Page 72 of S.O.S. Mizzay

“Don’t worry, doll. The idea here isn’t to get anybuddy hurt, but to make sure I leave my erstwhile hanger-on in the dust, then my two partners will move in and nail the prick’s heinie to the asphalt.”

That sounded…okay, Cobble guessed. He attempted to concentrate on logistics in order to keep his hands from shaking.

“How long before you get to the spot where you think you can lose your shadow?”

“Twenty-eight minutes.IfI obey the speed limit,” she answered cheekily.

“So, twenty minutes,” Cobble amended with a huff.

“Give or take,” Andy confirmed, not sounding at all penitent. “Do you wanna stay on the line, or have me call you back when it’s all ovah?”

“Don’t you dare hang up,” Cobble barked, then softened his stance. “Unless I’m going to distract you.”

“Are you kidding? Hearing your voice cheering me on will be the delicious icing on the frickin’ cake.”

****

Cobble couldn’t even say what they talked about over the next quarter hour, but he knew the minute Andy left the highway and found that deserted stretch of winding roads.

“Okay. Here we go.” She switched things up to talk to Wiley. “Mistah Prancingdeer, I now have eyes on that gray sedan. Good job pickin’ it out of a crowd. It’s certainly nothing special.”

There was silence for a moment while Wiley obviously replied.

Andy snorted and filled Cobble in. “He sez the black-out windows were a dead give-away.”

“Yeah. That’d do it,” Cobble sniffed.Damn, he wanted to have eyes on this operation.

“Okay. I’m pedal to the metal,” Andy gave warning, then…

“Wheee!”

Cobble didn’t want to ask just how fast she was going. Andy needed to keep her attention focused on the road since she was clearly flying.

“Oh, they know they’ve been made, now,” she finally stated gleefully. “They’re keeping up. Mistah Seingold, Mistah Prancingdeer. Hang back. I can see youze, which means our perp can too if he looks back. There’s no need to alert him that three of us are on the road. I’ll let you know when he reaches the limit of his skills, then I’ll boogie off, and you can take ovah.”

If that was the plan, it meant Andy was even now picking up her pace.

Cobble held his breath.

He heard wheels screech; he heard Andy chuckle. Cobble was glad someone was relaxed enough to be amused.

“Two wheels on that cornah,” Andy whooped, then less than a minute later he heard, “Oh, yeah? It’s gonna be like that?”

“What?” Cobble couldn’t stay quiet.

“He’s decided to play tag,” she apprised, without an ounce of fear in her voice. “He just tried to ram my bumper, but because I have more in the tank than he knows, I hit the gas and his kiss only amounted to an itty-bitty love tap.”

Cobble swallowed. He wasn’t liking this one bit.

“Huh. Wouldn’t you know it,” she said amusedly. “The asshole’s coming back fah more. Well, it’s time to make him eat it.” Her tone grew sharp. “Wiles, BB, there’s a sharp curve coming up. I’m going to use it.”

Cobble knew Andy was concentrating hard because it was one of the only times he’d ever heard her call her operatives by anything other than their last names.

“I’m going to slow down and let him catch up to me just before the bend,” she continued, telling them her thoughts. “He’ll think I’m too chicken to take the turn fast, which will be his mistake. When he gets within inches of my ass, I’ll punch it and do a controlled slide, which will move me sideways out of his hit-zone. He’ll shit his pants when he finds out there’s nobumper to tap, and his unchecked momentum will sendhiminto a spin.

“While he’s trying to recover, I’ll goose it and find a place to hide. Then he’ll be all yours, youze guys.”

Even though Cobble couldn’t hear the response from the pair, he imagined it was in the affirmative because the next thing he knew…

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