Page 49 of Shadow of the Moon

“Hope so,” she murmured, guiding the Jeep to follow.

It looked like it used to be a damn horse path. Then ATV or dirt bikes started using it, widening the path a little. He didn’t know if it was wide enough for a full-sized Jeep though.

Amberly was focused on the track, mouth open, breathing heavily as she concentrated completely on keeping them alive. She flinched as the driver’s side mirror hit a rock outcrop and flipped into the door. Dev was impressed that she kept it so close to the rock wall, because his side was a near vertical drop.

Then, suddenly, the road opened up and they seemed to be on a plateau or something. It was damn near level.

That was when the gunshots sounded. They both ducked, but Amberly continued to drive forward, bouncing over rocks and through depressions. They were a big, bright target coming across the field in the pitch black night.

That gave him an idea. “Turn off your lights,” he commanded her.

“What,” she screeched.

“Just do it!”

Amberly turned the lights off on the Jeep and turned to the right, getting out of the line of fire. Then he flipped the NVGs down over her eyes. “Sorry about that, babe.”

“Oh, dude. Hell yeah!”

Spinning the wheel, she floored the truck, taking sharp turns and hitting her brakes as they drove through the night. Bullets stopped hitting them, and Dev knew they had to be damned close to Regent.

Suddenly, lights flared as the ATV came to life. Amberly gasped as the light overwhelmed the AVGs and pushed them off her head. She blinked several times in the darkness, then the chase was on again.

Dev tried to take aim out the window, but his hand bounced like crazy. There was no way he’d get a decent shot off.

Then he heard something over the sound of the vehicle engines. It sounded like rotors from a chopper.

“Is that a helicopter,” Amberly cried, glancing around.

“I think so. Keep after him. This must have been his escape plan all along.”

Amberly stomped on the gas and the truck leaped forward. Dev wasn’t sure how the fuck she kept it going in a fairly straight line, the way it was bouncing around. The only comfort he took was in that the ATV was probably having just as hard of a time as they were as they climbed the mountain.

The sound of the helicopter built as it flew over top of them, closer than was comfortable. A spotlight flipped on, blinding in its intensity, but Amberly never wavered. The chopper flew on, spotlit the ATV for them, then swooped up the mountain. Whoever the pilot was, he was doing a damned good job.

“Frank is dirty,” she called, glancing at him.

“Callypso?” he asked incredulously.

She nodded. “That’s his granddaughter in Fort Collins. He’s had his nose in everything, and I was too blind to see it.”

“Is he working with Regent voluntarily or by force?”

“I think voluntarily, but that Regent was looking for leverage on him.”

Yeah, that made sense. He looked at Amberly. “Are you okay?”

Anger flashed in her eyes. “Yeah, I’m fine. Kind of half hoping that he’s in the chopper. Brown says his phone pinged in Bozeman, so he’s around.”

“Fuck,” he breathed.

Amberly hit a depression in the field and they ramped out of it, then it seemed to smoothe out. She laid on the gas, plunging up a rocky hillside. The ATV was only a few dozen yards ahead, tires spitting gravel as it climbed.

Amberly shifted the Jeep into a lower gear as gravity began to pull. This was a steep hill. As slow as they were going, though, it gave him a chance to take aim and fire at the ATV. Several of his hits struck, but in the dark, it was hard to guestimate where the tires were. And if he hit the tires, it may not make much difference on this hill.

The climb began to level out as they crested a rise. The helicopter was hovering, spotlight scanning the dark night. The ground sloped down to a small cleared spot, just big enough for the chopper to land.

“Stop, Amberly.”

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