AGENT 23 BLACKOUT (Agent 23 Book 1)

CHAPTER 34

As I hurry along the top of Trailer 2 hunched over with my dad in pursuit, the semi-truck increases speed on a straightaway stretch of the highway. The wind rushes over me, threatening to blow me off if I grow careless, but I don't. I remain dialed in on my first objective as my second taunts the back of my mind.

Three-quarters of the way down the trailer, I leap over a hatch. I assume it leads into the interior where they store the Mind Benders.

I figured I'd find an entry point on top of the trailers, since both have ladders leading up. The hatch was not a surprise, but my initial plan was to check Trailer 2 to make sure no one occupied it. I have no desire to kill anyone. At the gap between the trailers, I planned on dropping to the hitch below to buckle the belt around the entire joint. This to secure the grenades properly. With my dad chasing me, I'm out of options. So, I digress to Plan B. A humdinger.

Basically, make something up on the run.

Now past the hatch, I continue toward the gap between the trailers. Before I get there, the truck swerves left and I fall flat on my face, my hands grasping for the ridges that run the trailer's length. My fingers scrape across the raised lines. The tips sink into the indentions to prevent me from getting slung off the truck. As my feet swing in the swerve's direction, I glance back and realize my dad is in the same predicament, clinging to the truck for dear life.

Along the left side, tires brake and screech, making an on-the-fly evasive maneuver. The semi cuts back into the right lane. I can't see what's happening, but I assume Agent 24 is trying to reach a position where Kayla can fire the assault rifle. The truck driver wants to smash them against the cliff face, which juts up into a mountain above us.

I don't hear grinding metal, so everything must be okay for now.

As the semi decelerates for another curve, I'm thankful this highway doesn't see much traffic, or else we would have more problems on our hands. Of course, thinking about that jinxes us. As I thrust myself up into a standing position, I see a pickup truck coming around the bend. Straight toward us.

I jerk my head around as Agent 24 whips it back into the right lane, narrowly missing a head-on collision. A sliver of air between the vehicles keeps the pickup's red paint from smearing down the side of the Jeep.

I've got bigger problems. My dad is standing again too.

I dart toward the gap between the trailers. As I move, time slows to an eerie standstill. It reminds me of my fight with Agent 24 in the warehouse. The moment is surreal. Lines appear, marking the space between the trailers with an imaginary rectangle. Once again, I realize I'm not moving at a snail's pace. I'm thinking faster. The Collective's partial download enhanced my brain when they failed to take control of my mind.

In slow motion, I approach the gap and jump. As I fly over the hitch that joins the trailers together, a bullseye appears on the bulging connection joint.

That's my target.

As my foot leaves the top of the trailer, I let the grenade belt slip from my shoulder to my hand. Then I release it.

With me soaring through the air, the belt falls.

And lands perfectly, like a ring on a cone at an amusement park.

My momentum carries me across the open space and I touch down with a skid onto Trailer 1. When I turn around, the grenades hang in a precarious position over the hitch. Somehow, I have achieved my first objective.

When my dad stops at the edge of Trailer 2, he stares down at the grenades with furrowed brows. He's considering the consequences if the explosives blow.

His eyes narrow into dangerous slits as he glares at me.

I don't wait for him to jump across. I turn and run toward the hatchway to get inside Trailer 1.

"You can go for the grenades." I hustle toward the hatch, the same one my dad used to get on top of the trailers. "Or you can come after me. I'm going after Zero, and I won't stop until she's dead."

A total bluff.

My dad takes a few steps back and bursts into a sprint. When he reaches the gap, he leaps across onto Trailer 1.

As I face him, the semi lurches left.

For half a second, I have a view of the Jeep and Agent 24 twisting the wheel to avoid a collision. The SUV sideswipes the rocky cliff. Fiber-glass and metal crunch against granite. I see Kayla in the front seat, holding the handle above the passenger door with her mouth agape as Agent 24 falls back again. A split second later, I hit the deck and grab the ridges to keep from getting thrown off.

The semi swings back right. A narrow miss. 

My dad and I push to our feet, and once again, the semi jerks left, blocking yet another attempt of Agent 24 to come alongside it on the elevated roadway. On this go-around, it's a repeat performance. I slam to the top of Trailer 1 and use the ridges to hold on as the truck driver pins the Jeep against the cliff face.

Sparks fly. Fenders grind and bend.

The driver has Agent 24 and Kayla right where he wants them.

Until a quarter mile away, an oncoming vehicle exits the mountainside tunnel. The compact car slows as the truck driver swerves the semi back to the right, out of the way.

Agent 24 throws on the brakes. Then he whips it back into the right lane moments before the car reaches them.

As if this isn't enough, as my dad and I rise, out of nowhere, a winged object slices through the sky above us, thundering through the air. We stand frozen.We can't help but look up with slack jaws.

The drone whizzes by. Then it straightens, lining up parallel to us.

Immediately, I know who the remote-controlled aircraft is targeting... our Jeep, which has fallen further back. I should've known Zero wouldn't leave the warehouse in a diesel truck without some kind of escort for protection. Instead of using a vehicle convoy to guard their trek across the country, she opted to use a guided drone to cover their flank. Once they realized we were a threat, the remote-operated craft soared into position to eliminate us.

With my eyes to the sky, my dad steps forward and smacks me in the chin with a jab. I backpedal with the unexpected punch, wagging my head, trying to shake off the sting.

I mean, I know he's Agent 1, but seriously, I can't believe my dad just hit me.

I'm about to retaliate when the drone releases a slender object from its wing and veers away. The object is a missile! A blaze of fire erupts from the end of the rocket as it begins a long curling route toward us. Thankfully, this development causes my dad to hold back on throwing one of his cheap shot punches.

My gaze follows the missile as it reaches the end of its curving trajectory and hones in on the Jeep with Kayla and Agent 24.

While I'm looking up and tracing the missile through the sky, I catch sight of the tunnel fifty feet ahead. The front of the semi enters the dark mouth of the mountainside, swallowed up at blistering speed.

The tunnel is three feet above the top of the trailers.

My dad and I drop flat on our stomachs seconds before we enter the gaping jaws of darkness, the ceiling rushing by above us as the semi plows ahead.

In the chaos, I lose sight of the Jeep and the drone.

The missile slams into something behind us and explodes into a fireball of rock and ash.

My mouth flies open and my breath lodges in my throat. The shadow of death squeezes and suffocates me as I think about Kayla being vaporized into nothing, but I can't give up yet. I can only wait, peering into the darkness, hoping that I'm wrong.