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“Good,” Gideon said. “I do, too.” He nodded at the approaching sign that said Helena City Limits. “We’re almost there.”
Alex swiveled in the seat to watch the cars behind her. Was it her imagination, or were they closer than they had been? As she watched, the nearest car, a dark sedan, closed some of the distance between them. “They’re getting closer,” she said with a sharp intake of air. “Trying to catch us?”
“I noticed that,” Gideon said. “I doubt they’re sure it’s you, but we’re the only three cars that have been on 287 since Bozeman.” He glanced in the rearview mirror again. Glanced at her. “Turn around,” he said sharply. “Don’t let them see your face.” He nodded at her purse, which she’d clutched to her chest. “Grab your phone and look for alternative routes through town.”
“You think they’ll try and stop us?” She opened her maps app and turned to watch in the side mirror as it booted up.
“No, but this route goes over a railroad track. I want to see if we can avoid it. I’d rather not be trapped in a line of cars with a train going by.”
“Me either,” she muttered. She enlarged the picture of the city. Studied the streets. “The compound is on this road, on the other side of Helena?”
“Yes.”
“Looks like there’s an underpass beneath the train tracks a few blocks left of this road. Just after this curve, turn left onto Willow. That will take us to the underpass.” She studied traffic in the side mirror next to her seat. “They got caught at a stoplight,” she said, glancing over her shoulder. “And there are cars turning onto this street. The cars between us will block their view of our car, and once they get through the red light, we’ll be gone.” The gates over the train tracks began to lower, accompanied by the familiar clanging warning.
“They probably have the mapping app on their phones, too,” he pointed out as he made the turn.
“Maybe it’ll give us enough of a head start to make it to the compound before they can catch up to us,” she replied.
As they drove down the underpass beneath the train tracks, they heard a train whistle. Three long, sharp blasts. Angry-sounding. Gideon smiled. “I wonder if Trotter or the Russians tried to go around the gates.”
“Stupid, dangerous thing to do,” Alex said.
“Trotter’s desperate. If he or the Russians know about the compound, they know we’ll be safe once we get there. They need to stop us before we do.”
Alex leaned forward in her seat, as if that could make the car go faster. She searched the streets, looking for a flash of Jerry’s white car. Didn’t see it.
She hadn’t paid enough attention to the dark sedan parked at the motel the night they’d fled. She swallowed. “You remember what the Russians were driving?” she asked.
“Dark sedan. Not an import. A Chevy, maybe.” He shrugged. “I didn’t study it. Figured they’d be in jail long enough for us to get far away from them.”
As they neared the intersection of the road they’d been on before their detour, Alex saw freight cars flashing past on the tracks. “We have a chance to get ahead of them,” she said. “Unless they saw the detour and took it, too.”
“I doubt it,” Gideon said. “Or they wouldn’t have tried to get past the gates.”
They turned left onto Rt. 287 again, and sped toward the edge of Helena. Behind them, Alex heard the clanging of the gate at the train tracks. She glanced at Gideon. “The train’s gone by,” she said. “The gate is opening.”
“We’re almost out of town. Once we’re past it, we can speed up.” He nodded at his phone in the cup holder. “Open my phone. Look in my contacts for Mel Melbourne. Call her and tell her we’re less than ten minutes away, and we have people on our ass. Have them open the gates.”
Alex grabbed the phone. Held it up so Gideon could open it with his irises. Then she found Mel’s number and hit the icon to place the call.
“Melbourne,” a voice said briskly.
“Ms. Melbourne, this is Alex Conway. Gideon Wolf and I are on Rt. 287. We’ve just left Helena, and we’re being pursued. Gideon asked me to ask you to open the gate.”
“Copy. I’ll open the gate and get some shooters in position in case they open fire on you.”
“Okay, thanks,” Alex said faintly. Open fire on them? “We’ll, ah, see you soon.”
Gideon slid his hand over hers. Squeezed, then let go. “That’s Mel. Always calm. Prepared for anything. She’s got us covered.”
Alex drew in a breath. Let it out. “Okay.” She turned and looked behind them. No sign of cars following, but the road continued to twist and turn. Made it impossible to see more than a few hundred feet behind them.
They drove the rest of the way in silence, tension building in the car. They rounded another turn and Alex saw a black metal fence on the left-hand side of the car. Ten feet high, and topped with razor wire. The openings in the fence were small and diamond-shaped. So someone couldn’t climb it?
As if he’d read her mind, Gideon said, “That’s where the compound begins. That fencing? Unclimbable. And the razor wire prevents using ropes or ladders to scale it. There are cameras in the trees at frequent intervals that are monitored constantly. Once we’re inside, we’re safe.”
Before the last word was out of Gideon’s mouth, she heard the roar of at least two vehicles behind them. Getting closer quickly. “How much further to the gate?” she asked, her stomach twisting with fear.
“Almost there. Another half mile or so.”
Ahead of them a gate crept open. The roar behind them got louder. Closer.
The open space was wide enough for a single car. The cars behind them sped up. Something pinged off the Subaru. Again.
“Head down!” Gideon glanced in the rearview mirror. “They’re shooting at us. Aiming at the tires.” His hands tightened on the steering wheel. “Hold on. This is going to be tricky.”
