They drove in silence for a couple of minutes. “Okay, start watching for him.”
There were no big trucks or other vans to hide behind. Since Ivan would’ve had no way of knowing where they were, they just had to hope that he wasn’t keeping a close watch on every single vehicle on the road.
“Up there,” said Lou, pointing at a small blue Volkswagen. “Does that look like the back of his head?”
George leaned forward and squinted. “I...I think so. No, wait, the hair is wrong. It’s not him.”
George and Lou both surveyed the cars ahead of them. “He’s got to be in one of these. Maybe in the--there! That’s him!” Lou pointed to another small car in the left-hand lane that was a darker shade of blue than the first.
Yep. Definitely him. “He’s on the wrong side.”
“There aren’t any windows in the back. You’re gonna have to throw them.”
“Aw, shit.”
“Get at least a car-length ahead of him so that when you throw it, it hits the front of his car.”
George nodded. The van began to shake, clearly not having been designed to go this fast.
They passed Ivan’s car. Ivan looked over at George and scowled. George would’ve expected a grin. Things were looking up.
“Don’t let him see what you’re doing,” said George, as Lou pulled the trigger to start the lighter. There were no cars behind Ivan. No innocent victims.
Keeping the stick of dynamite below window-level, Lou lit the fuse. George’s heart felt like it leapt into his throat, which managed to be simultaneously a good feeling and a bad one. Lou passed him the burning stick and grabbed the steering wheel.
George flung the stick of dynamite out the window.
It struck Ivan’s windshield dead center.
Then bounced off.
The dynamite sailed harmlessly over Ivan’s car then exploded against the pavement behind him. Tires squealed as a convertible swerved into the other lane.
“Grenade!”
Keeping one hand on the wheel, Lou pulled the pin out of a grenade and handed it to George. He immediately tossed it out the window.
It struck the front hood of Ivan’s car, bounced up onto the roof, off the rear, and then exploded in mid-air.
“Damn it!” George shouted.
Ivan swerved, moving directly behind the van.
George tilted the side-view mirror. “I can’t see him! Try to throw something out the back!”
“The shelf with all the weapons is in the way!”
“I know that! Knock it over!”
“It’s bolted in place!”
“Fuck!”
George slammed on the brakes. That little car would fare much worse in a collision than the van.
Ivan swerved to the right, coming up on Lou’s side.
A sign announced that the next exit was half a mile away.
“Blast the bastard!” George shouted.
Lou flicked on the lighter again, but hesitated. There was a minivan up ahead in the right lane, blocking Ivan’s potential escape. “Try to match his speed,” Lou said. “He won’t be able to pass us.”
The traffic had cleared out behind them. Apparently the other motorists wished to give some space between themselves and the explosive-hurling psychos in the white van.
* * *
Ivan couldn’t believe this. He’d taken plenty of risks in his quest for sadistic pleasure, but he’d never expected George and Lou to reach this level of fanaticism.
He was almost impressed.
* * *
Lou lit the next stick of dynamite. He held onto it, watching the flame devour the fuse.
“Throw it!”
“Not yet!”
With alarmingly little left of the fuse, Lou flung the stick of dynamite out the window. It twirled end-over-end toward Ivan’s driver’s side window, leaving a trail of smoke.
It struck the window exactly where Lou wanted it to hit. Right next to Ivan’s goddamn face.
Then it bounced off, hit the road, and rolled away.
Lou leaned out the window and watched it.
Nothing.
“It was a dud! Son of a bitch!”
“Does he look like he’s going to take the exit?” George asked.
“I can’t tell!”
“We’re coming right up on it! Make a call!”
“I think he is! Get behind him!”
George braked. At the last instant, Ivan swerved into the exit lane, going so fast that George thought he might careen right off the curve. George followed him.
“Slow down!” Lou shouted.
George braked some more as they drove onto the highway exit. Ivan’s car shot up ahead of them, but that was better than having the van fly right off the road.
“A dud,” Lou muttered. “I can’t believe it. He’s one lucky bastard.”
“Oh, no. He most certainly is not. It’s just going to be worse for him when we finally catch him.”
Having made it around the curve, George accelerated to catch up with Ivan. They couldn’t let him out of their sight, in case he decided to bring innocent people into this again. Nobody else was going to die.
“I’m just going to ram him,” said George. “Knock him right off the road.”
Before Lou could protest, George floored the accelerator again. The van rocketed forward as they pulled onto the four-lane street. There was a traffic light just ahead, showing amber.
“Cop!” Lou said.
George instinctively braked. Ivan sped through the light just before it turned red.
“Don’t run it!” Lou warned. “If we have to waste time with a cop he’ll get away completely.”
They waited at the light, hoping this particular police officer was not looking for a white van matching their description.
It was a long, agonizing red light.
“I can’t believe we’re doing this,” said George.
“We’ve got the tracer. We can still find him.”
George impatiently drummed his fingers on the dashboard.
“Calm down,” said Lou. “We’re still good.”
“I’m not letting him get away.”
“I know. That’s not new information.”
“I just need to say it.”
“That’s fine. Talk it out.”
The light turned green. George drove through it, careful not to exceed the speed limit. But how were they supposed to catch Ivan if they had to obey traffic laws?
“He’s not that far ahead,” said Lou. “Keep going straight.”
“How are we supposed to throw dynamite around a place like this?” George asked. “On the highway during a high-speed chase, we can sort of get away with it, but we can’t do it here. We’ll get nabbed for sure.”
“He won’t want to get out of his car, either. He’s not going to stop around here.”
“I hope you’re right.”
“I am,” Lou said. Then he frowned. “Oh, shit, no, I’m not. He’s over there. He’s going into that bowling alley.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Unleashing the Beast
George was not, in concept, a fan of bowling. It was pretty much just the same thing over and over, and the best you could hope for in terms of variety was that somebody in the other lane might slip and fall on their ass. Still, he actually found the “sport” kind of fun, and bowling might have been on his future list of ways to detox from the whole miserable Ivan experience.
He had a feeling that bowling was going to be forever tainted for him.
Ivan ran through the front doors of the bowling alley. He was in human form, but though he’d gotten rid of most of the blood, it was a human form covered with cuts and holes, not to mention the fact that he only wore shredded jeans. He clearly wasn’t going inside in an attempt to blend with Uncle Frank’s bowling league.
“What should we take?” Lou asked.
George wasn’t certain. They couldn’t just run in there and start lobbing dynamite. “Okay, give me two of the grenades,” George said. “I’m going in there after him, but you take the van and drive behind the building. My job will be to chase him out one of the back entrances. When you see him, let him have it.”
“Sounds good.”
“Make sure it’s him before you start throwing dynamite.”
“I can handle that.”
“If he kills me, avenge me.” George pulled the van right up in front of the bowling alley. There were no screaming people rushing out of the exit yet, so things still had the potential not to completely lose control. George took two of the grenades from Lou, slipped one into each pocket, then got out of the van and ran inside the building.