Curse of the Spider King (18 page)

“Yes, Anna, it almost looked like a claw.”

“Was he wearing a gray hat, coat, and sunglasses?”

“How did you know that?”

Anna turned back to the wheel and revved the engine. “Senorita Simonson,” she said, “again, fasten your seat belt.”

“Anna, what are you doing?!” Kat wailed from the backseat. The housekeeper ignored her, stomped on the gas pedal, and swerved between a parked car and a slow-moving bus.

Kat slid hard to the other side of the backseat as Anna yanked the SUV around the school's pickup circle and then out into traffic. Kat pried herself away from the side panel and climbed into the passenger seat next to Anna, somehow feeling safer up front. She put on her seat belt and then wheeled around to look out of the back window. With dread icing the bottom of her stomach, Kat watched a black truck jump the curb, tear across the grass island in front of the school, and blast onto the road. It sideswiped a small convertible and surged forward. “Anna, he's coming!”

“I see him!” she replied. She made a swift left turn, barely missing oncoming traffic. The black truck followed, and a silver pickup clipped its back end. The truck fishtailed but regained control and pursued.

“He's still coming!”

“I must get us to the freeway. We lose him there.”

“Anna!” Kat turned around again. “Lose who? Who's after us?”

“Not now, Kat!” Anna swerved around a car trying to parallel park in front of a florist, and then darted onto a four-lane highway. “We are almost there!” She paused and then said, “Ah, these will help.”

Kat heard tires squeal. She watched the black truck race out behind them, maybe five car lengths back. Then she turned and saw the traffic light ahead of them was turning from yellow to red. Anna barely made it, but no way the black truck would. The light turned. Cars from both sides began to cross the intersection. But the truck did not stop. Kat watched it barrel through the intersection, slipping between a slow-moving van and a tractor-trailer that was screeching to a stop. The truck had swerved so suddenly to avoid collision that it went on two wheels and seemed likely to roll. But somehow it righted itself and tore after them.

“Oh, no, he made it!” Kat growled. “Gun it, Anna!”

Anna watched the speedometer needle pass sixty, but there was too much traffic to go any faster. She saw the sign she was looking for: Rt. 101 Hollywood Freeway—1 mile. Anna surged ahead and muttered, “He drives well for a . . .”

“What?” Kat hadn't heard Anna's last word. She leaned forward, but Anna said nothing more.

Anna was grateful that no cars were immediately in front of them as she took the freeway on-ramp at high speed. She raced onto the six-lane superhighway and looked to pull away. The black truck came up behind them much faster than she anticipated.

Thud!
The Tahoe lurched forward. Kat's head snapped back against the headrest as the tires barked against the highway asphalt. She screamed.

“Hold on tight and keep your head down!” Anna shouted, glaring into the rearview mirror.

Kat grabbed the hand brace, but continued to look out the back window. The jet-black truck trailed right behind them and, from the looks of it, intended to ram them again. For the first time, Kat considered the possibility that she might not survive the afternoon. As foreign and frightening as that thought might have been, it only served to infuriate Kat.
Who is this idiotic, detective-looking, maniac?
And why was he coming after them?

The second impact jolted Kat harder than the first. It made her swallow her gum and bite her tongue. “That hurt! What's happening, Anna?” Kat looked up at her, surprised to see how calm Anna seemed behind the wheel.

“Don't be afraid, Kat. Everything will be all right.”

“Don't be afr—are you crazy? What's going on? Do you know this man?”

The third impact shattered the back windshield. Kat screamed again and covered her head. Fragments of glass shot forward and scattered all around Kat. She instantly thought of shows she had seen on TV where criminals had abducted children from high-profile, wealthy families in order to secure a steep ransom. Hadn't she seen a movie on that? Denzel Washington was in it . . . something about Mexico.
What if Anna is
doing the same thing? What if the guy in the truck actually is a police detective?
Kat took out her cell phone and was about to dial for the police. She stopped.
No, that doesn't make sense. A policeman wouldn't ra
—
”

The black truck smashed into them again. Kat's phone flew from her hand and slid somewhere under her seat. She reached for it frantically but couldn't find it.

