Heard the stones kick up against the metal sheet.
Listened as Diaz pushed the car toward them.
From the corner of his eye, Lenny spotted movement in the dark.
Carrie fell, too weak to run further.
“Get up, sis, get up!”
He helped her up, watching as Diaz increased speed, closing the gap between them.
“Get in!” Adam suddenly yelled as his car screeched to a stop next to them.
He flung the passenger door open and yelled for them once more.
Carrie leaped into the front, Lenny in the back.
With their doors barely closed Adam flattened the gas pedal and maneuvered the car to kick up a curtain of dirt.
His car flew across the open space toward the road. In his rearview mirror, he looked out for the headlights that would come from Diaz’s car. Moments later they came into view through the dust cloud behind them.
Adam floored the car, willing it to go faster. Next to him, Carrie moaned where she’d hurt her ankle when she tripped.
“You okay?” Adam yelled over his shoulder to both of them.
“I’m fine,” Carrie said.
“I’ll live,” Lenny said.
“This man’s not giving up! He’s still behind us. It’s going to take a miracle to get rid of him,” Adam said.
“Can you lose him?”
“I’m sure going to try.”
But Diaz knew the road like the back of his hand. And he wasn’t going to let his prey get away, not by a long shot.
His car raced up behind them. Clipped their rear fender.
The impact caused Adam’s car to fishtail in a patch of soft sand. His hands furiously worked at the steering wheel to get the car back onto the road. Then Diaz hit them again.
“Faster, Adam!”
But the accelerator was already flush with the floor beneath his feet.
“Hold on!”
Adam swerved the car off the road and over into the rough landscape. Diaz flew past. He braked hard, almost flipping his car over.
Adam didn’t stop. The car’s wheels dipped in and out of shallow potholes across the uneven plain. Then one front wheel hit a low ridge. The impact nearly blew the tire.
“He’s turned around! He’s coming, Adam,” Lenny yelled keeping his eyes on Diaz.
“There!” Carrie suddenly yelled. “That’s the train tracks I found.”
Adam veered the car off into that direction.
Diaz was closing in again.
“This man won’t stop until he kills us all,” Lenny commented.
Their car hit another uneven patch which sent them up into the air before the nose slammed down hard on the ground. It lifted Lenny off his seat and deposited him hard onto the floor behind the seats.
A second later a single gunshot shattered the window where Lenny had been sitting seconds before he was thrown to the floor.
“Get down!” Adam yelled at Carrie to take cover.
She screamed as she ducked beneath the dashboard.
Another bullet whistled through the air and hit the frame of the car. It clanked off the steel with a hollow sound.
Adam pushed the car over onto the train tracks. The railway sleepers hit the wheels as the car found the tracks. Adam moved the vehicle over them until he found a smoother path, keeping the car steady.
In his mirror, he watched as Diaz hit the same ridge they had just moments before. His car slammed back down, lifting Diaz from his seat and crashing his head against the steering wheel. The car slowed down. As if it had suddenly lost power. But only for a moment before it jerked back into position and continued its course. This time, however, it seemed far more determined.
“We can’t keep riding the tracks. We’re going to have to find a way out of this place,” Adam yelled over his shoulder to where Lenny still lay on the floor behind his seat.
Lenny climbed back onto the backseat and told Carrie to stay down. His eyes frantically searched for another way out.
“There’s nothing but this endless track. It could go on for miles,” he yelled.
“I think that’s the least of our worries! There’s a train coming straight at us!”
Carrie squealed in fear. She kept her head down on her knees.
Lenny looked out the rear window.
“That maniac is still hot on our tail too, Adam.”
Adam didn’t answer. His focus was on finding a way to escape being crushed between a maniac and a train.
On either side of the tracks were rows and rows of trees—the space between each too narrow for the car to fit through.
They were trapped.
The train’s whistle warned them to move off the track.
Its lights grew sharper, closer.
