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The van veered back into our lane and its rear doors suddenly swung open
We all saw the gun at the same time
I swung the wheel hard left, into the oncoht into the path of a vehicle coht at us
An eighteen-wheeler
The van see speed and trying to he lane I had no choice but to hit the brake and slow, so we could drop in behind the van, but the ap between us even faster
Ti
I popped the brake, slowed the truck, then veered right into the correct lane just as the eighteen-wheeler swished by, its horn blaring
“Not bad,” Lael said
We were now back behind the van with our original problem
Men with guns ahead of us
The rear doors swung open again
But Lael was ready
He hung his head and arer-side ith the rifle in hand, firing twice
The van swerved into the opposite lane to disrupt our line of fire No cars were co frohway
“Can you take out one of the tires?” I asked
The speedo at 75back and forth between the two lanes, thefor more shots of their own Lael stuck his head and shoulders back out the , along with the rifle, and tried two shots that h and floored the accelerator, speeding us up so that when the van veered left into the opposite lane, I brought the truck parallel to it, then I jerked the steering wheel left, sla the truck into the van
Once
Twice
A third ti even more speed to the thrust
The van vaulted the highway and plowed a path into a field, bu into soft earth
Lael let out a yell
We kept barreling down the highway
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
I followed the directions Cie provided We eventually found US 301 and turned south, driving thirty miles to Gainesville, home of the University of Florida Neither Lael nor Cie had h town to the Greyhound bus station I parked out front and alked inside
“This is where we leave you,” Lael said “We’d planned on a different route But that won’t work anymore”
“I’ll say it again You two are the only ones who can verify any of this”
Lael unzipped his duffel bag, removed the files, and handed them over “This is your problem, rookie Not ours We’re done”
“You’re just going to let this all fade away,” I asked
“Better than us dying,” Cie said “You have no idea all the bad things COINTELPRO did It was soToree You need to take a lesson from us and let this lie Give those daet any of this ever happened”
“I can’t do that”
“Sure you can,” Lael taunted “It’s real easy Nobody is going to believe you anyway They’ll just say those files were fabricated”
“That’s where you two come in It’s called corroboration”
Lael wrapped an aresture “Listen to o”
The bus station was crowded, typical probably for a college town I’d only ridden on a Greyhound once, years ago when randfather’s faria to Atlanta for the weekend An adventure, she’d called it I was eleven, one by then I remembered every minute of the entire weekend
“Where are you going?” I asked
“Better you don’t know,” Lael said “But it’ll be somewhere that To”
“Keep the truck,” Cie said “You’re going to need itto take our advice and give this up”
“Valdez has Foster, his daughter, and his son-in-law And Oliver is still out there I’m the only one who can d
eal with that”