by E Y Mak
“Yes, it’s how I knew you were coming down,” she said as she shifted the vehicle into first gear and floored the pedal. “And I found your weapon easily—the plan worked like a charm. Luckily, I didn’t have to fire it,” she said, referring to the electronic biometric lock.
Russell felt his head snap back from the furious acceleration as Benita merged onto Westlands Road. As she continued driving, Russell searched his briefcase. The Ndian folder was still there. And so was his laptop and the Phineas smartphone. He grabbed the phone and hit the power button. Thirty seconds later, the phone had booted up.
He looked at the call log. 33 missed calls and 15 voice mails.
“Wow, someone was really trying to reach me,” Russell said.
He looked out the window and observed the light traffic forming in the evening as he dialed in. He inputted his access code and listened to his first message.
“Shit, Daniel!” he said.
“What’s wrong?” Benita asked as she ran her hand through her hair.
“The NYPD and Phineas New York are looking for me in connection with the murder of my boss.”
Chapter Thirty-Five
“What?” Benita asked as she quickly turned away from the road to look at Russell. “You’re being charged with what?”
“Murder. Or at least conspiracy to commit it with someone else. They found him dead in a New York park this morning. Shot,” Russell replied.
“Why do they think you’re involved?”
“The voicemail was from the regional executive director at Phineas HK. He told me to report to the HK office immediately. The voicemail is from four hours ago.”
Benita drove silently for a few brief seconds as she weaved her way through the highway, dodging between a white minivan and a double-decker bus. After pulling out of the passing lane, she finally spoke.
“You have to turn yourself in. Tell them the truth. I can drive you there.”
Russell was still thinking deeply about the voicemail. “It makes sense to do that,” he said, talking to himself. “But why do they think it’s me? The director also mentioned the name of one of the new recruits, Candice. I barely know the girl, but I think they think she and I conspired to commit the murder.”
“I’m taking you in,” Benita asked with a slightly worried tone. “We can sort this out together.” She reached out and grabbed Russell’s hands.
“This doesn’t make sense. It’s almost as though . . .” Russell’s trailed off as he started connecting the dots.
“What doesn’t make sense?” Benita asked.
It has to be Mauritius!” he shouted. “He managed to destroy Tim’s life. He was innocent. They set him up from the beginning. The Phantom must have been watching me at the Butler house. Figured we were looking into the investigation.”
“He’d have the audacity to go after Phineas personnel?” she said as she sped past another black Audi.
“I don’t have any explanation for it. We know the guy’s unafraid.” Russell rubbed his eyes with his palms. “Candice, they don’t know where she is either. The ED asked for both of us to come in.”
“Russell, the smartest thing to do is return to Phineas HK. They can protect and help you navigate what’s going on,” said Benita.
“They won’t protect me if they think I’m involved in a conspiracy to kill one of their own. Mauritius has a far reach. I won’t be able to do much if I’m locked up,” Russell said as he turned off his phone, then pulled out the battery. “I shouldn’t use any Phineas tools. They’ll be able to track me through that.”
“Did you tell anyone at Phineas that you were working with me?” she asked.
“No. But I’ve been texting and calling you—they know that you’re with me,” he said. “They might not think that you’re involved at this time. Drop me off, and you can stay out of this. I don’t want to complicate things for you.”
Russell sunk back into his chair as Benita accelerated to pass a stalled green and white minibus.
“Let’s find a place to think together,” she said. “I know somewhere.”
Russell didn’t answer as he was lost in his thoughts. Daniel was dead. Candice seemed to be missing. What about Harry? Lukas? Cherry? The kids? He was fighting the urge to turn on his phone and check up on them.
This is crazy. Daniel is dead.
Russell thought about their most recent discussion. Russell had pulled Daniel into this investigation, but Russell had also directly disobeyed his orders to not take on the Butler file.
Russell had noticed that Benita had slowed just above the speed limit. Fast enough that it didn’t look outside of the norm. On top of that, the Mercedes she was driving was nondescript in such a way that it blended in with the lower tier of Hong Kong’s privileged lifestyles. A girl of her age driving the Mercedes was actually quite typical in HK and suggested familial wealth.
“Where are we headed?” he asked.
“I house-sit for a friend up in the Northwest Territories,” she said. “It’s a bit of a decrepit place, but I go there every now and then when I need to get away from Hong Kong.”
“I’m late for this check-in already,” said Russell. “It’d be good to collect my thoughts before going into Phineas.”
She turned onto the Island Eastern Corridor, a highway that would take them towards the Kowloon Peninsula and eventually towards their destination. They had driven for about half a minute when Russell spotted a Prius police car cruising in the driving lane ahead of them
“Hold up. Five-O up ahead,” Russell said. At Benita’s current pace, she would creep by the cruiser in less than half a minute.
“I see him,” she said.
Benita accelerated slightly before hitting the cruise button at 5 kilometers per hour past the speed limit. At this speed, the Mercedes casually drifted by the Prius. Russell side-glanced at the police vehicle as they passed. The young policewoman in the car stared straight ahead.
“Does anyone know about this place?” he asked.
“No. I’ve never been up there with anyone before,” she said.