“Do something!” Kat shouted, overcome by fear. She did not want to be taken. She did not want to die.

“They will not bring harm to you, Kat. I won't let them.”

Kat watched Anna pull hard on the steering wheel and felt the vehicle swerve, careening across three lanes of heavy traffic. Kat looked back again. The black truck followed but was forced to drop back behind some cars.

“You're doing it!” Kat exclaimed. She was excited at first, but one chilling thought persisted:
Anna could be the villain here.
“Anna, please!”

“Kat, por favor, stay down.”

Kat turned back around and watched the exit signs fly by. She glanced at the speedometer: ninety-five miles per hour. Had she ever gone this fast before? Her heart raced, and sweat dripped down her left temple. Pictures from the TV news flashed through her head. She had seen highway pursuits on all the police shows loads of times, but she never actually thought she'd be in one. Here she was, flying down the highway with someone she didn't really know and with someone in dangerous pursuit. Just like on TV, except no police. At least, not yet.

“There!” Kat pointed at a big sign for Hollywood Boulevard West. “Our exit!” But Anna didn't acknowledge her. “Aren't we going home?” Kat became more nervous, her suspicions mounting. They were still one lane away from the exit-only lane.

“Sí, Kat. But this is going to get rough. You will want to hold on.”

In a matter of moments Kat and Anna passed the exit; a thin berm of concrete now separated the highway from the descending exit ramp. Kat's eyes grew wide in panic. “Anna!” She glanced over at the driver. “You missed it!”

“No, but he will.” And with that Anna pegged the steering wheel hard to the right and sent the SUV across the lane and over the concrete berm. The shocks jolted in the wheel wells, and Kat felt as if her stomach had been wrenched up into her chest. Their SUV dropped into the exit lane below with a loud crash, cars honking behind them. The chassis ripped across the roadway and sparks shot up from underneath. A moment later, Anna slammed on the brakes in order to negotiate the sharp turn of the exit ramp. The tires squealed as they flew around the corner, their vehicle scraping against the side railing.

Kat looked to Anna.
This is crazy! How are we going to explain this
to Mom? Oh, and Dad's not going to like what's happened to the Tahoe.
Not at all!

“Look out!” Kat yelled, her eyes fixed on the intersection ahead, red lights aglow. But Anna did not reply, she merely veered into the shoulder and slipped by the cars to the right, turned into traffic, and bolted toward Kat's home.

Kat looked back again. “You lost him!” she said with a wide smile, half-excited, half-delirious.

“We can hope,” Anna replied. “But they will guess where we have gone soon enough.”

“How can you be so sure?” Kat asked, snapping back to look at Anna.

“Because, niña, I know them. They will not give up so easily.”

“What do you mean, you know these people? What are they, like Mexican Mafia? Is that it?”

“Oh no, senorita.”

For a second, Kat was semirelieved.

“They are far more dangerous.”

Kat just stared at her blankly. They were racing down the road at more than seventy miles per hour, Anna weaving through traffic as if she were a veteran NASCAR driver. Confused, Kat rubbed her head. Anna turned off onto Laurel Canyon Boulevard and started up the winding road toward home. Kat thought she might be sick with all the twists and turns, the wheels complaining with each switchback.

Kat's heart rate had just about returned to normal when she heard Anna mutter, “Mi Dios nos ayude.”

“What?!” Kat cried.

“He es back.”

Kat turned to see a battered black truck shoot around the corner and charge up the hill after them. “Go, go, go!” Kat tapped Anna on the shoulder as if it would help her.

“We're almost home,” replied Anna calmly.

Kat glanced back and forth between the SUV behind and the road up ahead. She counted the houses, watching the prestigious gates whiz by.

“Almost—” But Kat couldn't finish her sentence. The next driveway was hers, and sitting square in front of the gate was yet another black truck.

