“Shit. Okay, Kaitlyn, you have this. Just focus on driving and not crashing, alright? Let Lily and me worry about them.”
I throw the empty gun in the foot well and take out mine from behind me. Lily’s crouching low on the back seat, reloading hers.
This is going to be a long ride.
23
The sun is bright, its glare reflecting off the windows of the cars around us. Now the adrenaline’s subsided, I’m starting to feel a little nauseous and groggy again. The after effects of anesthesia, I’m guessing. I’m struggling to focus my mind, because it’s desperately trying to shut off.
No time for that though.
I look across at Kaitlyn. She’s squinting as she stares ahead, trying to position the visor to shield herself from it, but it doesn’t seem to be working. I open the glove box. This is Qatar — there’s no way people don’t keep sunglasses in their cars! I rummage through the papers and the CDs inside and… I think… Bingo! There’s a pair right at the back. I take them out and hand them to her. She glances sideways and smiles, takes off her own glasses, fumbles for the shades without taking her eyes off the road, and slides them onto her face.
She takes a deep breath. “Better… thanks.”
“No problem.”
I watch her for a moment. She’s doing a great job of driving under pressure. I can’t imagine how hard all this is for her. She weaves in and out of the slow-moving traffic. It’ll be difficult for Pierce and his men to follow us effectively and get close, which is good. But if they decide to stop playing nice and open fire anyway, we’re screwed.
I look down and rest my gun against my cast as I check the mag… It’s half-full, which isn’t ideal, but it’s the only one I have. Kaitlyn’s gun is empty now, too. I glance over my shoulder at Lily. “How much ammo you got?”
She quickly checks her gun. “A few rounds, that’s it. No spare mags left, either. Why?”
“Because I’m starting to get tired of running.” I turn in my seat. “What about you?”
She’s sitting low in the seat. “I thought my days of running from anyone were over. But there are too many people around. This is a busy road. We can’t engage them here.”
I nod. “Agreed. But the problem is, it’s unlikely to stop them engaging us. Besides, I don’t want to lead them all the way to Kaitlyn’s place. I know they can track us, but if they’re watching remotely, it at least buys us some time to get away from there afterward. I don’t want them to know what our plans are. I need them to think we’re just running from them, not to somewhere else.”
“Maybe we can lead them away from the city… Out into the desert?”
“No… it’s too far. But a wide open space is a good idea. Nowhere to hide, nowhere to get boxed in… We need—”
We’re heading south along Al Matar Street, and we’ve just past a sign that flicked on my lightbulb. I turn to Kaitlyn. “Take the next left up ahead.”
She doesn’t respond. She just positions herself so she’s ready to turn as we approach the exit.
“Where are we going?” asks Lily.
I look back at her. “To the nearest wide open space there is.”
The road ahead leads all the way to Al Wakrah, which is roughly ten miles from Doha, and sits on the shores of the Persian Gulf. We could try losing them there, or try outrunning them through the city, all the way back to Abu Dhabi. But the chances of either of those things happening are slim at best. So our only real option is to fight. Worst case, there’s twenty of the bastards following us. I’ve been in similar situations before on my own, but not against men of this caliber. I have Lily, which evens things up a little, but it’s still not ideal.
Which is why we’re heading left… toward Hamad International Airport.
Kaitlyn accelerates and makes the turn just as the lights change. I look behind me and see the five Suburbans frantically trying to navigate their way through the long line of stationary vehicles and jump the red light to follow us.
We speed along the F Ring Road and exit left onto the Ras Abu Abboud Expressway. Pierce and his men are still behind us, but farther back than before. Kaitlyn’s driving has bought us some time.
Lily leans forward and looks through the windshield as the outline of the airport takes shape in the distance to the right of us, just beyond a large construction site. “I don’t know if this is genius or insanity…”
I smile. “Story of my life. Way I see it, we get them out of their vehicles, we can pick them off on foot among the crowds in there.”
“Yeah, if we can get in there…”
I frown. “What do you mean?”
“Adrian, there’s no way Horizon didn’t start putting another seven contingency plans in place the moment we left the hospital. That’s what he does. And I can guarantee his first thought will be that we’ll run. He would’ve locked down every airport in this time zone the minute he tracked us leaving Doha.”
I shrug. “Maybe you’re right, but staying visible is the only chance we’ve got of surviving this long enough to get back to Abu Dhabi.”
She gestures to the tracking device in her neck. “We’re nothing but visible. How does that help?”
“The Order’s existed for as long as it has because the people in charge have ensured it’s stayed hidden, right? It’s like society’s guilty secret. They’re not going to risk everything they’ve built just to kill the three of us. I doubt very much we’re the only people who ever went rogue on them. They’ll have their ways of handling shit like this quietly. What they won’t do is remotely blow our heads off in front of thousands of witnesses.”
Lily looks at me and smiles. I see a flicker of life in her eyes, as if, for the first time since all this started, we might finally have a plan that gets us all out of this. “It’s still a little insane…”
I smile back. “The best plans always are. If people think something’s too stupid to do, they’re less likely to be prepared when you actually do it.”
Kaitlyn chuckles. “My God, I’ve created a monster!”
I laugh. “My mind’s always worked this way. It’s who I am. It’s what makes me as good as I am at shit like this. I just forgot for a while, that’s all. All the loss and guilt distracted me. I mean, it’s still there, and it’s still hard, but remembering who I am — finding my own identity again… it’s helped. So it’s not that you created a monster, Kaitlyn, you simply helped remind the monster how fucking scary he is, and for that, I’m forever grateful.”
Kaitlyn smiles. “You’re welcome.”
Lily rolls her eyes. “Oh, would you listen to yourself…”
I hold my hands up. “What? I’m just saying, what makes me a good assassin is the fact I don’t think like other people do.”
“Such modesty…”
“I’m not modest, I’m… complex. Tell her, Kaitlyn.”
Kaitlyn glances over her shoulder at Lily. “Oh, he’s complex alright, I can vouch for that.”
She scoffs. “Complex? He’s the simplest man I’ve ever met!”
I frown. “Hey! Simple?”
“Hell yeah! Just like every other man… Seriously, Kaitlyn, you should’ve seen him trying to flirt with these two young blondes the other night…”
Kaitlyn giggles, and her eyes go wide, feigning shock. I shake my head. “I was not flirting with them! They were flirting with me. I was trying to put them off!”