Page 36 of Silent Target

Every instinct tells me to turn around.

I grip the wheel hard enough to hurt.

Smoke rises above the trees behind us.

Evie is already reaching for her door.

“We have to help him.”

I catch her wrist. “Wait.”

“For what?”

I listen.

One explosion.

No sustained gunfire.

No second detonation.

Then my encrypted phone vibrates.

Two words appear on the screen.

TRUCK EMPTY.

I release a breath.

“Hank?”

“He’s alive.”

Evie leans back against her seat and closes her eyes. “He frightened them into blowing up an empty truck?”

“He has that effect on people.”

“Is everyone you know insane?”

“Probably.”

I start the SUV and continue west.

Hank bought us time.

Not much.

But enough.

I follow a series of back roads through the mountains of western Virginia.

No interstate.

No toll roads.

No cameras.

No predictable route.