Phoenix

01.

"Yeah?"

"I love you."

Michael smiled. He loves this trait in Debby. She never held back her love for him. Not even after the eighth year of their anniversary.
Well, the eighth year will be tomorrow.
A diamond pendant is sitting on a leather box in his backpack in the back seat.

Though Debby doesn't like extravagant things, she'll like it if Michael was the one who gives them to her.

"I love you too."

Debby leaned towards Michael with her seatbelt still on and kissed his cheek.

The car reached the Cotswold mountain ridge.
The front was covered with high and low hilly areas up to the horizon. And the road climbed between. During driving down to the first slope of the road, one van passed them but none of them concentrated on that.

The van had writing on its body, "Leeway construction."
After crossing the Toyota, the van stopped and four people jumped out of it. Everyone was in their Coverall and helmet. After The following black Chevy crossed them too, they become busy. They placed a wooden roadblock across the road and placed a signboard stating,

Careful.
Construction is going on.
Take the alternative road.

Seeing the roadblock in the rearview mirror, the short man in the Chevy smiled and took the walkie-talkie once again, "team three, another two miles."

It didn't even take two minutes to cross the distance. Michael was as usually driving at high speed.
The location was a sharp bend. The most dangerous part of the road, just like a blind turn.
Michael was experienced on this road.
Reaching the bend, he gave a long horn. Getting no sound from the opposite side, he relaxed and started to turn the bend without slowing down much.

But just then, the danger showed up. One huge eighteen-tired truck emerged from the opposite side, coming their way almost covering the whole width of the road.

A frightened shout left Debby's mouth.

Micheal was immensely cold-headed. He didn't lose his grip and avoided the collision readily. Their Toyota ran across the edge of the road, the front end hit the railing of the edge of the slope.
The railing was smashed and the car stopped when the body of the car was halfway in the air.

Both of them survived due to the seatbelt, but still, Michael got a cut on his forehead with the collision of the dashboard in front of him.
He wiped away the blood and looked around. Surprisingly, the truck was going away casually as if nothing has happened just now.

Why were they not helping them? Michael grasped on the matter immediately and his mind turned bitter.

Michael peeked his head through the window. The rough slope of the mountain came to his eyes, it was about two hundred to three hundred feet drop.
The Toyota has broken the railing and now hanging in the air with half of its body. The car was trembling dangerously, it can drop at any moment.

Michael looked at Debby. She was lying lifelessly in her seat, "Debby? Debby are you ok?"

Debby groaned and opened her eyes, "w...wh...what happened?"

Michael sighed, "accident. But intentional. That truck didn't give any horn before taking the turn, plus it was covering the whole road, blocking the space for us to go through. Didn't you see? It tried to run over us."

"My god! But why? Who?"

Michael didn't make any sound. Just silently uttered a word to his wife.

"No!" Debby gasped, "that person is a maniac, but not to this extent! "

Hearing the engine's sound in the back, Michael didn't argue back.
He sighed, "Thank god, a car!"
Looking back, he saw the black car stopping which was following them, and shouted, "please, help us!"

Getting down from the van, the shorter man came up to the part of the railing which was still intact and leaned forward to look at Micheal.
He clicked his tongue and smiled, "very bad...very bad, Dr. Walden!"

Micheal was surprised, "you...you know my name?"

"Not the only name, I know many things about you," the man smiled, "I know how carelessly you drive, I know in how much speed you cross this bend. That's why this ceremony took this much preparation, Dr.Walden! Blocking the two ends of this road, getting the truck right at the perfect time...isn't so easy, no? Though you still managed to avoid the collision. But..." getting two steps backward, the shorter man observed the situation, "this situation isn't bad either! At least better than head-on collision! Thanks to you, Dr. You made a perfect setup. Now nobody will suspect about an intentional accident!"

Michael's eyes widened in disbelief. He wanted to jump down the car, but below his door was three hundred feet drop and even one slight movement was threatening the car to fall.

He never felt this helpless in his life, "who are you? Why are you doing this?"

"There is no need to know about my identity. Just know that I am getting paid with six-digit for this work. Anyway, no more talking. Goodbye Dr. Walden. Take care!"

The huge-bodied driver this time came forward. He forwarded his car and its front bumper touched the rear end of the Toyota hanging on the edge and started to push it little by little.

The little Toyota started to move forward, will drop from the edge at any time.

Debby was crying like crazy. Micheal shouted from the window, "please, don't do it, Don't!"

In reply, the short man smiled amusingly and waved his hand silently.

The Toyota dropped at that moment. For a moment it seemed like it was floating in the air, but when it thrashed on the ground below three hundred feet, it was prominent that it was a hallucination only.

The Toyota dropped head first so the front end smashed into pieces first and then it started rolling the to side, getting further down to the slope. After every spin, its body was getting disfigured more and more.

When the rolling stopped, it was not in any shape of being recognized as a car anymore. It was just a lump of iron garbage at that time.

The fuel line has already torn. With the friction with the stony ground, the steel made a few sparkles which made contact with the fuel already.

The short man was waiting eagerly at the edge beside the railing.
He didn't had to wait for long.

Not long after, the whole valley reverbed with the blast.
Orange-colored fire grasped the body of the car, engulfing it for eternity.

Taking up the walkie-talkie, the short man ordered every team to get back. And then getting on his car, he picked up the wireless telephone connected with the dashboard, "Garfield speaking,"

"Report," someone said from the opposite side.

"Mission successful," said the shorter man, "target has been eliminated."

"Very good," the opposite voice was satisfied, "the rest of the payment is going to be in your account soon."

Garfield cut the line.

He looked at the black smoke coming from the burned Toyota down there and sighed a little, "let's get going."