HIGHWAY TO DANGER

“Rise and shine, Turner.”

Daniel groaned. He could hear the low buzzing of cars passing by. A breeze tickled his exposed cheekbone, the other side of his face was buried in smelly cushions. Peripherally, he realised he must have been gritting his teeth in his sleep again, if the tension in his jaw was any indication. Daniel tried to open his eyes, to move, but his body made no effort to listen to his mind.

“Come on, Danny, we ain’t got all day,” a British voice warned, deep and gravelly. Daniel wanted to answer, preferably throw in a couple of curse words directed at the person who dared wake him from his peaceful slumber, but all he could do was gulp.

After a few seconds of silence, Daniel heard the sound of a car seat being reclined. “William, you can’t do that!” a female voice with a heavy German accent called out. Before Daniel could react in any way, a sudden pain stung his cheek.

Daniel’s eyes flew open, his body jolting into a sitting position. He whirled around to glare at his assailant. “What the fuck, man? What did you have to slap me for?”

The British man leaning back in his seat shrugged innocently, a mischievous grin spreading across his pale face. “Had to wake you. My sincerest apologies for disturbing your beauty sleep.”

Daniel tried to rub the sleep out of his bleary eyes. The summer skies were slightly cloudy, the open car window next to him was sending a cold breeze into the overheated interior of the vehicle. He could feel a faint throbbing in his thigh where a bullet had hit him. Right, the enemy ambushed us. They must’ve known we were undercover. Motherfuckers.

“You solid, Tuner?” William had the decency to ask.

Daniel felt like three massive bodyguards had jumped and beaten him within an inch of his death. Maybe because three massive bodyguards had, in fact, jumped him back at the German warehouse, trying to get a hold of his emergency gun. “Affirmative,” he replied, noticing no serious injuries other than the bullet in his thigh, although the back of his neck felt sore from being passed out in an awkward position.

Someone yawned in the front of the car. It was then that Daniel noticed the woman in the driver’s seat, her tattooed fingers gripping the wheel, arms toned and shoulders pulled back in a concentrated manner. Her blond hair was gathered into a sleek ponytail.

The woman turned slightly to furrow her brows at the Brit in the passenger’s seat. Daniel took notice of the smooth slope of her small nose. With no idea what her entire face looked like, he was still positive she had to be beautiful.

“I recall telling you not to wake him,” the woman sighed resignedly.

William scoffed. “And I recall telling you to keep your eyes on the road, love.”

She shook her head and mumbled something in German under her breath. It almost sounded like she was summoning the devil himself.

Daniel couldn’t see her face from the backseat, but he recognised her. “Julia Rüther, right?” The woman glanced at him through the rearview mirror, and Daniel was met with pale blue eyes. “You’re the German emergency contact in case things go south.”

She nodded. “Yes. And things went terribly south, FYI. Had to pick you up from the forest before the enemy had a chance to catch up to you. Saved your sorry asses in the process.”

“Then I guess I owe you big time.”

Julia nodded curtly in acknowledgement.

He looked at his brown trousers and studied the blood-soaked bandages around his thigh where the bullet had hit him. Shit, this is my first time getting shot. The bullet probably had not damaged anything important or he would have bled out by now.

After collecting his bearings, Daniel rubbed his face in tired confusion. “What happened? How were we found out?” he asked. He had thought the exchange had been going rather smoothly, lieutenant Anderson shaking hands with the illegal arms dealer upon coming to an agreement. But then a single shot had rung out, piercing the lieutenant’s chest before a group of armed men had barged into the abandoned warehouse. “No one blew our cover, as far as I’m concerned.”

William sat back in his seat, inhaling deeply, jaw working, eyes fixated on the road ahead of them. “Means they knew beforehand. It was a bloody setup from the very beginning.”

Daniel’s mouth went dry. That meant that either the enemy had been clever enough to put the pieces together before he, the lieutenant and William had even set foot in the warehouse, or that the enemy had one of the higher-ups secretly working for them. He figured that out of the two options, the latter was more likely. And he did not like the idea of that at all.

Daniel massaged the bridge of his nose. “What about the sniper overwatch? Scrawny guy, African American. Charlie, was it?”

William’s face darkened. “Compromised.”

“Fucking hell. What happened after we escaped the warehouse?” He could only vaguely remember how he had been tumbling through the forest, and how he had feverishly tried not to lose sight of William’s broad shoulders before him.

“You passed out. From shock, probably,” Julia stated, flexing her forearms to turn the wheel.

