The Adjusters (32 page)

“Who’s Trooper Dan?” the other cop asked, speaking for the first time.

“The insane cop!” Fox persisted. “You have to listen to what we’re…”

Her voice trailed away at the sound of another vehicle. They all looked round and saw the blinding headlights of a sandy-coloured police cruiser appear a few hundred metres down the road. It
stopped, as if the driver was deciding whether to approach or not.

“That’s him!” Henry said. “That’s Trooper Dan!”

Myers opened the back door and bundled Henry inside. “Sit in there and stay quiet if you know what’s good for you.”

Henry twisted round to protest – it was difficult trying to sit down with his hands cuffed behind his back – but Myers simply slammed the door in his face. On the other side of the
car the second cop opened the back door and, taking Fox’s arm, pushed her inside.

“I ain’t gonna cuff you,” he said more softly. His name badge said
Clifton
. “But if you cause any trouble, I will. Just sit tight and it’ll all be
okay.”

Fox began, “But…”

“Leave this to the professionals, huh?” He slammed the door.

Fox turned to Henry. “We have to get out of here!”

“I know,” Henry said, looking around the inside of the car. There was no handle on his door – it could only be opened from the outside. And with the cuffs on, he wouldn’t
be getting very far anyway. He looked through the back window. Trooper Dan’s cruiser had started moving again. It rolled to a halt ten metres down the road. The driver’s door swung open
and the huge cop unfolded himself from inside. Although it was the middle of the night, he was wearing his mirror shades to hide his crazy eyes and had a jacket zipped over his bloodstained
shirt.

“Oh, my god,” Fox whispered as they watched the trooper greet Myers with a smile and a wave of his good hand. He approached the patrol car and as he came closer, they saw that his
left hand was now covered in a fresh, white bandage. The driver’s door of the patrol car was open beside the cop called Clifton, so they could hear the exchange between the trooper and
Myers.

“Howdy,” Trooper Dan said. “You boys are kinda outside your jurisdiction, ain’t ya?” His voice was suddenly like a country hick – not too smart, but very
friendly.

“You can say that again,” Myers said with a laugh. “Our sergeant sent us up here on a wild goose chase. Some reporter went missing. Guy called Stuart Richardson. Ever heard of
him?”

“Can’t say I have,” Trooper Dan said coolly.

“Turns out he’s the mayor’s nephew, so the whole world has to stop. Sent us over here in the middle of the night to check out the GPS on his iPhone. Dumb idiot probably got
lost in the woods up here.”

Through the window, Henry watched Trooper Dan grin and shake his head like he felt Officer Myers’s pain. It was a great act. And, as before, if his damaged hand was giving him any pain
now, he was expert at hiding it.

“We tried calling the Newton sheriff’s office, in fact,” Myers went on. “There was no answer.”

Trooper Dan shrugged. “I’m pretty busy.”

“We’ve been trying to call for two days,” Myers said. Suddenly there was an edge to his voice.

“Hmmm,” Trooper Dan said. “I’m sorry, I didn’t get you boys’ names.”

Myers introduced himself and Clifton and rattled off the name of their precinct in the city. But Trooper Dan wasn’t really listening. Instead he started looking directly at the back of the
patrol car, checking out Henry and Fox in the back. When Myers finished, rather than offering his own details, Trooper Dan just stared at his prey.

“Have you hurt yourself?” Myers asked.

“Huh?” the trooper said, as if he’d been disturbed from a trance.

“Your hand. That looks nasty.”

Trooper Dan held up his bandage as if he’d forgotten it was there. “This? It’s nothing.”

“What happened?”

“Looks like I owe you city boys a drink,” Trooper Dan said, ignoring the question. “You’ve picked up a couple of runaways I’ve been huntin’ all over these
woods.”

Myers glanced back at the patrol car. “Runaways? You know one of them is covered in blood?”

Trooper Dan looked at him. “Blood?” He shook his head. “God knows what kids get up to these days…”

As the trooper continued to spin the standard yarn about runaway kids and drugs, Fox let out a little gasp, as if remembering something.

“What is it?” Henry asked.

“I found this in the house!” she said, pulling Richardson’s wallet from her jeans. “It belonged to that reporter!”

She leaned over the passenger seat and waved it to get Clifton’s attention.

“I thought I told you to…” Officer Clifton’s voice trailed away as he took the wallet from her and opened it. Stuart Richardson’s ID cards were plain to see.
“Where’d you find this?” he asked.

