The task of setting out the wiring for the rig was tedious and time consuming, but the Inquisition had kept the truck organized. It didn’t take me as long as I feared to have everything I needed spread out alongside thirty pounds of C4.
If that didn’t reduce the Red Beast to tiny pieces of twisted scrap metal, it’d take a tactical nuke to do the job—a weapon the Inquisition didn’t have.
I drew the line at nuclear warheads. Running a black market op for the Inquisition was bad enough, but there was no way in hell I was going to give anyone access to something as lethal and damaging as a nuke. I made one exception to that rule, and that was in the acquisition of medical-grade isotopes for one of the Inquisition’s witches. It had been one of my best deals; we got the isotopes needed for her treatments while Canada got access to some of the Inquisition’s top operatives.
In the three years since negotiating the arrangement, the operatives had never left US soil.
“How are you going to convince them you’re dead?” Evelyn’s voice drew me from my woolgathering.
I rose from my pile of explosives, looking over my handiwork. It’d take me no more than thirty minutes to rig the explosives, double-check the caps, and set both a manual timer and a remote detonator. I dusted off my pants. “Simple enough. I’m going to bleed all over my watch, wallet, and keys and leave them on the ground for the Inquisition to find. They have my blood and DNA on file. They’ll know it’s mine. In cases like this, they’ll start making assumptions. If it doesn’t rain before they get here, their Fenerec should smell me all over the place. They’ll know the watch is mine, with or without the blood.”
Hopping out of the truck and grunting as I landed hard on the ground, I unwrapped the bandage from my hand, wincing a bit at the pain. Draping the bandage over my shoulder, I flexed my fingers until the wounds reopened. Once done, I removed my wallet from my pocket and pulled out all but two of my prepaid, anonymous credit cards. My brother knew I carried at least two on me at all times, so when they found the wallet, it’d look normal.
What my twin didn’t know was the fact that I kept two copies of my identification. I left one for the Inquisition to find and pocketed the other. I also carried one fake ID, which I also pocketed. I removed my Rolex.
The watch I’d regret; my father had given it to me some eight years ago, delivered by my brother, who had somehow managed to give his Inquisition guards the slip. It had been one of three times I had spent more than ten minutes at one time with him since I had turned five and developed an unfortunate case of witchcraft.
I saved the Inquisition cell for last. I wouldn’t need blood for it, though I let it smear on the device. The phone would notify the Inquisition of my demise and the Red Beast’s location when it ceased sending signals to the satellites.
“That’s stupid. Is that truly necessary?” Evelyn stood on the tailgate, glaring down at me, pointing at my bloodied hand. “You’re going to hurt yourself even more doing that.”
“A necessary evil,” I replied, setting the watch and wallet next to her feet. I slid my Inquisition-issued phone towards the explosives. “The idea is to make it look like they disabled the truck and dealt with me. There’s enough firepower in here that isn’t stable to make them believe they got a bigger bang than they were expecting. I’m counting on the Inquisition to make assumptions, but even if they figure out I’m not dead or I blew up the truck, we’ll be long gone.”
“So they’ll think you’re dead, which means they won’t be out looking for you. That’s clever.”
“Why thank you, ma’am.”
Evelyn hopped down, grabbing the bandage from my shoulder. Without asking for permission, she snatched my hand and wrapped it back up. “Now leave it alone.”
“Yes, ma’am,” I dutifully replied, snatching up the keys, which I had already bled on. “Let’s go dump these and get this show on the road.”
“How long will it take to set up the explosives?”
“Twenty or thirty minutes, give or take. I sold this setup to the Inquisition, so I’m familiar with it. I doubt they tinkered with it. All I’ll have to do is link my personal cell in with the wireless controller, sync the timer and remote detonator, and set the mechanical timer as a backup. Once the blasting caps are in and the wires are set, we get as far away as we can before it blows. I’ll be setting the timer for twenty minutes.”
“That’ll be long enough for us to get away?”
I grinned a bit at the concern in Evelyn’s voice, though I suspected she was more worried about me than she was about her own safety. Fenerec were tough, and judging by how fast her leg was healing, she was no exception.
“Should be.”
