by Gary Sapp
double.”
“What?” Angel asked.
“Please say that again, sir.” Chris slowed the Land Cruiser enough to bend the SUV around a sharp curve as Serena had. “Would you care to elaborate?”
Sheridan snorted. “It’s an imposter. It’s a woman who has the same exact build as our fugitive. She tried to kill herself when we approached her.”
Angel cocked a brow at Chris but her question was intended for Sheridan.
“She tried to kill herself? What does that mean exactly?”
“Her gunned jammed as she fired a round.” Sheridan snorted again. “She meant business too, had half the barrel in her mouth. We do have her in custody. I hope to God you are in pursuit of the real Serena Tennyson, Agent Prince. I’ve got plenty of room on my credit card for those steaks we talked about.”
“Maybe…the next time I call you, I will make sure to have something to report one way or the other.”
After Angel disconnected for him Agent Christopher Prince threw all of his concentration on the Buick still ducking and dodging their pursuit. The Bluetooth lit up again; Angel threw the call on to the speaker.
Blue said: “Someone piss on me.”
“Agent Blue, calm down and report.”
“Yes, sir,” Chris can hear her muttering 1…2…3… “We have a dead man dressed in a wig. And I ain’t kidding when I say that he could really go for being a female, you know the slight build, and nearly no body hair save the wig, skin smoother than mine, he really looks the part at a distance.” She struggled to keep admiration out of her tone. “We didn’t get to question her, ah mean him, though. He killed—“
“He killed himself.” Angel said. Chris pounded the steering wheel in frustration. “We know, Agent Blue.”
Blue added: “Yea, he did just that, Doctor. He pulled out his gun just after we had him surrounded, we all got defensive, but before anyone could get their own piece out he suck that thing halfway in his mouth and ate one. His brains are still oozing down the nearby wall right now.”
Chris instructed Angel to disconnect the line with a finality that said that he wasn’t taking any more calls.
“What are you planning to do, Christopher?”
“It’s time for this pursuit to end. If both these vehicles continue at this velocity we’re going to get some poor civilian killed.”
Angel nodded in agreement.
Then she saw him almost bracing himself and giving her the slightest look that she had better do the same. She flashed him a very wicked smile. “Go ahead; be my guest, Christopher, I signed up for the rental car’s insurance.”
Chris pressed the gas pedal to the floor and rams Serena’s Buick just as she was readying the car for a turn. Oh, no, he wasn’t expecting her to bank as such a drastic angle and at such a great speed when he struck her car.
Chris hit the brakes, but either he or Angel can take their eyes off of Serena’s two ton spinning wheel of a car that turned over…and over…and… over one final time before it settled on its crushed top.
They hopped out of the Land Cruiser as quickly as seatbelt and door would allow them to. They had to side wind around a handful of metallic pieces of what was left of the Impala. Yet, considering all of today’s actions, neither Special Agent nor Clinical Phycologist were taking any chances as they both slow their pace as they reach the car. Chris is comforted, at least some, by knowing that Angel is professionally licensed to carry a concealed weapon. What does concern him is in the matter that she has taken two lives already and may be itching at the bit to add a third to her list.
He could hear sirens arriving in the backdrop.
They both saw a detached red wig that had begun blowing down the street. A woman who could have been Serena Tennyson in another life had part of that slim body inside the car…while the rest was outside buried beneath the Buick.
“It’s not her, Christopher.” Angel’s announcement, however obvious, had finalized the little episode with a loss for the good guys. She put her weapon away and let her hair blow in the breeze for a second. “It’s just another goddamned double. This was just another part of the ruse and we fell for it, hook, line, and sinker.”
“It’s more than that, Doc,” Chris said quietly. “This whole thing is far worse right now than anyone would imagine.”
A host of FBI agents, APD uniforms and first responder units came on the scene in a rainbow of red and blue color. A helicopter soon joined the mass and Chris assumed it was Sheridan sitting on the co-pilot’s side. Out in the distance he could see the first round of news trucks form many local affiliates entering the area as well.
