HELIX (a technothriller)

17 - Cartagena

TODAY

Cartagena, Colombia

Damien flipped the sun visor down, cutting out the glare. Water lashed the rocks outside Nasira's window as she tore the Daewoo along the jagged coastline. Whatever the speed limit was, she was way over it. Then again, so was everyone else.

Nasira was heading for the destination programmed into the Daewoo's GPS—north, on the outskirts of another port town, Barranquilla. As far as she saw it, this destination was one of two places: the direction of the van they'd briefly seen before their attack, or where the Daewoo was heading after intercepting the van.

Nasira had stopped the Daewoo once they were clear and swept it. The only thing of use inside was the GPS. Even the corpse was sterile, so they dumped it. Nasira got behind the wheel again, insisting on taking the first shift. While she didn't have his enhanced healing, he could see the tiny cuts on her face from their border control escape were already healing. The fibrin in Nasira's blood had hardened into slivers of carmine red over copper skin.

Damien turned the air conditioner to maximum and relished the cold air blasting on his skin. 'We need to swap cars.'

'What for? They know where we're going.' Nasira accelerated into the curve. 'What they gonna do, report it stolen? Think we're a bit past that now.'

'Well, that and there's brain on the windshield,' Damien said.

'It's on the inside,' she said. 'Nobody can see through the tinted glass.'

'Yeah, but I can see it and it's gross.'

'You just killed two people in a hotel lobby.' Nasira sighed. 'I'll stop for wet wipes.'

'Do you have another screwdriver in that rucksack?' Damien asked.

'Still in the Chev,' she said. 'But there's a crescent wrench in there if you plan on stealing another ride.'

Damien checked to be sure. 'They weren't after us. Those men.'

'What makes you think that?' she asked.

'The vehicle in the lead, it went right past us,' he said. 'Its target was the van we were following. At least until they saw us.'

Nasira's fingers drummed the steering wheel. 'They attacked us, not the van.'

Damien zoomed into their destination on his phone. 'They missed their shot at the van.'

'No,' Nasira said. 'They didn't.'

The van was ahead of them, pulled over on the side of the road. It was battered and broken, flanked by police cars. Nasira dropped to a reasonable speed as they passed. Damien absorbed what details he could. The driver's side window was smashed. He could see a body sprawled across the wheel.

Nasira picked up speed again. 'That would be the driver.'

The side door was open and there was no body inside. 'They took them.'

'Great,' she said.

'We could've saved them,' Damien said.

'Just stay focused on Jay. We barely saved ourselves.'

'You think they might be mercenaries?'

'Don't matter either way. The van was heading in this direction. The Daewoo was heading in this direction. And so are we.'

'I have someone checking the address for us,' he said. 'Could use the intel.'

'I got intel for you,' she said. 'The van was heading in this direction! The Daewoo was plotted for this direction! We have an address for this direction. There's your goddamn intel.'