11/18/2031 - Rollbar
London Streets
"WHERE?" Rollbar yelled into the radio strapped to his collar.
"Left, NOW!" Dial Tone's voice came through his earbud.
Rollbar hauled the Snarler over to make the tight turn. A speeding red double-decker almost ran him over as he shot across the front of oncoming traffic against the light its horn practically deafening him.
"Ok, where is he?"
"You see the terrorist climbing out of the sewer? That guy!"
"No need to get snippy."
"I'm getting sick of you yelling at me ya prick!"
"Shave off the porn-stash and I might be more inclined to take you seriously. Or let me bang your sister. Either way."
"Fuck you."
Rollbar laughed. Dial Tone was so easy to rile up.
In his reverie he almost missed Firefly pull a man away from a Harley and gun it down the street.
"YES! THIS is what I signed up for!" Rollbar whooped and pulled a wheelie between two sluggish vehicles, "it's on! Its on like Donkey Kong!"
"Your not even old enough to remember that game."
"So what? Classics are classics." Rollbar retorted.
Dial Tone sighed, "Patching the GPS tracking of his blackberry to your uplink now."
Rollbar glanced down at the display lodged between his handle bars as he swerved through more traffic. A blinking red dot now led his green. Now lets see...
A quick jerk of the handle bars bounced him up and over the right curb, and into the park.
"What the hell are you doing Bar?"
"He's heading up constitution, he'll have to merge into Duke of Wellington in a minute and have to circle. He'll be heading for the A4202 and onto the A40. It's the fastest way out from here."
"How do you know that?"
"Well, you see, there was this prostitute..."
"Save it," Dial Tone cut in."
"Your loss, its a great story."
Rollbar bounced the Snarler over the grass of Green Park and pulled out onto Piccadilly across from the original Hard Rock Cafe.
"Damn."
"What now," asked Dial Tone.
"Once we catch this bastard I'm coming back here for the night."
Dial Tone's end crackled as if someone was grabbing the microphone, "No you damn well are NOT."
"General Hawk! Sir!"
"You will follow Firefly, and then you'll get your ass back to The Cove. No leave. UNDERSTOOD!""Yes sir! Sorry sir!"
Rollbar was sweating as he rode down the sidewalk towards Park Lane in front of the Intercontinental. He skirted through the traffic entering the roundabout. And finally into the Northbound lane.
Now...where is...Rollbar was almost thrown from the Snarler as another bike crashed into the side of him and sped away.
"Hey watch it ya...oh..."
The engine roared as he tore off in pursuit of Firefly.
"Told you that was a shortcut Tone."
"Lucky guess."
"Was not." Rollbar retorted, swinging around the switchback beside Hyde Park Corner, "Ten will get ya twenty that he's headed to the Harrow Road Flyover."
"Done. So he's headed into Hyde park because?"
"Shortcut, I hope." Rollbar muttered the last two words under his breath, and slewed the bike west, over the sidewalk opposite Curzon Gate, and into the park.
Screaming pedestrians scattered every which way to avoid the two racing motorcycles. Many tourists and locals were lounging under the rows of trees lining the walkway paralleling Park Lane, but no matter how filled the park was, it was far less crowded than the street. Especially given the thread of speeding hunks of man and machine barreling towards them at almost a hundred miles an hour.
"Skidmark, eat your heart out."
A woman pulled her toddler out of the way of Firefly's bike just in time. Rollbar swerved to dodge an old man using a walker on the other side of the pathway. He took his right hand off the handle bars to reach for his pistol and then paused. A near miss in these crowds could kill. He quickly reholstered the firearm and dodged a discarded stroller as the bikes shot out into Tyburn Way, through several lanes of traffic and onto Edgeware Road.
"Bliss Pharmacy...I may need that when I'm done with this." Rollbar muttered, tossing a lose twig that had lodged in his left glove off.
Firefly shot up the street beside the Salt Bar and threw something behind him. At first, Rollbar thought it was merely a fragment of tree, and it was only when it flew by his head and smashed through the windscreen of the car behind him that he realized that it was a crowbar that had been intended to decapitate him. Well, if that's how you want to play it...Rollbar gunned the Snarler to even higher speeds, attempting to close the gap between the two bikes.
"I'm coming for you Firefly."
The game of cat and mouse through traffic continued up Edgeware until Firefly made a left at Harrow road.
"Tone, he's headed west, Harrow Road. Get Roadblock and his crew to set up there."
"LT's got them on the way."
"You owe me 20 by the way."
"No, you owe me ten."
"What the hell? I called it!"
"He didn't use the flyover, he's going beside it."
"Listen you cheep Belgian bastard-"
"Pay up or shut up."
Rollbar ground his teeth, barely making it around a double-decker pulling out of a stop. And followed Firefly across three lanes of traffic towards the A40 Westway. The Snarler's rear wheel bumped against the railing as he pulled onto the flyover, now only a couple car-lengths behind his quarry. Rollbar pulled his pistol and triggered a few shots at Firefly's back, hoping that any misses would impact with reinforced car frame rather than any windows. Firefly responded by dodging between a pair of slow-moving semis, leaving Rollbar with no choice but to slide between them himself, the drop in speed required to make the game costing him precious distance.
The bikes flew through heavy traffic beside Paddington Waterside and out of the area of the city with the Congestion Charge. Only now did Rollbar realize that traffic was only to get heavier and he'd missed his best chance to take out Firefly. Rush hour was only minutes away and the road was going to be gridlocked by the time they made it out of town. An added lane from the south added only more confusion, and the distance between him and Firefly increased even more.