“Should?” Heading in the direction of the destroyed Fenerec den, I jogged half a mile, following the Fenerec’s original trail with the help of a flashlight. I tossed the keys and wallet aside. I went an extra quarter of a mile before smashing the Rolex against a rock and discarding it. Evelyn followed, making disapproving noises, which I ignored.
“Should?” she repeated when we made it back to the Red Beast, her question voiced as a growl.
“Should,” I confirmed, hiding my grin from her by climbing into the back of the truck. “How’s your leg?”
“It’s fine,” she replied in a curt tone.
“Enough for a run? I’d rather have a few miles behind us before it blows. Once it goes up, the Inquisition is going to descend on Oconee in droves.”
I glanced over my shoulder at her in time to watch her eyes widen. “Why?”
“We’re about to blow up several million dollars of Inquisition property. They’ll want to know what happened.”
“Are you crazy?” she blurted.
I couldn’t help myself; I laughed until my sides hurt. “Still want to press the button?”
“Oh, yes,” Evelyn whispered breathlessly. “Please.”
Chapter Three
True to my word, I let Evelyn set the timer for the explosives while I watched and instructed her on what to do. With flushed cheeks, she triggered the countdown. With twenty minutes to reach a safe distance, we made a run for it.
My dress shoes bit into my heels with each step, the night’s abuse finishing off the already worn pair. Despite my long legs and her lack of footwear, she proved faster. I tried to ignore the sting to my pride, but to my shame, a few under-the-breath curses slipped out as I lagged behind.
I decided to blame my lagging behind on the necessity of checking my cell’s timer. When it read t-minus five minutes, I hunted for a place to shelter for the blast.
With two minutes to spare, I located a stream cutting a small gully through the forest. I stumbled to a halt, gasping and wiping sweat from my brow. “We’ll ride it out here,” I announced, sliding down the bank on my heels so I could crouch beneath an overhang.
“How are we going to see anything if we’re down there?” Evelyn didn’t sound happy.
All I had promised was fireworks and explosives, not front-row seats to the display.
“If you want to stay up there, Miss Evelyn, by all means, please do so. Unfortunately, I don’t heal as well as you do, and I have no idea how far the debris will fly. You’ll want these earplugs, though. It’s about to get very noisy.” After having endured one close-range blast, I doubted my still-ringing ears could handle another.
Evelyn must have come to the same conclusion because she jumped down into the gully, sliding to a halt beside me. She huddled with me in my hiding place, holding out her hand for the plugs, which I gave to her. We put them in, and we watched my cell count down the final seconds to detonation.
When the timer hit zero, the ground trembled from the explosion. Even with the plugs, I heard the deep-toned boom. The sound resonated in my chest, forcing my heart to skip several beats. Considering our distance of at least a mile and a half, I suspected the only thing remaining of the Red Beast was a twisted frame and some chunks of smoldering metal.
Evelyn’s mouth dropped open and her eyes widened. “Wow,” she mouthed at me.
Pulling out the plugs, I pointed in the direction we had been running. At her nod, I took off, hopping across the brook before scrambling up the bank on the other side. I paused long enough to turn around and squint through the trees.
In the distance was the glow of fire.
Determined not to curse in front of a lady, I spun on a heel, ignored the stabbing pain in my feet, and resumed my slow jog. I would have given almost anything for my sneakers, which were in my gym bag far, far away. I doubted I’d see them again anytime soon.
Evelyn caught up with me, holding out the earplugs I had given her.
“Keep them,” I said between labored gasps for breath.
She stuffed them into my suit jacket. “What’s the plan now?”
“I’m making it up as I go,” I admitted with a wince, both at my uncooperative shoes and the lack of a real strategy. “For now, we need to get to civilization and hit some twenty-four hour store to get a change of clothes. After that, a rental car and a drive to Miami. Unless I come up with something better, we’ll catch a cruise to Prince Edward Island and enter Canada there. I know some folks who operate a cruise liner who can get us on and off board discreetly.”
The tricky part would be the rental car and clothes; while my ID and cell were both new enough I really doubted the Inquisition had cracked them yet, it was still a risk. My prepaid credit cards had ten thousand loaded on each, so at least money wouldn’t be an issue; reaching Canada without being caught, however, was.
Once we were north of the border, things would get easier. I had several stashes I could raid, allowing me to swap aliases and pick up more prepaid cards, all of which were maxed to the ten thousand dollar limit.
