Sleeper's Run

CHAPTER THIRTY

I wake up to the sound of glass breaking; somebody has just stepped on my welcome mat. The camera in the hallway shows my four friends from Colombia getting ready to breach my door. They know my little trap has just spoiled the element of surprise, and Brown is about to shoot the lock.

Using the camera to guide me, I fire through the door hitting Brown in the head. He goes down and all hell breaks loose. One man pulls his fallen comrade away from the door and another one shoots the lock.

I put my laptop inside the dry bag and run to the balcony, as the commandos try to push through the blocked door. The obstruction proves less effective than I thought. Each blow pushes the dresser further back. I fire at the door, but somehow they keep on ramming it. By the time I finish putting on my harness, my enemies are almost inside.

I jump over the balcony, rappelling down as fast as I can. The sound of silenced bullets hitting metal makes me look up. The rope snaps just a few feet from the ground. A painful jujitsu break-fall saves me from any real damage.

My plan is to run through the lobby out onto the street, and hijack the first vehicle I can. That is, until I see Blake and a stocky guy with balding ginger hair and stone cold eyes, walking inside the building with their guns ready. Blake opens fire as soon as he sees me coming through the backdoor, while his buddy knocks the security guard out cold with the butt of his weapon.

I roll on the floor looking for cover and shoot back. My opponents start laying down a hail of bullets that makes me wish I had something better to shoot with than a mere pistol. Unfortunately, wishing isn't going to get my ass out of here in one piece. I reload, shoot the glass door behind me, and lay some suppressive fire before my escape. Bullets shatter everything around me, as I cross the courtyard to dive into the ocean.

Swimming underwater towards my diving gear, I open the air tank, put my regulator on, and don the BCD and my fins. I move toward the other side of the bay, clearing my mask of water and checking my compass. The problem is, my enemies know where I'm headed and they can drive to intercept me in just a few minutes.

I'm not too familiar with the greater downtown area, so when I come out of the water, I ditch my diving gear and run towards Brickell Avenue where there should be enough traffic this early in the morning. There's a motorcycle waiting for the light to change. I see a car speeding madly over the bridge. That was quick.

By the time the biker notices me, it's too late. I kick his hand off the clutch, stalling the bike and making him fall.

"Run!" I say while pulling my gun out.

I get on the bike and run the light with my pursuers right behind me. The streets are still empty enough that I can run a few lights looking to get back on Brickell Avenue. Once there, a second car joins the chase. I cross the divider going against traffic, hoping to lose them. One car follows me, but the other stays riding alongside me like a prowling shark. Even though most of the oncoming vehicles try to avoid us at all cost, I can easily dodge them, except for the old man driving the '62 Cadillac. Instead, he honks his horn as if that will make us disappear. To make matters worse, the jerk in the truck behind him is too busy trying to overtake him to notice us. I swerve onto the sidewalk, ducking under a construction's pedestrian pass. My rivals try the same move, tearing through the scaffolding while I'm still under it. I come out the other side, hitting a pedestrian with the side of the motorcycle and pushing him out of the car's way. I lose control of the bike, which jumps off the sidewalk into the street. I regain control in time to avoid a minivan. The driver swerves onto the sidewalk and crashes head on into the commandos.

The second car slides behind me at the first intersection we pass. I jump the divider between some trees, leaving my adversaries to deal with the inbound vehicles. I pull this trick a few times, forcing them to sideswipe other cars as they aggressively try to remain on my tail. By the time we get to the beginning of Brickell Avenue, where the US1 meets the Rickenbacker Causeway, two police cars join the chase.

I catch a break with the traffic light and head to US1 driving against traffic. Only this time, the sheer volume of cars makes the task verge on suicidal. I must escape this madness through the parking lot of the Miami Science Museum, exiting at Bayshore Drive right in front of the Vizcaya Palace. The screeching of tires makes me look in my rearview mirror. One of the patrol cars skids, merging into the road and crashing against a car.

I zigzag through the narrow two-way traffic until I reach Kennedy Park. My bike easily passes through the park's rustic barriers, the same ones the spooks ram through with the cops in tow. The park is divided in half by a dense line of bushes and trees on one side, and connected by a small wooden pedestrian bridge by the ocean on the farthest edge just beyond some trees.

My pursuers must have realized what I'm trying to do, because they speed up, trying to cut me off. I can't stop as fast as a car can, and the ninety-degree turn on the narrow bridge will be impossible to take even at slow speed. I ease off the throttle and downshift, feeling my pursuer's car right behind me. When I enter the bridge, I apply both brakes making the motorcycle skid. The car brakes and veers to the side sliding on the grass. Its rear smashes through part of the bridge, and into the trees. Without complications, the bike stops hard against the wooden railing at the bridge's corner.

After a sigh of relief, I waste no time in crossing over to the other side and exiting the park. A patrol car passes me by and makes a one-eighty turn to start chasing me. I can hear the sound of a helicopter approaching in the distance. Taking a side street to the upscale CocoWalk shopping area where I ditch the bike, I run through one of the commercial buildings into its parking structure. Before the patrol car gets too close and avoiding the police chopper, I exit the garage near the Mayfair Hotel and hop into a cab so fast that the driver doesn't notice my clothes are still wet.