>>><<<
“Mike said there was a ninety percent chance it’ll be all ready to go. We just gotta get to it.” Danny sounded determined, but Brad was still warring with himself.
Calling the enforcers would mean hours of paperwork and little or no action for three more days. And now that he was driving his FMC 429 on empty streets toward the airpad, he was starting to think that, yes, with Danny and Mike helping, maybe he really could be the knight in shining armor that Jeuley needed.
Too bad the airpad was all the way on the outskirts of the city. Mike must have called in a really serious favor to score a helicopter. Then again, Mike probably just set it up for them to borrow the copter without actually asking its owner first.
Typical Mike. The man could get his hands on absolutely anything. If you needed, say, a Camel in your apartment at 3AM on a Sunday, Mike would be the guy to call. It was just lucky that Danny could pilot anything that moves, including lawnmowers, unicycles and stratoflyers. Not that he was licensed on any of them, but he could get them to whirl.
For the past three blocks, a car had been following very closely. Brad reconfigured his dash pod to minimize his petrol, temperature and other gauges. He needed only his speedometer, tachometer and nav screen maximized. As he tapped his nav system to tracking, another car pulled up on Danny’s side.
Opening his window, Danny hollered at the driver, “Would you mind keeping to your lane?”
“I don’t think he hears you, man.” Brad looked over. The fellow in the car looked completely oblivious. Returning his gaze forward, Brad slowed down.
“He’s so close, I can reach out and undo his fueler door. That’s too close.”
Another car pulled up along Brad’s side. “Look’s like we’re a weird sandwich or someth–”
The two cars on either side rammed into Brad’s vehicle. He barely had time to straighten out before the car behind slammed his car, too. The airbags deployed and Brad could no longer control the car as it careened side to side between the two sandwich cars while coming to a stop.
Danny was the first to react by smacking down the airbag. “What the fuck is going on?”
Brad swatted at his airbag, but he couldn’t stop Danny from jumping out through the window. Danny was ready to brawl, but the drivers of the cars were slumped onto their nav screens. Brad had to crawl out through Danny’s window.
Then, like a scene out of a cheesy horror vid, people started coming at Brad. They emptied out of buildings and headed toward him. Their eyes were glazed over. Euphoric expressions on their faces. They looked like zombies.
Danny punched a guy out, but they kept coming toward Brad. He did the only thing he knew he could do–RUN!
