Bab 14: JUST TRUST ME
The scorching hot air blasted through the open windows, tousling Giovanni's hair as his tense knuckles clenched the worn leather of the steering wheel in a desperate grip. The piercing wail of the sirens echoed in the distance, a haunting melody that urged him to push the purloined vehicle to its maximum speed, the engine roaring in protest as it strained to keep up with his frantic escape.
"Take these," he shouted urgently, hastily shoving his sleek black laptop and the small tracking tool device into Luca's hands. "We need to lose these as soon as possible so you need to get to typing, mate."
"What am I supposed to do with these?"
"You did not just ask me that after I just told you that you need to get to typing," he replied with an unimpressed look on his face.
As he glanced up at the rearview mirror, he furrowed his brow and squinted, trying to gauge how many police cars were following them and the exact amount of distance between him and them. In tense moments like these, he knew that every detail counted.
Normally, it was the passenger's duty to count the number of buses that could fit between them and the pursuers but judging from how scrambled his passenger's movements were, he doubted his capabilities of doing so. His eyes darted back and forth between the road ahead, scanning for any potential obstacles, and the flashing red and blue lights in the mirror, a constant reminder of the urgency of their situation.
"Get started on that tracker, Luca."
"What does that even mean?"
The sleek sports car careened around a sharp corner, its tyres screeching in protest as he expertly navigated the narrow city streets. Years of experience as a getaway driver had honed his skills, allowing him to manoeuvre with practised ease.
Behind the wheel, he felt an exhilarating rush of adrenaline, a thrilling sense of determination and focus as if each turn could mean life or death.
"Reach underneath your seat to check if the tracker is there."
"What the devil have you gotten me into?" he mused in annoyance, reaching under the seat with a strained groan.
"British?"
"What?"
"I am trying to place your accent," he said, his voice slightly muffled by the sound of the roaring engine.
He skilfully swerved to avoid a pit set by one of the interceptors. Taking another sharp turn, he managed to shake off the pursuing cop. Both of them lurched in their seats, but thankfully their seatbelts held them in place.
"Are you from Great Britain?"
"No, I am not from Great Britain." A monotonous panic was noticeable in Luca's voice as he fumbled around in frustration. "What exactly am I looking for here?"
"Just listen for the beeping."
After a moment of frantic searching, Luca let out a triumphant cry. "Got it!" He held up the small electronic device, its blinking light mocking them. "Now what? Can I just hurl it out the window if this is what they are using to track the vehicle?"
"You could if you want the engine to just shut down," he responded sarcastically. "That would be two easy arrests. Just use the laptop and the tracker disabler. Once you get that thing disabled then I will turn up the heat and pull out all the tricks I have in the locker, have these on ropes."
For a long moment, Luca sat in silent contemplation and when he glanced over to see what he was doing, he realised that his eyes were downcast as he gently fiddled with the objects in front of him as if they were unfamiliar to him. He watched him curiously, wondering why he looked so confused. Was this the bloke's first time seeing a laptop?
For a while, Luca did not even move. Between focusing on the road ahead of him and him, he tried to give him an expectant gaze. Were the words that just left his mouth foreign?
With a defeated sight, he asked, "Can you at least drive?"
"I can try," he replied with an indifferent shrug which made him furrow his brows dubiously. That response did not fill him with much confidence honestly. "I mean, how hard can it be to operate a vehicle?"
His eyes widened in shock and his gaze wavered awkwardly.
What the hell was he thinking bringing this guy along with him? This went a lot smoother with Airi when she fresh off the street.
"Okay, quick lesson. This car is a stick shift." With his hand, he gestured to what the stick was. "This gearbox is what you use to change the speed of the car. Have you driven stick before?"
Luca blinked at him and the blank look on his face was an immediate telltale of bemusement. "This is why I need my wings," Luca muttered under his breath and somehow, he was able to hear him even with all the ruckuses.
"What are you mumbling about?"
After refocusing on the road ahead of him, he realised that they were approaching a roadblock, blue and red lights flashing ominously.
"Oh, shit," he cussed loudly, his foot slamming down on the brakes, the engine roaring like a caged beast. His hand grabbed the handbrake as well to slide into a clean turn, avoiding crashing into the interceptor which was closely following him.
Pointing ahead, Luca suddenly said, "Take that alley in front of us."
