The Adjusters (28 page)

Fox shook her head. “Not much chance of getting back in the complex without being captured. We need a game plan.”

Henry considered for a second, before remembering something.
Game plan
. “Coach!” he exclaimed.

Henry found the man in the trunk of the Chevy, which was parked in the deserted street round the back of the coffee shop. His arms and legs had been bound and his face was a
bloody mess, as if he’d been beaten with something hard.

“Take it easy, coach,” Henry said as the man struggled into a sitting position in the open trunk. Using the carving knife, Henry cut through the tape.

“That kid Steve went psycho!” he exclaimed. “He pistol-whipped me! Where the hell did he get a gun?”

“From Mallory, I think.”

“Jesus.”

Henry took Coach Tyler’s arm and he cried out in pain. “I think it’s broken,” he said, almost apologetically.

“Can you make it inside the building?”

The coach nodded and, leaning on Henry for support, allowed himself to be led up a fire escape at the back of the building.

Back inside the apartment, Henry sat him in one of the armchairs and went through to check the bedroom. Mary was watching Gabrielle and Steve, who were now lying side by side on the bed. She had
the gun in her hand. Steve was thrashing wildly against his bonds, but no one was in a mood to trust him, even if his SPIDIR really had been shut down. Fox took one look at the coach and went
through to the bathroom to fetch her first-aid kit. She set to work patching up his face.

Henry leaned in the doorway to the bedroom, feeling suddenly exhausted. His nose was still throbbing and after their battle with Steve he felt as if he’d just run a marathon. And he
guessed the night was far from over. Mallory had set Steve on them with express instructions to catch them or kill them; he was sure to be waiting for his soldier to return to confirm he’d
done the deed. Which meant they didn’t have long…

“We have to get out of here,” Fox said as she finished with the coach. “All of us.”

Henry nodded his agreement, stepping back into the lounge. He checked his cell phone – zero reception. All they had to do was get far enough outside Newton to be able to contact the
authorities… His eyes fell on the telephone on the kitchen counter. He ran over and snatched it up, wondering if he’d get through to somewhere outside Newton if he dialled
911…

“
Hello?
” a woman’s voice said on the other end of the line.

Taken aback, Henry replied, “Hello? Who is this?”

For a moment there was silence. “
This is the operator. Who would you like to call?
”

“Uh…” Henry looked at Fox and placed his hand over the receiver. “Some woman says she’s the operator.”

Fox rolled her eyes at him. “Hang up. It’s them.”

“
Emergency services are on the way to your location,
” the woman on the phone said. “
Please stay where you are—
”

Henry tossed the phone back on the counter. “I guess they know Steve and Gabrielle weren’t successful.”

Mary Layton wheeled herself to the bedroom door. “You two have to get out of here now. They’ll be coming any minute.”

Fox shook her head. “We’re all going together…”

Mary pushed her chair forward and took her daughter’s hand. “There’s no time for that. And someone has to stay here and watch those two.” She nodded in the direction of
the bedroom. “I’d just slow you down. Get the hell out of Newton and tell everyone what’s going on here. And when you come back, be sure to tell me what the hell is going on here
too, okay?”

Fox laughed, although there were tears forming in her eyes. “I don’t want to leave you.”

Her mom reached up and stroked her face. “I’m sorry, hon. We should have got out of this town a long time ago. I guess after your dad walked out I was just scared of losing what we
had left…”

A car passed in the street outside, screeching to a halt abruptly.

Henry took Fox’s arm. “We need to move now.”

“Look after my girl,” Mary said as he pulled Fox towards the fire escape.

Henry nodded and looked at Coach Tyler. “Come on.”

“I’m in no condition, kid,” he replied woozily. “Think I’ll sit this one out. I’m betting the keys are still in the Chevy…”

His voice faded as the glass shattered in the cafe below. Henry pulled Fox through the window out onto the fire escape and they flew down the steps as quickly and as silently as possible.
Reaching the bottom, Fox looked back at the apartment above.

“We’ll come back for them,” Henry whispered, looking round at the Chevy, which was parked a few metres away.

“I’ll drive,” Fox said, regaining her composure. She ran round the front and jumped into the driver’s seat. Henry barely had time to get in the passenger’s side
before the engine started and the Chevy pulled away along the street.

“How long have you been driving?” Henry asked, steadying himself against the dash.

“Ever since mom has been in the chair,” she replied. “Special dispensation.”

“Well, you might want to take it a little slower.”

“Too late for that!” Fox replied as the Chevy hit the end of the alley and roared onto Main Street, heading south out of town. She looked pretty comfortable behind the wheel and was
getting some speed out of the ancient vehicle. As they flew past the last of the shops and by the houses on the outskirts of town, Henry looked out through the back window.

“I think we got away clean,” he said. Hopefully whoever had broken into the cafe had been too preoccupied to hear them leaving.

Then lights appeared in the darkness behind them: the red and white flashing lights of a police cruiser.

Trooper Dan was in pursuit.

“What do we do?” Fox asked, a note of panic rising in her voice. She was keeping the Chevy on a tight line as the road wound through the forest surrounding Newton,
but the lights of the cop car were getting closer in the rear-view mirror. The ancient car was never going to outrun a tuned-up patrol vehicle.

