28. STOP AND FAST #2
“Don’t start.”Chris looked at the road.Logan tightened his grip on the handle.“You really only have two speeds, don’t you?”Chris glanced over.“Stopped.”Then he floored it.The Charger surged.Logan’s head hit the seat.“And fast.”
“Goddammit, Walker!”Chris laughed.For three seconds.Then air support came over the radio.“Target has rejoined industrial south route. Three vehicles remaining.”Chris’s expression hardened again.“Distance?”
“Three point eight miles.”
“Closing.”
“Yes.”Chris smiled.“Good.”Logan groaned.“Stop enjoying this.”
“I’m not.”
“You absolutely are.”Chris didn’t deny it.They caught the trailing cartel vehicle first.
A black sedan had joined Diego somewhere after the connector.Chris closed from half a mile to five car lengths.The passenger turned.Chris saw movement.“Gun!”Logan ducked.
Chris moved left.Shots cracked.One struck the hood.Another hit the windshield.
A spiderweb spread across the passenger side.Logan stared at it.“Oh, that’s fantastic.”
“Still intact.”
“For now!”Chris moved behind a concrete freight divider.The structure briefly blocked the shooter’s line of sight.“Call ahead.”
“For what?”
“Units on parallel road.”Logan keyed the radio.“Need intercept on black sedan, industrial southbound.”Response came immediately.Two FBI vehicles appeared from a side route.
The sedan swerved.One federal SUV took over behind it.Chris accelerated past.“Let them have it.”Logan looked over.“You just gave up a suspect?”
“I want Diego.”
“Of course you do.”The Suburban appeared ahead again.Finally.Diego’s vehicle took a hard right.Chris followed.The road became narrower.Factories on both sides.Then Diego turned again.Chris knew the area.“Bad road.”Logan looked ahead.“Why?”
“Dead end eventually.”
“That sounds good.”
“No.”Chris’s eyes narrowed.“Why would he choose it?”Then he saw.A truck.
Large tractor-trailer emerging from a loading facility ahead.Diego accelerated.
“Don’t.”Logan looked at him.“What?”Chris’s voice tightened.“Don’t do it.”
Diego crossed in front of the tractor.Barely.Then his second vehicle deliberately slammed into the trailer’s rear corner.The truck jackknifed.
“FUCK!”Chris hit the brakes.The trailer swung across the entire road.Metal screamed.Cargo containers shifted.A smaller car traveling the opposite direction tried stopping.Too late.Chris jerked the wheel. “Brace!”
The Charger left the road.Hit gravel.Bounced violently.Logan swore.Chris fought the wheel.The tractor-trailer tipped.Not fully.Half.Its trailer crashed across the pavement.
A wall of metal blocked the road.Chris brought the Charger to a stop thirty yards short of impact.Dust filled the air.Horn blaring.For several seconds—nothing.Then Chris’s door opened.He was out.Logan followed.
“Walker!”Chris ran toward the crash.Civilian car.Front end damaged.Driver conscious.Trucker climbing from cab.Good.No visible fire.
Federal units were already stopping behind them.Chris looked beyond the wreck.
Diego’s Suburban disappeared around the distant curve.“No.”He moved toward the side.
There might be enough room along the embankment.Maybe.He could get the Charger around.“Walker!”Chris ignored Logan.He studied the terrain.Drainage ditch.Rough shoulder.Narrow service path.Possible.His radio crackled.“Walker, status?”Mercer.
“Road blocked.”
“Casualties?”
“Unknown. Civilians conscious.”
“Target?”
“Continuing south.”
“Air?”A pause.Then:“Air lost visual under industrial canopy.”Chris’s heart sank.“What?”
“Target entered warehouse corridor. Multiple covered roads.”
“Fuck.”He headed back toward the Charger.Logan grabbed his arm.“Where are you going?”
“Around.”
“Around what?”
“That.”He pointed at the jackknifed tractor-trailer.Logan stared.“There is no around.”
“Yes, there is.”
“Where?”Chris pointed toward the ditch.Logan laughed in disbelief.“No.”
“Move.”
“Absolutely not.”Chris opened the driver’s door.Mercer’s voice exploded through the radio.“Walker, disengage.”Chris froze.His hand remained on the door.“Negative.”
