“Then what?”
“When Joe and Craig didn’t show, we came looking for them. Please, that’s all of it…I don’t know anything else.”
“That’s what they all say.”
Chapter Fourteen
With Deke in the back of his Escalade, Nick raced after the dark blue van. Attaining speeds in excess of a hundred and ten miles per hour, he crossed the Arizona border in minutes. After the slight slowdown crossing over, Nick again drove all-out on the long stretch of US 93 toward Interstate
40. A three-quarter moon cast some light over the nearly deserted highway. Whenever Nick saw taillights ahead, he turned off the Escalade’s headlights.
Fifteen miles before the Interstate, he spotted taillights mounted far enough off the road to be a van. He shut off his headlights, and floored it. Once he confirmed that the license matched what the man at his house had told him, he paced the vehicle three car lengths back, and switched to cruise control. With the window down, Nick kept the steering wheel controlled in his right hand. He leaned out the driver’s side window, aiming the H &K.45 at the van’s left rear tire. He hit it on the third shot, immediately braking while waiting for the van to pull over.
When the van drove onto the roadside, kicking up dust and dirt, Nick turned off the road with it, keeping a fifty-yard distance between the vehicles. Having already pulled the fuse on his interior lights, he opened the door, exiting quickly with his weapon in hand. He kept to the blind side of the van, working his way quickly and quietly toward it. Two men, swearing and slamming the doors as they emerged, approached the damaged tire from both sides. They stood assessing the damage at the left rear tire with a flashlight in the driver’s hand. Nick shot four times with deadly accuracy, two.45 caliber slugs through the head of each man, running up on them to fire once more from point blank range. Continuing around to the driver’s side, he opened the door and got in, ready to fire. The cargo area was sealed off from the van’s front seating.
Nick quickly dragged the bodies around to the van’s passenger side, confiscating the keys and paraphernalia the two men carried. He opened up the rear compartment, his heart pounding. Rachel and Jean lay bound and gagged on their sides. The mind numbing tension of his race across the desert slowly seeped from Nick, leaving him drained, momentarily, of all thought and energy. He took his knife out and carefully cut Jean free first, gently helping her take the gag off. Jean’s lip trembled and her eyes misted as she worked Rachel’s gag off while Nick cut away the bonds.
“Oh Nick, thank God!” Rachel cried out, hugging Jean tightly.
“The Cad’s back about fifty yards. We have to get out of here. Our luck’s run out. I’ll follow you back to the house.”
“Is…is Deke okay?” Jean asked.
“He’s in the Cad. There’s broken glass, so I didn’t want to leave him. Take him upstairs when we get home. Start packing. I have to do some clean up. Then we need to go.”
Nick helped Rachel from the van with Jean still in her arms. He walked with them to the Cad. With a cry of pure joy, Jean dived into the backseat with a wild Deke. Rachel let Nick guide her into the driver’s seat and shut the door.
“Drive the speed limit. Don’t pick up any hitchhikers.”
Rachel barked out a quick laugh, which turned into a sob as she covered her face. Nick reached in and took her hands.
“Training or no training we’ll get ahead of this thing, Rach. No more chances-no more playing house. I really screwed the pooch last night. You go on now. I’ll follow shortly in their van after I change the tire.”
Rachel nodded, taking the handkerchief he offered through the open window. She started the Cadillac and watched him jog back to the van in the Escalade’s headlights.
“Mom, where’s the Terminator going?” Jean peered anxiously over Rachel’s shoulder with Deke’s head next to hers.
“With us, Baby, with us,” Rachel answered, driving away from the roadside.
When Rachel reached Nick’s house, she parked outside. She waited until he arrived before getting out with Jean and Deke. Nick remote-opened the garage door and drove the van inside. He exited the van, walked out of the garage, and closed the door. He walked over to Rachel and Jean, fending off Deke on the way.
“You look like shit, Nick.”
He flashed a tired grin. “Hey, thanks. You and Danger don’t look like a bowl of Rice Krispies either. We’ve only begun. Let Deke do his business, then take him inside. Bypass the mess. Everyone go upstairs to pack like we talked about. If you could sweep up the broken glass, Rach, I’d appreciate it. I’ll clean everything else. Let’s go. We have a lot to do. After we leave their van near the border, I want to make it a ways down Interstate 40 before we stop for the day.”
“I’m scared, Nick,” Jean said suddenly.
Nick knelt down in front of Jean. “Look, Danger, I know getting kidnapped every other day is the pits. I promise you this, the next time you or your mom gets taken, it’ll be because I’m dead. We Terminators are awful hard to kill.”
Jean hugged him. “I’m glad you came. I…I didn’t feel much like a Terminator.”
“Me neither, kid.” He hugged her back tightly. He then held her at arm’s length. “What say we blow this town?”
Jean nodded enthusiastically. Rachel took her hand, touching Nick’s shoulder as she went past. Inside the house, Rachel took Jean and Deke upstairs and began packing. Nick went out to the garage. He loaded the other two bodies, dragged from the house earlier, that were stacked behind his Malibu into the van with the others, and covered them with a tarp. He loaded magnesium flares on the van’s front seat and opened the garage door. After backing out to the street and parking the van, he drove the Cadillac in and shut the garage door again. He spent the next half hour loading equipment into the false floor in the cargo area. When he went back inside, Rachel was already cleaning up the broken glass.
“We’re all packed Nick,” she paused to tell him, gesturing at the three suitcases. “Jean is taking a shower. I’ll go in after her. Then it’s all yours.”
“Good deal.” He took the first two suitcases out and loaded them. Rachel met him at the door with the third one, giving him a quick kiss before returning to her sweeping.
It was nearly ten o’clock in the morning by the time Nick had put a tarp over the broken patio door and finished his house cleaning. By ten thirty, he had his bags packed and in the Escalade with the rest. Rachel, Jean, and Deke sat together on the couch watching a movie when he came down the stairs after showering. He carried the clothes he had worn through the early morning hours with him.
“We’re all set, crew. I think it would be better for you to follow me. It’s still daylight, so I’ll have to drive this damned van out a ways off the road before doing some final touches to it. When you see me turn off into nowhere, pull alongside the road right where I leave it and I’ll join you as soon as I get the van taken care of.”
“Okay, Nick, we’ll be out front.” Rachel switched off the TV. She walked outside with Jean and Deke into the Las Vegas heat.
Nick backed out of the garage, sealed up the house, and handed the keys to Rachel. By the time he gave everything the once over, Rachel had the Cadillac ready to go with Jean and Deke in the backseat. He gave her a wave, and carried the small shoulder bag he had packed to the van.
After passing a town called Cloride, Nick looked for the first available spot to turn off. Five miles down the road, he turned into the desert, keeping the van speed up to avoid getting stuck. He made it in nearly two miles before the rear of the van sunk to the axle. Taking papers, match booklets, and charcoal lighter fluid out of his bag, he doused the clothes he had worn earlier and the front seat area with lighter fluid. He opened the van's cargo doors, pulled aside the tarp, and threw two of the unlit magnesium flares from the front seat onto the bodies. Nick coated everything in the cargo area with lighter fluid. He lit a booklet of matches, and threw it into the back, closing the doors. After igniting the front in the same manner, he left at a dead run with his bag.