Neither Lenny or Carrie spoke a word. Their eyes were fixed on the train up ahead.
Adam’s hands were so tightly gripped around the steering wheel that his white knuckles glowed like fireflies in the dark.
Behind them, Diaz was closing in, fast.
Adam wondered if his desire to see them suffer had made Diaz crazy enough to push them into the oncoming train—even if it meant sacrificing his own life in the process. He would. He totally would.
“Adam, we’re not going to make it. There’s no way out.” Lenny finally spoke his thoughts out loud.
Carrie broke into an anguished sob.
The train’s whistle blasted long and hard through the chilly night air.
Yet, Adam remained on course. Earlier he’d asked God to protect them and he still held firm in his faith that he would. The way he had always done for his children. The way Job had done when Satan tempted him. God never let him go. A lonely tear threatened to roll down Adam’s cheek as he felt God’s presence come over him. When he let go of the wheel, for one small second just to wipe the wetness from his eyes, the railway track forced the car’s wheels off the sleepers.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
In one unexpected moment, a mere twenty yards away from the oncoming train, Adam’s car veered off between two trees that were spaced precisely far enough for the car to fit through.
The sides of the car scraped between the trees where the momentum deposited them on the other side of the trees and onto a tarmac road.
When the car’s nose pushed through a small bush after which it met with a single lane road, Adam yanked the wheel hard left in a furious attempt to regain control. For a brief moment, two of the wheels spun in the air as the car left the ground but then dropped down to hug the road.
“Whoohoo!” Lenny yelled out, patting Adam on his back then leaning over the front seats to kiss his sister on the cheek.
“You did it, Adam! You’re a genius,” Lenny kept praising.
“That, my friend, was all God,” Adam replied, still in reverent awe at what had just happened.
But their moment of celebration was short-lived.
As they sped along the winding road that ran adjacent to the tracks, Diaz’s car appeared from between the rows of trees in the distance behind them.
“The psychopath made it too! I can’t believe it!” Lenny’s indignant voice announced.
“Perhaps God’s not done with him yet,” Carrie replied quietly.
Her words caught Lenny off guard. He had no idea she too knew God.
He watched as Adam shared a sideways smile with Carrie as if they knew a secret Lenny didn’t. It made him feel like they belonged to a private club he wasn’t a part of.
Adam focused his attention back on the road. It was hard to see the road in front of them—they had lost one of the headlights during the escape between the trees.
“You’d better push it, Adam, before he catches up to us,” Lenny urged.
But Adam’s mind was occupied elsewhere.
“Hey, Adam, you’re not listening. Put your foot flat, bud. We can’t afford to slow down now.”
He wasn’t. At least not intentionally.
“I’m going as fast as I can, Lenny.”
“No
, you’re not. Your foot’s not even flat on the gas pedal. What are you doing?”
Adam didn’t answer, his eyes darting between the dashboard and Diaz’s car behind them. There was a fair distance between them, but it wouldn’t take him long to catch up.
Lenny mumbled something under his breath while his eyes were nervously glued to Diaz’s car behind them.
Adam’s back stiffened in his seat as he shuffled into an upright position. As if he was preparing for something unexpected.
As his body stretched out he felt the transmission radio’s adhesive tape pull across his skin under his shirt. Subconsciously his hand moved over his shirt to adjust it. At that moment static scratched in his ear. He had forgotten about the earpiece.
“Adam! Adam, do you read me?” Gabriel’s voice blasted into his earpiece.
“Gabriel! Yes, yes, I can hear you.” He smiled broadly.
“At last! That means you must have come back into range. Where are you?”
“No idea, but I have Lenny and Carrie with me in the car. They’re fine, but we have Diaz on our tail. We’re somewhere on a single lane road that runs alongside a railway track. There’s a pine forest on both sides. I think we’re heading east. But—”
“But what?”
“Well, we still have that small issue of an empty gas tank. I’m not sure how much further we have until we run out.”
