Becoming Quinn

knew that would be foolish. He had to be sure first, see who the driver was.

Reluctantly, he moved into the cover of the trees, and down to a point along the new road about thirty feet down from the intersection. Though he couldn’t see the car, he could hear it. It was just around the bend a hundred yards further down the road. The car was apparently traveling at a leisurely pace, which was good. It would give Jake more time to get a look at the driver before he had to act.

He watched the curve, and waited.

Ten seconds later, the car came into view.

* * *

What the hell is he doing? On the tracker, the dot representing Oliver’s bag had suddenly darted to the left. Durrie automatically looked in the direction the dot was going.

There was a ridge, but not much else. He glanced back at the tracker. The dot had stopped only halfway up. Was Oliver being chased? Had he seen something and was trying to hide? What?

Then Durrie heard it. A car. But it wasn’t particularly close, so Oliver couldn’t have been running from it. No, but if he got up on the ridge, he might be able to see it.

Dear God, please tell me he’s not going to pull something this stupid.

Durrie pulled out the map he’d stuck into his pocket earlier. A half-mile ahead was a little used country road. That had to be the one the car was on.

“Dammit,” he said as he put the map away.

He knew the dirt road was the only way he would be able to make up the time. He moved onto it and began to run. Unfortunately, doing so meant he couldn’t monitor the tracker at the same time, and, a few minutes later, he almost blew it when Oliver suddenly emerged from the trees fifty feet ahead of him.

Durrie darted to the edge of the road so that he would blend in with the trees and slowed to a near stop, unsure if he wanted Oliver to know he was following him yet. Thankfully, the kid’s attention was focused in the other direction and soon he disappeared around a curve. Once more Durrie picked up his speed. When Oliver came into sight again, Durrie saw that he was standing in the middle of the road near the intersection.

The car sounded close. A minute away, if that.

Just as Durrie was about to yell at the kid to take cover, Oliver did it on his own, moving into the woods on the right. Glad to see that Oliver hadn’t lost all of his senses, Durrie entered the woods, too, making a rapid arc around Oliver’s position, then hunching down at the edge of the forest, fifty feet further along the country road. He arrived just in time to see a blue Nissan sedan come into view.

* * *

Binoculars would be nice right about now, Jake thought, his eyes locked on the sedan.

Though the sun hadn’t gone down yet, the shadows had begun to get long, and it was difficult to make out any details inside the car. As it drew closer he could make out the basic shape of someone in the driver’s seat. There was no similar shape in the passenger seat, or in the back.

The car moved closer and closer, its speed maddeningly slow.

When it was only a few car lengths away, Jake could see that the person behind the wheel was a woman, and that all the other seats did appear empty. But by the time he decided to step out from his hiding spot, the car had already passed. He ran out into the middle of the road, and began waving his arms, hoping the woman would check her mirrors.

For a moment he thought he’d been too late, then brake lights flashed, and the car began to slow.

She saw me, he thought, allowing himself a smile. She—

No, he was wrong. She hadn’t seen him. The reason she was braking was so she could turn down the dirt road that eventually led to the cabin. He started running toward her, waving his arms furiously. Halfway through her turn, she glanced out her window. Her eyes opened wide in surprise, and it seemed as if she said something, then the car’s brakes slammed on.

Jake had paused when she looked at him, but then, just as he was about to start toward her again, he detected movement in the back seat. At the same instant, the woman looked over her shoulder, as if reacting to the same source. When she looked at Jake again, her eyes were wide with fear.

The woman wasn’t alone. There was someone hidden in the back, someone who apparently terrified her.

Jake felt the urge to turn and run, but there was no way he could. The look of fear on the woman’s face rooted him to the spot. He realized in an instant she was being held against her will, her passenger controlling her from behind somehow.

Jake silently cursed himself for not actually carrying the gun Durrie had given him. It was still in the bag on his back. He reached up and started to ease the satchel off his shoulder, but it was only partially off when the driver’s door opened and the woman half jumped, half fell out. She was small and looked Hispanic, maybe in her thirties. As she pushed herself up off the road, Jake could see that she had scraped her hands and arms.

She took a step to run, but a voice from inside the vehicle yelled, “Don’t!” She stopped. “Ask him!”

The woman looked at Jake, her eyes pleading for help.

“Ask!” the voice yelled.

“Where…where’s Dory?” she said to Jake.

“Durrie!” the voice corrected her. “Where the fuck is Durrie?”

29

Durrie pulled the rifle off his shoulder, and aimed it at the car. Even from eighty feet away, he could clearly hear the shouted question, and immediately knew it was Larson. Unfortunately, Oliver and the woman blocked the entire back half of the car from Durrie’s view. He needed to reposition.

“Where is he?” Larson shouted.

“I don’t know,” Oliver said.

“Bullshit. You were with him. Where is he?”

The woman, all but forgotten now, was glancing at the car, probably thinking she could make a run for it.

Durrie slipped several feet back into the woods, then started running parallel to the road, hoping he could get to a better spot and end things now before the woman took action.

“I don’t know where he is,” Oliver said again, then paused. “You’re the one he said was coming after him, aren’t you?”

“What do you mean?” Larson asked.

“He told me last night someone was coming for him. He seemed…annoyed.”

Durrie moved back to the edge, using a cluster of saplings as cover. Oliver had moved several steps closer to the car. Durrie checked the woman, and watched as she eyed the car again, then the woods.

Don’t do it, he thought. He wasn’t overly concerned with the woman as an individual, but the loss of any civilian life always made things difficult.

“Why would he tell you that?” Larson asked.

“I think he was trying to scare me,” Oliver said, stepping closer again.

Durrie raised the rifle and trained the scope on the car. He could now see a small mirror hovering inside the back of the vehicle. Larson was obviously using it to see what was going on while staying out of sight.

“But when I woke up this morning, the door to my cell was open,” Oliver went on.

“Woke up where?”

“In a cabin. Down the road you were turning on.”

The woman took a small, tentative step away from the vehicle.

Dammit, Durrie thought.

Oliver seemed to notice it, too. As he spoke again, he took another couple steps closer, angling, this time, toward the woman. “When I went upstairs, the place was empty. My guess is he’s not coming back.”