Mountains of Dawn

Under the overpass, Carl slumped at the wheel, his wounds winning out over his consciousness. Judith slid out of the limo, bent low, and crawled over to the shelter of the overpass. The brown sedan screamed under the overpass, stopping just a few feet from the limo. Gunfire riddled the limousine, then silence.

Judith held her breath, waiting. She could see a pool of gasoline beneath the limo from a ruptured gas tank; she could see the two unconscious men inside.

"Check it out," a voice snarled from the brown sedan. The door opened and two men climbed out, their guns held ready. One held back by the sedan, the other, crouched low, crept toward the limousine.

"Looks like they bought the farm," he said, peering into a shattered rear window. "But I don't see the bodyguard…"

From over his head, the M22316 rained death on him and his partner. Judith jumped from the I-beam support in the roof of the overpass and dropped beside the limousine, keeping the car between herself and the killers. The two men lay in pools of blood on the ground.

"No one looked up…" Unconsciously Judith echoed Brian's words. She opened the driver's door and pulled Carl out and away from the car. The smell of gasoline drifted inside the vehicle, and threatened fire. As she returned for Jim, she saw motion in the brown sedan; the driver. She dropped to the ground beside the limousine, the M22316 no more than three feet from her, lying where she'd left it when she pulled Carl from the car. Slowly, she began to inch her way toward the gun.

"Judith? What's happening?" Malcolm's voice came over the radio, clear and welcome to her ears. "We should be there in about two minutes." She heard the scrape of gravel under boot heels, then heard them turn. The Shredder. He always covered his tracks, was never caught.

Judith reached up and grabbed her gun, then slid under the car, into a pool of gasoline. A spark could set it off, blowing up both her and Jim, lying on the back seat of the car, but the Shredder was on his way back to the brown sedan and freedom. She couldn't allow that, she couldn't allow a vicious killer to make more victims. She hesitated no more.

She fired a shattering round and rolled, nearly at the same time. The pool of gasoline caught with a whoosh and engulfed the limousine. Jim never had a chance, but neither did the Shredder, who lay dead a few feet away.