Russell turned on the radio. Benita was a news junkie and the tuner had already been set to the Hong Kong Radio Television News Channel. They listened attentively in silence to the updates in Cantonese for the next ten minutes as Benita continued her route to the Territories. Nothing popped up in the news mentioning either Russell or Phineas.
Suddenly, the calmness in the vehicle was disrupted by the loud roar of engines as two large full-size SUVs accelerated violently and pulled up beside the Mercedes, flanking the sedan, and a third pulled up behind. Russell saw a fourth vehicle in front of them slowing down to meet the convoy and box the Mercedes in. He recognized the bright contrasting emblem on the hood of the dark vehicles immediately. Phineas vehicles escorting us into custody. Looking through the skylight above, he saw the bright blue and red lights of two MSS drones descending from the dark sky towards them.
Phineas was intent on bringing him in today.
Before Russell could tell Benita what to do, she floored the accelerator. The Mercedes shot ahead of the two vehicles flanking them. The SUV in front swerved to block their passing lane, but with a quick flick of the wheel Benita, and the car’s German handling, made quick work of the SUV’s lumbering block attempt. Once past, Benita kept her foot pushing the accelerator against the floor of the car.
Russell turned to look at the shrinking SUV posse. “You don’t need to do this,” he said. “You’re not involved. Pull over and let me out.”
“I’m involved now, Russell, whether you like it or . . .”
Suddenly they were both thrown forward in their seats as one of the SUVs rammed them full on from behind. Russell looked back. The bull bars on the SUV had crushed most of the trunk of the Mercedes. Russell was taken aback by the lack of Phineas protocol being displayed. “Why are they using a precision immobilization technique so soon?” he said.
Benita didn’t respond. Instead, she angrily kicked up
the gear and floored the accelerator once again, this time onto a highway onramp, jumping the vehicle slightly as it hit the onramp. The Mercedes fishtailed slightly on landing but continued otherwise unperturbed. Russell checked the side mirror and saw the Phineas vehicles taking advantage of the slight deceleration of the Mercedes to catch up.
“How did they know where we are?”
Russell had been with Phineas long enough to know the answer. “They triangulated our location from my cell phone signal before I shut off the phone.”
“RUSSELL,” said a deep and strangely familiar voice from outside the Mercedes. Russell turned around and could see a familiar face in the passenger’s seat of the lead SUV. It was Ricardo Hernandez.
Russell recognized him instantly. He had cut his hair into a tight crew cut befitting his military upbringing but otherwise looked the same. Same chiseled face, prominent cheekbones and dark, angry eyes. Ricardo gripped the vehicle’s handheld microphone firmly and held it inches from his mouth.
“RUSSELL WOO. YOU HAVE NOWHERE TO RUN. PULL OVER IMMEDIATELY OR WE WILL BE FORCED TO TAKE IMMEDIATE ACTION.”
Russell looked grimly at Benita and said, “There’s no way we are going to outrun these guys without killing some innoce—”
Another loud boom blew through the interior. Benita screamed as the Mercedes pitched forward from the force of another hit. The seatbelt dug into Russell’s shoulder with such force that Russell felt the breath being squeezed out of him.
The Mercedes suddenly kicked to the left. This time, the SUV on their right had inched forward and brushed the side of the Mercedes. Both vehicles lifted slightly, each briefly traveling on two wheels before regaining traction.
“Are they always this aggressive?” Benita asked sternly as she spun the steering wheel to correct their lane positioning.
“This isn’t protocol,” Russell explained. He looked through the windshield and saw that the road in front of them had cleared up. Now was the time for the 355 horses of the AMG engine to shine.
As if she could read his thoughts, Benita gassed hard and immediately put thirty yards between them and the closest pursuer. Russell turned back again and watched the four SUVs shrink in the distance. The two drones, however, had detected and matched the speed of the Mercedes, staying an unwavering twenty feet behind the vehicle.
Russell turned to Benita. “Last chance. You’re in?”
“Yes.”
“Alright. Drive as straight as possible,” Russell said as he pulled himself outside of the passenger window, pistol in hand, anchoring his right foot against the bottom of his seat. He raised the gun towards the closest drone.
“This is your final warning,” yelled Ricardo through his microphone.
Russell squeezed the trigger twice, hitting the drone dead center two times. The damaged drone shot backward from the impact of the bullets, then lifted up fifty feet before crashing back down onto the highway, rolling and spreading debris over the next hundred feet.
The second drone instantly broke its lock on the Mercedes and pulled up high in the sky, hovering above the grouping of Phineas SUVs.
“Scared it off for now,” said Russell as he ducked back into the car. He looked ahead and saw the sign for the Cross Harbour Tunnel pass overhead and knew immediately where they had to go. The Phineas agents had no choice but to reduce their speed and aggression in the busy streets of Mong Kok. The Phineas Creed required the preservation of human life above all costs. Benita and Russell could ditch the vehicle and disappear into the mass of people that was one of the most densely populated places in the world. At this point, Fuengirola was the least of their problems.
“Get off at this exit,” he said, pointing to the tunnel offramp. “We’ll lose them in Mong Kok.”
