The Heart Stoppers

SPEED

"Are you ever going to take Freeman back?" Zack asks as we load the last of our equipment into the trunk of my Challenger.

"What the fuck? Why are you asking that?" I look at him in confusion as I slam the door closed in anger.

"Oh, come on, Hayden," he pipes up as we slide into the front. "I know you two shagged after the Meeting. Does that mean you're back, or are you just going to play this off like a frozen bitch?"

I raise my eyebrows and turn to glare at him in astonishment. "Your vocabulary has certainly gotten more colorful. And no, I'm not back with him. I was drunk, and he had let it happen. This has happened before, and it ends the same every time. We just can't be together."

"That's funny," he says sarcastically. "Because if I recall, the only reason you ended it was because he tried being with Diane. And now he's not."

"Listen, Zack, this is more complex than you can handle, okay? You seem to forget that I'm double your age and that I've lived a little more. Not everything is as simple as it's made out to be," I mumble more to myself.

"You're the one making it complicated," he exasperatedly shouts. "He loves you, and you love him. So what if he has a kid, and so what if it's with another woman? You two are each other's happiness."

I laugh, "We're not. We may have been once upon a time--each other's happiness--but not anymore. His son is his joy. Diane is-"

"She's not," he says above me. "You could be so happy with him."

"What's brought this on, Zack? Why are you acting like this? It's getting really fucking annoying," I fume.

"You're pitying yourself for no fucking reason, and it's pathetic. I'm tired of seeing you as pathetic. You used to amaze me, Hayden. As far as Buchanan had told me, you were the best one out here. Performed every mission with perfect precision. And look at you. You're nothing like he told me: you're not this overly confident bitch; you're broken."

"I've been good at hiding it, but you living with me hasn't given me much choice. And I guess I'm sorry for not being strong around you? Fuck, I don't know. Just... Just don't worry about me, okay? I'm fine," I continue awkwardly. I've never been sorrowful before.

I know Zack wants to say something else, but I cut him off. "Does he talk about me? He must considering you seem to be an expert on his feelings."

"He doesn't have to tell me; I just see it. He still loves you."

I purse my lips, knowing I've been defeated. "This discussion is over; don't bring it up ever again. If you do, I won't think twice about suspending you."

A beat of silence follows my threat. Then, there's a bump at the back of the car that propels us forward a few extra feet causing me to briefly lose control of the car.

As my foot slams down on the gas pedal, putting it to the floor, I adjust my mirror to see who has rear-ended us.

"Fuck," I sigh out as I continue to accelerate down the interstate, getting further from the back tinted SUV with a license plate reading: PS 4. This was one of Adeline's cars; the duo, back when the gang was thriving, used Peter Saige's initials to make all their cars.

"Hayden, what the fuck's going on?" Zack starts to turn his head to peek around the seat behind us.

    "Don't you fucking move," I bark, slamming my hand against his shoulder to push him back against the seat. "They see your head, they shoot."

    His nervous emerald eyes meet mine, and I'm reminded that this boy is fourteen. "It's okay, Zack. Listen, you need to reach in the glove box and get my pistol and the pack of dark green bullets with the eye on them."

    He complies, loading the gun for me before I even ask. My eyes shift every second from the road in front of me and the SUV trailing me. They're about one car length away and gaining slowly. My eyes catch an overpass far off in the distance, planning my exit strategy.

    "Zack, press the red button on the underside of the glove box. It'll ring Diamond Emergency Center, and they'll know we need backup. You see that overpass up ahead?" He nods and does as I ask. "We're going to swing around it and head back East. When I start the turn, I'm going to crawl into the backseat, and you're going to take my place in the driver's seat, got it?"

    His eyes hold fear as they look to mine, but he nods nonetheless. I cock the gun and put it back in my lap. The overpass is less than a hundred feet away now. My right hand finds the emergency brake, and my foot never relents on the gas pedal.

    "Hand on the wheel, but keep your head down," I instruct before pulling up on the emergency brake and drifting the car around the support beams of the overpass. His hands immediately replace mine, my body quickly contorting and hurling itself into the backseat as Zack slides over, and we complete the turn.

    "Fuck yes," he cheers from the driver's seat, pushing the gas pedal harder than I may have been.

    "No slower than 150, you hear me? We're high tailing it the fuck out of here," I tell him as the first car whips around the overpass, shooting the first shot of the chase. Zack takes notice, swerving the car just enough to avoid a bullet plunging into our tire.

    "Nice," I applaud him as I spot three more black SUV's trailing behind the lead.

    Another shot is fired by them as I get on my knees and face the line of cars behind us. The bullet flies past my head, having broken through the back window and soaring through to the front. It bounces off the windshield due to it being bulletproof.

    They fucked up now.

    I take my pistol into my hand, the metal feeling perfect against my heated skin. Using the already made bullet hole in the back windshield, I aim the gun through there and toward the engine of their vehicle. As soon as the gun is fired, their car explodes, swerving uncontrollably until it hits the ditch on the other side of the interstate.

    Using the diversion of the explosion, I fire the gun three times from the back, each bullet hitting their targets. After the shots fly into the front windshield of each car, and the smoke from the last one has cleared, the dark green gas appears. I quickly reload the gun, pouring out the blinding gas bullets and replacing them with normal ones and proceed to shoot all four tires on each of the remaining cars as I roll down the back window to get a better angle, and the cars come to a screeching halt.

    "How fast are we going, Zack?" I ask hurriedly as I turn around in the seat.

    "Almost one ninety," he breathes out nervously.

    I nod in affirmation as I steal a glance behind us to see no other vehicles in sight. "Take it down to one twenty; just in case they decide to send more backup, I'd like us to be as far away as we can be."

    Crawling back into the front seat with all the bullets in my hand, I replace them all and put the gun back in the glove box before pressing the red button three times: one, one, two.

    "Well shit," I comment in amazement as I see the exit sign telling me we're almost halfway through Minnesota. "Keep driving while I call Buchanan. We'll be on this road for three more hours or so."

    As soon as Buchanan answers, he immediately asks of the trouble I've had. Once I tell him it was Adeline and that the crisis had been averted, I inform him that we're headed to the Michigan entrance to the Underground Interstate, a road that leads directly to HQ, the Agencies, and our regional subsidiaries. He asks if he should call Freeman, which pisses me off more than Adeline sending her men. I mumble out a 'no' to him before hanging up and instructing Zack on which exit he'll be taking.

    Zack seems to understand enough about the UI so it's a peaceful journey all the way to Ironwood.