Chapter 40
Boone
Of course, they’re not stopping.
Logan pushes the helicopter forward.
“We can cut them off,” he says.
“Do it.”
The helicopter surges ahead of the convoy.
Rotor blades thundering through the night.
Logan swings us across the freeway.
Then drops hard onto the asphalt two hundred yards ahead of the SUVs.
The landing is rough.
The helicopter skids slightly before stabilizing.
“Go!” Logan shouts.
The door slides open.
Russ jumps out first.
Adam and Blade right behind him.
I turn toward Wren.
“You stay here.”
She gives me a look.
“Not a chance.”
Before I can argue she grabs the laptop and jumps out beside me.
The convoy is already racing toward us.
Engines screaming.
Headlights blazing.
Cyclone’s truck appears behind them.
Boxing them in.
Raven’s vehicle slides across the far lane.
Suddenly—
The Architect’s convoy has nowhere left to go.
The lead SUV brakes violently.
Tires screaming across the pavement.
The three vehicles skid to a stop.
For a moment—
Everything goes quiet.
Helicopter blades spinning behind us.
Golden Team surrounding the highway.
Weapons raised.
The doors of the lead SUV slowly open.
A tall man steps out.
Calm.
Unhurried.
Like he expected this.
Wren stiffens beside me.
“That’s him.”
The Architect.
He studies all of us for a moment.
Then smiles faintly.
“Well,” he says.
“This is inconvenient.”
The countdown timer flashes on Wren’s screen.
0:58:02
Less than an hour.
And the man who could control the West Coast—
Is standing twenty feet away.