UNEDITED
“There are six cars now. One is likely to catch up with us,” Samantha asked after looking back again.
Dave looked into the side mirror for a minute. “Let’s wait, we don’t know how long it will take the FOX men to get to us…”
“Holy sh*t!” they both cursed and lowered their heads as a bullet hit the rear glass and pierced through the front windshield.
Samantha looked back and spotted the car from where the gun was shot. The shooter was still pointing a gun from the passenger’s seat towards them and was waiting to get a good aim.
“I’m taking the next turn, Sam. You know what to do,” Dave gasped.
Samantha picked up the guns on her lap and moved quickly to the backseat. She wound down the window by the left-hand side and positioned both guns in her hands.
Dave swerved past a casual motorist and was only a few metres away from the turn. The pursuing car also overtook the motorist and the shooter fired again at them, but the bullets met the body of the car this time.
“Now!” Dave ordered as he took a sharp turn into the road by the left-hand side, putting Samantha in a position to have a clear shot at the car right behind them. Samantha did not waste the opportunity. She released three bullets from each gun, with one of them hitting the driver of the car and another into the shoulder of the shooter who was sitting beside the driver. The car ran straight into the drainage hole.
The pursuit continued, but they had enough more space between them and the Red Wolves’ vehicle after the turn and the accident. It took close to forty seconds before Samantha spotted another pursuing car after them. She was prepared and didn’t waste time before firing at the vehicle. Due to her position this time, she couldn’t fire more than three shots but was still able to get the desired result from the shots as the car crashed into another vehicle.
“F**k!” Dave cursed and slammed his fists on the steering wheel, looking into the side mirror, especially interested in the regular car that the Red Wolves’ vehicle crashed into. “This might get bloody that we thought. We don’t know how many people are in that car.”
“The only way it’s not going to get bloody is if we let them get us or the FOX shows up right now,” Samantha answered him after looking back to ensure that no pursuing vehicle was close enough for the Red Wolves to take a shot at them.
The atmosphere around the place had gotten tensed already. Dave could see pedestrians running away from the road and hiding for safety as they drove on. Open stores were also closing and the roadside sellers were clearing their goods.
“We’ve got enough space to get away now, but we don’t know where else they’ll be coming from,” Samantha remarked after looking back to check the distance between them and the pursuing vehicles again.
Dave looked at the side mirror for a while before he noticed something else and looked up.
“We might not have to worry about them any longer,” Dave heaved a sigh of relief as he spotted helicopters coming from behind. “We just need to ditch this car and get back to the hideout some other way.”
Samantha also sighed in relief after seeing the helicopters. “The closest garage to this location is twenty minutes away.”
“We ain’t going that far, Sam. We’re discarding this car in two minutes.”
“What? That will slow us down,” Samantha remarked. “Or you think they’re going to track us to the garage?”
“No,” Dave shook his head. “No, we’re ditching the car for the FOX. If they catch up with us, we’ll get arrested and that will slow us down even more.”
“You’re right,” Samantha looked back and chuckled.
“We’ll stop right there and mix with the crowd in the market,” Dave said, pointing towards an area where cars were parked just before a local market. “We’re going separate ways.”
“Sure,” Samantha remarked, putting back her guns in the holsters. “We reconnect when there are no longer signs of FOX men looking for us.”
_______
** Somewhere else in Bexford
“Where’s this place?” Maria asked as she stepped out of the car and closed the door.
She turned round to view the enclosed building and noticed there were lots of scraps at one corner.
“We’re very close to the lodge,” Jennifer answered her. “It’s fifteen minutes drive from here.”
Maxwell also stepped out of the car, reading something on his phone. “Evelyn is close by, she’ll be picking us up in five minutes,” he said as he strapped his backpack on. “Let’s proceed outside.”
“I should check first,” Maria offered and moved ahead of them towards the exit. She took out her gun.
She stopped at the entrance and peeped for a while before stepping out.
“Looks like it’s all clear,” she said to the others after looking around properly.
______
El Deols, Anthanna
Twenty Minutes Later
Due to the horrible road and a large number of potholes, Henry had a horrible experience driving down. He was still on the lookout for entrances into the forest while he was heading towards the closest village.
After more than six minutes of silence, he turned to Sheila. “Could you try to reach Rex again?”
