Chapter 4 - The Midnight Ambush
Marcus swung the armored SUV onto the coastal expressway, the engine screaming at redline.
The torrential midnight rain turned the asphalt into a slick, mirror-like sheet.
In the back seat, Maya cried out in agony as another violent contraction seized her body.
Nathan tore his own dress shirt into makeshift bandages, pressing them firmly against her bleeding leg and lower abdomen.
"Her pulse is racing over one hundred and sixty," Nathan said, checking his watch with trembling fingers.
"She is in placental abruption, Marcus; we have less than twenty minutes before the baby suffocates."
"Saint Jude's is seven miles out, but we have company," Marcus replied grimly, looking in the rearview mirror.
Three unmarked black utility trucks materialized from the rain-soaked darkness behind them.
The lead truck gunned its engine, aggressively ramming the rear bumper of Nathan's vehicle.
The impact jolted Maya violently, causing her to gasp in suffocating pain.
"Toby, keep her head steady!" Nathan ordered, climbing between the front bucket seats.
Nathan grabbed a heavy flare launcher from Marcus's emergency tactical compartment beneath the center console.
He lowered the rear tailgate window by two inches, the freezing ocean wind howling into the cabin.
Through the narrow slit, Nathan lined up the bright magnesium flare with the grille of the pursuing vehicle.
He squeezed the trigger.
The burning crimson flare shot into the radiator of the lead truck, instantly igniting the engine block in a blinding flash of white fire.
The truck swerved uncontrollably, flipping three times across the highway before smashing into the concrete divider.
The remaining two pursuit vehicles backed off slightly, regrouping for another flanking maneuver.
Marcus checked the digital navigation terminal on the dashboard and swore under his breath.
"The drawbridge over the harbor canal is rising," Marcus shouted.
"Someone hacked the maritime control station to trap us on this stretch of highway!"
The massive steel roadbed of the bridge was already lifting upward toward the black sky.
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Behind them, the two enemy trucks accelerated, attempting to box them in against the rising edge.
Marcus did not touch the brakes; instead, he slammed the gas pedal directly to the floor.
