"Stop at the lights," Stretch ordered.
"Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the light red?"
"That's the point, Pooh," he said simply. Pooh Bear stopped the car at the intersection on the entrance to the Malecon. "Floor it when the light goes red."
"I see," Pooh Bear said, recalling many movies he had seen where the hero used a similar tactic to outrun armed bandits, spies and police. Pooh Bear sometimes had a hard time thinking when his life was in the balance, being chased by pissed off Israelis, but luckily Stretch did not have that problem.
The light turned red, "Floor it!" Stretch ordered.
Pooh Bear slammed his foot down on the accelerator, lifting his other foot off the clutch as he turned onto the Malecon. With a squeal of tires, the car shot forward, slightly left. The beige Ford followed them into the oncoming traffic.
Pooh Bear swerved between the oncoming cars, as tires squealed and other cars stopped and swerved to avoid them.
"Damn!" The fender grazed the rear end of another car on the road, and Stretch made a grab for the wheel.
"Are you insane?" Pooh Bear yelled.
Stretch pulled himself across the bench seat to get a better grip on the wheel. For a moment they fought over the wheel before Stretch leaned over and wrenched it off him.
"Accelerate!" Stretch yelled back, "Clutch in! Third gear!"
He did exactly as Stretch said, but inwardly he begged Allah for forgiveness for any bad thing he'd done, thought about or dreamed in his entire life.
The beige Ford was caught in traffic and spun to a halt, two crashed cars blocking his way. Two Cubans had got out of their cars and proceeded to swear at each other as the Israeli in the beige Ford got out of the car. He whipped out his pistol and began to shoot at his quarry.
Pooh Bear ducked as low as he could when a bullet pierced the rear windshield followed by three more. More bullets pinged off the doors. Pooh's mobile began to ring and fell to the floor as Stretch yanked the wheel right, changing lanes.
The car behind them honked its horn and Stretch sped up again, swerving between the lanes. The honking horns didn't bother him at all. The phone kept ringing.
"Shit."
Traffic was blocked up at the roundabout, and so Stretch swerved onto the footpath, honking the horn.
"Don't slow down," he demanded as he honked the horn. People scattered in all directions. He swerved to avoid a light pole and swerved into the roundabout as fast as he could. The phone bounced on the floor, and stopped ringing.
Another car hit the tail fin of their car, but despite the sudden jolt, Stretch recovered quickly, "Clutch in! Neutral, go!"
"I don't want to die!" he screwed his eyes shut.
Stretch drifted into the other lane as fast as he could, narrowly missing the barrier in the middle of the roundabout, "Third. Now!"
Gears squealing and tires flaming, he sped past the roundabout, speeding onto the Malecon.
He checked in the rearview mirror. He had lost David at the intersection, and let out a sigh of relief.
"Pooh."
"Am I dead?" he asked.
"No," Stretch said, "Take the wheel," Pooh Bear opened his eye, and retook the wheel with shaking hands, "You can slow down now."
"We've lost him? We lost him," Pooh Bear let out the breath that he was holding, "That had to be the craziest drive ever. Let's ditch this car before the police see us."
"Good idea, Amigo," Stretch slinked back into his seat and leaned back.
"That was too close," Pooh Bear leaned back too, "What idiot taught you to drive?"
"My sister."
There was a long, tortured silence, and it was broken after a moment by the ring of a mobile phone. Stretch reached down onto the floor to grab it. He answered it after a moment, "What?" he snapped.
"Don't be like that!" Sky Monster snapped, "JJ can be with you in an hour. Do you think that you can stay out of trouble?"
"The only reason we were in trouble in the first place was because of Jack," Stretch growled, "We have lost them for now, but they'll probably find us again soon."
"I'm sure with your superspy mojo and Pooh's arsenal, you can last one more hour," Monster growled back, "he'll meet you at the Port of Havana."
"Fine," Stretch sighed, hanging up the phone. He glanced across at Pooh, "We have an hour to kill, if it doesn't kill us."
"I am hungry."
Stretch smiled for the first time in a long time, "It's on me. It's the least I can do for scaring you that way."
"I wasn't scared." Pooh Bear argued.
"Oh, so that's why you screamed?" Stretch teased.
"That wasn't a scream," he shot back, "That was a manly roar."
Stretch stifled a laugh, "Whatever you say, Pooh. Whatever you say."