The Cardinal Bird (1 of Cardinal Series)

Chapter 29

A/N: so...um, surprise again? I'm sorry.  I'm getting impatient for the end. Also sorry again, this one's short! Don't forget to follow for sneak-peeks, insights into the boys' thoughts, and behind the scenes stories!  Thanks for reading.

"How many cops?" Karl asked after he let me know what intersection we were approaching.

"Two units," Corey said. "They're still a few blocks away, but they're catching up quickly."

"We're 5 minutes from the airport, but we can't come in hot like this, private landing strip or not," Karl said in concern. "In 10 minutes it won't make a difference anyway, they won't let us leave until 3 PM if we miss our time slot."

We absolutely couldn't miss our takeoff time. We wouldn't be able to hold out another ten minutes, let alone several hours.

" Nathan," I said. "How close are you following to us?"

There was a honk from literally, right behind us. It was loud. It had to be North and the others.

"Does that answer your question?" Nathan asked.

"Yes," I said. "I'm trying something different this time. Hang tight."

"Copy that, Peanut."

I studied the graphics in front of me with the timers going down. Our next light to turn at was currently red, and it would be that way for another eight seconds. I glanced to the front of the van. The intersection was far enough away that I could see the stoplights through the windshield still.

My brain pounded, and I knew I would have a horrible headache later. I shook my head and ignored it. I had to. My vision cleared though the pain didn't fade.

I did some quick math in my head based on our distance and current rate of velocity. We would hit the intersection just as it turned green if Brandon maintained his current speed.

There was a half-second lag that both lights would be red before switching which was why it was so hard to lose the tails. The vans were all so close together, that we were pretty much paving the way for Nikolai's men as much as we were ours.

"Sang," Brandon said from up front. "You got this?"

He was referring the red light we were fast approaching. He must have been slowing down for them somewhat before and was nervous to go full speed through the red.

"Maintain your speed, exactly," I said, still doing calculations. "Let me know right when you get to the intersection."

Karl let me know right before we hit it, and I changed our light bypassing yellow and going directly to red, hoping it would help deter the followers.

"North," Marc said, probably catching on to what I was aiming for. "Stay right behind us."

"Nathan, are you in the front seat?" I asked.

"Axel is."

"Axel, let me know what the crossway traffic does," I said.

There was a beat of silence. I started counting in my head. Then there were different horns sounding off. I timed how long it was to get an idea of how far away Nikolai's men were.

"The cross traffic was just taking off, but they slammed on their brakes when Ivanov's people ran the light," Axel said.

I frowned in thought.

"We're turning in about five lights," Karl warned.

Marc pointed out the correct intersection for me. I pulled it open, trying to mess with it. I was able to override the automatic controls that changed the lights by clicking and changing the signals for both directions. The very thing I had been so thankful for before was now our hindrance. I got ready.

"Brandon," I said. "I'm going to change the light to red right before we get to the intersection. The other light will already be green, so cars will be just taking off as we head through. Hopefully this will be enough of a gap to block off our pursuit."

He didn't say much in response, but he heard me.

"The police are requesting more back-up now that reports are coming in of gunshots. They're starting to link it to the shooting at the hostel," Corey said.

"See if you can reroute or answer some of those calls," Karl said. "It wouldn't do for them to send all of those people our way."

"I don't speak Estonian." Corey asked to no one in particular, "Is it close to Russian?"

"No," I said easily, timing the light. I switched both to green just as we were sailing through. "It's closer to Finnish."

I couldn't see what was going on outside the windows, so I had Raven and Axel relaying what they could to me.

"There's a traffic jelly. All sides came to a stop in the middle," Raven said.

"Jam," Marc grumbled.

"I saw the same," Axel said. "Can we make a turn? Ivanov's men had to dodge around the stopped traffic. There's a bigger space between us now."

"Hold that thought," I said. "If there's a bigger distance, we should be able to do the same thing. Then we could probably make two turns and lose them completely."

I pulled the same move, sooner this time, and we had to dodge around the traffic. However, both directions kept inching forward after they saw us going through. North was just able to clear before the intersection was a locked mass of growling metal and angry horns.

After Raven and Axel had relayed the good news, we made a few turns until North could no longer see them at all.

"Sang," Corey said, "If I tell you the location of the police, could you lockdown the traffic there?"

I grinned. "I can do one better. They have to know we're headed to the airport by now. If not the authorities, then at the least Nikolai's men do. How far are we from the airport?"

"Three minutes," Karl said.

I got to work.

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