Escape Out of Darkness Read Free Page B

leather-covered steering wheel for a moment, then she relaxed them. “Sorry, you’re stuck with me. Have you been married before or am I your first?”
    “You’re my third, and I hope to God you aren’t going to cost me as much as the first two.”
    “You can count on that.”
    “But I bet you’re going to be just as much trouble,” he muttered direly. “Listen, Maggie Whoever, I’m going to sleep. Wake me up when you want me to drive.” He began to slide down in the seat, the battered hat pulled down over his eyes.
    Maggie casually checked her rearview mirror again. “You’re going to miss all the fun,” she murmured.
    He straightened up. “Do I want to know what you’re talking about?”
    “Not if you want to keep living in your safe little bubble,” she said sweetly. “I think we’re being followed. For Christ’s sake, don’t turn around, you idiot! You can see them in the rearview mirror, two cars back. It’s the requisite black sedan, two anonymous-looking men driving. They’ve been following us since we reached the paved road more than twenty miles back.”
    “Maybe they’re just going in the same direction we are. This is the main route out of town.”
    Maggie shook her head in disgust. “Do you want me to stop and ask?”
    “I want you to drive like a bat out of hell. Better yet, let me drive.”
    She grinned at him, the adrenaline pumping through her veins and temporarily wiping out the jet lag. “I don’t think we should stop long enough to change drivers. Granted they’re probably CIA rather than Mafia or the rebels, but I still haven’tgot a lot of faith in their sense of fair play. I think we’re better off outrunning them.”
    “In this white elephant?” he groaned in disbelief.
    “In this white elephant. It’s got a V-eight engine the size of Greater Miami, enough horses for the Russian Cavalry, and it’ll outrun any piece of garbage the CIA can come up with. The question is, can we take a chance in outmaneuvering them? I don’t know whether they saw us, whether they can put out the word and have someone a little more talented catch up with us. Maybe we can just keep driving, looking real innocent and …” She let the words trail off as she looked once more in the rearview mirror.
    The black sedan had passed the two intervening cars and was now riding close enough on their trail for Maggie to see the expressions on the men’s faces. “Hell and damnation. They’ve made us.”
    “So it seems,” Mack said mildly. “What are you going to do about it?”
    “You’re pretty damned casual, considering it’s you they’re after,” Maggie snapped, keeping her hands resting lightly on the steering wheel.
    “I have complete faith in you, Maggie,” he said, leaning back in the seat and pulling the hat down over his face. “Peter Wallace wouldn’t have sent you after me if you weren’t the best. Wake me when it’s over.”
    Maggie allowed herself a brief, exasperated glance at his recumbent figure. “Some help you are,” she muttered.
    “How could I help?” he mumbled from under the hat.
    “What about moral support?” She took one last look in the rearview mirror, at the black sedan about to climb up on her tail. The stretch of highway wound straight ahead of them, dotted with RVs and trailers lumbering along like prehistoric animals looking for a place to die. “Forget it, Pulaski. We’re out of here.” And she shoved her narrow, high-heeled foot down on the accelerator.
    As the speedometer climbed from fifty to seventy to ninety,Maggie kept her eyes glued to the road. The RVs were looming up on her, but the sedan proved to have a bigger engine than she’d expected. Leaning forward, she pressed one of the switches on the dashboard and lowered the driver’s window. Reaching into the map compartment in the door, she flung out a handful of stuff and quickly ran the window up again.
    “What the hell was that, Maggie?” Mack demanded, raising the hat an inch