The announcement made Lenny’s body run cold with terror. He leaned forward over Adam’s shoulder to inspect the gauge on the dashboard.
“You don’t have gas. I can’t believe we’re out of gas. Oh great!” he slumped back into his seat. His voice annoyed and laced with sarcasm.
Adam didn’t react.
“Okay, my team’s on it. Hang on. They’re tracking the signal to the radio box as we speak.”
“Please hurry, Gabriel. I think we’re about to run empty.”
“Copy that, Adam. Sit tight.”
After seeing how much ground Diaz had gained behind them, Adam applied a tiny amount of pressure to the gas pedal and the car gave its first sputter.
“Get ready to get out and run,” Adam said calmly.
“You’re kidding, right?”
“Afraid not. Carrie, how’s your ankle? Think you can run?”
“I’ll try.”
The engine gave another few spits before it finally died. In an attempt to try to escape Diaz in spite of that, Adam turned the lights off and freewheeled the vehicle off the road and as far between the trees as the turf would allow. Once the car had left the road completely, and they were a fair distance in among the trees, the car ground to a halt and Adam killed the lights.
“Get out, get out. We need to find someplace to hide before he catches up and sees the car. Hurry!”
But as soon as Carrie stepped out of the car and applied weight on her injured ankle she cringed in pain and nearly fell. Adam and Lenny flanked her sides, scooped her arms over their shoulders, and ran. Hearts pumping, their stomachs tense with fear, they dragged her across the leafy forest floor. In the quiet of the night, they heard the rubber from the wheels of Diaz’s car squeak on the tarmac before it came to a sudden halt.
They heard his door open, then close behind him. Leaves and twigs cracked under his feet as he entered the silent forest behind them.
Adam’s eyes scanned for a place to take shelter. There was nothing but rows and rows of loblolly pines.
“Adam, what’s happening?” Gabriel spoke in his ear.
“On foot. Trees. Chased,” Adam replied in a hushed tone using as few words as possible to avoid being detected by Diaz.
“Copy that. We’re suspecting you’re in the plantation east of the city. There should be a river as it slopes down and away from the road. If that sounds familiar double-tap the earpiece.”
It was too dark for Adam to see clearly but from the way his body weight had shifted, he could tell they were indeed on a slight downward slope. So he double-tapped the earpiece as instructed.
“Copy that. Good. Keep going toward the river. Once you get there, run west along the river. There’s an old timber mill. I’m sending a team to meet you there. Tap again if you heard me.”
Adam tapped twice.
“Great. This will be over soon, Adam. Stay safe.”
But that was easier said than done.
Less than half a minute later a single bullet whistled through the air and smashed into a tree trunk ten feet away from them.
“I’ll hunt you down till the end of time! I warned you not to cross me, Lenny! You’re going to pay if it’s the last thing I do, you hear me!” Diaz’s deranged voice echoed through the forest. “You’re not going to get away from me!”
Another bullet hit the dry leaves somewhere behind them. The abrupt sound caught Carrie off guard and she crouched forward. In doing so she threw them all off balance and they nosedived forward, narrowly missing a tree stump in the ground.
Lenny was up on his feet first. Then Adam. As they pulled Carrie up and over their shoulders again, Diaz had gained significant ground. So close was he that they could almost hear him breathing right behind them.
The ground had become steep as it sloped down to where they could now also hear the river. Beneath their feet, the fallen needles were slippery and made it hard to keep a sure footing. Above their heads, the tree canopy blocked out any light the moon might have provided to help them find their way. A blessing in disguise in this instance, they realized, when they heard Diaz thump down onto the ground—obviously tripping over the tree stump.
It gave them enough time to reach the river and turn up in the direction of the mill, hoping, praying Diaz didn’t see them.
“Where are we going?” Lenny whispered, his voice drummed out by the flowing river.
“There’s a team waiting for us at a timber mill up ahead.”