“How are we going to get a rental? You threw away your wallet. Won’t they know you’re alive if you show up somewhere getting a rental?” Evelyn scowled at me, her tone so disappointed that I couldn’t help but laugh.
“Fake ID, Miss Evelyn. That’s what I was pulling out of my wallet earlier before I threw it away.”
“I have a better idea,” she replied smugly. “I have a car. It’s new, under a friend’s name, and in storage not too far outside of the park. I’ve got a change of clothes, too. That should be okay, right?”
“Your friend isn’t a Fenerec, right?”
“She’s Normal,” she confirmed.
While I still had my misgivings, most of them revolving around the fact that the Inquisition was quite good at ferreting out information on their targets, I didn’t have a good enough argument to go against her suggestion. Rentals were riskier than private vehicles owned by Normals.
After a second consideration of the fledgling plan, I nodded my approval. “Lead the way, ma’am.”
Jogging without any sign of exertion, Evelyn took the lead, picking game trails and footpaths cutting through the forest. By the time we reached one of the roads skirting the park, I was soaked in sweat and my feet throbbed.
According to my phone, it had taken us two hours to reach the run-down gas station. It doubled as a mechanic’s shop, and a graveyard of rusted cars unfit for scrap littered its gravel parking lot. The shed in the back proved the newest of the structures, its metal siding partially stained with rust.
She headed for the shed and entered the code for the combination lock before shoving the door open.
Evelyn, apparently, had a very liberal definition of ‘car.’ I stumbled to a halt, staring down at the motorcycle. It was so new its dealership sticker was still on the tinted windshield. The red and black paint job gleamed in the overhead lighting. Chrome accented its sleek lines. Two red and silver helmets waited on the seat.
“Nice car,” I said, whistling. BMW made some good motorcycles, though I hadn’t seriously considered buying one for myself, as I preferred vintage cars and trucks suffering from testosterone poisoning.
“It’s a BMW R 1200 GS,” she announced with pride, skipping into the shed to a row of safes lining the back wall. “Isn’t it cute?”
Cute wasn’t a word I’d use, so I shrugged. “Looks like a fun ride.”
“I haven’t taken it for a spin yet. Don’t have the license, and I’m afraid of crashing it. You… you do know how to drive it, don’t you?”
I had a hard time imagining a Fenerec being afraid of something like a crash, but I decided it was in my better interest not to say a word. “I think I can manage.” All of my fake IDs included a motorcycle license, and I had even ridden them a time or two. “This will definitely simplify things.”
Hiding a motorcycle was much, much easier than hiding a car—or returning a rental. Worst-case scenario, I’d dump it in the ocean if I needed to make it disappear in a hurry.
Replacing her bike would be the easiest part of our escape if it came to that.
“This is—well, was—my pack’s stash. Mine, really. We all kept some stuff at each other’s stashes.” She pulled out a gym bag from a safe, and without warning, she slipped out of my jacket and tossed it to me. I caught it before spinning on a heel to give her privacy.
The windshield reflected her image at me. I averted my eyes to the floor, but not before getting a good glimpse of her from head to toe.
She looked even better than I had thought she would. A blush burned my face. I considered apologizing, but couldn’t bring myself to say a word.
When she tapped my shoulder to get my attention, she had changed into a pair of form-fitting black leather pants and a red blouse that hugged her chest. She held a black and red leather jacket over an arm. “I’m ready when you are.”
“Let’s get out of here before anyone finds us,” I said, grabbing one of the helmets and shoving it over my head. She stowed a small purse in the box behind the seat before putting on her helmet.
While the motorcycle was a bit on the small size, it fit both of us. The engine purred to life, and the BMW didn’t seem fazed by our combined weight. I set the built-in navigation system to take us to Miami and tore away from the gas station, kicking up gravel in our wake.
~~*~~
Under normal circumstances, I could have made the drive to Miami in twelve hours. I made it to the Florida state line before exhaustion caught up with me, resulting in a stay at a cheap motel outside of a town I wasn’t sure had a name. I would’ve been happy making the final leg of the drive without stopping, but Evelyn had other ideas—and an insatiable appetite. She consumed twice as much as I did, and I had the feeling she would’ve had thirds if I hadn’t been in a hurry to find a place to hole up until we could get a cruise northbound to Canada.