She tapped on her phone and faced it to Henry. “There has been no network receipt for the last fifteen minutes.”
Henry remembered how the signal was poor on the tablet device some minutes ago, but he also remembered receiving a call at that same time.
“Why not try this?” He took out his phone and offered it to her.
Sheila took the phone and was about to dial the number but noticed that there was no signal on Henry’s phone either.
“You’ve got the same problem,” Sheila stated. “I think the farther we go from town, the worse the network becomes.”
Henry glanced at her and sighed. Then he continued for a few more seconds before hitting the brakes.
Sheila furrowed her brows at him, wondering why he stopped so suddenly.
“I think we passed the right route that will lead us to Rex,” Henry stated and quickly began to make efforts to turn the car.
“How do you know we passed it?”
Henry paused and looked at her face. “If you were in Rex’s shoes, where would you choose?”
Sheila squinted at him, not sure of what kind of answer he was expecting.
“Once we get closer to the village, we’ll have signals again. But Rex can’t be so close to the village. He has to be somewhere far, there are fewer chances of someone seeing him dragging Adrian with him,” he explained and paused to look at Sheila’s face.
“I don’t understand,” she frowned at him.
“Think about it, Sheila. You mentioned that Rex has not stayed for up to a minute on call since you’ve been talking with him.”
“Yea,” Sheila nodded. “That’s to avoid being tracked easily.”
“And that’s only effective when you try to track him from a long distance, right?”
Sheila nodded, still not getting what the point was.
“The closer we get, the easier it is for us to get his location. So, he chose a location where you won’t have enough signal at the right place to track him but where he could still reach you via phone calls.”
Sheila squinted at him. It seemed to make some sense now, but she was still trying to connect the dots. “That must be where you received the call.”
“Yes,” Henry snapped his fingers. “The network is poor enough to track him at that location but strong enough to receive calls. We’ll find the route around there,” he added and then completed the turn.
“Shi*t!” Sheila cursed under her breath as she finally understood his explanation.
_______
Bexford, Bethanna
“Over here,” Dave stepped out of the store and signalled to Samantha who was on the other side of the road.
They connected again fifteen minutes after separating to escape the FOX.
“Do you care for a drink?” Dave offered her a can of soda after she got to his side.
“No, thanks,” Samantha politely refused.
“I think I said that wrongly,” Dave chuckled mischievously, still holding out the drink. “You’ve got to have it, Sam. I got it for you.”
She looked at his face in hesitation.
“Take it,” Dave insisted. “You need it.”
She reluctantly took the drink from him and opened it immediately. “Thank you,” she said before gulping down a quarter of the content.
“I should book a taxi,” Dave continued. “The main road is about five to ten minutes walk from here. The driver is going to be there before us.”
They began to walk down the road, side by side.
“Do we have to go straight to the lodge now,” Samantha asked after sipping from the drink again.
Dave raised a brow at her. “Where else do you want us to go?”
“Nowhere,” Samantha shook her head. “But why don’t we just spend some time elsewhere instead of returning straight to the lodge.”
Dave locked his phone and stopped walking. “What are you talking about, Sam?”
She stopped too but had no answer to his question.
“It’s gonna take us close to an hour or more to get back to the lodge, there’s no need to waste more time. We must get back to the team quickly.”
“And what will getting back to the team do for us?” Samantha yelled.
Dave squinted at her deeply, wondering what was wrong with her. “Is anything the matter? Our plans just got messed up big time today and we need to make more plans with the team to move on. Why are you having a problem with that?”
“I don’t have a problem with that, but I don’t just think it’s the right time to make more plans. Instead, we have to detect what went wrong first.”
Dave could not still understand her. “Isn’t that what we first do when there’s a failure like this? We start with looking for what went wrong. Besides, we already know what went wrong here? The President blew it.”
Samantha was quiet for a while. Then she stared at his face with pleading eyes. “Can you please let us hang around somewhere first? I need to speak with Henry.”
Dave sighed. “Is it that time of the month?” He raised his brows.
She squinted at him. “What time?”
“It seems like you’re having a terrible mood swing,” Dave added.
“F*** you, Dave,” she scoffed. “Can we just hang around somewhere?”