But the ground was uneven and muddy which made it harder for them to move fast enough. Several times the incline had them slide off into the icy water, cringing each time the water splashed noisily. But it was the same splashing sound that alerted them to the fact that Diaz had indeed found their trail and wasn’t far behind.
“You can run but you can’t hide, you fools. Sooner or later I’ll catch up to you and you know it!” Diaz yelled in an enraged fit after he had landed in the water again.
His voice cut through the now icy night as he hunted his victims down. Driven by all things evil—anger, hatred, perhaps past hurts—Diaz had been taken over by an enemy only the faithful could survive.
“There!” Adam whispered and pointed to a clearing only twenty yards away.
From where they were they had to head up a short hill to where the outline of the timber mill appeared amid the darkness. The task was arduous with having to help Carrie walk and it wasn’t soon after that they heard Diaz right behind them.
Adam’s eyes desperately searched for the tactical team. To no avail. Desperate for their aid he risked it and called out to Gabriel.
“We’re here,” he whispered into the mic.
“Copy that, Adam. The team isn’t far. Take shelter and wait for them.”
The rural sawmill wasn’t very big. With nothing but a roof structure in and among piles of lumber, there weren’t many places to hide.
Behind them, Diaz’s heavy breathing carried up the hill through the thin air.
“Where’s the team?” Lenny asked when they ducked down behind a pile of logs next to the sawmill.
“They’re coming. We need to stay low until they get here.”
Lenny didn’t need to say it. All three of them were equally terrified. They took shelter behind the logs and waited in silence, their hearts pounding in their chests, their bodies trembling in fear.
It was the chilling sound of snapping twigs that alerted them that Diaz had found them.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Moments later Diaz was right beside them, his glistening silver gun aimed at them, his index finger firm on the trigger.
&nbs
p; “I told you I’d find you,” he teased, his mouth curled into a sadistic smile.
“Get up!” He bounced the tip of his gun up and down.
When Carrie stayed seated on the ground between Adam and Lenny he yelled, “You too!”
“She’s hurt,” Lenny explained.
“Spot the worry in my eye, you traitor. Now get her up!”
Adam and Lenny did as they were told, holding Carrie up between them.
“What do you want from us, Diaz?” Lenny asked.
“I want you to pay for crossing me.”
“I don’t have any money.”
Diaz bellowed a laugh.
“With your life, you idiot! Thanks to you I’ve lost ten of my top clients. That’s millions of dollars! After your backhand deal with Wu, they’ve lost all trust in me and my business. Do you have any idea how long and hard I’ve had to work to build my reputation? You think you can come along and destroy it?”
“I didn’t betray you, Diaz. It wasn’t my fault.” Lenny said, intentionally trying to extend the conversation to delay Diaz until the tactical team got there.
“Yeah, you see, that’s where you’re wrong, you slime ball.” Diaz stepped closer and poked the gun’s nose in Lenny’s face.
The threatening tactic had Lenny’s stomach turn upside down with fear.
“The only one who crossed you was Wu,” Lenny said, his poker face firm and mere inches away from the barrel of the gun. All the while his insides were gripped with terror. But his tactic had worked.
His words had taken Diaz by surprise. The evidence of which was written all over his face.
“Oh, you didn’t know. Now isn’t that interesting?”
Diaz poked the gun closer to Lenny’s face, the barrel now touching the tip of his nose.
“What are you talking about?” he demanded, lips pressed together.
“Wu was the one who stole the package from me in the first place. He was cutting you out of the deal, my friend. And when I tracked him down and backed him into a corner, he blackmailed us into deciphering the contents. Except we didn’t. Adam here sent him off on a wild goose chase. You’re the one who was stupid enough to fall for his plan. He tricked you into trading the real formula for me. But you were so blinded with rage that you didn’t even realize that he had double-crossed you. This is all on you.”
Every Good Plan Page 15