Static Crush {M/M} ✔

Chapter #52

Hale replays their escape from Alder Close and every pit stop made between here and there. Every rest stop attendant, every security camera, even the man in the inn lobby that morning—there's no telling which could have tipped off Bionic Capital security.

They don't have much time to discuss it before more misfortune hunts them down. A noise like a burst balloon makes them all jump, and the truck gives a jolt. Theo screams in shock. The steering wheel vibrates in Hale's hands, the whole body of the truck wobbling. Fear prickles like needles under his skin. He can hear the flap of a burst tire hitting the road as he pulls over and slows to a stop. Opening the door, his fears are confirmed. The scent of burnt rubber stings acrid in his nostrils.

Everyone else piles out too. Of them all, Damo looks the most stricken.

The front left tire is blown out completely.

"I'll grab the spare," Damo says, jumping into the truck bed. Rayner moves with him to search for a wrench and carjack. Theo starts removing the hubcap, kneeling gingerly on the pavement.

She whispers, "Please hurry, boys."

They should feel fortunate that the truck they happened to steal had a spare tire at all, that they happen to have a mechanic and two androids capable of changing a tire with them, but as Hale scans the road for signs of what caused their flat, he doesn't feel fortunate.

They're stopped in the midst of hilly farm land with lines of trees and low-lying shrubs framing the roads. Their punctured tire could have been from a nail, some debris, anything, but it wasn't just anything. Dotted along the asphalt a few meters apart are small devices, flat and invisible to the human eye. Certainly invisible even to an android's vision when driving 130 kilometers an hour. It's simple tech—pressure plates that, when triggered, punch a spring-loaded, latched arm upwards into the tire. They require the weight of a car to trigger and were designed specifically for disabling a vehicle.

This was a trap.

Rayner finds the lug wrench and passes it to Theo. She casts a worried look down the road, searching the middle distance for any signs of the car, then she does up her jacket with a shiver and gets to work loosening the lug nuts.

Damo emerges with the tire, but the carjack is buried under several layers of boxes and supplies.

"Leave it," Hale says. "I'll lift the car."

Rayner grabs a fistful of Hale's jacket to stop him. "If you injure yourself—"

"We'll lift the car," Damo corrects them. "You two change the tire."

In the distance, Hale hears the roar of an engine. Whipping his head up, the black speck of a car grows ever larger on the horizon, returning for them.

>>Damo, now.

Together, bracing their fingers under the chassis, Hale and Damo lift the car. The edge of metal digs into Hale's fingers. The weight makes his muscles burn. All the while, the car gets closer, and the sound of many more car engines join it. A hum like the unnerving drone of insects swarming.

Hale chances a look behind him. Many cars, all shiny and black like scarab beetles, appear over the hill in the distance, advancing upon them from both directions. It doesn't matter now if they change the tire in five minutes or five seconds. They're surrounded.

Theo jumps to her feet. Her cheek is streaked with dirt, and there are angry tears in her eyes. Hale and Damo set the car down on its new tire. At least a dozen cars fan out across the road to form a blockade. Panic seizes them all, and Hale feels the warm touch of Rayner's hand seeking his. As one, they cluster together, backs to the truck, watching their chances of escape dwindle. Hard as Hale tries to search for a way out, he finds none. Run? They wouldn't get far in the wilderness around them. Fight? As black-suited men and women emerge from the cars wielding guns, his hopes gutter. They're outnumbered.