“No!”

“Hold on!” Anna yelled.

Kat looked at her, now frantic. “What are you going to do?”

“Brace yourself!” was all Anna said before swerving completely off the road and tearing through the bordering hedgerow. The SUV ripped through the foliage like a tank, the plant stalks snapping underneath. It bounced along on the freshly cut lawn, wheels digging ruts into the soft earth. But they had not faced the worst of it; up ahead was the cobblestone wall that bordered their entire property, meant to keep out intruders. Kat shot Anna a terrified glance.

“You're not going to drive through the wall, are you?” she yelled.

“It is the only way!”

“You're going to kill us, Anna!” she screamed. “Anna, I—” Kat held on to the roll handle and squeezed her seat belt. She looked at Anna, then to the wall.

Anna stomped on the accelerator. The Tahoe raced forward, tires spinning up grass and dirt. Kat could feel the vehicle pick up speed.

“Mom's not going to like this—” Kat's body jarred into her seat belt as the SUV burst through the rock wall. The concussion of the exploding air bag knocked her back into her seat, stars spinning amongst the white powder in the air. The sound of steel colliding with rock was horrific. Deafening. Rocks smashed the windshield. The wall's jagged base ripped the axle from beneath the chassis and nearly flipped the vehicle right over. The SUV careened through the wall, skidding to a halt a few feet into the asphalt driveway.

18

Elfkind

“SENORITA SIMONSON?” Anna said as the engine chunked to a stop.

Kat sat, blinking. Confused.

“We must get you to the house,” she continued.

Kat watched Anna's hands reach for her buckle but did not respond. Everything felt like a strange dream . . . hearing voices . . . a car chase . . . racing through traffic . . . blasting through the wall.
Who
is this woman? What's happening?

“Senorita Simonson?” she heard Anna's voice call. Kat looked to her right. Her door was open and Anna was reaching for her, pulling her out of her seat.

“We need to move now!”

Kat's feet stumbled over the debris from the wreck. Her ankle twisted, and the sharp pain brought her mind racing back to reality. She looked back to their SUV, now a semimangled specimen of automotive engineering, and then she saw something moving farther down the driveway near the front gate: The black truck.

“Don't look back, senorita,” Anna instructed, pulling on Kat's elbow. “Keep moving. Keep moving.”

“Anna, who are they? Why are they after me? It's the money, isn't it? Tell me the truth.” Every step she took on her ankle sent searing pain up her leg. But she hardly noticed. Her heart was beating too fast.

“Es not the money they are after, niña.”

“Then what? What would drive them to chase me down like that?” She limped along, now much closer to her family's home, and glanced behind her. The window was rolling up, and the black truck was pulling back onto the main road. Her heart skipped a beat. What if it followed their path through the hedgerow? “Anna!”

“Kat,” Anna said softly, “you must keep up.”

The two briskly made their way to the house, Kat limping, Anna helping her along. They made it inside and to Kat's bedroom. Once inside Kat's private bathroom, Anna helped her wipe a bit of blood from her head. “It es not very serious, but I wanna' clean it.” Anna dabbed it gently and held Kat back. “Are you all right, senorita?”

Kat fingered the cut and winced. “I told you, just Kat. My ankle is throbbing, but I think I'll be okay.” She took a deep breath, her hands still trembling.

Anna examined Kat's ankle. “It es a bit swollen, a slight sprain.”

“Anna, who were those people?”

“You wouldn't believe me if I told you.”

“Try me.”

“Did Mr. Wallace give you anything today?”

Kat froze.
Is she talking about the book? How did she know?

“Kat?”

“Uh, Mr. Wallace?”

“Did he give you anything?” she asked again.

“Yes. But how did—?”

“A book?”

Now Kat was freaking out. “What's going on here? Who are you?” Kat pushed Anna away. Kat could feel herself getting dizzy. She got up and made it to the bathroom door before she blacked out.