Challenge by Michael Anderle

Author:Michael Anderle [Anderle, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9798888784983
Publisher: LMBPN Publishing
Published: 2023-11-24T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWELVE

“Talk about out of the frying pan,” Izak commented as the ambulances and cop cars sped past them on the way to the motel.

“Do you really think we’re going to have a problem?” Jack asked him.

“That depends. If one of those squad cars decides we might have been involved, they’ll turn and pursue. Keep your fingers crossed.”

Jack glanced in the rearview mirror and saw Tasha really did have her fingers crossed. He turned and glanced at Dr. Kumo, who had also crossed his fingers.

None of the passing squad cars had taken any interest in them yet, but he slowed down anyway. He didn’t want to give the impression they were fleeing the scene of a crime, though it was exactly what they were doing.

It wasn’t their own crime, though. And it hadn’t been the only one.

As they drove down the road, it soon became apparent that Broadbander’s powers had caused chaos beyond the immediate environment of the motel. Two squad cars and an ambulance were up ahead, and Jack saw someone being wheeled to the ambulance on a gurney while someone else was led back to a squad car with his hands cuffed behind his back.

They turned a corner and spotted a house in flames with a woman standing outside. She was screaming and pulling her hair with both hands as firefighters sprayed water on her burning home. A man lay on the ground a few feet away from her. Jack couldn’t tell if he was alive or dead.

“Looks like he’s been using his powers to create chaos on the road,” Jack commented. “Probably for cover.”

“I don’t know,” Dr. Kumo hedged. “There’s a good possibility this is all a side effect. He may not be able to keep his projections limited to a confined area.”

Jack was appalled to think that every time Broadbander used his powers, he might leave countless innocent victims. People who would never even know why they had done the bizarre and often destructive things they did.

“If there’s crazy stuff going on all over the place, the cops are going to be on a hair trigger,” he pointed out.

“That’s true,” Izak agreed. “They’ll be in no mood for extra trouble. If they find a bunch of strangers responsible for hurting a bunch of old people at the local hotel, they’re likely to be in a killing frame of mind.”

“We won’t get pulled over,” Jack told him. “I’ll make us invisible if I have to.”

Tasha looked out the window. “Headlights behind us. Gaining, but no lights yet.”

“Shit.” Jack looked ahead, trying to find a spot to turn off and possibly lose whoever was behind them. It might be a cop, and it might not. Right now, he didn’t want to find out.

“There go the lights,” Izak reported. “Definitely a cop.”

“They’re not necessarily chasing us, though,” Dr. Kumo pointed out. “They could be going to another emergency.”

“I’m not waiting for him to catch up.” Jack took a sharp right down a little country road. Now, everyone was staring out the back window except for him, trying to glimpse the cop car turning down the road behind them.

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