Just a brief stop to say thanks to all of my supporters out thereJ Thanks for sticking by me and the story. And a special thanks to Linwe Elendil! Thanks loads for the help J
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Andra noticed the change in the atmosphere inside the automobile. She turned to James, noticing his attention focused on whatever was behind them. She twisted in her seat, her nails digging into the cloth fabric of the passenger seat when she noticed what commanded all of the MI6 agent's awareness. The lights in the distance bounced along brutally, the vehicle closing in from behind victim of the poorly maintained highway.
"I rather doubt that's just a fellow traveler behind us." James retorted, coaxing the vehicle faster.
"Well, how the hell did they know where we are?" James shook his head, unable to answer the question. The steering wheel shuddered in his grasp, forcing him to keep a tight grip to prevent the vehicle, which was much more eager to follow the deep grooves in the road than to stay in the unmarked lane, from navigating off-course.
The vehicle behind noticed the quick increase in speed, and picked up its own pace, rapidly closing the gap. Andra instinctively reached into the back seat, disregarding the fire in her shoulder. With the AR-15 tight in her grip, she quickly reassured herself it was still loaded before facing back around in her seat.
James scanned his memory, trying hard to remember the layout of the highway from the few seconds he had previously spent looking at the map. There were only a few turnoffs, and at the moment he couldn't remember how many they had passed, or even if they had passed any at all. Not knowing his surroundings was a mistake he rarely made. The combination of fatigue and concentrating on the unanswered questions swirling around in his mind caused him to forget some of his most basic survival skills.
In the distance, two more sets of headlights appeared, this time ahead of them. The realization hit him immediately. They were trying to block them in.
Scenarios began running through his mind. None of them had happy endings. The edge of the roadway dropped off sharply at each side, the deep ditches measuring possibly two meters deep and nearly one and a half meters wide. Just enough to possibly make veering from the roadway a viable escape. The small saving grace was they happened to be in a solidly built machine, strong and sturdy, reinforced with nothing but steel. Hardly the best getaway vehicle, but able to bully most inferior vehicles from its path.
He kept his foot pressed hard against the pedal, dividing his attention between the lights behind him and the vehicles barreling down on them from the front at an increasing speed. As the vehicle in his rear view approached, he recognized the familiar form of the Jaguar, racing along the decaying roadway, the finely tuned suspension barely holding its own against the Humvee's much more rugged chassis.
Ahead of them, two identical SUVs sped, side by side, along the thoroughfare, their headlights blinding. Not nearly capable of the speeds reached by the Jag, but able to handle the rough terrain just as well as the H1.
"I need you to disable the Jaguar behind us." James said absently, trying to calculate his next move, knowing it would need to be precise.
"Sure." Andra muttered, her voice wavering slightly. Shooting from a stationary position at a target was easy. Shooting from a moving position was a great deal harder.
James gripped the steering wheel tightly, his breathing shallow, his chest tight. The dark SUVs were too close for comfort, but still not near enough. Just a few more seconds.
Bullets fired from the SUVs whizzed through the air, puncturing the windshield. James forced himself to remain calm and pulled himself farther down into the seat, giving the men firing at him less of a target to work with.
"Get your bloody head down!" he shouted angrily at Andra, who had been previously preoccupied with the sight behind them. James reached up, placing a heavy hand on the side of Andra's head, pulling her down and towards him, away from the deadly shots. Andra reacted by shoving his hand away from her, tossing an evil look in his direction.
James whipped the wheel quickly to his left, causing the H1 to turn clumsily, kicking up a fury of frozen mud and rocks. Once the left front tire hit the ditch bordering the road, he turned quickly to the right, keeping the passenger side tires on the highway. The Humvee listed dangerously to the left, teetering precariously as he raced along, praying the tred on the right side tires would continue to grip the solid surface. He passed the SUVs, missing the one on the right by merely a few centimeters. Brake lights illuminated the night as the drivers of the SUVs struggled to comprehend the scene around him, taken aback by the tactic.
James forced the H1 back on the roadway, smiling slightly to himself when he caught the frenzy in the rear view mirror. The engine kicked into high gear, whining painfully as the speedometer reached the governor. Behind them, the Jag pulled away effortlessly from the SUVs, quickly closing the distance once again. With one more angry look James' way, Andra climbed into the backseat, the AR-15 tucked deep into the pocket of her shoulder, the driver of the Jag squarely in her view. She gripped the weapon tightly, trying vainly to keep the muzzle even with her target. The rough landscape made sighting in nearly impossible.
