The Chemist

It took her two trips to get her bags into the vehicle hidden behind the hay bales. On the first trip, she gave Daniel the gloves as they passed each other. He put them on without asking for an explanation. She was happy to see the Humvee’s interior lights had been disengaged. After her stuff was in, she loaded the grenades but chose to leave the rocket launchers behind – she wasn’t sure she could figure out how to use them without blowing herself up.

“The cash?” Daniel asked when she passed him.

“Yes, all of it.”

He moved quickly in response, and for one crazy second she had a sense of déjà vu. They worked well together – just like doing dishes.

There was a supply of Kevlar. She put a vest on and tightened the straps as far as they would go, but it still hung a little loose. It wasn’t unbearably heavy, so she guessed it had ceramic plates. She pulled another for Daniel. There were a couple of Batman wet suits, but they were too big for her and would probably take too long for Daniel to struggle into. She smiled when she found two thick baseball caps. She’d heard about these but thought only the Secret Service used them. She stuck one on her head and took the other to Daniel along with the vest.

He put both on silently, his face determined and pale. She wondered how long he could hold it together. Hopefully, the natural adrenaline would last until they got out of this.

She strapped a long, thin blade to her thigh, wrapped a holster belt under her usual leather utility, then slung another over her shoulders. She went to the back of the Humvee. She took one of the Glocks and put it on her right hip. She put the SIG under one arm and her PPK under the other. Then she holstered the sawed-off shotgun on her left hip.

“Ammo?”

He nodded. He’d left his favorite rifle slung over one shoulder. She jerked her chin toward it.

“Keep that on you, and take a handgun, too.”

He picked up the other Glock and gripped it in his gloved hand.

“We need to wipe down everything you touched.”

Before she was finished speaking, he was in motion. He grabbed the tarp that had hidden her bags and tore off two long strips. He threw her one and went out to the lock, Einstein shadowing him. She started on the first car he’d opened. It didn’t take them long to get everything. There was blood on the pieces of tarp, so she stuffed them into the back of the Humvee, too.

She stopped to listen for a moment. Nothing but four nervous animals breathing.

“Where do we go now?” Daniel asked. His voice was strained and more inflectionless than usual, but he sounded in control. “Your place up north?”

She knew her expression was hard – and possibly frightening – as she told him, “Not yet.”

CHAPTER 18

“Y

ou’re going back,” he said in a hollow whisper.

She nodded.

“Do you think Arnie might still be —”

“No. He’s dead.”

Daniel’s body swayed ever so slightly in reaction to the cold certainty of her words. “Then shouldn’t we be running? You told me if they come for us, we run.”

He was right, and it was also her nature to run.

She wondered if this was the feeling those mothers had – the ones you read about in the news who lifted the minivan off their child. Desperate, terrified, but also as powerful as a superhero.

Alex had her way of doing things: plan, plan, plan, plan for every possibility, and then, when disaster hit, execute the plan that was the best fit. She did not do spur-of-the-moment. She did not do instinct. She did not do fight; she did flight.

But she didn’t just have herself to protect tonight. She had a minivan to lift.

There was no plan, only instinct.

Her instinct was that a serious attack was happening, a well-coordinated one organized by people who had more intel than they should have. She and Daniel could run, but who knew what else the hunters had set up? There could be another trap.

If she could find out who they were and what they knew, her escape with Daniel had a much better chance of success.

Finding things out was her specialty, after all.

Attacking was not, but that just meant it would not be expected. Hell, she was more than a little surprised herself.

The hunters didn’t know about the Batcave, or they would have been waiting for her here. They didn’t know about the resources she had access to.

If she thought this through at all, she would probably change her mind. But she was high on her own adrenaline now, and trying to make the smart choices. Not just the ones that would save them tonight, but that would save them tomorrow and the next day. She couldn’t make the right choices if she didn’t have the right information.

“Running would probably be safest in the short term,” she answered.

“Then?”

“I haven’t had this chance before – to interrogate one of the assassins sent for me. The more I know about who they are, the safer we’ll be in the future.”

A second passed.

“You’re not leaving me behind,” he stated evenly.

“No, I need your help. But only on one condition.”

He nodded.

“You have to do exactly what I say. I don’t care if you like it or not.”

“I can do that.”

“You have to stay in the car.”

His head jerked back just a little, then his lips tightened.

“Exactly what I say,” she repeated.

He nodded again, not pleased. She was not convinced he meant it.