CHAPTER 5

Ten minutes passed. Then twenty.

Djinny began to wonder if she had missed the Citroën's exit. It was such a small car, and the color blended well with the concrete; combined with the distractions she was forced to deal with, such as the cars weaving around her and honking...

"Damn." She must have missed it. But hopefully her chance for riches was not yet over. She just had to figure out where they would have gone. Her cerulean fingers gripped the gear-shift and thrust the vehicle into sixth. The car shot off like a comet into the sky.

Jack felt strangely relaxed, though his wrist still hurt, his body ached and he was experiencing substantial fatigue. Gazing out from the remains of the car, he could see the leaves of the bay trees above him rustling, the streams of cars over that zipping by, and against the pale, smoggy blue of the sky, the one yellow car which stood stagnant. He was achieving a near-meditative state. Meanwhile Rebecca continued to talk at him, but he had stopped listening to her twenty minutes ago.

After a quick Zen venture, he saw the yellow car drive off into the distance.

"Did she leave?" asked Rebecca.

"Yes."

"Let's go then."

Jack said nothing. Rebecca began to drive again, the car puttering through the streets of the city.

Rebecca bit her lip. "Do you think that going to Gabriel's again might be a bad idea? If someone were to follow us, I doubt he would appreciate it."

Jack nodded in agreement. "I am not badly injured. If you were to leave me now, I would be able to manage."

Rebecca smiled. "That's what you said this morning."

Jack sighed, mildly frustrated. "I think perhaps I ought to leave this place. I merely came here for a new gi, and as it seems I will not be able to obtain one-"

"Uh-oh. Don't look now, Jack. I see a certain yellow car right in front of us."

Indeed, there it was, several cars ahead, looking to change lanes. Rebecca began trying to get out of sight without attracting any attention. Slowly, she began sinking the car into a lower lane.

Too slowly. Djinny saw them, just through the corner of her eye. Her engine suddenly roared back to life and she came flying toward them in reverse.

Rebecca screamed as Djinny slammed into her at 60 mph. The poor little Citroën didn't take the blow well. The Ferrari pulled forward then slammed into reverse a second time. The metal of Rebecca's car groaned as it was further compacted.

Djinny rolled down her window. "You'd be better off landing the car on your own, 'stead of waiting for me to send you crashing!"

"Fuck you, Djinny!" was Rebecca's reply. She stepped on the gas and went into reverse at top speed.

Djinny rushed after, also in reverse, beginning one of the most interesting car chases the city had seen all week.

Machines were bad enough. Flying was bad enough. Driving with Rebecca was bad enough. But zipping around at top speed in reverse, in a car with no windows and no door, dodging and weaving, barely missing other cars was a bit much for the Samurai. Whenever his eyes managed to work their way open, he always found the yellow car to be closer than before. Next to him, Rebecca was muttering curses in some foreign language. The sound was almost soothing.

Exhibiting a surprising amount of skill, Rebecca maneuvered the ruined car through the ancient streets, over the tops of Akuvian skyscrapers and finally, over the river. The car jolted as the Ferrari smashed into it once again. This time the rhythmic sputtering of the Citroën's engine began to slow down. Rebecca gasped.

"Oh, shit! Oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit..."

She tried to restart the car, only to find it rammed once more by the Ferrari. This time the engine stopped completely. Rebecca shrieked something in French. The little grey car began to plummet rapidly from the sky, headed in a nose-dive for the river Seine. Rebecca recalled some educational program she had been watching late at night which claimed that from a high distance, the impact of hitting water is the same as the impact of hitting concrete. She began to scream.

"Oh God, we're dead, oh God..."

The Samurai, moving like a torpedo, tore his seatbelt free and then began working to release the petrified Rebecca. Once her strap went zipping off he grabbed her by the wrist and pushed her out the opening that had once held the driver's-side door. Next thing she knew, she and Jack had landed on the roof of a red Autozam Scizum, which was heading away from Djinny and her Ferrari at about 95 mph.

Djinny growled. "Dammit! Dammit dammit!"

She was still not ready to give up. Her remaining right hand thrust the gearshift back and her gold Grecian-style sandal slammed the gas pedal into the floor. The yellow Ferrari was sent zooming forward. At least now she didn't have to drive in reverse.

Thoughtlessly, she turned up the volume of her radio. A perky Japanese pop song came blasting forth, filling the car with its excessive jollity. It brightened Djinny's spirits some. She began to sing along:

"Kiss! Kiss! Bang! Bang!"

Rebecca and Jack gripped the luggage rack as tightly as they could, trying not to let the wind blow them off of the car. Rebecca's hat went soaring into the distance. She glanced after it, her eyes watering heavily to prevent them from drying out in the intense wind. She cried out in dismay at what she saw.

