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Honestly, what the hell?
I seethe in silence the rest of the drive as reality continues to hit me in cold bursts. I am the CEO of Milenna and no one is coming to change that. It’s me, the last Milenna, because my father will probably have to change his name. I hate it, I hate it all. I hate the hope that was snatched from me, the peace I thought I could have. Why did I think that this would just be the magical problem solver and everything would be so wonderful after this?
Ainsley doesn’t say anything else to me, but she does talk through her earpiece to someone named Scotty about the drone and flight paths along the Hudson River. She’s giving more attention to the rearview mirror.
“Get off my line, Evvy,” she shouts as we start weaving through traffic. “We have a tail.”
Good, I hope we’re being followed. I hope I get terribly hurt, not killed, but terribly hurt and my dad has to live with himself for the rest of his life knowing that my mom died and I’m maimed for life and it’s all his fault.
Okay, that was a thought too far.
“We good?” I ask Ainsley.
“I don’t think so,” she mutters. “Grab the laptop.”
I pick it up from where it’s been sitting at my feet the whole car ride.
“When I throw the car across the pier, run it to the helo while I cover for you.” Ainsley’s tone is suddenly serious as she pivots to watch behind her and look in front of us.
We’re on a street that stretches down to the water for half a mile and ends in a straight shot to a pier with a helipad at the end. The helipad is empty.
“I need to know you heard me,” Ainsley says.
“Got it,” I reply.
Ainsley grins, a glimmer of danger in her eyes.
“You ready for this? Brace yourself for the drift.”
I hug the laptop to my chest and plant my boots firmly on the floor of the car. She accelerates towards the pier, almost catching air as we hit the top of the last downhill at high speed. She hits the gas, cranks the wheel left, yanks the hand brake and we skid to a perfect stop, perpendicular to the pier.
I click out of my seatbelt and hesitate. There’s still no helicopter. I should wait until I at least hear the steady thump of its propeller approaching.
Bullets hit the car, shattering the glass in all the windows. Ainsley and I instinctively duck and protect our heads as shards rain down over us.
“That’s not supposed to happen!” Ainsley shouts.
She shoves me out the passenger side and dives out behind me, rolling to her left to use the front of the car as a barrier.
“Go!” she yells.
I take off racing down the pier towards the helipad, not realizing it’s a bit of a mirage and there’s more distance to cover than I predicted. I’m glad I’m still in decent running shape. I shift the laptop to my left arm and pump my right arm as I go full speed. The pier goes quiet behind me, no more gunshots ring out, and I hope that’s a good thing.
Just as I’m wondering why I chose boots instead of running shoes, a tall black figure hauls itself up and over the side of the pier, dripping wet and covered in neoprene. It rises, menacing, and runs for me.
I scream in terror. I know it’s probably some kind of mercenary, but I can’t even see a face. They’re like a specter of evil. But in my horror, I don’t realize that I’ve kept right on running towards them.
“Take this!” I shout and throw the laptop down the pier, hoping they either go for it or I can barrel my way past them.
Both hopeful efforts are an epic fail.
I smash into the person, who I can now tell is a woman, with my elbows out, but she manages to keep herself from getting the wind knocked out of her. She grabs straight for my neck, which I was not anticipating, and gets her hand around my throat in an iron grip. She manages to dance around my feet as I kick and claw at her hands, gasping for breath.
She has height on her side and I’m realizing that she wants me to pass out, but she’s in no rush. Her lack of urgency is terrifying. She squeezes harder and reaches under my coat and around my back, somehow intuiting that’s where I’ve strapped the actual laptop. A fiery ache fills my throat and my body starts going limp before I’m ready.
Is this how I go? Choked to death on a fool’s errand to get my dad back? Without saying goodbye to Everett, cheated of a future with the love of my life?
No. No, this is not it.