“There are several corners we could get into in this area, but we may have problems with thugs if we stay too long,” Dave finally agreed.
“We won’t stay too long, I just need to get Henry’s answers to some questions.”
“Okay, let’s find somewhere to stick around.”
_____
— Back at the Lodge
“Hello everyone,” Maxwell greeted as he walked into the computer room with his backpack. Evelyn was right behind him. He shook hands with Steve at the entrance before proceeding further in.
“Maxwell, what about the ladies?” Paul Edwards asked, putting a hand on his shoulder.
“We arrived together,” Maxwell replied. He didn’t need to say more because Maria joined them in the control room at the same time.
“Hey, Maria,” Paul turned to her. “Is everything okay?”
“Yeah, we’re fine,” Maria replied.
“What about Jennifer?”
“She went to the kitchen, in search of something to eat,” Maria answered.
“Sarah made something for everyone to eat already,” Paul remarked. He paused to take in a deep breath. “We need to get ourselves together and come up with solutions. Right now, we’re in a big mess, but we can’t watch while the Red Wolves take over our country.”
“Well, your country. Your President sold it to the terrorists by stepping down,” Maxwell scoffed and walked to sit in front of one of the computers.
Paul turned to him. “You think it’s not going to affect Anthanna if the Red Wolves rule Bethanna?”
“Yes, I don’t think it’s going to affect Anthanna,” Maxwell replied boldly. “The Red Wolves will only govern you here and not us.”
Paul walked closer to him and pulled a seat to his front. “Don’t you think if Hutton succeeds on this one, he’s going to extend to Anthanna?”
“Why would he do that? He’s only interested in claiming back his power in Bethanna.”
Paul was about to say something else but the sound of a ringing phone distracted him.
“Samantha,” Mark said after checking the phone’s screen. He held it up until Paul came to get it.
“Where are you, Sam?” Paul answered the call.
“I’m with Dave now,” Samantha replied. “But I need to discuss something with Henry, can you send me a number to reach him?”
“Is there any problem?”
“No, everything is fine,” Samantha replied. “Would you send me a number, please?”
“Yes, sure,” Paul agreed. “I’ll send it right away.”
“Thank you,” Samantha replied.
“Do you need us to pick you up?”
“We’ll call you once we get out of this place,” she replied and then the line went off.
Paul immediately searched out the number and copied it.
Maria walked closer to Paul. “Why aren’t they here yet?”
“They had to get away from the Red Wolves, and then the FOX,” Paul replied, with his hands still busy on the phone.
“Get away from the FOX?”
“Yeah,” Paul replied and paused to look at Maria’s face. He could see that she looked confused. “Dave and Samantha aren’t FOX agents, you know?”
“Oh, okay,” Maria finally understood the situation. She had called for backup directly as a FOX agent, but it wasn’t the same for Dave and Samantha. Theirs was just reported as a crime the FOX needed to take care of.
“Hey, guys,” Jennifer walked into the place with her mouth full. She had her food in a soup plate in one hand and the spoon in another. She finished munching the food in her mouth before she talked again. “This is something you guys need to taste,” she said in a jolly mood. “At least, it’s something to make us happy after the bad day.”
She stopped in front of Steve and tried to feed him the food but he didn’t respond.
“Open your mouth big boy,” Jennifer scoffed. “Or are you guys always this tough at the FOX?” She rolled her eyes at him and turned to Evelyn with the spoon. “Have a taste.”
Evelyn smiled lightly and refused politely. “Thank you.”
“We don’t eat in here, Jennifer. You know that” Paul chided her.
“I’m sorry, I was just hungry and I thought I would be missing something in here,” Jennifer replied, looking around. “But as I can see, Dave and Samantha aren’t back yet. I guess I’m not missing anything,” she added before eating the portion on her spoon.
“Maybe I should go eat too,” Maxwell got up from where he was seated. “I’ll be around if you need me,” he said to Paul before walking out.
Jennifer raised her brows slightly and smiled before walking out.
“I’ll be back too, sir,” Maria also followed, after which Evelyn did.
Paul was left with Mark and Steve. He thought about their situation briefly for a moment and then inhaled and exhaled deeply.
“Gentlemen, I think it’s a good time for us to take a break too. Sarah made enough food for everyone.”
