Marta flung herself over the back of the seat. As soon as she was behind Crusher, he braced himself and waited for the SUV to catch up with them on the sidewalk.
The traffic chose that moment to ease forward an entire car length. Not that it would get them out of the jam, but it would give Crusher the wiggle room he needed.
The dark SUV barreled toward them. Thirty feet behind them. Twenty feet. Ten feet. Five. Then it was parallel with the rear of their rental.
“Hold on!” Crusher yelled and yanked the steering wheel to the right, slamming the rental into the front of the SUV and sending it crashing into the side of a building.
Crusher followed it, and the side of the rental shoved against the driver’s door.
When they came to a halt, Crusher threw the shift into park, engaged the parking brake, and yelled, “Jump!
He flung his door open at the same time as Marta and rolled out onto the ground. Hunkering low, he rounded her door, hooked her arm and raced through the stranded traffic before it started moving again.
A quick glance over his shoulder at the SUV he’d pinned against the side of a brick building assured him the occupants had yet to escape. The SUV rocked back and forth in an attempt to work free of the building and the abandoned SUV.
They only had seconds to disappear through the streets before the men in the other SUV moved enough to allow them to open a door.
Horns honked at Crusher and Marta as they darted in front of the slowly moving vehicles. The opposite side of the four-lane road was moving faster, so they had to pick their moments to cross.
Once on the other side, Crusher dared to glance back.
The trapped SUV backed several feet, dragging the rental Crusher had abandoned. They’d be free all too soon.
Holding Marta’s hand, Crusher dove into an alley, passing between buildings to the street beyond. They zigzagged through alleys, down streets and passed through department stores that took up entire blocks.
At one point, Crusher saw two men in black emerging from one of the alleys they’d passed through moments before. They spotted Crusher and started running toward them.
“We’re too recognizable in these clothes,” Marta said, glancing down at the navy-blue coveralls. She’d lost her hat somewhere between crashing into the other SUV and running across the crowded streets.
“We can’t help that now,” Crusher said and turned away from the advancing men. “We have to get out of here.
“If we can’t outrun them, we’ll have to outsmart them.” Marta pulled him into an office building and ran for the bank of elevators.
Crusher slowed. “They’re too close. They’ll see what floor we get off on.”
“Exactly.” She smiled, stepped into the elevator, pressed the button for the fourteenth floor and then exited before the doors closed. “Hopefully, that will throw them off long enough for us to put some distance between them and us.” She hurried down the hallway and drew Crusher into the ladies’ room.
The woman was brilliant in the lab and proving crafty as well. He could respect that. She was also pretty with her auburn hair hanging down around her shoulders in a wild mass of curls.
Crusher stood beside the swinging door with Marta behind him. If the men following them skipped the elevator and checked the doors along the corridor first, he’d be ready. He could handle two men, as long as they didn’t start shooting.
Heavy footsteps sounded in the hallway. A man said something in Spanish. They seemed to be arguing over where to look first.
A bell dinged, indicating one of the elevators had come to a stop on the ground floor.
A woman’s voice sounded as if she were offended. A man cursed in Spanish, feet scuffled and then silence. Crusher eased open the door and peered out.
The hallway was empty.
“Let’s go,” he said and hurried to the exit, keeping a watchful eye out for the two men.
People in business suits and leisure wear moved along the sidewalk outside the office building. No men in black among them.
Crusher and Marta stayed close to the side of the building in case the men could see out a window and spot them from the fourteenth floor.
After several more blocks, Crusher found a hop-on-hop-off bus pulled to the curb and stepped aboard, bringing Marta with him.
Once inside, they sank into empty seats.
