The silver Audi A4 shimmered under the streetlight's glare and melted into the darkness like a ghost. With Tony behind the wheel, the car blazed down the Sydney Newcastle Freeway. They had crossed the bay bridge over Sydney Harbour, hit the interchange north of the metropolitan area, and now found themselves on a desolate stretch of highway dotted by the occasional farmhouse.
The engine whined through tight curves, tires grabbed the pavement and the RPMs roared during acceleration in straightaways.
Tony floored the gas pedal with a demented gleam in his eye.
Takeshi Ishikawa's assistant jammed the pistol into the back of Jake's head. He cursed. "Slow down before I splatter your friend's brains all over the windshield."
Jake gritted his teeth and fought the urge to make a play on the gun. They needed to turn the table on this guy, but it had to be done in a way to give them the best chance to survive.
Tony glanced at Jake out of the corner of his eye. They held the gaze until each of them picked up on the unspoken scheme. The idea was to unnerve the assistant with the Indy-style driving and catch him off guard. It was working, but Jake didn't like the possibility of a point blank bullet to the head.
He stopped gnawing on his bottom lip and said, "How about doing what he says, Tony? I'm a little nervous here."
Jake tried to adjust the escape plan through eye contact and concealed hand signals. Tony nodded, agreeing in silence. At least Jake hoped he caught on to where he was going with this. With a solemn glance at their captor, Tony backed off the throttle and slowed the vehicle to around fifty-five miles per hour. In response, the man relaxed in the back seat with the gun in his lap.
Jake shook his head in relief. With the gun aimed away from him, he could think clearly. Things slowed down. The situation came into focus. He had a hunch Cat was nearby. On the Atlantis; he could have sworn he saw her on the bridge on their first day on the barrier reef. He shrugged it off as a coincidence. But then he noticed during the video conference how she appeared to be ready for bed, which might suggest she was in the same time zone as they were. He pieced everything together and concluded that Director Hardy had sent her along to observe them from afar.
It was odd. Between the occasional nightmares and the feelings of gloom and doom, Jake now found himself courageous. He felt more like the old Jake, in his Navy days, before that monster fish pinned him to the cage trap on the ocean floor. He looked back at the rugged Aussie and recognized the gun as a nine millimeter Beretta. Unless the man used hollow points, a bullet of that caliber would rip through a person and exit the other side like a knife through jello. Which would be better than a forty-five caliber round blowing a baseball size hole in your back. However, it didn't matter at this range. Either way, he'd be dead.
The shift in thinking probably had to do with a certain redhead that had returned to his life like a tidal wave. Jake wasn't a violent man by nature, but he wasn't about to stand by and do nothing while Zanderthal executed his devious plan for the innocent marine biologist. Maybe that's what he needed, something to live and die for. And Sarah was a good reason to lay his life on the line without blinking. Now it was personal.
Adrenaline coursed through his body. Jake scratched an itch on his neck. His fingernails grazed across a bulging vein. If it was within his power, he'd rescue Sarah and make anyone who harmed her suffer the consequences. Returning natural order to the sea would have to be the consolation prize, as far as he was concerned.
The car slowed to fifty miles per hour and then to forty. The man in the backseat remained belted in. Jake and Tony had failed to buckle up, which fit into their plan. But to further complicate matters, the assistant had become irritated once again, now by the car's slower speed.
"You drive worse than my grandmother," Jake said with a wide eyed, belligerent sneer. "Can't you go a little faster?"
"That's because your granny drives like a maniac." Tony continued the con job.
Ishikawa's partner jabbed the gun barrel into the back of Tony's head. "Do like the bloke says, mate, and I might make your death quick and painless."
"You can't seem to decide. One minute you want me to slow down and the next you want me to—"
"Do as you're told, or I'll blow your bloody head off."
Jake eyed the speedometer as Tony did just the opposite. He decelerated the vehicle to less than thirty miles an hour. It seemed obvious their captor was bluffing. His shaking hand and quivering lower lip revealed a fear of dying. He appeared to have no plans to kill the driver and put himself in danger.
"You think I won't shoot you because you're behind the wheel?"
Jake nodded to Tony, a silent but purposeful gesture. "The Mooney Mooney Bridge is up ahead. It's a long way to the bottom."
"Shut your mouth. You don't think I know where we're going?"