“Walker.”
“I can get around.”
“No.”
“Mercer—”
“Civilian crash scene takes priority. Pursuit teams farther south will continue.”
“They lost visual.”
“I know.”
“I know where he’s going.”
“No, you don’t.”Chris’s jaw clenched.“I know how Diego thinks.”
“That does not give you permission to turn an FBI Charger into an off-road vehicle.”Chris looked at the ditch.Logan muttered:“Thank you.”Chris gave him a murderous look.Mercer continued.
“Walker, disengage.”Chris said nothing.“That’s an order.
”Chris stared toward the road where Diego had vanished.Camila.Mateo’s warning.Diego was investigating her too.He couldn’t let him disappear.Not now. “Mercer.”
“No.”
“He knows who I am.”
“I know.”
“He knows about Camila.”
“I know.”Chris went still.Mercer’s voice softened slightly.“Which is exactly why you’re not chasing him alone into an unknown industrial area after he just deliberately caused a multi-vehicle collision.”Chris’s hand tightened around the door.“He’ll go after her.”
“Camila is inside a secured FBI facility.”
“For now.”
“Walker.”Chris closed his eyes.Fuck.Mercer was right.That made it worse.Chris opened his eyes.“Copy.”Logan exhaled.Chris glared at him.“Don’t.”
“I didn’t say anything.”
“You were about to.”
“I was going to congratulate you on obeying an order.”
“Don’t push it.”Chris slammed the Charger door without getting inside.Ten minutes later, emergency crews arrived.The truck driver was injured but conscious.The civilian car’s driver had minor injuries.No fatalities.Chris should’ve been relieved.He was.
But every second that passed gave Diego more distance.Chris stood beside the damaged Charger.Bullet hole in hood.Cracked windshield.Rear glass gone.Dust covering everything.
Logan approached carrying two bottles of water.He handed Chris one.Chris didn’t take it.
Logan sighed.“Walker.”
“What?”
“Drink.”
“I’m not thirsty.”
“You’ve been in a raid and a high-speed pursuit for over an hour.”
“I’m fine.”
“Camila ever tell you how annoying that sentence is?”Chris looked at him.Logan smiled faintly.Chris took the water.“Asshole.”
“Thank you.”Chris twisted the cap.His eyes stayed on the blocked road.“We almost had him.”
“I know.”
“I had him.”
“No.”Logan shook his head.“You were chasing him.”
“Same thing.”
“Definitely not.”Chris drank.Logan leaned against the car.“You would’ve gone around.”
“Yes.”
“Through the ditch.”
“Yes.”Logan stared.“You weren’t kidding.”
“No.”
“Jesus.”Chris looked over.“Why do you keep getting in cars with me?”
“Poor judgment.”Chris almost smiled.Then his secure phone vibrated.He pulled it out.
Message from headquarters.CAMILA SAFE.Chris’s chest loosened.Only slightly.Logan saw the screen.“She’s okay.”
“For now.”
“She’s in a federal building.”
“Diego knows people.”
“So do we.”Chris put the phone away.
“Not enough.”Across the city, Camila had watched the pursuit dissolve into radio fragments.She couldn’t see the cars.Only hear voices.Shots fired.Walker continuing.Civilian traffic.Target southbound.Then:Major collision.Camila had stood so quickly her chair tipped backward.
“What collision?”Sloan was listening through her headset. “What happened?”No answer.“Sloan!”
“Wait.”
“Is Chris hurt?”
“Wait.”Camila’s hand went to the sweatshirt pocket.Pregnancy tests.Her fingers wrapped around them.“Please.”Then Chris’s voice had come across the radio.Alive.
Angry.Road blocked.Camila had nearly collapsed.Sloan looked at her.“He’s okay.”
“Is he stopping?”Sloan’s mouth tightened.Camila stared.“He’s not stopping.”
“Mercer is handling it.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”Then Mercer’s voice came across another feed.Walker, disengage.Silence.Camila stared at Sloan.“He’s going to argue.”Sloan almost smiled.
“Probably.”They heard Chris:I can get around.Camila closed her eyes.“Of course he can.”