The Shack series

Chapter 28

Very well. Deputy Director. Please keep moving. I'd rather not do this here in front of all these children, but I will if you force me to." He fell silent as we passed a teenage girl, pipe-cleaner skinny in a dark coat with a bright purple backpack, hair tucked up under a light purple crew cap, obliviously texting away on her phone.

"You guys caught up faster than I thought you would."

"Facial recognition programs in the security software for the bridge cameras. We emplaced it in this area months ago for another operation. It was blind luck that it was still in place, and I just happened to be moving in this direction. I found your vehicle in the parking lot."

I watched another family struggle past. The two kids were just out of toddler stage and had clearly reached breaking point. Even if I were in better shape and armed, there were way too many innocent bystanders around. "Lucky me."

He shrugged eloquently. "Those are the breaks."

He seemed awful polite for a contract killer.

I was just too weak even to begin to fight. He guided me into the utility hallway opposite the bathroom, and we walked down it until we reached a corner. I was out of time. He pushed me around the corner and brought his g*n out.

A sound like a dull, heavy bell rang through the tile-lined corridor. He took a single staggering step forward then collapsed in a heap.

The girl in the light purple crew cap stood behind him, holding an almost comically large crescent wrench, poised for another swing. Face expressionless, she looked at me, then down at him, easily balancing the wrench across her skinny shoulder. Crouching, she checked his breathing and pupil dilation mechanically, then picked up the g*n. She cleared it with casual proficiency, tucking it and her wrench into her backpack. Almost as an afterthought, she pulled his wallet from his coat and stuck it in a silvery envelope.

A moment later, she pulled the battery from his cell phone and dropped it into a trash can; then the phone joined his wallet in the envelope.

She stood and held her hand out with a stony expression. "Come with me if you want to live."

I just stared at her until she smirked, eyes glittering. "f**k, I've always wanted to say that. Let's see the wound. Anterior right chest, right?"

"Yeah." I hated that I could hear the weakness in my voice. I managed to pull my coat off and fumbled my shirt and the top strap of my not-so-bulletproof vest open.

She reached into her backpack and pulled out a Kotex pad package, tearing it open and pressing the pad against the bullet hole. "Hold this."

I held it in position while she put another pad on top of it and then pulled out duct tape and taped them down tightly. "This will have to do for now. We don't have much time. I heard what he said; they probably have others on the way, and they'll be sweeping the mall any minute. My K2 contact says she already has someone taking those cameras off-line." She gestured to a Bluetooth earpiece almost hidden under her cap.

She pulled a large, flowered wool shawl out of her backpack along with a truly awful women's hat that I would never have chosen to wear and handed them to me. "Let's change your profile a bit. Make sure you cover up the b****y shirt."

Out of the backpack, she pulled out a couple of those large "eco-friendly" cloth shopping bags; both our coats and her backpack and crew cap were stuffed quickly into them. She finally handed me a pair of thick-framed glasses before shrugging on a red fleece jacket and taking my arm. "Keep your face down and try to look like a grandma."

That wasn't exactly hard given the circumstances; it was easier to walk slightly hunched over. She chatted loudly and excitedly all the way out to the parking lot. Something about being late to pick me up because she'd seen a small black and white cat in her school parking lot that might be hurt and looked all over for it. All the while, I could see her hyper-alert eyes surreptitiously scanning every shadow. I studied her as we walked. Something about her was weirdly familiar, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it.

Out in the parking lot, she led me to a dull black battered sports car in a wheelchair spot. It even had a "Disabled Parking" tag hanging from the mirror. I painfully maneuvered into the passenger seat and paused, drawing in a ragged breath of what felt like broken glass. She promptly reached over and began to snap me into a harness more suited for a fighter jet than a car.

She yanked a strap up between my legs and snapped it in with a slight smile and a soft chuckle. "Easy there, just getting you strapped in."

I waited until she'd buckled herself in. "This is a Q car, isn't it?"

The old term for a tactical vehicle disguised as a harmless civilian car didn't trip her up at all.

She gave a single nod and cranked the key. The powerplant rumbled awake with an evil, low growl. "Looks are deceiving. Top of the line engine, top of the line everything. My Billy here is a f*****g beast."

She touched the dash softely with a sad look, then glanced over at me. "If anything goes down, get below the door frame. I have high thermal blast blanket and some light ceramic armor plate in the doors, panels, firewall, floors, and seat backs. Not perfect, but it's better than nothing."

Despite her obvious fascination with the power of the car, she pulled out into the holiday traffic smoothly, slipping away from the mall quietly.

"You'll need to ditch the car as soon as you can..."

"Don't sweat it; it'll be tucked away once I get you to the safe house, and the plates are fakes. It will look completely different the next time I take it out. Needles would be f*****g pissed if I had to crush it. We've done a lot of work on this."

She shook her head irritably. "It's the time, not the money."

I felt a rush of relief. Needles. That was a name I recognized. Michael knew... had known him. He was associated with K2 somehow. Something about a salvage yard with a convenient car crusher.

"You work for Needles? Thank God."

"Yeah... He's not here right now. K2 called me in." She smoothly slipped the car down road after road, carefully checking for any surveillance. "You could have trackers..."