Page 74 of No Vow Broken

We continued to accelerate around a corner. Lexi was pushing Basia’s car to its limit. Despite her warning about the couch, I readied myself to grab the steering wheel if needed.

“Get as low as possible,” I instructed everyone. “We need as low a center of gravity as possible.”

I lost sight of the drone as we raced onward. My internal clock said we should be at the drone’s planned intercept point, but there was no explosion. Instead, the right two wheels lifted off the ground as Lexi expertly navigated the next turn to the right. For a few seconds, I wasn’t sure she would make it, but the wheels dropped and she slammed on the brakes, slowing us from the breakneck speed.

When had she learned to drive so well?

“The drone aborted its attack and is now climbing again,” Tito reported just as I spied it again out of the window.

“Way to drive, Lexi,” Elvis shouted from the back. “Reminds me of the time we were running from the FBI when Slash was unconscious on the back seat. You should have seen her moves, Slash. It was like a movie.”

“Let’s not talk about that now,” Lexi replied tersely. “Where’s the drone now?”

The drone suddenly appeared in my vision. It had pulled back and slowed as it gained altitude.Good,I thought,it’s burning juice with every maneuver. I was counting on the fact that it wouldn’t have much left in the tank.

“I’ve got it,” Elvis suddenly exclaimed.

“Got what?” Lexi asked.

“The location of the drone controller,” he responded. “With each turn we’ve made, I’ve been able to get another line of position. Now I have enough to triangulate him. I should be able to pinpoint his location with excellent accuracy with just a few more detections.”

“How does that help us right now?” Lexi asked. “Knowing where our killer is located isn’t terribly useful if we’re all dead.”

“She’s got a point,” Tito said. “What do we do now?”

I’d been tracking the drone while Lexi gradually opened a little distance between us. I looked ahead and recognized the upcoming stretch of road from our prior trips. We were about to enter a tunnel of trees where the tree branches overhung the road that ran for about a quarter of a mile. When the leaves on the trees had fully emerged, they thoroughly blocked out the direct sunlight. The branches and the wind today would make it very risky for the drone to try and penetrate even the spring leaf cover to attack us. However, when we came out of the trees, the road went down the back side of the ridge in a series of S-turns. There were few trees on those turns, and we’d have to slow dramatically, making us an easy target. Worse, the trees would obstruct our view of the drone, so when we emerged, we wouldn’t be able to easily anticipate the attack.

I scanned the trees as we entered the area of overhead tree coverage. Given the road, we were almost certainly safer obscured here from the drone than out in the open. About half of the trees around us were firs or pines that could possibly hide us. I pointed to a spot where a stand of firs offered almost complete visual masking from above.

“Stop under those tree branches just off the right side of the road,” I instructed. “Make sure that when you stop, your tires are facing the road.”

She hit the brakes and we skidded to a stop right where I told her. She even yanked the steering wheel sideways, so the car was perpendicular to the road with the front tires on the pavement. We could escape quickly in either direction from here.

I looked at her with surprise at this precise maneuver. She gave me a thumbs-up.

“I never knew you could do that,” I said in surprise.

“Me neither,” Xavier said a little shakily from the back seat.

“I knew,” Elvis volunteered. “Been there, done this before. Not with drones, of course.”

“Now that everyone knows, what next?” Lexi asked.

I looked out the window. “Now we sit until the drone comes looking for us. We’re trying to run him out of power. By my estimate, we’ve driven several miles, and with his prior hovering and chasing us at high speed, he must be almost out of juice. Once he realizes we aren’t coming out the other end of these trees, he’ll come looking for us along the road. He’ll first have to find an opening through the trees. I’m not sure from which direction he will come. So, keep a lookout either way, and when we see him coming, Lexi will floor it. Hopefully, we’ll keep him chasing us until he runs out of power.”

“Hopefully, being the key phrase,” Elvis said.

“Exactly,” I agreed. “But why is he chasingusbecomes the real question. Who’s the target?”

Everyone fell silent. That was a question to which we didn’t have an answer.

Yet.

THIRTY-NINE

Lexi

My heart pounded. I might have seemed confident as I drove Basia’s car like a maniac while being chased by a crazy suicide drone, but inside I was scared to death. Someone seemed hell-bent on killing us, and I had no idea why.

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