Benita nodded as she cut across three lanes to the offramp, narrowly missing a taxi. Russell looked back and saw all four of the SUVs behind them, but the narrow ramp forced them into a single file. The remaining drone had risen high into the city to avoid the tunnel.
Now within the tunnel, Benita weaved the agile Mercedes between the two lanes, swerving to avoid vans, red double-decker buses, luxury vehicles, and taxis. The SUVs were stuck behind them, unable to navigate the traffic as fluidly.
Five minutes later, the Mercedes shot out of the tunnel and connected onto Hong Chong Road, an expressway that would take them into the heart of Hong Kong. There, they would be able to lose the SUVs in the masses upon masses of people clustered into the dense neighborhood.
As they shot down off Hong Chong Road and onto the side streets, they approached a stale green light that turned yellow.
“Run it,” said Russell as he instinctively reached for the ceiling grab handles.
Benita whizzed right through the intersection before the light changed red, narrowly avoiding a left-turning refrigerator truck. Instantly, a loud crashing noise boomed behind them. Russell craned his neck and looked back. The first SUV had been clipped by the refrigerator truck, sending it flying into a concrete-block retaining wall.
“That’s one of them,” Russell said. Benita kept her eyes glued to the road in front of her as she proficiently snaked in and out of traffic. The SUVs stumbled along, sideswiping the parked and stalled vehicles that the nimble Mercedes had deftly maneuvered through. She repeated it once, twice, then three times with successive vehicles. The SUVs all managed to cumbersomely stay in hot pursuit. Despite its agility, the Mercedes couldn’t create any further distance due to the vehicle and foot traffic. Angry pedestrians shouted and cursed creatively in Cantonese as they sped by, and Russell saw one vendor throw vegetables in their general direction.
Two minutes after the offramp, they were now in an area of Mong Kok where both the sidewalk and parts of the main road teeming with shoppers. Benita slowed down. In the corner of his eye, Russell saw that the SUVs had also slowed down.
Without warning, a loud bang echoed in the busy street and the rear window of the Mercedes shattered. The crowd of shoppers surrounding the vehicles surged away, the screaming masses scattering in all directions.
“What the hell? They are firing on us!” Benita said.
Russell looked back and saw Ricardo raising his pistol again. “This isn’t going to end well for us if he catches us. Let’s get further away from the crowd,” Russell said as he spotted a small alleyway ahead. “Over there.” He pointed.
Benita steered the car towards the alley. It was narrow—but hopefully just big enough for the Mercedes to fit through. The Mercedes cleared the alley at forty miles per hour with less than six inches distance on each side.
The Mercedes had made it about thirty feet in when the first SUV tried its luck at high speeds. It too managed to fit but sheared off side mirrors in the process. The second didn’t make the turn and crumpled its hood into the brick wall of one of the buildings. The last vehicle slowed down before aborting the alley entry and instead continuing on the road.
“Another one down,” Russell said.
Benita was laser-focused on making sure she didn’t hit the elderly shopkeepers milling around in the back alley.
Behind them, the chasing SUV carried on more aggressively, eventually catching up. It hit the Mercedes, pushing it forward before raising it up from behind. The Mercedes jerked left, then right, sparks flying as the car scraped the walls.
Somehow, the Mercedes regained its footing on all four wheels and continued to move forward. Up ahead, Russell saw a white cube van turning into the alley and coming head-on into their path without, for some reason, slowing down.
“There’s an intersection ahead,” Russell said as he glanced forward. “Turn in there.”
Benita saw it too, a place where the two alleys crossed over each other. Russell felt her hit the gas pedal hard. The Mercedes had sustained a significant amount of damage and the acceleration was rocky, but it bumped up its speed. They were now only about forty yards away.
Now thirty yards away.
Twenty yards.
Ten
.
Benita turned hard at the intersection. She swerved so hard, Russell had to clutch the grab bar hard to stay in his seat.
But just as they turned, the last remaining SUV shot unexpectedly out from the left side of the intersection.
Everything suddenly became slow motion. Russell saw the headlights grow and, for a split second, looked straight into Ricardo’s eyes in the driver’s seat.
He watched the SUV’s bumper plow into Russell’s passenger side door.
He watched the glass of the passenger window shatter into a million tiny shards.
He watched the slow deformation of the side console as the SUV crumpled the Mercedes.
He saw the car rolling and pitching violently before he felt a hard smack on the left side of his head.
And then he saw nothing.
Chapter Thirty-Six
The feeling of lightness. Fluffy, pillowy lightness.
Stars. Darkness. Red. Light.
The sound of a horn blaring right next to him.
Screaming and shouting in Cantonese. Or was it Mandarin?
Russell opened his eyes and stared straight into the grey Mercedes logo. He slowly lifted his head back and quickly realized it was the deployed passenger airbag. The interior of the Mercedes seemed to be okay, all things considered, but the crumpled hood, severely impacted side door, and rising steam prevented him from seeing past the front of the vehicle.
“Benita?” he muttered as he turned to his right.
“I’m okay,” she said. She was awake but had a deep gash above her left temple. He reached over to stabilize her in her seat, but she waved him away.
“Really, I’m okay.”