AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I didn’t think we had a flight booked. I didn’t even know where this mysterious school was located. I also didn’t know how Kira planned to get us on a plane carrying a bunch of metal devices and two loaded pistols. But at the moment, I was more worried about dying in a car crash.
The cabbie shot through River North traffic, running two yellow lights and one red before turning onto I-90. The car rattled and roared as he pushed it up past seventy on the highway. Kira twisted herself backward to look out the rear window, her hands gripping the headrest. Suddenly, she whipped back around.
“Damnit!” she shouted. “Getdown!”
“Get down where?” the cabbie shouted back. “I’m fuckingdriving!”
“Lower your head!Now!” shouted Kira. She looked at me. “She’s back,” she said.
The cabbie slid down in his seat until his eyes were barely at the level of the steering wheel. A second later, the rear window exploded into a million pieces. I dropped down in my seat as hard pebbles of safety glass rained through the cab.
I turned and looked up—just far enough to see a black sedan weaving through traffic behind us, approaching fast. A dark-haired woman was leaning out the driver’s window, arm extended. Irina! I saw the muzzle blast and heard two loud metallic bangs inside the cab.
“Son of abitch!” shouted the cabbie. “Whoareyou people??”
“Do not stop!” Kira yelled back. “Do not slow down!”
Kira shoved me down on the seat. She reached into her backpack and pulled out a small metal oval. It looked like an egg. She leaned out the rear window and tossed it onto the roadway. I heard a huge bang and screeching tires. I jerked my head up again to look. The black sedan was spinning off to the side of the highway. The front end smashed into the guardrail, and I saw the airbags deploy. Cars careened around the wreck. A truck slammed into a Prius, and they both ended up crosswise on the interstate as cars piled up behind them.
We were way ahead of the wreckage, coming up on the Canfield exit.
“I’m getting off here!” shouted the cabbie. “I gotta find a cop!”
Kira pulled the pistol out of her backpack and pointed it at the rearview mirror.
“You’re going to the airport,” said Kira. “You’re not stopping anywhere.”
“Okay, okay,” said the cabbie, raising one hand. “No more shooting!”
He crouched as low as he could behind the wheel and sped up again. I looked out the window and saw signs for the departure terminal. Kira stuffed the gun in her backpack and braced herself on the edge of the seat, ready to move. The driver sped up the ramp, cutting in line. He swerved toward the curb and jammed on the brakes.
“Out!” he screamed. “Get out now!”
I shoved the door open and scrambled to the curb, brushing bits of glass off my clothes. Kira followed right behind. She leaned through the front window and tossed a wad of bills at the cabbie.
“For your back window,” she said. She looked up at the two holes punched through the cab’s roof. She pulled out a few more bills and tossed them in. “And the rest of it.” The cabbie didn’t even reach for the money. He just let it flutter onto the floor mat as he pulled away. I watched him dodge a traffic guard and bounce hard over a speedbump. Then he sped off toward the airport exit. He didn’t look back.
“Let’s go,” said Kira.
She was heading toward the bank of sliding doors at the terminal entrance. Suddenly she stopped and pulled me down behind a low cement divider. All around us, people were moving through the doors with their carry-on bags and rolling suitcases.
“Don’t move,” she said.
“What?” I asked. “Irina’s gone. You bombed her off the road.”
Kira jerked her head in the direction of an entrance door about twenty yards down the row. I poked my head over the barrier. I didn’t see anything strange—just a bunch of neatly dressed teenagers near the door, ten or twelve of them. They looked like an international youth group. Maybe a choir.
As I watched, one of the guys pulled out his cell phone. He glanced at the screen, then gave a hand signal. The other kids gathered around him and looked at one another with weird robotic smiles. Kira pulled me back down and leaned in close to my ear.
“Irina didn’t come alone,” she whispered. “She brought a whole damned class.”
CHAPTER 72
“JESUS!” I WHISPERED back. “Somebody must really want you dead.”
“You and me both,” said Kira.
She pointed toward the entrance door closest to us. Then she glanced toward the curb and gestured for me to wait. An Uber had just pulled up and a whole family was spilling out—mom, dad, and four young kids, all chatty and excited, hauling color-coordinated luggage. As they walked past us, we stood up and blended in with them, like a friendly aunt and uncle.