“
In that cop’s house
,” Fox said.

“Hey, Sam!” Officer Myers called out to Clifton. “Looks like those two belong to the trooper here. Want to get them out and put them in the back of his cruiser?”

Clifton was silent for a moment. Henry and Fox looked back again to where Trooper Dan was standing, still glaring at them from behind his mirror shades.

“Perhaps we should call this one in first,” Officer Clifton said, tossing the wallet on the dash of the patrol car and shifting the shotgun in his hand.

“You sure?” Myers asked, and once again Henry sensed a silent understanding passing between the two cops.

“Yeah…I’m sure,” Clifton replied. He climbed back behind the wheel and snatched up the radio mic from the dash. “This is patrol fifty-one calling mobile dispatch,
come in…” All that came back was static.

“Please, you have to un-cuff me,” Henry said, leaning forward. “You don’t know what Trooper Dan’s capable of...”

“Just sit tight,” Clifton said. “We’ll deal with this.” He spoke into the mic again and got nothing back.

Outside the car, Trooper Dan was getting impatient. “What you got to call this in for? Those kids are my problem, not yours.”

Myers looked at him apologetically. “Procedure. My partner’s a real stickler for procedure. You know, sometimes I think he wouldn’t take a leak without filling in a
form.”

“I know the type,” Trooper Dan said with a sympathetic shake of the head. “Let me tell you what I think of procedure…”

He pulled a gun and calmly shot Officer Myers in the head.

In the back of the patrol car, Henry and Fox recoiled in shock as the sound of the gunshot reverberated across the road. Officer Myers seemed to fall in slow motion, pitching to one side, his
skull practically obliterated by the force of the bullet at close range. Trooper Dan’s spare gun was an automatic that was much smaller than the Magnum but no less lethal. As Myers hit the
ground, Trooper Dan turned towards the patrol car and fired.

The back window exploded. Henry and Fox ducked down as Officer Clifton, breathing fast and with beads of sweat pricking his forehead, leaned in to the front seat. A second bullet ripped through
the vehicle, punching a hole in the windshield.

“Get us out of here!” Henry yelled. But instead of driving the car, Clifton leaped out with a shotgun in his arms. He fired twice in quick succession, but his hand was shaking and
the bullets flew way off target. He kept on moving to the cover of a ditch on the other side of the road. Trooper Dan fired after him.

In the back, Henry and Fox exchanged panicked glances.

“What do we do?” Fox asked above the noise of another round of gunfire.

Between the front seats Henry could see the key chain dangling in the ignition. Attached to it were a couple of smaller keys – undoubtedly for the cuffs.

“Get those keys,” Henry said. “At least I can slip these off my wrists.”

Keeping as low as possible, Fox reached through to the front and grabbed the keys from the ignition. As she got them, Henry stole a look through the back. Trooper Dan had retreated to the cover
of his cruiser and was slotting a fresh clip into the automatic. Meanwhile, Officer Clifton fired his shotgun more steadily now, hitting the front of the cruiser, but missing his target.

“Here,” Fox said, fitting the small keys into the cuffs. Henry almost laughed with relief as they sprang open. He turned round and grabbed the keys from her.

“Let’s get out of here,” he said, squeezing through the gap between the front seats. He fitted the keys into the ignition and put his foot on the gas. The engine turned over
easily, not like the truck. Through the open driver’s door he saw Officer Clifton crouched in the ditch across the road.

“Get over here!” Henry called out to the cop.

“Stay where you are!” Clifton called back. “Do not move!”

Henry shook his head. “He’s going to kill you!”

Clifton rose from the ditch and fired the shotgun at the cruiser once more. “I said—”

A bullet from Trooper Dan’s gun hit Clifton in the throat and he staggered back into the ditch, out of sight.

“Just go!” Fox cried from the back.

Henry floored the gas and the patrol car roared away so fast the driver’s door slammed shut. Easing himself into the seat behind the wheel, Henry struggled to keep control as Trooper Dan
fired after them down the road. At least one bullet hit, shattering a side window.

“Are you okay?” he asked Fox as they sped out of range of the gun. “Are you hit?”

“I’m fine,” Fox said, crawling over the passenger seat into the front. “Can you drive?”

“Just about,” Henry replied. “Is he following us?”

Fox looked through the open back window. “Not yet… No, wait… Here he comes!”

