Mike rushed out of the gas station, where he previously called Adelaide, and stole one of the tractors from the men who wanted stop him. He was driving down the road with his heart on his throat, breathing heavily out of stress and anxiety from getting caught. Two police cars drove past him with their light's off, Mike almost sighed in relief until they turned around and followed him.
Suspect is in the tractor trailer. Backup is needed immediately.
"Pull over the vehicle!" The cops stated loudly through the radio, loud enough for Mike to hear them. "Pull over! Pull over the vehicle!"
Mike started to move the tractor's trailer from side to side, trying to distract and slow down the police cars. One of them almost got hit, so when the car turned, he crashed into a small ravine.
Officer down! Officer down!
"Shit," Mike said when he saw more police cars coming from the front.
"Jesus Christ!" A female officer yelled once he made a dangerous turn in the road. "He's turning south on Vessel. I repeat, south on Vessel."
"Subject is armed and dangerous," another female officer said through the radio. "Proceed with caution."
Mike had his foot planted on the accelerator and tried to to lose control of the tractor. He breathed heavily as he started at the police red and blue lights that were following him.
"Three units in pursuit. Backup is needed immediately," a male officer said.
"This guy's crazy!" Another yelled.
"Shit," Mike muttered as more police cars came from the front.
"We got him in sight," an officer said. "South on Vessel."
Mike did a fast and extreme turn, making the trailer fall off the tractor. The police cars abruptly stopped before they could get hit with the trailer. Meanwhile, Mike sighed in relief and kept driving as fast as he could.
"Reverse! Move! Reverse!" The officers yelled between each other as they tried to get through to follow Mike. "Get out of the fucking way! Move! Move!"
"He's on service road, west on Vessel," a female officer said.
The more he drove, more police cars joined the persecution.
"Helicopter is on route," a woman said. "Okay, the chopper has him. Thank you."
Mike sighed in frustration when he saw the chopper with a bright light right above him.
"Mile marker 33. All units converge," the pilot of the chopper said through the radio.
Mike drove faster, as if he was going to break the accelerator. We went through a bunch of trees, making the chopper lose sight of him.
He continued driving, more than six police cars trailing behind him. The road was dark, the tractor's lights weren't bright enough.
And then, he crashed against the concrete railing of the bridge. He lost control and overturned the tractor.
"Suspect has crashed. Suspect has crashed. Mike marker 34," the pilot said as the chopper pointed the bright light at the tractor.
Mike groaned as he regained consciousness and his focus. The sirens were approaching closer and closer. He got out through the window and ran to the forest. He ran as fast as he could as the officers got down from their cars and surrounded the cab. Others went after him, but Mike was already out of their sight.
꧁⚠︎︎꧂
Adelaide cursed repeatedly as she drove. It was her first time driving a car in almost ten years.
She stopped a few miles outside of DC, she wanted to check the USB Lucas gave her with all the evidence. She turned on her laptop and plugged it in. A few things appeared on the screen, but it wasn't what she wanted, so she kept typing and clicking until she found a hidden-encrypted document.
- Salient Global
- United States, Virginia
- Private Military Company
- Founded by former Army Ranger Wade Jennings
- Operation Queen's Lake
- President Allan Trumbull
- Adelaide Asher
- Mike Banning
- Renegade607
- United States Government
All that information appeared in the screen. She was shocked that Salient Global was behind the attack, but specially because it was Wade Jennings who planned everything. She was confused about 'Renegade697', she has no idea what that code stands for.
Then, she remembered. Back at the White House, in her office, the documents Lucas gave her about the private contract companies the president refused to collaborate with.
"Son of a bitch," she muttered angrily.
Finding out everything took her half an hour, she was surprised by how long it took to download everything. She wanted to send all the information to the FBI, but if she did that, she would be compromising her location, and she didn't want that, she needed to find Mike. Right when she got a location she wrote it down in a piece of paper in case something happened to her phone.
Suddenly, a car parked right behind her. She cursed and quickly took the USB out of the laptop and put it in her jacket's pocket along with the paper that had the location. She charged her gun before putting it in the back of her pants, hidden under her jacket.
Armed men got out of the car and ran to her side. She sighed and raised her hands in surrender.
"Get out of the car!" He yelled at her, and she obeyed him. "Move! Now!"
She slowly got out of the car and closed the door. One of the men ordered her to put her hands behind her back to restrain her. Adelaide just smirked and did as he said. Big mistake.
Once the man got closer enough, she pointed the gun at him and shot him right between the eyes. Before he could fall on the ground, Adelaide grabbed him and used him as shield from the other men who pointed their guns at her.
"Drop the gun!" Another man yelled.
"Seriously guys, are you supposed to be professional?" She scoffed, trying to distract them as she counted how many men were left standing, exactly four. "Well, you've got a lot to learn."
She raised her gun and shot three times at one of the men who immediately fell dead on the floor. Adelaide let go of the dead man she was using as shield and quickly threw her body on top of the car and landed on the other side as the men began shooting at her. One of them went to her side, but she shot him until he fell on the ground dead.
Adelaide let them all shoot her, the bullets hitting the car only. An opportunity came when there was a small pause, she stood on her feet and began shooting at the men. She killed the last man before she got out of bullets.
Suddenly, a man appeared on her left and threw her to the ground with him. He started to choke her, she raised her hands to his face to pull him away from her. With a smart move, she used all her strength and kneed him in his butt. He groaned and his grip on her loosened. She punched him in the throat and he fell next to her. Adelaide quickly got on top of him and grabbed a knife she found in his thigh.
