And It Went Up In Smoke

Chapter 20: Cat and Mouse

Klaus POV

Isadora and I walked back to the truck hand in hand. My heart was still fluttering, and I couldn't stop myself from smiling. I'd gotten immensely lucky. Isadora was perfect.

A twig snapped to the side of us. Isadora and I froze, slowly turning our heads. A few metres off, scarcely hidden by the trees, was a woman in a police uniform and a ridiculously elaborate hairdo. 

"Darling!" she called out. "This is a horribly unhygienic place for me to pee!"

"Esmé." I whispered. Isadora's eyes were wide with fear. 

"She said darling. Olaf is with them."

My blood turned cold. Olaf had just been in jail. Along with his accomplices. How did they escape again? And how had they found us so quickly?

I leaned forward slightly, and caught a glimpse of a police vehicle parked on a parallel road. Of course. Esmé would've pulled some strings, hijacked a car and then heard police radio warnings about us. We were doomed.

"Klaus," Izzy whispered beside me. "We need to leave. Now."

We dashed madly towards the car, sounds obscured by the ruckus Olaf's troop was making. Yanking open the door, Isadora tumbled inside and I followed her in. 

"Olaf's here, in a—" I was cut short. Violet had slammed her foot down on the accelerator. The truck lurched forward and zoomed ahead. 

"Keep talking now. What did you see?" she said.

"Olaf's here in a police car with his whole troop. They escaped jail again. They were driving on a parallel road."

"How'd you see them?" Duncan asked. His arms were wrapped tightly around Sunny.

"Esmé had to pee."

Duncan turned around in his seat. "Iz, you okay?"

"I'm fine." Isadora replied shakily.

She was slumped against me. I had my arm around her. Duncan met my eyes and smiled gratefully. I prayed that Esmé had chugged a lot of water.

"Okay, so here's the plan for now. Duncan said that there's a fork in the road coming up. There's a VFD safe house towards the right path, so I'll take that. But clearly, VFD usually leaves signposts. So I'm going to stop the car for a bit, and one of you at the back will have to get out and either switch the signposts or throw them away altogether. Okay?"

"Got it." Isadora replied. "Since we're taking the right path, it's probably better that I get out of the car."

"Stay safe." Duncan and Klaus echoed.

"How long is it coming in, Violet?" Isadora asked.

"Should be here anytime soon. Try and be as quick as you can."

"Mhm."

The car was silent for a few minutes. Everyone's eyes constantly flicked up the rear view mirror. There was no car tailing them yet, but Olaf might have been on the parallel path, which wasn't visible through the trees. Still, we didn't want to take any chances playing cat and mouse with them.

Suddenly, Violet hit the brakes. The car jerked to a stop. There were two paths in front of us. The one on the left led higher upwards. The right one had no elevation. At the middle was a wooden shaft with two arrow markers. The left one read "Mount Fraught", while the other simply had the VFD eye engraved on it.

Isadora jumped out the back of the truck, pulled out the shaft and threw it over the edge of the mountain. She rushed back inside and shut the door, panting, as Violet floored the accelerator again. 

"Nice thinking." she said from the front.

"Thanks." Izzy replied, and lay her head on my shoulder again.  

"Next stop, VFD safe house." Duncan called out. 

I couldn't wait. Maybe we'd finally get some answers.