Henry checked out the passenger mirror. Sure enough, Trooper Dan’s cruiser was approaching at high speed.

“Try to outrun him!” Fox exclaimed. “Put your foot down!”

Henry gritted his teeth as they flew around a corner, almost going off the road and into the trees in the process. “I’m going as fast as I can without killing us!”

Henry could hear the roar of the pursuing car and didn’t need to check the mirror to know it was right behind them. He suspected that Trooper Dan’s vehicle had a few speed
modifications that weren’t strictly by the book. A second later the cruiser impacted the back of the patrol car. Henry just managed to hold it on the road.

“See if you can get anyone on that,” he said to Fox, indicating the police radio.

She picked up the handset and started speaking into it, asking for any response. Henry checked his mirror, seeing the trooper coming again. This time he swerved to the side, avoiding most of the
impact. One thing he didn’t want was for Trooper Dan to pull alongside them where he could fire off a clear shot.

“I can’t get anything on this!” Fox said. “Malcorp must be blocking the signal for miles!”

“Keep trying!”

Ahead, the road straightened out somewhat. On the left, the moonlight illuminated what appeared to be a quarry between the trees – a giant wound in the earth, evidence of the industry that
had been in the area before Malcorp arrived…

Bullets ripped through the hood of the patrol car, almost causing Henry to brake in shock. For a second he thought it had been Trooper Dan, but then he realized that it couldn’t have been.
They’d been hit from the air. The helicopter! In his effort to concentrate on the road and their pursuer, Henry hadn’t heard the whir of the blades. He looked up as the chopper passed
overhead, coming round for another pass. One of the Malcorp security guards was hanging out of the back with the machine gun in his arms.

“Dammit!” Fox said. “This isn’t fair!”

“I know,” Henry said, coming to a sudden realization. They’d never escape both the trooper and the helicopter. It was time for drastic action…

He threw the wheel to the left, sending the patrol car down a wide dirt road that ended after a few metres with a large gate. He didn’t slow for a second, smashing through the gate and
carrying on in the direction of the quarry.

“What are you doing?” Fox demanded as they sped down the road, passing giant mounds of rock and sand that stood amid decaying buildings. The place was deserted. “This is a dead
end!”

“I know,” Henry replied, sending the car round one of the mounds and then weaving behind another. For a moment he lost sight of Trooper Dan in the mirror. The helicopter was still
back over the road, no doubt waiting to see if they tried to double back. He looked at Fox.

“You need to jump out when I say,” he said. “I’ll try to slow as much as possible. Then you need to stay out of sight and get away.”

Fox shook her head vehemently. “There is no way…”

“Listen!” Henry said. “They’re going to catch us! This way one of us can get the story out there. Understand?”

Fox’s face fell, but she nodded. “Henry…”

“No time!” he said, as he drove the patrol car behind another mound of sand. Trooper Dan had collided with a different mound and lost ground. He hit the brakes. “Jump out.
Now!”

Fox didn’t need telling twice. She pushed the door open and leaped out, hitting the ground moving and bending her knees so she rolled into a crouch. In his mirror, Henry watched her run
for cover and find it as Trooper Dan’s cruiser heaved into view.

“Okay,” Henry said to himself. “Let’s see how fast you can really go.”

He put his foot to the floor. The engine of the patrol car screamed and it jumped forward at a startling pace. Passing out of the little mountain range of sand piles, Henry hit a relatively
straight dirt track that took him between two of the larger buildings on the site. Beyond them he could see the edge of the quarry – a two-hundred-metre wide indentation in the ground.

Suddenly, Trooper Dan’s cruiser smashed into the back of Henry’s car. Henry was thrown against the wheel. Ahead, the edge of the quarry loomed closer. He tried to turn, but the
steering had locked out. He hit the brake… But the cruiser slammed him again and stayed there, pushing him down the track…

The patrol car flew through a warning barrier and the road ran out a second later. Trooper Dan’s vehicle came to a halt with a squeal of brakes. The patrol car carried on,
unstoppable…

Over the edge and into space…

Half a kilometre back down the track, Fox staggered from the hiding place she’d found behind one of the sand mounds. From her elevated position she’d seen
everything: the pursuit, the patrol car pushing the cruiser, and finally Henry’s car sailing off into the quarry. An explosion lit up the night sky as the car hit the bottom, a hundred metres
down. By the quarry, she saw Trooper Dan get out of his cruiser and walk to the edge to admire his handiwork.