Wunderkind

1.02-Metal Saw

NORTH KOREA

3 MILES NORTH OF THE DMZ

"I'm out of bullets, Jack!" Riley yells.

"So am I, darlin'!" Jack shouts back. I've been out since at least ten miles ago. He's not having a good day right now and a screaming headache from getting whacked over the head by their latest target is Not. Helping. "How much farther, Patty?"

"Two and a half miles left, Dalton. We need that asset alive." He can hear the stress in her voice. That woman must dye her hair because the way she worries she's gotta have more grey than me.

"And us too, right?"

"Don't get insecure on us now, Jack," Riley half-jokes, even as the jeeps full of guys who really want to kill them swerve into view behind them again.

"Okay, Carl's Jr., if you've got some trick up your sleeve this would be the time to do it!" Jack yells.

"I'm working on it!" The kid's wrangling around in the backseat with a bag of fertilizer and some kind of tubing, and a couple empty soda bottles. I've seen a lotta strange things in the backseat of a car. Hopefully this one gets us outta here alive.

Jack glances in the rearview mirror when he smells gasoline. The kid's wiping his mouth on his sleeve and using the tube to siphon some kind of liquid into those bottles. He musta put a line into the fuel tank from back there.

"Hey, I kinda need some of that go-go juice to drive!"

"I'm not gonna use it all!" The kid snaps, then flinches, like he thinks Jack's gonna get madder. "I need it if we wanna get those guys off our tail."

"Whatever you're doing, do it fast!" Riley yells as a spray of bullets peppers the back of the car, which has been armored with pieces of other cars courtesy of the hamburger genius kid.

"I'm doing it!" the kid kicks out something he put over the rear passenger window and leans out. Riley reaches over the seat to grab his belt because it kinda looks like the kid's about to fall all the way out. He's got half his body through there. Jack sees him flinch and glance at her, and then shake his head.

He flings one of the bottles and Jack hears a very loud explosion. "Hoo yeah! Did it work?" He asks.

"I think it just pissed them off!" Riley yells, flinching as more bullets strafe the car. Jack hears the kid yelp, but he can't tell if Carl's Jr.'s just scared or if he's been hit. There's another dull explosion, one Jack can see is off to the side of the road.

"You missed!"

"It's kinda hard to aim when you're swerving all over the road!" The kid yells as he slithers back through the window, face white, the shoulder of his shirt turning red. Aw shit.

"You got any more of those?" Riley asks.

"Nope, last one."

Jack half-turns around. "You only brought one bag of fertilizer?"

"It was all they had!"

"Boys, stop yelling!" Riley has a hand to her comms, probably trying to hear Patty on the other end. "The DMZ is just past this turn! And it looks like border guards know we're coming in hot!"

Jack can see the concrete blocks up ahead. And a lot of guys with guns aimed at them. "How are we gonna bust through that roadblock?"

And then a bloodied hand comes out of nowhere and grabs at the steering wheel. The car starts spinning around, pointing them back in the direction of the guys shooting at them.