Shadow Soldier by Dana Marton Page B

earlier.”
    She fiddled with the thing for a while and pushed buttons. “Nope. Keypad is cracked and the front cover is partially melted. I think your phone is broken.”
    She closed the cover and set the phone on the seat between them. He reached for it to clip it back on his belt. If it didn’t contain more confidential information than a secret agent could uncover in a year’s hard work, he would have chucked it out the window.
    He had lost his car, his gun, his phone. He was pretty much cleared out. It wouldn’t stop him, but it would slow him down. And that was the last thing he needed right now.
    Nicola opened the glove compartment and handed him an old cell phone. “Here. Mrs. Slocsky keeps it for road emergencies. I think this qualifies as one. She probably wouldn’t mind.”
    He looked at her for a long moment before he took the phone. First she’d gotten him the car, now this. She was beginning to feel almost like a partner.
    He turned on the phone and glanced at the screen that warned him about the low battery. Figures. Still, all he needed were a few seconds. He dialed, relieved to hear the ring on the other side. “We’re on our way back to the safe house. One enemy down,” he said as soon as the Colonel picked up, not sure how long the battery would last.
    â€œAre you both all right?” The man’s voice came in a hiss of static.
    â€œAffirmative.”
    â€œSpike’s still here. I’ll send him over to check the place out and pick up that body. I’ll let you know if he finds anything.”
    â€œI’d appreciate that.”
    No sooner had he put down the phone, than he noticed the tail. They were out on the main highway now, not as many cars on the road this late. The Jeep was catching up with them fast despite his best efforts to outrun it, the Oldsmobile’s six cylinders no match for the other’s eight.
    Could be an undercover cop car. Maybe the officer he’d lost back in Devon called in his license plate. Then the Jeep pulled closer behind them and he saw the semiautomatic in the passenger-side window. Definitely not standard police issue. He pushed the gas pedal as far as it went, but the advantage he gained was temporary. They were on him within minutes, this time with bullets flying. He swerved, but it didn’t seem to help. The back window took a hit and shattered. He felt something prick his shoulder.
    â€œAre you okay?” He glanced at Nicola. She was bent over her knees, head down, but gave him a thumbs-up.
    It pissed him off that she was getting to be such a pro at being shot at. She shouldn’t have to be. She should be able to ride in a car without having to keep her head down. She had the right to a normal life.
    And he would see to it that she got hers back before this was all over.
    The guy behind them squeezed off another round. Damn. Alex swerved. Where was his bulletproof SUV when he needed it? And where was his SIG,more accurate than the Makarov he had commandeered at the house? He doubted he could pick off the driver as cleanly as he had the other day.
    He grabbed the gun and glanced at Nicola, half expecting her to protest at having another man killed on her account. Civilians were funny that way sometimes. Took them a while to catch up with the game.
    â€œI’ll hold the wheel.” She took over with a look of fierce determination, before he had the chance to ask.
    He gave her a grateful look, then rolled down the window and stuck his head out. The man behind them sent forth another round. Nicola kept the car steady. Alex squeezed off a couple of shots at the bastard, then more at the Jeep’s windshield and radiator. There. That slowed them right down.
    Once again he waited a couple of exits before he got off the highway, making sure they weren’t being followed, then took side roads to backtrack to the safe house.
    He took the same precautions as the day before, parking in