“We can’t stop,” Henry said, hanging on for dear life as the Chevy took a sharp turn. It felt as if the wheels on his side of the car were lifting off the ground. He pulled on
his safety belt and reached across to do the same for Fox.

“I don’t think he wants us to stop!” she exclaimed as the engine of the cruiser roared behind them, like a huge beast bearing down on them. A second later there was a jarring
impact as the cruiser slammed into the back of the Chevy. Fox let out a cry, but held the wheel firm, managing to keep the car on the road.

“He’s trying to kill us,” Henry said.

“No! You think?”

There was a roar as the cruiser accelerated again. Henry looked back in time to see the high-beam headlights approach, blinding in the rear window. “Look for some way to get off this
road.”

“I’m looking!”

The cruiser engine roared again as it picked up speed to pull alongside. Henry looked across at the interior of the cruiser as it drew level. In the driver’s seat he saw the silhouette of
Trooper Dan, brimmed hat on his head, one hand on the wheel and one reaching for…

A gun.

“Fox!” Henry cried out too late…

A bullet exploded through the side window and carried right on through the windshield. Henry felt it pass his face by centimetres. Then the interior of the Chevy was filled with flying shards of
glass. Fox screamed at a second muzzle flash from the direction of the cruiser and a deafening gunshot. Henry looked round, fearing she was hit…

The Chevy slammed into the crash barrier and carried on through. There was a moment like being in an elevator rising very fast as the car sailed off the road and became airborne. Then it started
to come down, but the descent was curtailed when the front end slammed into a tree. Henry clung on to the safety belt around his torso as the world turned sideways, tossing the contents of the
Chevy interior like they’d been placed in a tumble dryer. Broken glass, candy wrappers and empty soda cans spun around Henry’s head. There was another jarring impact as the vehicle hit
the ground side-on and finally came to rest on its roof.

For a moment Henry hung upside down in his seat, held in place by the belt, hardly believing he was alive. He looked left and saw that Fox had slipped out of hers and landed on the roof, which
was now the floor. From the rear of the vehicle the smell of leaking gasoline filled the air. Up front, the engine was sputtering away, refusing to die.

“Hey,” Henry said, reaching out and shaking his companion.

Fox stirred and looked round at him. He could see she was in pain.

“Are you shot?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” she said with a groan. “I feel like I’ve been hit in the back with a sledgehammer.”

Henry checked her over and was relieved to see there was no blood. No evidence of a gunshot wound. “We have to get out of here,” Henry said. Trooper Dan could only be moments away,
but it was the gasoline that worried him the most. At any second, the Chevy could explode. “Can you move?”

To show she could, Fox slid towards the crumpled driver’s side door and started squeezing herself through the shattered window. Henry reached for the release catch on the safety belt and
found it locked out. Pulling the belt as far as it would go, he slipped from underneath and landed on the roof amid the shattered glass that had collected there. He made to follow Fox, but then had
a thought. He reached up and opened the glove compartment; the contents spilled out around him.

“Hurry up, Ward!” Fox hissed through the window. “I can hear someone coming!”

“A second!”

Henry felt through the junk that had come from the glove compartment and found two items that would come in useful: a Zippo lighter and an electric torch.
Nice one, coach!
Clutching them
in his hand, he manoeuvred himself back through the window and out into the darkness of the forest. Fox moved to his side.

“He’s over there,” she whispered, meaning the other side of the crashed Chevy. They began to back away from the wreck, towards the cover of the trees. Henry made out the shape
of Trooper Dan moving through the forest towards the car, his silhouette somehow blacker than the night around him. In his hand he held a gun. As they came to the cover of a tree, Henry stopped and
waited. Fox tugged on his arm urgently.

“What are you waiting for, Ward? We have to get out of here!”

“Hold on.”

The crashed car was now a good ten metres away and in the flickering light thrown out by its headlamps he saw Trooper Dan approach cautiously, bending down to see inside the overturned
vehicle.

“Ward!”

“Get ready to run,” he whispered back, turning the Zippo over in his right hand and flipping the lid. “Now!”

Henry struck the flint and the lighter flame sparked into life. He threw it at the rear of the car…

There was a
whumpf
as the gasoline leaking from the Chevy’s ruptured fuel tank ignited. Henry staggered back. The entire car went up in an orange fireball that momentarily lit up
the night. He held up his arm against the heat, trying to make out if their attacker had been caught in the explosion before Fox grabbed his shoulder and pulled him away. They fled through the
trees, their way illuminated by the growing fire behind them.

After several minutes, they collapsed against a tree and looked back. In the distance the flames were still visible through the forest.

“Is he following?” Fox asked breathlessly.

“I don’t think so,” Henry replied.

“Is he dead?”

“I don’t know.”

“Do you know which direction we’re going?”

He shook his head. Fox had a good point – in the confusion of the crash, they’d completely lost their bearings. For all they knew, they could be heading back to Newton. “We
need to keep moving.” Henry looked at Fox and saw from the dark look on her face that she was as worried as he was: worried about their friends and family…worried that they’d
never get out of Newton County alive…

“We’re going to be okay,” he reassured her. “We’re going to find someone who’ll believe us.”

Fox nodded, and they ran into the night once more.