"Just thought I'd mention it, right before we cross it." He glared at Tony. "So we can be ready."
"Ready for what?" The gun drifted back to Jake.
"To cross the bridge, man. Lighten up."
In their room the night before their meeting with Zanderthal, Jake performed an internet search of the Sydney area using Sarah's laptop. Besides noting the beaches and the Blue Mountains, he also learned that the Mooney Mooney Bridge carried travelers almost two hundred and fifty feet in the air over a creek of the same name. Many fatal accidents had occurred on and around the bridge, including a trucker bursting through a guardrail and plummeting down the embankment to his death.
Tony increased the speed to thirty-five. He seemed to have gotten the message. Jake gazed out his window at the wild growth of trees and vegetation. He held three fingers at his side and followed the gesture with a tightened fist.
The bridge came into view.
Tony appeared to understand. He locked eyes in the rearview mirror with the man in the back seat. "Okay, buddy. I'm speeding up. Just ease off the trigger finger."
The assistant settled back in the seat, suspicious. "Just remember who's in control here. I'll tell you where to turn and what to do in a few minutes. I have a nice place picked out for the two of you." He laughed. "I might even plant some flowers as a memorial. Your carcasses should make an excellent fertilizer."
"That's really swell of you, cap."
Jake saw the uneasiness in Tony's face. With the needle up to thirty-six miles per hour, he must have felt anxious about their plan.
Jake waited until the speedometer dropped back to thirty-five. They needed to slow down a little more to decrease their chances of serious injury. It was tedious to balance the need to speed up to appease their captor and the need to back off the gas to make their escape doable.
Jake started the countdown one finger at a time. One... two... three. As soon as his third finger extended, Tony tapped the brakes once more and whipped the wheel toward the shoulder of the road, right before the bridge guard rail began. The needle fell to twenty-six miles per hour in a split second. Jake and Tony hit their respective door handles and leaped from the vehicle. They left the Aussie belted in the backseat and the car headed for the steep embankment.
Jake tumbled, arms guarding his head, each bounce rattling him to the core. Broken tree limbs and rocks dug into his body with each successive roll. Somewhere in the background noise, he heard the vehicle bounce, twist, and pop down the hillside. Then a splash. Jake came to a stop in a ditch and spotted Tony nearby. He lay on his side, head raised, gazing toward the precipice where the runaway car had once been.
Both of them struggled to their feet, hurried to the edge of the slope and peered at the slow-moving creek as it carried a half sunken car down stream. No sign of Ishikawa's assistant.
"I never dreamed I would have a hand in killing someone," Jake said. "But that guy had it coming."
"I don't think we had a choice. But who knows, it's possible he could make it out and swim to safety."
Jake breathed a sigh of relief because he didn't have a gun pointed at him anymore. With a final huff, he pulled the cell phone from his pants pocket.
"How did you hang onto that?" Tony said, checking out several cuts and abrasions on his elbow.
"While I was on all fours in the hotel, you were getting patted down. When they found the memory drive on you, they never searched me. It's got a cracked screen but it still works."
Tony nodded. "Who you calling?"
"Cat."
"How's she going to help us? She's not even in the southern hemisphere, is she?"
"Au contraire. She's closer than you think."
Jake connected with the Atlantis research ship and told the captain to put the special ops director on the phone. At first, Captain Oliver denied that Cat O'Donnell was aboard the vessel, but when Jake informed him of Sarah's kidnapping and the trouble they'd ran into, he yielded and paged for her to report to the bridge.
"We've got a problem," Jake said. Then he brought Cat up to date on the current situation, including Kevin's betrayal. The news floored her. When he ended the call, he turned to Tony. "How do you feel about walking?"
"Not very fond of it, to be honest."
"Don't worry, help is coming. But I think we should get moving toward Sydney. We don't want to be around if our buddy crawls out of the drink and comes looking for us."
"Well said." Tony tugged at his shirt. "I don't know about you, but when we get to the ship, I'm changing clothes."
Jake noticed a tear in his sleeve and ran his hand over another rip in his pants leg. When he glanced down, red covered his fingertips, blood from a nasty scrape on his knee. They looked like they had been through a paper shredder. Blood trickled down Jake's forearm into his palm and dripped to the pavement. Scrapes gouged Tony's elbows, likely from shielding his face during the roll.
"We'll need to hurry," Jake said. "Sarah might not have much time left."