Frank’s voice slowly trailed off. Cal slowly got out of the car, trying — unsuccessfully — to minimize movement in his left arm. When he finally got to his feet, Frank was standing there, looking stunned. Paralyzed, even.
“What is it?” Ellis asked.
“I can’t tell. I can’t feel it, one way or the other,” Frank said, turning ashen.
“My Enhancement’s gone too,” Maggie said. “I couldn’t get ahold of those guys. Couldn’t even feel them.”
Cal looked at the four guards on the ground. Two were only now starting to get up — bruised but unharmed, and now covered by Frank and Maggie. The other two were bleeding out. Frank shook his head to clear it, then pointed to one. “Cal, you’re gonna need to heal up. See if you got something left.”
Cal shook his head. “I’ll grab a little from each of the healthy ones. Won’t condemn a man to death if we don’t know he’s already on the way there.”
Frank opened his mouth as if to complain, then seemed to think better of it. “All right. Let’s hurry it up.”
Cal walked over to where the two guards were kneeling, their hands now raised. He placed a hand on each man’s shoulder…
… and felt nothing. Nothing except the pain still throbbing through his arm and chest.
“I got a problem here,” Cal said.
Then shots rang out from the trees around the checkpoint, and Cal knew his problems had just gotten a whole lot worse.
24
Ellis dove for cover behind one of the Volkswagens with a multitude of oaths and profanities in mind that he had no time to use. Gunfire erupted from the trees to their left and in front of them — thankfully not from behind, or they’d all be dead from the crossfire.
“What the hell happened to Plan B, Frank?” Ellis growled as the Army man clambered down next to him, gun drawn.
“This was Plan B,” Frank groused. “Someone’s on to us.”
Ellis turned and fired a few shots blindly into the trees, then ducked back down as the other guns barked back and bullets whistled past overhead. “Good thing I reinforced that little hidey-hole we stuffed INSIGHT in. Now what?”
Frank popped up, fired, and flopped back down to the dirt in one smooth motion. A second later, the glass from the passenger window shattered all over both of them. “We’ve walked into a trap. I think someone’s found a way to dampen our Enhancements.”
“I hope you didn’t just realize that.”
“Grab INSIGHT. We’ve got to go backward, away from here, circle around.”
Ellis looked over to the other car, where Maggie and Cal cowered. Yushchenko was in the modified trunk in the front of that car. “Now, how the hell we gonna do that?”
Frank jerked the car door open and, staying low, climbed back inside. “Use this car for more cover. I’m going to drive it over there. Keep up and stay low.”
Before Ellis could give a highly negative assessment of that plan, Frank had revved up the car, and as he lay across the two front seats with one hand on the wheel and a foot on the gas, the vehicle slowly began to move. Despite his better judgment, Ellis popped up and emptied the rest of his clip at the trees ahead, and saw Cal and Maggie doing the same. Guess the training really worked.
Then Ellis realized he was exposed and raced after the car, a trail of bullets in his wake sending dirt streaking through the air around his feet.
“Shit shit shit shit!” he swore, diving down behind the other Variants. “Damn fool gonna get us killed.”
“What’s the plan?” Maggie asked after she hit the dirt.
“Get our boy out of the car. Then run like hell,” Ellis said.
“Shitty plan,” Maggie said.
Ellis grabbed another magazine from his belt and shoved it into the gun. “Don’t I know it.”
He popped up and started firing again as Frank kept low, scuttling to the passenger door of the other VW, wrenching it open, and fiddling with the hatch in the floor. A moment later, a pale, terrified Yushchenko crawled out and flopped down onto the dirt beside them.
Meanwhile, Ellis noticed Cal tinkering with his lighter — the one Mrs. Stevens had given him. “What the hell you doing, you jackass?”
Cal scowled up at Ellis. “Just get ready to run.”
A moment later, all five of them were behind the second VW. “We need to go,” Frank said. He then saw Cal hold up the lighter and nodded. “Good call.”
Frank took the lighter from Cal, and fished his own out of his pocket. One was placed under the VW, the other he held onto. “Maggie, you and Ellis give us some cover fire. Cal, run directly away from the car, stay low. And… go.”
Uttering another ferocious string of swears, Ellis popped up and started shooting madly toward the woods. He thought for a moment he heard a scream, which felt good. He then ducked back down as the return fire whizzed past, coming face to face with Frank.
“Now?” Ellis asked.
“Now.”
The two got up and ran for their lives, heading toward Cal, who now stood at the edge of the other treeline. Frank paused, turned, wound up, and threw the lighter in his hand, which arced over Ellis’s head.
“Aw, hell.” Ellis didn’t bother running anymore — he just hit the ground and began praying.
A moment later, the night lit up with a fiery explosion as the lighter erupted. Ellis could feel the heat on his backside as he scrambled up and started running again. A second flash produced even more heat. That would be the second lighter. And then…
Ellis reached the treeline as the first VW exploded. It was another five seconds before the second car blew, and by that time, they were well into the woods, down a ravine and running through the dark undergrowth at a desperate clip.
“You’re scared,” Maggie said as he caught up to her.
“Damn straight I’m scared, woman!” Ellis panted as she fell in beside him. “What else am I supposed to be?”
“No, you’re scared! I can feel it!” She seemed almost excited.
Ellis reached out and touched a leaf as he went past, feeling it turn into water on his fingers. About damn time.
Frank led them deep into the woods, running for a solid fifteen minutes straight, weaving back and forth, up and down paths, through undergrowth. He hoped it would be enough to buy them a quick break, because Yushchenko was winded and Cal looked pale from blood loss. Finally, Frank raised his hand, signaling for everyone to stop, tucking them under a ridge out of sight so he could work on Cal’s shoulder with a proficiency and dexterity born of years of experience — someone else’s experience, sure, but what did that matter right now?
“Where to now, boss?” Maggie asked him when Frank was done. “Any idea where we are?”
Thankfully, there was enough light from the gibbous moon to let Frank pull out his map — a waterproof, silk-screened handkerchief, one of the neat tricks developed during the war. He pressed it to the ground where a patch of moonlight shone down through the trees, and traced his finger over the route it seemed most likely they’d taken.
“I think we’re about… here,” he said, pointing as Maggie looked over his shoulder. “About ten miles from the West German border.”
“That’s a long hike,” Cal said, keeping his hand on the slipshod bandage Frank had improvised from his shirttails.
“Gonna be longer than you think,” Frank said, stuffing the map back in his pocket. “We need to stay away from the roads, from villages, from rivers — all of it. The hard way, all the way.”
Ellis peered at his watch. “About 5 a.m. Gonna be light soon.”
Frank turned to Maggie. “Any luck getting through to him in the car?”