The steel gate dropped behind the limousine with the slow certainty of a blade.
Von Reddick’s trailing vehicle accelerated, trying to clear it before the barrier locked into place.
He misjudged the distance.
The gate struck the hood, forcing the SUV to stop sideways across the narrow service road.
The two black vehicles behind him braked hard.
Concrete markers boxed them in.
For several seconds, three vehicles worth of armed men had nowhere to move without reversing single file.
That was all I needed.
I shifted into drive and sent the limousine deeper into the service corridor.
Audrey remained crouched behind the rear seat, one hand gripping the headrest.
Her breathing was controlled, but her eyes followed every reflection in the glass.
“How did you know that gate would close?” she asked.
“I checked the county maintenance plans.”
“You memorized municipal gate locations?”
“I memorized every route that could keep you alive.”
The road descended beneath an overpass and divided around a drainage basin.
Commercial navigation systems showed nothing beyond the first hundred yards.
The paper survey I had studied showed an older access tunnel connecting the basin to a disused highway depot two miles east.
I took the tunnel.
Behind us, metal screamed as Von tried to force his SUV beneath the barrier.
Audrey looked back once, then reached for her phone.
“No signal,” she said.
“The jammer is still close enough.”
She studied me through the partition opening.
“You expected this.”
“I expected an attempt.
I didn’t know where.”
“And you said nothing to me.”
“I told you there was a tracker.
I told Gideon there was a leak.
Anything more specific would have entered the same system they were reading.”
Her expression hardened.
“You made decisions about my life without my consent.”
“Yes.”
The answer surprised her more than an apology would have.
I kept my eyes on the tunnel.
“You can fire me when we’re safe.”
The limousine emerged beside a row of abandoned maintenance buildings.
I drove behind a concrete salt-storage shed and stopped beneath a corrugated roof that blocked aerial visibility.
Audrey sat up slowly.
Her cream coat was wrinkled.
A thin line of dust marked one sleeve.
For the first time since I had met her, she looked less like the person controlling the room than someone discovering the room had been built to contain her.
She unlocked a compartment beside the minibar and removed a slim black case.
“I can access money that doesn’t pass through company systems,” she said.
“One million dollars.
Cash equivalents, bearer assets, whatever you need.
Take me somewhere no one can find me for forty-eight hours.”
I opened my door.
“Get down and stay down.”
Her jaw tightened.
“I am not asking twice.”
“Neither am I.”
I stepped outside, checked the empty yard, and opened the rear passenger door.
“You disappear now, your uncle controls the story.
He tells the board you were kidnapped.