The freeway curved gently to the north. For a minute Rollbar was reminded of the curved tracks he and his dad would race motorcycles around in his youth. Or had until that biker gang had killed him and his two older brothers. Rollbar would never forget the tattoo or the biker gang, a gang he would hunt to the end of the Earth. Their punishment was why he'd joined the military. Someday, somehow the Dreadnoks would pay for what they did to his family.
Lost in his revere Rollbar almost lost control of his bike as the road turned sharply to the south. he shook his head to clear it. No time for distractions now he chided himself, there's a terrorist on the loose and if you don't watch it, he'll get away.
Rollbar gunned it, but at the speeds he was going the Snarler couldn't accelerate any further. It was up to Firefly now, the two bikes redlining as they flew south through the traffic. The road began a gentle curve westward again approaching the M41 Roundabout, allowing him a brief glance of a soccer stadium off to the north of the road before they flew over the traffic interchange. The road now dropped down quickly to ground level. The four story drop allowed Rollbar to slide through a seam in traffic and gain precious ground in his pursuit of Firefly, who was slowed up by a Smart Car changing lanes. Rollbar was still incredulous that anyone thought those cars looked 'cool' enough to drive. But, he paused, I guess someone's got to be the bottom of the bell curve right?
The road headed almost straight west for a brief stretch, and Rollbar made up small increments of distance by running along the median while Firefly dodged through traffic on the larger Harley. The two bikes were almost neck and neck when they shot through the five-way intersection with Old Oak. Oncoming traffic pulled up and horns blared at the two errant motorcycles.
Rollbar tried not to think about the trail of havoc they were leaving as they wound their way north through the freeway. His pistol was out of ammunition from his earlier potshots, and there was no way he was risking drawing a rifle at these speeds. He'd just as likely have his arm ripped off.
The road flew north over two sets of railroad tracks before settling once more into a more or less westbound track. Side-streets of the expansive residential urban sprawl flew past on either side of the bikes, Rollbar tried not to pay attention, instead staying focused on Firefly's back. Some back part of Rollbar's mind registered passing the Hoover Building, meaning he was now somewhere in Perivale before the road passed another suburb and flew under a rail bridge. Traffic was thinning now as they traveled further from the core of the city, and Western Avenue now passed over another traffic circle. Rollbar could no longer place the location, being farther from the city center than he'd ever bothered to be during his last visit. Well, actually, he hadn't left the bedroom much last visit, but still...
A park appeared on the right, and Rollbar hoped that signaled that the chase was nearing the outskirts where Roadblock had set up the...well...roadblock. He couldn't help but be amused by that small symmetry. Firefly's bike sped past another couple subdivisions and a park, and suddenly cut across several lanes of traffic to the far right. Rollbar spied an approaching flyover.
"Dial Tone, he's diverting!"
"So much for your mind reading."
"I think he's trying to shake me."
"No. Ya think?"
"Just tell Roadblock to get ready to move."
"LT's bringing the Tomahawk around now, HD is ready to go with a chain gun."
"Tell him to hold off with the heavy stuff, we're going into a residential area."
"You might want to avoid that."
"Oh sure, I'll just wave my hand at him and tell him to divert. We'll do this dance elsewhere. What do I look like? Luke freaking Skywalker!"
"Prick."
"I heard that."
"I know."
Rollbar prepared to follow Firefly up the ramp when at the last second, Firefly dodged back into the straight away lane. Rollbar was almost caught by the maneuver, but managed to edge himself in front of a Honda Civic to keep up pursuit.
"Back on the main road. Damn I hate this guy."
A second overhead roundabout was coming up. Again Firefly's bike shifted as if to divert. This time Rollbar was expecting the switchback and managed to stay right on Firefly's tail, this time gaining back much of the distance lost during the last trick.
"That won't work twice."
The bikes raced past Northold Air Field at breakneck speed, the city limits within sight now. Two more bridges loomed ahead, one road and one train. This time Firefly didn't even bother with the deception, instead charging is bike through. Rollbar followed, now barely a split second behind. Another road swung overhead and merged on the right.
"Your passing Ickenham," Dial Tone informed him, "Under that roundabout, about a kilometer and you'll run right into our boys. Just before the Denham Roundabout. They've got all the traffic stopped for this."
"Great. Now just give me a ...shit!"
Almost as if he'd heard them Firefly's bike made straight for the off ramp to the last city roundabout.
"Damn it," Rollbar threw the Snarler into a tight turn behind a furniture truck, and just bounced over the curb to make the ramp. He followed Firefly as he turned north and then cut west along a quiet residential street. The street was lined on either side with trees. Up ahead, Rollbar could see some children playing.
"No...oh god no." Rollbar whispered as he saw Firefly draw his pistol.
He reached back to haul his rifle out of his pack, but watched in horror as Firefly calmly shot two children as he roared past.
Rollbar pulled up short so as not to hit any of the scattering children. Screaming erupted from them, and parents and nannys erupted form the surrounding houses.
"Tone, I've got to break off pursuit. There's two kids down here. Get Doc here, ASAP!"
"That will be at least an hour, I'll get city ambulance to you as fast as I can."
Rollbar grabbed the med kit from the back of the snarler and headed for the two bleeding children.
"I'm sorry. I...I just can't leave them here." Rollbar hung his head. "I lost him."
"You couldn't leave them." There was genuine sympathy in Dial Tone's voice. "You did the right thing."
"Your still tracking his phone right?"
"He ditched it when he hit the rail line a few hundred meteres north of you. He knew we were tracking him."
"Shit."
"Some days are just like that. Now go save some lives."
Code Name: Rollbar
File Name: Reed Williston
Birthplace: East Greenwich, Rhode Island
Rank: E4
Primary Military Specialty: Light Vehicle Operator
Secondary Military Specialty: Mechanic