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They heard shouts, in Italian and English, accompanied by running steps. Too many, too many. She leaned up. “Either they found Harry or they saw us. We can’t get to Kitsune and Grant now. I hate this, but there are too many of them. We have to go back the way we came, and fast.”
They scrambled back down the tunnel, past Lilith’s body, into the darkness.
They heard shouts behind them.
“Can you understand what they’re shouting?”
“They’re on radios, calling for reinforcements.”
“Let’s duck in here.” They ran into a side tunnel, this one smaller, darker than a tomb.
Nicholas grabbed her arm. “Wait, stop. Do you hear that?”
“I thought I heard an engine. Like a motorbike.” They listened for a moment, but Mike could hear nothing but voices.
“I saw motorbikes in the central cavern. Now I hear them, they’re calling for someone to cut us off, to drive us back. Nicholas, this tunnel goes somewhere, it doesn’t dead-end. Come on.”
They ran into the offshoot tunnel. Without warning, a high-pitched motor revved, close to them, and they were blinded by the single headlamp.
A man started yelling, “They’re here, I’ve found them.”
And the motorbike raced toward them.
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
Mike, this way.” They turned and ran back toward the main junction, the motorbike right behind them, the engine whine echoing off the walls.
“More engines, more bikes. Run or make a stand?”
He flashed her a grin. “Sorry, sweetheart, but we’re definitely outnumbered. We’ll circle back around and surprise them on the other side of the cavern.”
“Where do we go?”
“Follow me.” He sprinted away and she was after him, running hard. Shouts, yells, in Italian and English, loud, closer than they’d like. A bullet whizzed past Mike’s head, slamming in the dirt wall.
Nicholas pulled up and threw himself in front of her, pushing her up against the dirt wall, protecting her as he started shooting toward the man on the motorbike. He shot three times and the bike’s headlight spun crazily, then the bike slid onto its side, the engine whining, grabbing dirt into the exhaust.
“Hurry.”
He grabbed Mike’s hand again, and together they ran toward the bike, the rider dead three feet beyond it. Nicholas righted the bike and threw a leg over. “Climb aboard.” He sent her a manic grin. “Sorry, no helmets.”
She swallowed a laugh and pressed against his back. “I hope Russo doesn’t show up to give us tickets. Go, Nicholas!”
Nicholas whipped the bike around and headed back into the smaller offshoot tunnel. The engine revved hard once, twice, nearly bucking them off the bike. Then it caught and they were moving into the darkness fast, only the headlight showing them the way. Mike’s pulse pounded, her heart leaped. She held on tight, the air whipping her hair, and she yelled, “Go, go, go!”
Nicholas grinned, couldn’t help it.
The smaller tunnel had offshoots, several paths in and out. Mike had no idea which direction they were headed now. Over the noise of the engine she could hear another bike coming fast behind them.
“Company,” she shouted, as a second man on a bike tailed the first, both of them shouting and waving guns.
Mike shot one, Nicholas twisted around, shot the other. Mike’s target dropped, his bike skidding into the tunnel wall, but Nicholas’s kept coming. He wasn’t shooting now, he was crouched low, speeding up. He was going to run them down. The instant before the bike hit them, Nicholas turned their bike down another tunnel. Mike nearly fell off, but managed to grab his arm. He pulled her back on. She held on to his jacket with one hand and started shooting behind her with the other.
“There’s more, they’re coming.”
The tunnels were full of the echoes of bikes and gunshots and shouts. Two more bikes appeared behind them, their riders low to the handlebars, guns raised. Mike caught one in the hand, saw his gun go flying. He tried to keep coming one-handed, but he couldn’t control the bike and finally dropped it on its side and started running after them. The other ducked off another tunnel and disappeared.
“They’re going to cut us off, Nicholas.”
