Chapter Six #3
“Perfect. I’ll meet you where I crash landed. How low can you bring her down?”
“One-hundred feet.”
“I’ll make it work. Hope you have a hoist. It’s safe to say Alroy Garcia could do with going on a diet.” A smirk played on my lips.
“I’m sure I’ve got something we can use. See you soon, hm?”
I hopped back inside the Lamborghini, this time belting myself in and adjusting the rear-view mirror before flooring the accelerator.
The car chewed up the once immaculate lawn, sending lumps of dirt and grass flying.
The car shot off, getting a little air before crashing back onto the driveway.
The bumper scraped the pavers, but I paid it no mind, aiming it at the large metal gates that blocked the only exit.
I braced, arms jerking against the steering wheel and ears ringing as I ploughed straight into it.
Steam billowed up from the Lamborghini’s engine, the bonnet crumpled, but it came flying out on the other side.
It wasn’t long for this world, that was for sure, but I didn’t need it to last. I just needed to get me and Garcia back to the clearing in time to meet Hangman.
“Left here,” Freddie’s voice spoke in my ear, cool and calm as ever.
I followed his instruction, the car skidding as I took the corner far faster than was necessary.
The roads away from the mansion were rough, to say the least, and I jostled and shook inside the cabin, uncaring about the damage I was doing to the car as I roared ahead, mud streaking the windows.
Soon, the woodland opened up, bright light spearing through the trees all around.
I was almost there… I gripped the steering wheel, pressing the accelerator until it was flat to the floor.
The car screamed, shooting ahead with enough force to throw me backwards in the seat. I grinned, whooping with excitement.
“I have got to get me one of these!”
“Well, your birthday is coming up…” Freddie quipped, making me laugh.
Even over the din of the car’s engine, I felt a deep roar rumble through the very air around me. A dark shadow sped overhead, the wilderness suddenly blustering as if caught in a storm. Hangman.
The Lamborghini darted out between a gap in the trees, and I suddenly found myself back in the long grass of the field where I’d landed.
The dark shadow of my parachute still lay a short distance away in the foliage and I slammed the brakes on.
The wheels locked up, tearing deep furrows in the ground, but the car came to a halt much faster than I had been expecting.
I hurriedly unfastened my belt and leapt out, jogging a few paces ahead as I gazed up into the cloudless sky.
Hangman’s jet blotted out the sunlight, steadily lowering itself down. The grass swayed back and forth violently as the jet engine grew closer and closer.
“Incoming,” Hangman said, and a moment later the hatch he had dropped me out of just an hour before opened up.
A ladder unrolled itself, followed closely by a sling, the sort that was used for transporting injured soldiers. Garcia wasn’t injured – not yet anyway – but that would certainly be easier than lugging his fat arse up a ladder.
“Hold her steady,” I shouted over the noise of the jet, running back to the Lamborghini. I hopped inside, swinging it around and reversing in as close to the sling as I could. Seemed senseless struggling with Garcia unnecessarily. This way I’d be able to practically roll him out.
I killed the engine and hurried to the boot, opening it up to reveal a still-comatose Garcia.
I grabbed a handful of him, trying not to think too hard about him still being practically naked, and heaved him out of the Lamborghini.
He hit the ground like a sack of shit, but a bit of bruising was going to be the least of his worries by the time I was done with him.
Holding the sling still, I lifted Garcia by his legs, dragging him across the grass.
Once he was safely strapped into the sling, I began to climb the ladder.
It was no easy feat with the way it swayed back and forth, but I fixed my eyes on the hatch overhead.
“He’s all yours,” I said, breathless from exertion. “Bring him up. I’m almost there.”
In my peripheral vision, I saw Garcia’s sling sailing past me as Hangman used the motor to lift it up into the passenger cabin. I grumbled beneath my breath, arms and legs like jelly. Perhaps I should have hitched a ride.
Eventually, I heaved myself up into the cabin, rolling onto my back. I was soaked in sweat, body aching, but just as it always did at the end of a successful mission, elation crashed over me.
“Good to go?” Hangman asked.
“Let me drag this ladder in and—”
“No need. I got it.”
A motor began to whir, and I leant over the open hatch, watching in mild annoyance as the ladder began to rise of its own accord, rolling up and disappearing inside a small compartment in the floor.
“Fucking hell,” I muttered. “Why’d you make me climb the whole way if you knew it did that?”
Hangman simply chuckled and I collapsed into a heap.