the bridge.”
The two LSVs whipped down the dusty road—with their twin hordes of pursuers closing in from either side, converging on them in a V-shaped formation. Giant clouds of dirt rose behind the two incoming forces.
“Zoe! Swing in front!” West called.
Zoe obeyed, pulled her car in front of West’s, just as the two cars zoomed over a cattle grid.
As his LSV shot over the grille, however, West swung left, plowing right into a low signpost that read CATTLE CROSSING.
The post—unknown to the casual observer—was equipped with a trip wire that snapped as the LSV shot over it, triggering a concealed mechanism that launched a hundred six-pronged nails onto the roadway behind the fleeing car.
Alby turned, saw the star-shaped nails bounce down onto the road, fanning out all across it, just as the first pursuing jeep—the men on it firing hard—drove right into the field of nails.
Blasting puncture noises ripped the air as all four of the jeep’s tires blew and the vehicle skidded and then flipped, spraying men in every direction.
A second jeep suffered a similar fate, but the rest skirted the nail field, bouncing around the suspect section of road.
Alby watched them crash, before turning to face West, who shouted over the wind, “Be prepared!”
Alby then swung back to see the trailing APCs, slower than the jeeps, reach the nails—with their runflat tires they just thundered right over them, impervious to damage.
Chasing. Pursuing. Hunting.
As she drove, Zoe continued to monitor the airwaves with her car’s radio scanner. A moment after the two jeeps crashed, it picked up voices speaking in Mandarin over a secure military frequency.
“Jack!” she called into her own mike. “I got the bad guys on UHF 610.15!”
In his car, Jack switched to that channel and heard the voices of his enemy speaking Mandarin:
“Heading east in two cars—”
“Ground Force Seven is in pursuit—”
“Ground Force Six is going for the bridge—”
“Command. This is Ground Force Two. We’re right on their tail. Please repeat capture instructions—”
A new voice came on the line, a calmer one, one possessing clear authority.
“Ground Force Two, this is Black Dragon. Capture instructions are as follows: priority one is the Firestone; priority two, the girl and West, both are to be captured alive, if possible. Any other captives are to be executed. There can be no witnesses to our doings here.”
Hearing this, West snapped to look over at Alby. Then he looked forward at Zoe, driving the lead car.
It was one thing to know that if everything ended badly, you were safe, but it was another thing entirely to know that those dear to you were not.
“You hear that?”Zoe said over the radio.
“Yep,” West said, his jaw tightening.
“Please get us out of here, Jack.”
AS JACK’S AND ZOE’Scars sped away to the east, a Chinese command APC was arriving at Jack’s farmhouse, flanked by several escort jeeps.
As it skidded to a halt, two men stepped out of it, one Chinese, the other American. While the Chinese man was clearly older, both bore the rank of major on their collars.
The Chinese major was Black Dragon, the owner of the voice on the airwaves. Officious and intense, Black Dragon was known for his cold methodical efficiency; he was a man who got the job done.
The younger American with him was tall and broad, powerful, and he wore the customized uniform of a US Army Special Forces operator. He had a sharp-edged crew cut and the unblinking eyes of a psychopath. His call sign:Rapier.
“Secure the farmhouse,” Black Dragon ordered the nearest unit of paratroopers. “But be wary of any improvised devices. Captain West is clearly a man who prepares for eventualities such as this.”
Rapier said nothing. He just stared intently at the abandoned farmhouse, as if absorbing every feature of it.
THE RIVER CROSSING
The bridge was up ahead now, maybe a mile away—an old wooden single-lane bridge.
West saw it come into view, just as three APCs and five Chinese jeeps skidded to a halt in front of it, blocking the way. A roadblock.
They’d got there first.
Damn.
The lead APC lowered its turret-mounted cannon ominously.
At that exact same moment, four Chinese jeeps caught up with West’s cars from behind, two to each side.