He did not question him, simply flooring the accelerator and sending the car down the narrow alley, avoiding the walls in the tight space. Trash cans and debris flew in their wake as they emerged onto a quieter side street, the police cars momentarily lost from sight.
"We need to ditch this car and find another way out of the city," Luca said, glancing over at him.
"That's not fucking happening."
"The cops will just end up back on us because of this tracker."
"You have no idea what Perque would do to me if I failed to deliver this car. All you need to do is not sit there like a literal piece of art and actually be useful—"
"Wait, shut up for a second," he demanded, his voice low and sharp. Luca raised his hand to silence me in the middle of his rant. They both fell deathly quiet save for the faint hum of the engine. "Do you hear that?"
"Hear what?"
"The sirens are growing quieter."
When he listened for it, he too realised that the sirens growing fainter and he allowed himself a brief glance of triumph until he realised that they were heading in the opposite direction as if on purpose.
Luca glanced over his shoulder too. "They're leaving?"
"What?"
"Is that normal?"
"Definitely not," he replied but instead of lingering on it, he said to him quickly, "Let me quickly get the tracker off while you drive."
They awkwardly swapped seats, avoiding contact as much as they could.
When Luca looked at the steering wheel in confusion, he quickly taught him what to do and where to keep his foot.
After grabbing the laptop, his fingers flew across the keyboard, his brows furrowed in concentration as he worked to disable the tracking device and erase any digital breadcrumbs they might have left behind. The screen flickered with lines of code, a symphony of ones and zeroes that might just be their salvation.
"Are we supposed to be getting tailed?" Luca asked.
While still clicking away at the laptop, he mused distractedly, "Are the cops back?"
"It does not look like cops."
"Hold on, I'm almost done getting the tracker off. Just keep on driving."
"They're getting awfully close, mortal."
He remained concentrated until the beeping stopped and he let out a sigh of relief.
His heart raced as he stole a frantic glance in the rearview mirror. Approaching fast were three intimidating black sedans and two menacing motorcycles, their dark figures growing larger by the second. At first, his eyebrows twitched in bemusement, wondering who was following them. Until it finally hit him and instantly, he knew the identity of the people in the vehicles. He assumed there were armed individuals inside those cars, all relentlessly focused on capturing him.
"Oh, fuck me."
"What? What is it?"
"Uh, you might wanna drive a little faster than this," he muttered under his breath urgently, huffing when he rested back into his seat.
After muttering a curse at him, Luca pressed his foot harder on the gas pedal. The car lurched forward, its engine straining and he could immediately tell that his driving was no match for the superior firepower and manoeuvrability of their pursuers. "Who is that tailing us?"
"What makes you think I know?"
"Because you immediately said, 'oh fuck me' when you saw them." Next to him, Luca's face was a mask of grim determination. "So, who the hell is tailing us, mortal?"
"Maybe focus on driving for now."
"I want to know."
"Luca, you seriously need to put your foot down. Take the next turn, hard."
As the road curved sharply to the right, he reached over to yank the steering wheel, the tyres instantly squealing in protest as the car turned around the bend. They broke through a dense forest, racing past branches and leaves whipping against the windscreen.
"What the hell are you doing?"
"Just follow this path."
"This isn't going to work," Luca shouted while trying to steer out of the vegetation. "They're still gaining on us."
He cursed under his breath, his eyes scanning the landscape for another sign of escape. "There!" he suddenly exclaimed, pointing to a narrow dirt track that branched off the main road. "Take that, hurry."
Without hesitation, Luca wrenched the wheel the same way he did before, the car lurching sideways as it bounced over the uneven terrain. He threw his head over his shoulder and to his surprise, the sedans and bikes were still in hot pursuit, their engines roaring as they navigated the treacherous path.
"We're not gonna make it out of this," Luca muttered with his voice controlled.
"We have to," he replied, his gaze fixed on the path ahead. "Just keep driving. I have a plan."
Luca visibly gritted his teeth from the movement in his jaw, and his eyes narrowed with unwavering focus as he pushed the car to its limits, skilfully weaving between the trees and dodging the occasional fallen branch.
The sound of gunfire suddenly erupted behind them, and he instinctively ducked, his heart pounding in his ears.
"Oh, fuck me."
"Giovanni, what are you—"
"Just trust me," he interrupted, his hand reaching beneath the seat to steady himself. "Just keep driving."
