The black van headed in their direction.
“I’m going to need your help here,” Phillips said. “When I tell you to, shift us into drive.”
“You’re in reverse.”
“I’m well aware of that.”
The sedan shuddered, the rear dropped, and Reese bounced in his seat. “Won’t that kill the transmission?”
“Right now, I’m worried about the men in that van more than the transmission of this car.” She watched the rearview. “Ready?”
Reese grabbed the gearshift separating the front seats.
“Now.”
Reese shoved the stick into the drive position, and Phillips spun the wheel with one hand, throwing Reese against the door. The car straightened out and Phillips picked up speed.
The van followed.
“Will you please tell me what’s going on?”
“When I figure it out, yes.”
An engine roared, and the van closed in.
“I don’t suppose you can go faster?”
“I don’t suppose you know how to use a gun?”
Reese shut his eyes for a moment. “Shit.”
“I didn’t think so.” Phillips jerked the wheel again, and the sedan slid sideways. Rocks and dirt pelted the passenger window. Clouds of red filled the cab.
Reese coughed.
The sedan lurched forward, leaving behind a smokescreen of dust. It only took seconds before the reflection of the van emerging from the cloud appeared in the side mirror.
“Looks like they have back up.” Phillips jerked her chin off to Reese’s right. Another car exited the road.
“We can’t outrun them, can we?”
“I don’t need to outrun them. I just need to get you close enough to someone who can kill them.”
Black dotted the field. Bodies of curs. Hundreds of them. Beyond them, the farmhouse.
“We can’t go back there.” Not only were they headed toward the curs, it led the people chasing them in the direction Luca had fled with Seung and her betas.
“I don’t know if you noticed or not: the curs didn’t zero in on you.”
They hadn’t. They’d swarmed Nox and Johnathan’s truck. “Are you saying the one that came into my house really was a fluke?” Reese didn’t know whether to let himself feel relieved or embarrassed.
“No.” An engine revved, and the black van slammed into the bumper. Phillips took a sharp right, driving toward a clump of woods. “No, I’m suggesting whoever sent that horde did it to get the two most dangerous obstacles out of the way. Dalton got the third.”
“It was a distraction.”
“And Dalton probably sent your location to whomever he worked for.”
The second car sped past the van.