Page 47 of One Knight Stand

I pressed my hands to my templates. “OMG. I can’t believe this. A flat tire, and we’re so close? Seriously?”

“Okay, let’s not panic,” Wally said. “Give Jax a call and have him pick us up. He and Kira should be the closest to us.”

I opened the door and grabbed the burner cell I’d left on my seat. I punched in the numbers for Jax’s phone and waited. Nothing happened. I looked down at the phone. “I don’t have any bars. How is that possible?”

Wally pulled out his phone and tried as well. “Me neither. No service. Apparently we’re in a dead zone.”

“How can we be in a dead zone?”

“Did it occur to you that your dadmighthave picked this location for exactly that reason, as it would cut off folks looking for him from their surveillance systems?” Wally asked.

It hadn’t, which frustrated me further. I kicked the gravel.

“Cursing at a flat tire and nonexistent cell service isn’t going to get us anywhere,” Wally said. “Let’s use our brains. That’s what we’re best at, right? How far are we in relation to the train station? Can we get there in time if we jog? Wait, let me rephrase that. Can we get there in time ifyoujog and I catch up later?”

I shook my head. “No way. We’re still several miles out. There’s no way I could make it on foot, even if I were a marathon runner, which, obviously, I’m not. We have to change this tire, and fast.”

“Okay, boss.” Wally turned the flashlight on me and I lifted my hand to deflect the blinding light from my eyes. “Have you ever changed a tire?”

“Wally! I don’t even have my driver’s license.”

He lowered the flashlight. “Well, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but neither have I.”

I swallowed the panic bubbling up in my throat. This couldn’t be happening. A flat tire wouldnotsabotage the operation. “How hard can it be, Wally? I’m sure all it takes is a basic knowledge of physics and mechanical engineering, as well as common sense. It isn’t rocket science, right?”

“Actually, right now, I’m wishing it was. I know more about rocket science than changing a tire.”

I agreed with him, but we had to get the tire changednow. I took the flashlight from him and walked to the trunk. “You have a spare tire in here, right?”

“Of course I do,” Wally said, following me. “Obviously, I’ve never had to use it, or the jack, but I understand the scientific principles of how the process works. I’m sure you do, too.”

“In theory, yes.” I held the flashlight while Wally pulled the spare tire out of the trunk, and I grabbed the jack. We brought both items near the flat tire.

“This seems pretty straightforward,” I said, brushing off my hands. “Jack up the car, replace the tire. But where do we put the jack?”

We both looked at the car, waiting for each other to speak. Finally Wally spoke. “How about here?” He pointed to the front of the car near the flat tire. “That should lift up the car enough so we can get the tire off.”

It seemed the logical course of action to me, so we put the jack there and started raising it. To our surprise, the car didn’t go up. Instead, the jack sank down into the muddy ground under the gravel.

“Crap!” Wally said in frustration. “We need something to distribute the load of the car onto the jack.”

I studied the problem for a minute, then dashed off-road, looking for a large, flat rock. I found one, so I stuck the flashlight in my pocket and carried the rock back to the car with both hands.

Getting down on my hands and knees, I wedged it under the jack to support it. “Do you think this will work?” I wiped my hands on the back of my jeans and examined my handiwork.

“I hope so,” Wally said grimly. “I don’t want to alarm you, but the clock is ticking. It’s seven minutes until showtime.”

“Oh no!” I gritted my teeth. “We’re never going to make it.”

“Yes, we will,” Wally said with determination. “Come on, let’s jack this thing up and get out of here.”

It was hard work, so we switched off pumping the jack. Partway up, the jack tilted slightly, and the car toppled backward off the jack.

“Nooooo!” I dropped to my knees in the road in desperation. “How did that happen?”

Wally ran around to the back of the car to see what had happened. “Ugh. We committed the ultimate beginner’s mistake. We forgot to wedge something behind the other tires to keep them from rolling. Give me a second and I’ll do that. You reposition the jack, and I’ll tell you when to start raising the car again. We were close, Angel. We know what we’re doing now. We’ve got this.”

I repositioned and reset the jack. This time we cranked the jack with even more urgency. At last, the car was off the ground.

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