Page 85 of The Vigilante's Lover
I pull up behind it and drag the stolen key chain from my pocket. If it’s like Jax’s, it will — yes, as soon as I approach, the keyless locks pop right up.
I drag the door open and squeal a little. It’s a Vigilante-tech car, just like Colette’s and Jax’s.
Do I dare drive it?
I sit in the seat. Once my weight hits the cushion, the car engine fires up, low and rumbling.
I scramble back to my Ford and grab the quilt full of stolen goods. I dump it in the passenger seat and look out the front windshield.
Holy crap, I’m stealing a car and heading into danger.
I give out a whoop and shove the gearshift into drive.
16: Jax
I crouch low in The Cure’s Infiniti. Blasted civilian windows and their transparency. If the Vigilantes follow standard procedure, they’ll either attempt a knockout shot through a window, or simply throw a stun grenade. A full firefight is usually out of the question in normal city streets, but with the kill order, they might be willing to clean up a mess.
Regardless, staying here is not an option.
The car blocking the front of me is perfectly positioned between brick buildings. I can’t get around it.
I flick on the car’s rear camera. I have better luck there, since the second car stopped close to the corner.
The sedan behind me is positioned as well as it can be in the space between a stop sign and a building. But there is a gap behind it just large enough for me to fit through. If I try to shoot for the rear gap, they can close it off easily. But then that leaves the pole side open.
Using the backup camera to navigate in the dark, I throw the car in reverse and floor it, angling toward the gap behind the Vigilante car. As I suspected, the other car reverses to close off the gap. I shove the gear back into drive and send the Infiniti lurching to the opposite side. It jumps the curb and plows into the stop sign.
“Sorry, Cure,” I mutter, wincing at the damage to the car.
The Vigilante realizes his mistake and tries to block off my new avenue. I brace myself and feel the car shudder as it takes a hit in the side. But I floor it and break away, taking out some bricks on the corner of the building. Now both Vigilantes are behind me.
I can hear a fender scraping a tire. I’ll need to ditch this Infiniti. It’s not cut out for this level of abuse.
I could really use one of the Vigilante vehicles. I have to lure one of them out.
I bark a command at the car and the navigation shifts to an overhead map. I cancel the route before the car starts giving me new directions and study the street layout as best I can. The longer I drive, the more chances they get to cut me off, and they won’t fall for the same trick again. Not to mention attracting the attention of law enforcement as we roar through the streets.
Pulling over to ditch the car won’t work. They can track me via thermal imagery once I’m out of the vehicle. There’s not exactly any rivers to duck into here. I need something else.
In the rearview mirror I see a car careen around a corner and swing in behind me. The damaged fender tells me it’s the Vigilante that failed to cut off my escape. The Infiniti has plenty of horsepower but I hold no illusions as to how it would fare against a Vigilante sedan.
I yank the wheel hard and slide around a corner. My pursuer overshoots and swings wide, buying me a few precious seconds over him. I zigzag between streets, mindful of the silent countdown before the local police show up. At least at this hour the streets are mostly empty. The last thing I need is to get yet another civilian involved in my mess.
Up ahead of me a car turns onto the street. Damn it, the second Vigilante is ahead and barreling straight for me. Who is driving that car? They’re rivaling Colette in ability. Has to be another Phase Six.
I make a last-second hard right and barely avoid sideswiping a garbage truck rumbling the opposite way. This won’t work much longer.
A cloud of white smoke billows out from behind an industrial complex up ahead, and the germ of an idea forms. I pull another hard right and spot what I’m looking for. Three large condensers line up against a building, each belching out clouds of steam. The facility is lit up like a football field.
I can’t let them follow my heat signature even for a second. I roll down the window as the condensers approach. The third is the lowest but it’s still a hell of a jump.
I run the Infiniti as close to the wall as I can. I turn on the navigator and set the auto-drive to go straight ahead and come to a halt in 1000 feet. I roll down the window. I’ve only got one shot at this. If I miss, they’ll pick me up.
We approach the steam of the condensers. Here we go.
I climb up through the window, pass the first condenser, then the second, so close that my shoulder rubs the wall. When we get to the third, I launch from the car and into the steam, not really certain what will be there when I land.
I crash onto the metal roof and stop just short of the grate.
