Page 81 of GAF Factor

“No, there’s too many of them.” I scanned the tree line at the back of the property. I counted at least three, maybe more. It was hard to tell in the dead of night. I was going off pure instinct. I was used to being hunted in cities, not in the wilderness. I was going to have to rely on IRIS a little more on this one. He was more familiar with this sort of situation than me.

“How do you want to handle this?”

“If I said I had a bomb on me?—”

“I doubt using explosives is the way to go.”

“Yeah, I thought that’s what you’d say,” he grumbled. “Fine, I guess we’ll do this the old-fashioned way.”

“Let’s get to the truck and lead them away. The last thing we need is any of this connecting to the Yates family.”

“Sure, no problem. We’ll just wave to them, kindly ask them to follow us out of town before firing upon us. That works all the time.”

“We just have to make it to that hill, then we’re home free to the road.”

“Sure. Just a few hundred yards of open field. No problem.”

I frowned at him. “I think your math skills need some work. That’s maybe a hundred yards.”

“What’s the difference?”

“The difference is two hundred yards,” I pointed out.

He scoffed at me. “So sorry. I had no idea we were being quite so precise in our measurements at the moment.”

“I had no idea we weren’t.”

“Fine. It’s about a hundred yards. If we can outrun them, we’re home free.”

“Sure, repeat everything I just said,” I muttered before taking off across the yard. Bullets ate up the ground at my feet as the Irish fired at us. “You’d think they’d have better aim!” I shouted over my shoulder.

“Don’t give them any ideas!” IRIS retorted.

Fifty yards to go and their aim was still shit. Either they weren’t trying to kill us or they were really bad at this. I wasn’t sure which one at the moment, and I wasn’t going to stop and examine it too closely.

We crested the hill, diving over the other side in a roll. Once we had cover, we took off for the truck. Jumping inside, the tires spun in the gravel before gaining traction.

We lead them through the country, far away from the small town and the Yates family home. For a moment, I thought we lost them, but then their headlights appeared in the rearview mirror and gained speed.

“Now can I blow them up?”

I couldn’t believe this guy. What was it with him and his constant need to blow up people?

“IKE, any minute now.”

“Fine, do your thing.”

“Yes!” He fist-pumped the air like a little kid. I huffed in irritation at the excitement rolling off him. How the hell did the guys on his team work with him constantly?

“Just slow down and I’ll hop out.”

“You have enough on you to blow up their vehicle?”

He grinned at me like a kid in a candy shop. “I always have enough on me.”

Shaking my head, I slowed enough for him to jump out without letting the vehicle behind us suspect anything. Then I took off, hoping IRIS didn’t blow himself up.

“Come on, come on,” I murmured as the seconds ticked past. I kept my eyes fixed to the rearview mirror, and just when I was sure IRIS had failed, a large explosion shook the earth. Bright yellow and orange flames filled the sky as I spun the truck around and hit the brakes. I couldn’t believe he’d actually done it.

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