. “Nope.”

“A splotch is bigger than a blotch,” he continued. “That’s most definitely a splotch.”

I looked at it again. “How could it be a splotch when it’s small?”

“I wouldn’t call that small.”

I rolled my eyes at him. “Well, what would you call small?”

“I don’t know. A pinprick?”

“It’s not a fucking liter of blood, IRIS. It’s like…a pip.”

“A pip? No. If we’re gonna knock it down a peg, we’ll go with a mottle.”

“You’re only saying that because you like the word,” I said accusingly.

“No, I’m saying it because it looks more like a mottle!”

“Uh…sorry to interrupt,” the man in the seat said, “but who are you guys?”

IRIS glared at him. “Can you see that we’re trying to have a discussion?”

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