Mark got up from his seat and proceeded towards the door. Steve also proceeded out. Paul followed behind them and closed the door after he stepped out of the room. He had only taken two steps when a thought came to his mind. He stopped and took out his phone from his pocket and then dialled Samantha again.
“Hey, have you seen the number I sent to you?” He asked.
“Yes, thanks,” Samantha replied.
“Where are you guys?”
“Somewhere safe.”
“Where, Sam? And how soon are you getting here?”
“It’s one hour drive from here to the lodge,” Samantha replied. “We’ll start coming once I talk to Henry. The number you sent isn’t connecting. Is there another?”
“No, that’s the only number we’ve got,” Paul replied. “Sam, Henry is out to get Rex. He’s busy. You can discuss anything you want to discuss with him later. Just return to the lodge. We need to be together and brainstorm together.”
“Okay, Paul. I’ve heard you.”
“Is Dave there?”
“Yeah.”
“Can I…”
“It’s on speaker now, or do you want to speak with him privately?”
“Dave,” Paul called. “Is everything alright?”
“Yes, everything is good,” Dave replied.
“Okay, remember to call if you need us to pick you up.”
“Sure, we would,” Dave replied and the line went off.
_____
El Deols, Anthanna
“I’m having some signals now,” Sheila reported. “Looks like we’re close to the area.”
“Yeah, it’s around here,” Henry replied. “We just need to find the path which leads into the forest. I think you should call him again.”
Sheila quickly dialled the number. It began to ring.
“Sheila Jack,” Rex answered the call. “Looks like you didn’t stay at the location I asked you to stay.”
“I waited and you did not reach me as you promised to,” Sheila replied.
“Yeah, there were some complications,” Rex replied. “But it’s all been solved now.”
“What complications? Is Adrian alright?”
“Yes, everything is alright. Is everything still the same at your end? Are you still alone or have you called the police?”
Sheila glanced at Henry after hearing the question. “I’m alone. Can I speak to Adrian?”
“I don’t have enough time to pass the phone to Adrian. Don’t worry about him, he’s fine. I’ll send you my location as I promised. Make sure you take screenshots of the directions right away. You’re gonna need them. And again, make sure you’re coming alone. If you don’t, you may never get to see Adrian again.”
Sheila glanced at Henry on hearing Rex ask her to make screenshots. His recommendation suggested that she won’t have a strong signal enough to use the map on the way. That proved Henry’s theory that Rex must have chosen somewhere that was only strong enough for a 1G network.
“Okay, I’m coming alone. But I need to confirm…” Sheila was saying when the call ended. She quickly looked at Henry. “Forty-two seconds, he ended the call already.”
“Once you get the location, you call back and insist that you need to speak with Adrian. Tell him you won’t show up if you can’t confirm that Adrian is fine.”
Sheila nodded in response. A few seconds after that, the location was sent.
“I got it,” she held the phone up to show it to Henry.
“Now, call back,” Henry replied, pulling over at the same time. He seemed to have located a path that would take them into the forest.
Sheila dialled the number immediately. “Hello, I got your location. But I’m not going to move until I confirm that Adrian is alive. I want to speak with him.”
There was silence for a while at Rex’s end. “Okay,” he finally agreed. “Give me some minutes; I’ll have to get him out first to where there is mobile network. You should start coming though.”
“Just let me talk to him and you won’t bother about me coming there,” Sheila replied.
“I’ll call you soon,” Rex replied and hung up.
Sheila stared at Henry. “We’ve got the location but we don’t have enough mobile network here to know if we’re on the right track.”
“We are on the right path, Sheila,” Henry replied confidently and turned off the car engine. He opened the door and stepped out.
Sheila stepped out too and followed him to the entrance of the bush path.
“It must be along this route,” Henry remarked. “It’s a good spot here. Rex’s car must be one of those we came across parked by the bush side not too far away.”
“Are you sure we don’t need to confirm by going somewhere we can get the location he sent?” Sheila asked.
“I’m sure,” Henry answered without looking at her.
His phone began to vibrate in his pocket and he quickly took it out. He stared at the screen; it was a Bethannan number.
“Hello,” he said into the phone.
“Hi, Henry. It’s Samantha. What’s up?”
“I think someone might be f**king us up, Henry!”
“What do you mean?”
To be continued
