Nice ride, is it bulletproof?

  “Back up. oving in,” Luke said.

  “What cops?” Gradie asked. He sat up and saw for himself. Two of them. They moved out from behind the crete pilrs at the edge of the sidewalk in front of the store.

  “You didn’t see them during the fight, man?” Luke said with a ugh in his voice. “They were doing all kinds of analysis behind those pilrs.”

  “Target?” Lindsey said abruptly.

  “Get to cover, bro!” Luke said just as quickly. The cops were moving toward the ter cruiser with their guns raised. Gradie remembered he was ying there in a pile of shells with a hot pistol in his hand, so he scampered to get behind a nearby shelf.

  “Target?” Lindsey repeated. “He’s in that cruiser, correct?”

  “Yep,” said Luke.

  “Let’s extract.”

  “ive. Disengage and fall back.” It was Michael.

  “He’s right there! There’s only two of them!” she hissed.

  “He is not the objective. We take him now, the house tracks you and you’ll be on the run with limited options, if you even mao get him out of the area.”

  “Boss,” Luke started.

  “Disengage. Over.” It hilip this time, and he sounded defeated. Michael wasn’t budging on this.

  “Fuck!” Lindsey whispered.

  Gradie peeked around and watched the ove up to the right cruiser. One of them looked in the back seat and said something to the other one. He didn’t respond, but got in the passenger seat in a hurry and sed the lot. The other cop got in the driver seat and started the engine.

  The cruiser pulled away from the curb and around the blood-spttered sedan. The tires ched on gss and shells with a sound like a monster chewing. One of the cops spoke into the radio in a voice edged with authority. The sounds glided over the silence.

  “Hey!” It was another cop who had appeared out of nowhere. He waved his hands in the air, but the cruiser accelerated down the row. Gradie realized it was uhat police procedure was to leave a se like this. The cop looked fused and started stuttering into his radio.

  “I think those two cops are Hardworlders,” Gradie whispered.

  “Yep,” Luke said. The oved out into the street and looked back at the age around the other cruiser in shock. He put his hand up to his mouth and Gradie could see in his eyes that he had never seen anything like this. He talked into his radio some more, then a loud crash drew his attention out to the street.

  The cruiser was stopped in the middle of the road and taking fire from men in two other vehicles in the oning ne.

  “It’s another fug team!” Lindsey said on the el.

  “Get out of there.” Philip said.

  “We just gonhem take—” Luke said.

  “They’re not taking shit,” EP said. “More cops are moving in now.”

  Sirens echoed down the main street and red and blue lights fshed from behind the auto parts store.

  The lone cop stood there watg the gunfight. A particurly loud burst made him flind he dropped down into a croud moved to cover behind a parked car.

  Luke popped out from behind another row and jogged across the froowards the stradie couldn’t see his gun pouches, but his shirt had a distinct bulge to it. There was a glitter on his clothes that he realized only as Luke got closer was broken gss. The cop didn’t notice this and motio him to get down. He somehow hadn’t seen him firing earlier or the shock had made him fet.

  “Is anyone hurt? I’m a nursing student!” Luke yelled with faked pani his voice while jogging faster. The cop waved in the general dire of the store before more shots drew his attention back to the street, where swarms of blue and red lights were now verging from both dires on the age in the middle of the road. He stood there shellshocked while Luke spriradie and smiled at him. He came around the cruisers and him.

  “Let’s get outta here bro.”

  Gradie’s body stayed locked in a crouch, and he realized that some part of him had been afraid to turn around, vihat if he turned his back to the bodies and the gu would eat him. As if it was all made of the same substance. A pure liquid violence waiting to take him.

  Luke, as far from that kind of fear as anyone could be, pulled a corpse off one of the ATVs and nodded fradie to get on. The liquid feeling of danger drained away as Gradie watched him, and he realized it had just been his self screaming at him. Asshole.

  Gradie scrambled over the gss and got on the back of the ATV. Luke gu and they zoomed dow toward the side of the store and cut down the alley behind the building. Lindsey and her Hayabusa were already long gone.

  A quarter of the way down the back alley, Luke drove through a gap in the curb and Gradie’s stomach flew up rollercoaster style as they dropped onto a dirt path winding down the hill, worn into pce by a million smoke breaks and a few night shift blow jobs. Gradie couldn’t evee ahead of him, but Luke guided the ATV doweep wooded hillside like a slice of cardboard down a grass slope.

  Gradie seed his breathing into ses of four ts, trying to keep himself aloft uhe weight of the adrenal dump. He remembered the day in the clubhouse, when Philip had set of a chime in his earbuds at random times, and he would have to box breathe until the chime sounded again. The i, he was told, was to make the breathing sed nature. Now, a millioies away, in another version of himself who viewed the Clubhouse training like a re vivid dream, it worked. The breath came easy, and Gradie woo what extent the Spirit could truly override the Self.

  Suddenly, they were weaving through the brush and r up a creek bed, Luke ughing and whooping with every jump, diesel motor drowning out the sirens. It was like Gradie had teleported out of a warzoo a carefree Saturday. EP directed Luke across a creek, down a trail, and through a dense cluster of mesquite.

  “Stop there. Kate’s oreet about twenty yards ahead.”

  Luke killed the engine and they started walking. After a few minutes of pushing through the dry brush, a street er came into view. It was like the neighborhood had never gotten up the ce to cross the street so the Texas brush built up the lots instead. The houses were sixty years old at least and the one on the er looked like a shed that had gotten sid spit up a brick addition. The SUV waited oreet with its bullet wounds, only visible as tiny white dots on the gss, fag them.

  Luke got in the ter door and Gradie followed. Sam sped off the moment he shut the door and he fell hard into the seat. It pissed him off, and reminded him of something.

  “So why did you leave the se while we were getting shot at?”

  Sam whirled on him and the car swerved in the road.

  “Because Max told me to get clear so the cops wouldn’t be chasing us right now. And what about you? Who the fuck told you to run in like that you god damned idiot?”

  “It worked out. I shot—"

  “No, it didn’t! Did you find the prize in there and not tell us? And your supposed to cover your fug face when you—"

  “Johnny didn’t have a mask oher so what’s it—"

  “Oh yeah, Zoey, cop saw me,” Luke said. “You get the cameras inside?”

  “What? Yeah, I’m getting them wiped now. Which cop saw you?”

  “One of the natives. He looked shell-shocked though, so I don’t think.”

  “You’ll stay out of sight for the duration.” Michael's voice came in, harsh-edged.

  Luke nodded.

  “My bad boss.”

  “An,” Michael tinued. “If you e’s important to cover your face so you remain off the radar. This isn’t a hit, remember. These jobs are more prolonged, and we o maintain flexibility.”

  Gradie doubted that repeating the fact that Luke hadn’t covered his face would get him out of the lecture so he tried something else.

  “No one iore saw me. And I didn’t have a mask.”

  “That’s because you weren’t supposed to leave the car!” Sam yelled. “We told you—” Michael cut her off.

  “Enough. Get clear of the se and Max will give you a location. Boss out.”

  The ride was silent for a while. Sam checked every mirror and window five times at every turn.

  That is more valuable than they know, and the job is more fucked than they imagine. ime, New rides, and a detective dealing with remnants of a roadside piic turned violent. Episode: Aftermath