The Jaguar seemed to sense what was to come and swerved back and forth between the sides of the narrow road. Andra kept the muzzle aimed directly behind them. Following the Jag with the muzzle would be pointless. She would just have to wait until they stayed in her sights long enough.
As Andra focused on the Jaguar, James focused in the SUVs as they turned around and quickly made up for the ground lost by his maneuver.
Andra watched the Jaguar through her sights. The driver was a pro. He knew just how to make himself a difficult target. He was good. But she was better.
The moment finally came, the driver stayed in her sights a little too long. She squeezed the trigger and smiled sickly as the driver slumped forward in his seat, dead from a round through the heart. The Jaguar veered sharply off the roadway, its front end catching the edge of the ditch. Still under the power of centripetal force, the sports car careened on its side, rolling along violently several times before slamming into its final resting spot against one of the many pine trees spread out along the side of the road.
Unable to recover quickly enough to focus in on either of the SUVs, one vehicle took advantage of the chaos and slammed hard into the rear bumper of the H1, forcing James to keep an inhumanly tight grip on the wheel. The force was unexpected and Andra tumbled backward, the AR-15 cluttering noisily against the metal framework of the door.
"Damn it." Andra cursed, pulling herself back up, just in time to notice the SUV's second assault, this time gripping tightly to the backseat. She reclaimed the rifle, deciding to forgo the sighting-in phase and pulled the trigger, letting bullets escape from the chamber in three round bursts. One of the SUV's spun out wildly after she struck the driver with a lucky shot to the shoulder. The second and final SUV approached, setting the vehicle up for another vicious assault. James predicted this and let the driver line himself up directly behind the H1.
"Hang on." James called out the quick warning, barely giving Andra enough time to brace herself against the back of the passenger seat, as he slammed the brakes, causing the SUV to slam fiercely into the rear of the H1, causing the front end of the smaller SUV to crumple. The passenger of the pursuing SUV smashed through the thick windshield, leaving him partially ejected from the vehicle's interior. The driver was slumped forward, his head resting on the steering wheel.
James coaxed the tired transmission into drive and pushed the gas petal to the floor, the teeth-grinding sound of metal against metal filled the newfound silence, as the vehicles slowly peeled apart. The H1 slowly picked up speed and James finally expelled the breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. Behind him, he heard Andra do the same. She dropped the rifle onto the seat and took a few moments to steady her nerves before climbing back into the front seat.
"We need to get out of here." Andra breathed. "I'm not sure how much more of this I can take." James nodded absently, not really hearing what she was saying. His thoughts were focused now on how Hollis could've known where they were, and how he was able to set up a trap.
James stepped hard on the brake, placing the transmission in park before the vehicle had a chance to quit moving. "Take off your sweater." he ordered, reaching over to pull the heavy wool from her body when Andra paused slightly. She objected only slightly, soon realizing what the man next to her was thinking. She shed the heavy fabric, leaving it in James' grasp, before hopping out into the frigid night, her flesh rough with goose bumps as it connected with the icy air.
Ignoring the pain and cold, she dropped to her knees, running her hand along the rough bottom of the Humvee, searching for the familiar feel on a tracking device.
Inside the vehicle, James closely inspected the sweater, finding nothing unusual. Tossing it aside, he slowly racked his brain, thinking of anything and everything they had picked up recently.
His eyes slowly landed on the glove compartment, a realization dawning. He flicked open the compartment and pulled out the heavy leather wallet, the wallet Andra had taken from her handler. They had always been able to find her, and now he knew how.
Remembering she had searched it once before, he tore at the seams, certain he would find what he was looking for.
There it was. Stuck between the leather, the small circular disk he had been searching for. He slid from the front seat and out into the cold, calling Andra's name, holding the dark wallet up for her to see. A look of dejection crossed her face, as he tossed it into the night, the dark hide disappearing among the shadows.
"I checked that." Andra said quietly.
"It was in between the material. It was a hard find." Andra stayed silent and climbed back into the SUV, slamming the door shut angrily behind her before slipping back into the warmth created by the heavy sweater.
James slid back into the driver seat and coaxed the H1 back into gear. Following Andra's directions, he picked the first side street and headed east, away from Tver, but toward a smaller village which was home to a rather night hotel, Andra promised, but off the map. Which meant there was less chance they would be found there.
James didn't object, and cruised along, eager to leave this night and, hopefully tomorrow, Russia, behind.