On the other side of the road, two dozen or so marathoners slowed to a jog, passing through the scene losing focus from their race. The sight of the joggers, and the potential of injury or death they avoided, might have been the only positive that he could have found in the past 10 or 15 minutes of his life.
Angel seemed to eyeing the media trucks exclusively as she brushed her brunette hair out of her eyes. “To them, and more importantly to the public, this whole thing is going to make the bureau look incompetent at best, negligent at worst in Serena’s entire handling.” Angel had a thing for stating the obvious. “And the repercussions of this aren’t likely to blow over anytime soon.”
Chris leaned up against the wrecked Buick. “It’s far worse that just that, Doc,” He thought he might trade one obvious statement for another. “We already know from Agent Everett that several FBI Agents were involved. They betrayed their agency, their country by helping a known terrorist escape.”
Chris stooped to the ground where the upper part of the body of this double was lying very dead. He peered into her bloodshot eyes that hadn’t shut.
“Her death was an accident, Christopher.” Angel placed a hand on each of his shoulders and gave them a squeeze. “I saw the look on your face when she made that sudden turn just as you attempted to ram her. You were trying to save lives.” She said and both looked up long enough to catch the final glimpses of the marathon runners as they jogged out of sight into the building haze of a late afternoon. “It was a clean maneuver. Everything you did was by the book.”
I know you should be released by now, baby brother. On a personal and family level, I couldn’t feel better, especially you being reunited with my nephews again. They’ve missed you. He took a deep breath and realized instantly how bad that decision was considering how fast this smoky haze was blowing in from the West. Yet, as a professional law enforcement officer, your presence on the streets makes my job all the harder. Chris had already seen first-hand what a member of the Circle could do. And he put it in his report to Sheridan after he’d let the cobwebs dissipate a day or so later. A House in Chains and Pandora are like giants in the playground. He took one final look at the dead Serena Tennyson and got to his feet. And everyone else isn’t anything but ants getting stepped on your march towards war with one another.
He knew there was only way for this to end before that evadible clash.
He would have to take a giant down.
He walked back towards the Land Cruiser without looking back at his childhood friend. He had a renewed purpose—and a new mission.
He decided right then that if he had the chance to kill Serena Tennyson—shield or no shield that was what he was going to do.
Louis
He heard someone coming up from behind him.
He dared peer over his right shoulder, the passenger side of his pickup truck in full view.
A voice:
“Turn your head back around. Do not look at me. Do not say anything. I want you to put the key in the ignition, start this old heap up, put the transmission in gear and drive.”
Louis wanted to obey. He really wanted to. But he could hear the helicopters flying in the distance to take him away…far away. And anyway, his hands were trembling and he was so very cold, yet he was beginning to sweat along his forehead and underneath his armpits.
He managed to get the old girl’s engin
e going after the second try and he and…she were underway. He gazed one final time into his driver side mirror and found the strength to put his boot to the gas pedal and pull the pickup truck onto the highway. At least Elvis Pressley was swooning an oldie but goodie on the classic rock station, the familiarity of the king’s lyrics sooth him almost to the point of relaxation.
Serena Tennyson reached out and switched the radio to one of those 24 hour news channels.
“Watch your speed.” She said
Fuck you, lady. The voice inside him said.
She grabbed one of the bottled waters from the packs on the passenger side floorboard and downed half of it in a single gulp. She was wearing a gray sweat suit on top of the orange prison garb they issued you at the courthouse. He could only imagine what fate befell the woman who had owned the sweat suit when this day had started.
“Serena,” Louis took the off ramp at Hudson. He remembered that this point right here, right now passed an important threshold for their escape, Serena’s deliverance. “How did you make it here? All of the reports coming on the radio said that you’d been shot. How did you escape?”
She wiped the spilled portion from her mouth with the back of her hand…and were those tears seeping out the corner of her eyes. She still didn’t answer at first, but when she did, told Louis a grand tale that is full of treachery, deceit, betrayal and finally, murder. The final leg of it found her falling in with the marathon participants