He nodded. “I told you so. I know how my squad was going to get in.”
I scanned the faces of the team. “What do you guys say? Does Ansel stay or go?”
Jolie pointed at him, then swirled her hand to show “All of us.” She wanted him to stay.
“Yeah, sure,” Mills said. “If he’s a traitor, we’ll kill him, but you know.”
“Yeah,” Bunny said, shrugging.
I looked at Nate in the driver’s seat. “Yeah,” he said, staring right at Ansel, then repeated what Mills had said. “If he’s a traitor, we’ll kill him, but you know.”
“Okay, that’s settled,” I said, and leaned in the front window, my feet balanced precariously on a crossbeam. “When I give you the signal,” I told Nate, “it means the last strap is cut, and you need to step on the gas.”
“Got it,” Nate said, and gave me an intense look. “Be careful.”
66
“I’M ALWAYS CAREFUL,” I SAID, and climbed down. I heard Nate snort above me. The straps were, like, bulletproof fabric about three inches wide. They’d been ratcheted tight and I didn’t have a hex wrench on me. I pretty much had to be beneath the car to do this, and I slid sideways, trying to stay out of the way of the wheels, which would be very crushy if they rolled over me.
Pulling my big knife from its sheath, I started sawing away at the first strap. I’d decided to start in the front. The real trick would be when three straps were cut. The last one could pop by itself, severing some part of me, or the trailer could hit a bump, causing the car to slide off sideways, which would not be optimal or even survivable.
If the car started sliding around while I was still working underneath, I could get knocked off the truck, or worse.
The first strap finally gave. It had taken three times the effort that I’d imagined. Holding my breath, I slid sideways to the other front strap. My arms were already tired, having to reach up, and the rest of me was as tightly wound as the straps.
Second one down. I scooched toward the back of the car and angled myself to start cutting on the third. This was where it really got scary, and I could hardly breathe. This was where my whole plan would either work brilliantly… or kill us all.
My arms shook as I sawed at the last strap. I kept my body right in the middle of the chassis so if it rolled off without me, at least it wouldn’t smush me. Then the last strap was done. I waited a bit to see if the car moved, but it didn’t. The angle it was at was keeping it in place.
Finally I slithered out and stood up. I gave Nate the signal and grabbed the edge of the trunk, which was popped open.
Nate saw me and gunned the engine. I wasn’t as ready as I thought and the car jumping forward almost dislocated my shoulder. Without thinking, I threw myself into the trunk right as the car left the trailer. Time slowed as we sailed through the air, and I grabbed the trunk lid and slammed it shut. Immediately I was in tiny, total darkness. In the next second the car slammed down on the road with all of its ton of weight. I cried out as my head hit the roof of the trunk with a jaw-crunching bounce. It made me bite my tongue and my mouth filled with blood.
Had the fall broken the car? Were we moving?
As I swallowed blood, my head ringing, I felt the minimal vibration of the car’s electric engine. I braced myself against the trunk’s walls as the car reversed quickly, then made a sharp turn that threw me against the side wall.
It felt like a long time before the car stopped and someone opened the trunk lid. It was Nate, and he stared at me, hyped up by the plan’s success.
“You alive?” he asked.
“Almost,” I said, feeling the huge lump on my head. I climbed out shakily, cradling my wrist. My mouth was still full of blood and I spit it out on the road. Nate automatically kicked dust over it.
I pushed in next to Bunny in the front seat. The team was shaken, their necks hurt, but nothing too serious. It didn’t matter, anyway—we had wheels.
“Where to?” Nate asked, looking at me.
“East,” I said. “The big city in the east.”
67
CASSIE
THE DOOR SWUNG OPEN EASILY and then we were in the small, run-down bathroom. We slipped out into Ms. Strepp’s office, every muscle tensed.
It was empty and dark with the shades drawn; we didn’t dare turn on the light. Tim did a quick perimeter check while I looked for some kind of clue. Her desk had papers on it, things needing her signature, a full in-box. It was a little messy but didn’t look like it had been ransacked.
Without speaking we headed to the door to the outside and I reached for his hand. At the last second I remembered he wasn’t Nate and pulled my hand back. Outside, we pressed ourselves against the building, moving soundlessly toward the booted feet, ready to flee if this was a trap. Ms. Strepp was famous for her gut-wrenching tests.