"I'm not dying so you can prove a point, mortal."
Suddenly, a loud pop sounded in the air and the car lurched violently after hitting a series of deep ruts. Luca visibly fought to maintain control, but the wheels left the ground for a terrifying moment.
The car began to fishtail wildly. He braced himself, but it was no use. The car spun out of control as it veered off the path he was hoping they would be able to take. He felt weightless for an instant before being slammed against the door as the vehicle tumbled down the embankment. Then they came crashing down, the impact sending shockwaves through the chassis.
Glass shattered, metal screeched, and the world became a disorienting blur of motion. He lost all sense of up and down as the vehicle took a sudden tilt and rolled over and over, his head spinning from the force of the impact. Then, with a deafening crash, the car finally came to rest, landing on its roof in a tangled mess of broken branches and torn upholstery.
For a moment, there was only silence.
He hung suspended, blinking in confusion as he wondered what just happened. Then after breathing harshly, he glanced down to see that he was trapped by his seatbelt. He coughed, the acrid smell of leaking fuel stinging his nostrils. Dazed, he turned to check on Luca, his heart racing with fear and adrenaline.
"Luca?" he croaked, his voice barely above a whisper. The name caught in his dry, cracked lips, a desperate plea lost to the eerie quiet that enveloped the wreckage. "Are you alright?"
Shards of glass glittered in the fading light, the car's framing twisted and mangled beyond recognition. He strained against the seatbelt, panic rising in his chest as he tried to make out Luca's motionless form in the corner of his eyes.
"Gino!" a familiar authoritative voice rang into the hollow vegetation and then tauntingly, he sang, "Come out, come out wherever you are."
"Oh, fuck," his voice cracked as a shiver ran down his spine, the words barely audible even to his own ears.
He could feel the warm trickle of blood down the side of his face, his vision blurring at the edges. A portent of inferno grew with the stench of gasoline and he could see the warmth marking a trail on the dripping liquid. He had to get free, had to reach Luca. With gritted teeth, he fought against the unyielding seatbelt, his fingers fumbling blindly for the release. The crumpled metal groaned with each desperate movement.
"Luca, please wake up." He reached out to Luca, urgently shaking him.
His head lolled lifelessly and for a heart-stopping moment, he feared the worst.
Finally, the seatbelt holding him captive snapped.
Then suddenly, Luca gasped, his green eyes snapping open. They were wild and unfocused, darting around the wrecked car with a growing sense of confusion.
"We need to get out of the car before it blows up." He wrestled to unbuckle his seatbelt for him and took a tumble to the roof of the car when he managed to get it off him. After remembering to grab his docket, they both slowly crawled out of the flipped car with laboured breaths.
To avoid immediately getting shot by his men, he safely crouched low behind the car while looking around for an escape. When the smell of smoke breezed its way over towards him, he placed an arm over his nose with a small cough.
"Didn't I say I would find you again, Gino?" the familiar voice boomed across the clearing, dripping with malice.
He clenched his jaw, steeling himself for the confrontation. "Fuck off, Felix!" he yelled back, his voice laced with defiance.
"You can't keep running away from your past, son. The truth always catches up to you eventually."
The crackling of the burning car echoed through the dense forest, the orange flames casting an eerie glow over the towering trees. His hand gripped the cool metal of his desert eagle, the weight of the weapon a familiar comfort in this moment of sheer terror.
The forest grew silent, save for the crackle of the fire.
Felix was out there, stalking him like a predator closing in on its prey. He tightened his grip on the gun, his fingers itching to pull the trigger. If this was to be his last stand, he would make sure they all went down with him.
After pressing his docket into Luca's chest who was still seemingly out of it, he peered around the burning car, scanning the tree line for any sign of movement that caught his eye. Without hesitation, he raised his weapon and fired, the deafening gunshot echoing through the forest.
The bullet found its mark, and one of his men's bodies crumpled to the ground.
He did not hesitate to act, seizing Luca's hand and bolting away, vanishing into the darkness. The cacophony of commands and shouts was abruptly interrupted by a deafening explosion that reverberated through the ground, sending tremors beneath their feet. Although he had momentarily diverted their attention, he was well aware that the pursuit was far from concluded.
Perque was definitely not going to be pleased about this…
Hadiah
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