"God damn! Does Djinny never give up?"

"Apparently not," said Jack, yelling over the wind and traffic. "We must find someplace that is not accessible by car, such as a building." He recalled last night's incident with the bounty hunters. "A very sturdy building. Otherwise she will only follow us until we are too exhausted to run."

Rebecca nodded. Clinging tightly to the luggage rack with one hand, she bent over the side of the roof and knocked on the Autozam's driver's-side window.

The window unrolled, releasing the sounds of Jorge Negrete blasting from the radio within. A confused looking 50-ish man stuck his head out.

"Hi," Rebecca shouted, trying to be heard over the wind. "Don't bother stopping."

The man frowned. He was perplexed, but he had learned to deal with all sorts of insanity as if it were perfectly normal; he was a gallery attendant in a modern art museum.

"I had wondered what that thud on the roof of my car was," he responded, his eyes darting back and forth between Rebecca and the traffic.

"What's your name?"

"Raoul. And you?"

"Rebecca. Monsieur Raoul, I have a huge favor to ask."

"Shoot."

"My friend and I had a bit of car trouble a mile or so back. Do you think you can get us to a Metro station as quickly as possible?"

"No problem."

"Super! I owe you one."

With that, Rebecca slid back onto the roof of the car. "He's taking us to the Metro," she told Jack. "We should be able to lose track of Djinny there."

Two minutes later the windburned couple was dropped at the Metro. Jack had the courtesy to offer Raoul a quick thank-you before taking off. Even as he did so, he could see the yellow car through the corner of his eye, approaching rapidly.

Just as Jack and Rebecca disappeared into the underground, Djinny stopped her Ferrari in front of the station, slamming the brakes so abruptly that the car spun, knocking out a fire-hydrant and almost killing three people. It came at last to a halt parked diagonally across the sidewalk, the back bumper resting on the blacktop street.

The pretty celestial-hued alien leapt from the front seat, her gold stilettos clicking loudly on the pavement as she scampered down to the Metro, her FAMAS G2 SMG assault rifle in tow, her gold lamé skirts trailing behind her.

Rebecca and Jack raced through the station. Lacking the time to buy tickets, they were forced to jump the barriers. Instantly they found no less than three uniformed guards on their tails. All they could do was try to ignore them.

Since Jack and Rebecca had no particular destination in mind, they ran rather aimlessly from platform to platform, trying to find one where a train was already waiting. As they did so, the security guards began to gain on them. Rebecca felt someone grab her arm.

"Stop right there!"

She turned to face the guard. He looked like he might be the same species of alien as Djinny: an Erebyan.

"Ticket, please," he said, sounding surprisingly casual, if breathless.

Rebecca shook her head. "There's no time for that! Can't you tell that someone is following us?"

"In that case, you two had better come to the office-"

"Waitaminute," quod one guard, this one apparently a robot. "I think I recognize that man..."

The security guards froze. Jack tried not to appear too uncomfortable as they all began to stare at him. He braced himself for another fight.

"By God," one of them finally said, "He's right! Mr. Samurai Jack; how can we be of help?"

Jack and Rebecca exhaled simultaneously. These security guards were on their side.

"Forgive me," said Jack, a bit impatiently but still trying to be polite, "But we are in a hurry. It is most important that we keep moving."

"Oh, of course, of course!"

"Where are you trying to go?" asked the robot.

"Any train that is available for immediate boarding."

"Ah! Blue Line should be arriving right now. If you-"

Rebecca suddenly squealed in panic. "There's Djinny! Quick! Run!"

In the blink of an eye Jack and Rebecca were racing down the corridors of the station. The guards turned to find a petite extra-terrestrial stumbling wearily down the stairs. Being that all of them were fans of the Samurai, they decided to help him now.

"Pardon me, miss," the robot said, approaching Djinny. "May I see your ticket?"

Djinny sighed at best she could, considering that she was out of breath. "You gotta be kidding."

"Sorry, miss," he said, "But we've been having some trouble today with people sneaking past the barriers without tickets."

Unlike Jack and Rebecca, Djinny had stopped to get a ticket. "Here," she said, grudgingly handing it over.

The robot took it and began to examine it. "Hm... are you certain that you bought this from an official vendor? It looks a bit off..."

Djinny frowned. "Look. I'm in a real hurry. There's two people that stole my purse, and I just cashed my paycheck. I really need to catch up with them."

"They must have been pretty tough if they could steal your purse while you've got that thing!" the other Erebyan said, indicating her gun.

Djinny's frown deepened. She held out the bloody stump at the end of her upper right arm where her hand should have been. "For God's sake, look what they did to me!"

"Really now? Well, then, come to the office with us. We'll help you file a report."

Djinny wasn't given time to respond before the three guards grabbed her and began to drag her away.