CHAPTER 4: THE AMBUSH

The first rounds hit the rear armored vehicle.

Sparks tore from the plating.

Agents dove for cover.

Ortiz dragged Thomas toward the carrier.

I grabbed Ryan by the back of his vest and pulled him behind the engine block of his cruiser.

Danner moved.

Not toward cover.

Toward his SUV.

"Stop!" Ryan shouted.

Danner ignored him.

One of the county deputies fired at a federal agent.

That answered any remaining questions.

Chaos swallowed the highway.

Two county cruisers reversed suddenly, blocking the western approach.

Another vehicle appeared between the trees with its headlights off.

Automatic fire snapped through the pines.

Federal agents returned controlled bursts.

I crawled toward my sedan.

My encrypted console still displayed route data.

A bullet shattered the rear window.

Glass rained over the seats.

I dropped beside the front wheel.

"Hale!" Ortiz shouted over radio. "We need an exit!"

The bridge east was destroyed.

The west approach was blocked.

North and south were forest.

I pulled up the topographic route file.

There.

An old forestry access road ran south toward an abandoned highway maintenance facility.

Barely wide enough for the armored carriers.

"South trail!" I transmitted. "Marker ninety-two! Maintenance corridor!"

Ortiz responded instantly.

"Copy."

Ryan crouched beside me.

"That road hasn't been maintained in years."

"Can the carriers fit?"

"Maybe."

"Then tonight it becomes a highway."

Danner's SUV roared past the blocked cruisers and vanished west.

Ryan lifted his weapon.

He had a clear angle.

He could have fired.

He didn't.

I noticed.

"Why didn't you shoot?"

Ryan looked at me.

"I'm still a cop."

Even after everything, he said it.

Not revenge.

Not rage.

A cop.

I remembered the cuffs.

The discarded badge.

The contempt in his voice.

People were complicated.

Sometimes dangerously so.

"Then start acting like one," I told him.

His jaw tightened.

"I intend to."

The federal convoy began moving.

Two tactical vehicles pushed through the ditch first, crushing brush and opening the forestry trail.

The carrier holding Thomas followed.

I stayed behind long enough to retrieve what remained of my sedan's operational kit.

Ryan covered me.

As we moved, I looked toward the weeds.

My credential case was still there.

For reasons I couldn't explain, I nearly went back for it.

Then bullets struck the pavement nearby.

Ryan grabbed me.

"Leave it!"

We ran.

My badge remained in the dirt beside County Road 119.

At the time, I thought it was the least important thing we left behind.

I was wrong.