Trickster [Aidan Hunter series book 1]

Chapter 15

HENRY
~~~~~~

Finding the Mercedes in plain sight when we reached the location was suspicious enough. When we approached to investigate, they suddenly took off. Luke's hybrid sedan followed the two vehicles, with us behind him. Red and blue lights flashed, and sirens wailed from his car as he tailed them.

Identical cars and a hostage trapped in one of them. Way to mislead us. The Trickster's one hell of a bastard.

"Well, that wasn't so hard," Louis said. "Explains those numbers in the message."

I wrenched the steering wheel and careened around the corner of the street after the Mercedes took a sharp turn.

"Wasn't hard? You serious?" My voice rose. "If we get the wrong car, we lose the hostage. What if Robert's in there?"

We caught up with Luke, driving close behind. The two black cars snaked through traffic, then swerved and headed down a narrow road between two buildings. I overtook Luke and plunged the car down the road after them. When they came out on the other side of the street, they split up and drove off in different directions. One went left, the other straight.

I missed the left.

"Shit. Luke, follow the other!" I yelled into the transceiver.

"On it!" came the reply.

I practically flew along the streets. The trees lining the middle of the road seemingly sprinted in the opposite direction. Up ahead, a part of the road was closed off for construction. Vehicles had to drive around it. As a result, the traffic slowed to a tortoise's pace.

The kidnappers had no intention of slowing down. They headed right for the construction site, hitting the traffic cones and breaking through the roadblock. Startled workers jumped out of the way as the car raced past them on the newly laid asphalt.

I followed suit. The Mercedes basically cleared the way for us. We crossed the construction site and got back on level ground. I kept on the target's tail. Louis took his gun out and rolled down the window.

"Careful," I said. "There could be someone in the trunk."

"Well, then we better make sure," Louis replied.

He knew better than to shoot the trunk. Instead, he targeted the rear windshield. A man leaned out of the car and fired back at us. I turned to get out of his line of sight. Louis retaliated, able to only fire twice at a time, for fear of hitting the trunk.

One of the Mercedes' taillights fell out and a pair of bound hands stuck out from the hole, waving frantically.

Louis pointed at it. "Look!"

"I see it," I said. "We need to slow that car down. Give a chance for whoever's in there to jump out."

"It could be him."

Possibly. Robert would have the quick thinking of knocking out the taillights to attract attention.

"If it is, we need to help him."

Just then, Aidan spoke through the radio. According to him, the numbers in the message could indicate time.

Louis grabbed the transceiver and said, "You certain it's time?"

"Like I said," replied Aidan. "Wild guess."

"Better safe than sorry, I suppose."

We had twenty-five minutes, which wasn't a lot of time. We had to hurry.

The Mercedes headed for a tunnel, dimly lit by orange lights. The gunman inside leaned out and fired at us again. We ducked as bullets hit the windshield, and shattered my headlights. Spider web cracks formed around the bullet holes. We pursued them out of the tunnel, onto a wider open road. The traffic was considerably lighter, which gave me a chance to catch up.