The man grabbed her harshly by the waist and she yelped, but she cut his throat before he could do anything. Blood splashed her face, shirt and jacket. She breathed heavily and moved the hair out of her face as she stood up.
"Gross," she breathed. "I loved this jacket."
Adelaide was thankful Lucas had a box of tissues in the compartment of the car, she clean herself and her jacket as much as she could. She changed her shirt and turned off the car. She checked her jacket's pockets and still had the USB and the paper with the location. She found a pen and used one of the tissues as paper.
If Adelaide was to keep going, she didn't want to do it in a car full of bullets. She left everything in the car, except for her gun. She registered the men's bodies and grabbed two pocket knives and an extra gun with its backup ammo. She put everything in her bag and ran to one of their cars. She checked all the cars, and stayed with the one that had a GPS.
Adelaide knew the FBI was gonna find out what happened sooner or later, which is why she drove as fast as she could out of the crime scene and towards the location she had on paper, careful not to pass any of the exits she needed to take.
She left her laptop and her phone in the scene because she left all the information in a silver platter, all the FBI needed to do was find a way to decrypt her tablet's password and all digital security locks it has.
She prayed silently that she would finally find Mike and tell him everything she knew. And together, they could help each other clear their names, go back to their daughter and their old lives.
That's what Adelaide was most afraid of. If things get worse, and they end up in prison, Lynne would be left alone with her grandfather and uncle until– who knows how long. For years, Adelaide suffered the absence of her mother, and Mike suffered the absence of his father, specially in their teenage years. Neither of them wanted Lynne to go through the same thing.
Tears started to fill her eyes by just thinking about it, but she took a deep breath, refusing to let them fall. She had to be strong and come back to her daughter. But first, she had to find her husband, and she deeply hoped they would finally reunite in the location she thought he would be: West Virginia.
꧁⚠︎︎꧂
"Shit," Agent Thompson was standing in front of the overturned tractor Mike used to escape. The officers were using dogs to track him down. "If those dogs haven't found him yet, he's gone. Fuck it. Just bring 'em in."
"Blood's back from the Suburban," Ramirez informed, gaining her attention.
"Really?" She asks.
"None of it's Banning's. In fact, no matches at all yet," he answered.
"Any activity on his encrypted folder?" She asked.
"Nothing," he shook his head, and she cursed, they were back to square one.
"Agent," a man walked towards her with his phone in hand. "You gotta see this."
The man handed her the phone, and explained it was another crime scene just like Mike's when he was being escorted to prison. The agent zoomed the image, and Thompson's eyes grew wide when she saw the letter.
Hopefully the truth will come out soon. I refuse to leave Mike alone in this mess...specially not now that I'm involved too. His problems are my problems wether he fucking likes it or not. Thompson, if you see this, do whatever you must do. Do your job, and I'll do mine.
- Starlight
"I think she knows something we don't. Starlight's not a fool, she's a fucking Einstein," Helen stated. "Take the evidence, give the computer to agent Martin and tell him to find anything related to this case."
꧁⚠︎︎꧂
At the White House, The Vice President, who was acting President, was having meeting about
"How solid is this intel that Banning collided with the Russians?" He asked.
"It's tricky, sir," one of them responded. "The evidence definitely points to that, but it's hard to prove if it's really Moscow's doing or an outside hacker who wants it to look that way."
"Outside hacker?" The Vice President scoffed. "Hackers don't pay out $10 million for assassinations."
"None have before, no," the man nodded.
"The problem is the Russians will deny this to the end if we take action. But if we don't, they'll remain ambiguous as to their involvement, so we look weak," the Vice President said. "Just like their election tampering."
"I really think we should slow down, sir, before this blows up in our face," another suggested.
"The President of the United States is lying in a coma, and 24 Secret Service agents are dead," the Vice President stated. "This already blew up in our face!"
"Perhaps we could ask Starlight to help us find out a little more about this issue, sir," the Chief of Staff suggested.
"She started an investigation before the attack, maybe whatever information she got could tell us if Russia and Banning are really responsible for this," another added.
"Oh, you mean Mike Banning's wife? And what makes you think she's not involved in this mess too? She works for the FBI, she's a hacker, she knows technology better than anyone in this state," the Vice President snapped. "As far as I know, the FBI excluded her from this case due to her relationship with Banning. And I think it's better that way. She would do anything to prove her husband's innocence."
"And what if he's innocent, sir?" The Chief of Staff asked. "What if they both are?"
"Doesn't seem that way to me," he stated.
꧁⚠︎︎꧂
A statewide manhunt is under way for Secret Service agent...
A massive manhunt for Banning has already begun.
"His face will be plastered everywhere, so he won't be able to use public transport," Wade Jennings said as he stared at the TV, listening to the reporters. "What time did the police call in the semi crash?"
"Scanner traffic pegs it at 4:17 a.m," a man answered.
"That puts him at, what, about 200-mile range of the crash?" He asked.
"Two-forty," the man suggested and he nodded.
"Okay, listen up, everybody! Mike will have to find somewhere to regroup. Dig into his life. Find out anything, anyone that can hide him," Wade told his men. "Every hour you don't have an answer for me is another hour he's kicking our fucking ass!"
"Sir! I've got something, but it's not Banning," a man said and handed him a tablet with images of the conflict Adelaide had with his men.
"Shit!" Wade yelled. "What are these two fucking made of?"
"Sir, the FBI just arrived at the scene," he informed, and Wade nodded.
"She will do anything to find Mike. Hell, she must already know where he is," he stated. "If you can't find him, find her. They must be together, in times like this, they always are."