Counting Cars
“I have to count the cars!” shouted Tess. “I have to count the cars!”
“I have a name,” said Vivian.
“Vivian!” said Tess.
“Fine, Vivian here is going to get a bullet in the kidney. And I’m going to drag her back into this hotel room where she’s going to slowly bleed out, knowing that she died because of you.”
“All I need to do is count the cars,” said Tess.
As soon as he saw the door to the motel room opening, Richard started his car and eased around the pile of tires.
Tess walked out, followed by Montag 5, who was holding Vivian by the arm and, Richard guessed, digging a gun into her side.
Montag 5 and Vivian stood in the open doorway—Richard could swear Montag 5 was slumping against the doorjamb—while Tess walked slowly to the far end of the parking lot and placed a finger on a battered blue Honda Civic.
Richard didn’t know what she was up to, but he knew he didn’t have much time and he didn’t see any way to save both Tess and Vivian unless…
Valentine 6 had insisted on driving and made Nemo 7 sit in the back. She still did not entirely trust him. If he could be a double agent, he could also be a triple agent, she reasoned. When her burner rang, she picked up immediately.
“How far away are you?” asked Richard
“Maybe three minutes,” said Valentine 6.
“We don’t have three minutes,” said Richard. “You get Vivian, I’ll get Tess.”
Valentine 6 slammed down the accelerator and the speedometer jumped from forty-five to ninety, the car screaming down the two-lane highway.
“What exactly does he want us to do?” asked Nemo 7.
“We’ll find out when we get there,” said Valentine 6.
Vivian had once told Richard that she thought Tess suffered from OCD.
He didn’t know exactly what was happening across the street, but Tess appeared to be counting cars.
To what end he could only guess, but it did seem the sort of thing someone driven by OCD might resort to.
What he did know was that Tess had been clever enough to get herself out of the motel room and at least a short distance from Montag 5.
Richard scanned the parking lot and counted sixteen cars.
Tess had already gently touched the back of seven. He couldn’t wait much longer.
Tess glanced over at Montag 5. He was clearly exhausted—sleep-deprived enough to make at least one bad decision.
But could she count on him to make another?
If she ran, would he really shoot Vivian?
And if she ran, where would she go? She had hoped that once she escaped, the answers would become obvious.
But a parking lot on a deserted road didn’t offer any more opportunities for escape than the stifling motel room itself. She reached car number nine.
Valentine 6 slammed on her brakes as the car approached the motel and the screeching tires drew the momentary attention of Montag 5.
Vivian considered driving her elbow into his stomach when he looked away, but she didn’t think that would accomplish much.
Then the car came skidding into sight, and a second car shot out from across the street, heading straight toward Tess.
Richard accelerated across the road as soon as he heard the black sedan approaching.
Tess was just tapping car fifteen and looked up to see the gray sedan heading straight at her.
She dived out of the way, sliding in the gravel of the parking lot as Richard’s car crashed into the rear corner of car fifteen with a sickening crunch.
The impact with the ground knocked her breath out for a moment, and she heard a second car skidding to a halt.
As air returned to her lungs, she looked under car fifteen and toward the motel and saw Montag 5’s feet.
She watched as he made his second bad decision.
When Tess disappeared, Montag 5 panicked.
He shoved Vivian to the ground and ran toward car fifteen.
Nemo 7 and Valentine 6 saw their opportunity.
Valentine 6 hit the accelerator again and drove the car in between Montag 5 and Vivian.
Montag 5, completely focused on getting Tess back into his sight, didn’t even notice.
Before Montag 5 had reached the spot where Tess had disappeared, Nemo 7 had opened the back door and pulled Vivian into the car.
Montag 5 arrived behind car fifteen just in time to receive a face full of dust and gravel as Richard peeled away from the scene, with Tess sitting in the front passenger seat.
Montag 5 fired a single shot at the car that embedded itself in the trunk but didn’t slow the escape.
Whirling around, he saw that the second car was already gone and there was no sign of Vivian.
This time his shot missed the car altogether.
He listened as the two cars sped off and moments later stood in silence, the dust settling around him.
He was so stunned and exhausted he couldn’t think what to do next.
In those first moments after the escape, he didn’t even remember that he still held a trump card.
The black sedan fishtailed on the gravel as Valentine 6 tore out of the parking lot and headed back down the road toward Sturgis.
“Is Calvin 4 following us?” she said.
“Jesus,” said Nemo 7, “the president has balls.”
“Is he following us?!” shouted Valentine 6.
“Richard is behind us,” said Vivian.
“Who’s Richard?” said Nemo 7.
“The man you know as Calvin 4, the president,” said Vivian. “Richard is his real name.”
“Did he get the girl?” asked Nemo 7.
“He got her,” said Vivian. “I can see her in the passenger seat. I need to be in that car with them.”
“We can’t drive this car,” said Nemo 7. “Montag 5 is sure to have a tracking device in it.”
“We’ll go back to the McDonald’s and switch to my rental,” said Valentine 6. “Then you can ride with your friends.”
“You’re Ardan 1, aren’t you,” said Nemo 7 to Vivian. “I’ve never seen you at the club, but I recognize you from your picture in the membership directory.”
“That’s an old picture,” said Vivian.
“You haven’t changed that much,” said Nemo 7.
“You’re a member of the Paradox Club?” said Valentine 6. “The president didn’t tell me that. He just said we should try to rescue the old lady.”
“I’m younger than he is,” said Vivian with a smile.
“Well, it’s nice to meet you, Ardan 1,” said Nemo 7.
“You can call me Vivian.”
The moment Tess had felt a hand pulling her into the car that had just crashed next to her, the voices came flooding back.
Why kidnapping had led to quiet serenity and rescue led to panic, anxiety, and a chorus of voices she had no idea.
She couldn’t even remember being pulled into the car and being thrown back into her seat by the acceleration down the highway.
She gasped for breath, choked back tears, and felt a pressure in her chest that she would have guessed was a heart attack if she had any ability to think logically.
She couldn’t even understand the voices with them all shouting at once.
She caught the words stop and run and danger, but what good did isolated words do?
She had just enough ability to tap into her own thoughts to know what she needed to do to calm herself down.