A/N: Greetings from vacation! I got nagged, so I pulled a chapter together and let it fly... hope you like it!
Joanne's serious expression melted into a smile when she heard the jet engines power down, her own personal signal that she could shift into off-duty mode. Myka was trying to shift gears also, but she wasn't quite covering over the excitement and empowerment she'd discovered on their shared trip across half the continent. Never fails, Joanne thought. Doesn't matter who or what a person is, there's always that same sense of newly-discovered freedom in flying an airplane. She shook off her amusement at Myka, and set about to getting her passenger off the plane.
"You're in luck," Joanne said after a quick phone call. "They have one more rental car for you, waiting up at the passenger terminal. Even has GPS, so you should be able to track down this address, where Leena says Artie was heading," she said, handing Myka a sheet of paper torn from her notepad.
"What about you?" Myka asked as she gathered her bag.
"Me? I have food in the galley, a great bed in the passenger cabin, and a movie in my bag. I'm good for the night, and then it's off to... well, wherever the Warehouse needs me next!" Myka said her goodbyes, then trudged away from the plane and towards the parking lot where she'd been told that Pete would meet her. As she walked, Myka considered Joanne's cheerful disposition, wondering if anyone could really be happy living a life so ungrounded, just floating around without making personal connections or growing any roots. She almost burst into laughter when her own bag swung around and bumped her in the back, reminding her of her own nomadic life, and her own roots in spite of it all... roots like the overly-exuberant redhead bounding up towards her right now, and the driver of the nondescript sedan, half-asleep on the steering wheel as the car idled in the parking lot. With a tired smile, she shifted her bag again, shoving it further behind her as she slipped through the door into the passenger terminal to pick up her car.
Myka wondered as she neared Artie's location, how she was going to find him in the dark. Nothing in the town seemed well-marked, or well-lit, let alone this far away. But when she turned the last corner, the answer to her questions became clear in a heart-stopping instant. A few hundred feet down the road, she saw the outline of a construction bulldozer, facing the construction site. Squarely in the center of the path lit up by the machinery's headlights, stood a rotund figure that Myka would recognize anywhere, gripping his bag in one hand and what looked like the tesla in the other.
The bulldozer belched a cloud of smoke barely visible by the light of the partially-full moon above, suggesting that their suspect was leaning more heavily on the gas, coaxing the heavy equipment into motion. Myka's foot slammed down on her own gas pedal, in response.
Her rental car skidded around a corner and she lost site of the bulldozer threatening to plow over Artie. She revved the engine, spinning the tires on the loose gravel, bouncing roughly over a small ditch then getting stuck in a chain linked fence.
Myka jerked against the seat belt roughly. In the next instant she was out of the car running toward the sound of heavy machinery.
The slim brunette agent sprinted to the corner of the building. She hesitated and peeked quickly around the corner. In her glimpse, she saw the bulldozer driving toward Artie and she could hear Artie's voice hollering over the machinery noise.
In one motion, Myka unclipped her gun and ripped it from her holster. She clicked off the safety and threw herself around the corner.
Myka ran up to the situation from the side. She aimed her gun at a middle aged man in the driver's seat and quickly walked up in her ready stance. "Stop the bulldozer!" She ordered.
"Myka! Myka! Stop, stop!" Artie hollered in his rapid fire style. He held out his hand with the bag in it to get her to look at him.
"Artie? You ok?" She wasn't willing to let her eyes leave the man in the cab of the dozer.
Even through the rumble of the engine she could hear his exasperated sigh. "Just… don't fire!" he ordered. "Spencer? Spencer! Look at me!"
The dark blond man looked disturbed. He tore his eyes away from Myka's gun to face Artie in his headlights again.
"You don't want to do this." Artie said. "You want to hurt another person? When's it going to stop Spencer?"
Myka could see that Artie was getting to the man. He was sweating and he kept squeezing his eyes behind his rounded glasses. The man yelled, "It's the only way! The land will return! Don't you see? This is the best way." Myka tightened the grip on her gun when the bulldozer lurched forward another few feet.
"No no!" Artie held his hands up and pointed the Tesla at Spencer again. "Spencer!" Artie backed up a step, but held his position between the hospital and the angry man in the bulldozer.
Myka shouted. "Don't do it Spencer!" She didn't have a great shot on the man, but enough to get his attention she thought. "What's doing this to you? Is there something new in your life lately? Something—old?" She felt silly but just wanted to keep him talking instead of driving.
The man named Spencer shook his head. "I already said there's nothing new!" The engine roared and billowed a black cloud as it lurched forward.
Myka didn't have a clear shot at the man. The heavy steel support of the dozer's cab shielded the man from her angle. The bulldozer picked up speed. She looked over her shoulder at Artie with a tinge of fear in her eyes. "Artie move!"
Artie looked hard at the bulldozer. Myka could see that his lips were mumbling. She helplessly waited to see if he would fire the Tesla at least or leap out of the way at the last minute, but her boss just stayed rooted to the spot as the bulldozers headlights focused as they came closer.
Myka finally made out what Artie was saying. She managed to lip read him saying over and over.. "Closer, just a little closer."