William turned to look at her. “Just so you know – I tried carrying his heavy arse,” he said, to Daniel’s frustration, as he proceeded to point at him, “But you can only get so far when princess Turner here suddenly decides to make out with the ground.”

A spark of shame bloomed in Daniel’s chest, but he did his best to pay no mind to it, shooting William an irritated glance instead. “I forget to ask – are all Brits dicks like you?”

“Negative. I’m one of a kind, Danny.” The Brit raked a hand through his blond hair. “Are all Americans—”

“Guys.” Their banter was interrupted by Julia’s stressing voice. They both went rigid, shoulders tensing. “I think I’ve got a visual on the enemy. Black BMW on our seven. I might be wrong, but they’ve been tailing us for the past ten minutes.”

Daniel’s heart stuttered. “How? I thought we escaped for good.”

“Scheiße, I don’t know.” Julia changed lanes, eyes roaming between the road and the car’s wing mirror on the left. “Maybe one of them saw us drive off with my car, decided to track us.”

“Wait. This smelly excuse for a vehicle is yours?” Daniel asked before he could think better of it.

William barked a sudden laugh. “Told you it smells funny in here, Julia.”

“Can the both of you shut the fuck up and help me keep eyes on that damn car?” the German hissed, her tone bordering on hysterical.

“Yes, ma’am!” they both said in unison, moving to inconspicuously track their pursuers with their eyes. A heavy silence settled over them, thick with tension.

Out of nowhere, a yellow truck drove past them, momentarily obscuring their view of the black BMW. Once the lane on their left was clear again, their pursuers’ car had vanished into thin air.

“Fuck, they’re gone,” Daniel cursed. He scooted over to the opposite window of the car’s backrow. On the righthand side of the motorway was a blue Toyota and a white Hyundai in the far back. No BMW in sight.

“Julia, I need you to get ahead of that white truck in front of us. Turner, you stay on the right side, I’ll take the left and the back,” William’s uncharacteristically serious voice commanded.

“Copy that.” Daniel squinted his eyes at the Toyota slowly overtaking them. He could hear the seats squeaking as the Brit crawled into the back row and scrambled to the left window.

Daniel kept scrutinising the blue car. Something was off. Maybe his stress-induced mind was playing tricks on him, desperate to detect something that wasn’t even there. But it looked like the vehicle had an unusual shadow, too dark for a somewhat sunny day. A mere moment later, realisation dawned upon Daniel.

That was no shadow.

The instant the Toyota changed lanes, the black BMW emerged from behind its cover, closing in on them whilst changing lanes to flank their vehicle on the righthand side.

Daniel’s breath hitched with surprise. “Guys, they’re on our right,” he warned the others and looked at William, uncertain about what their next move should be. Daniel had to admit that the Brit had way more experience in the field than him. He would know best how to get rid of a car which was tailing them.

“Alright, no one panic. Julia, change—” Will began, but was cut off by the sound of steel scraping against steel. The BMW grazed their car, then bumped into it with enough force to push them a bit to the left. Their car swayed dangerously. Daniel saw a glimpse of William whose shoulder jerked violently into the car door. “Motherfuckers,” the Brit spat out in between gritted teeth. Meanwhile, Daniel had gripped the seat in front of him, before the thrashing car could fling him across the back row straight into William’s lap. Julia swore under her breath again, frantically looking over her shoulder to check up on her passengers.

“Eyes on the road, Rüther,” William urged, while massaging his shoulder.

“I’m trying,” the woman addressed shot back. “Shit, they can’t do anything serious here, no?”

Daniel thought about it. “We’re on the Autobahn, right? Plenty of cars around. Police even. They’d be crazy to cause bigger trouble.”

“They look pretty crazy to me,” Julia stated with a slight quiver to her voice.

Daniel heard a dry chuckle next to him. He could see a spark of dangerous determination flash through William’s greyish eyes. The Brit grinned. “Well then it’s just a question of who’s the madder bloke, innit?”

He reached for his gun hidden underneath his leather jacket. “Grab my ankles in case things turn rough.” Daniel instantly nodded, only questioning the odd request after agreeing. Then the Brit glanced at their driver. “And Julia, if they make a move to bump into us again, push back. We have to stay in our lane or it’s game over.” The German hummed in agreement, her entire body stiff with focus.

What happened next was something Daniel would never forget.

William slightly opened the door on his side, the sound of cars whooshing by suddenly no longer muffled by the vehicle’s walls. Wind gushed into the car through the open gap as the Brit leaned down into the cushions to lay on his stomach, pushing his muddy shoes into Daniel’s lap, and carefully peeked out of the moving vehicle. The bastard’s gone nuts, Daniel thought to himself. Nevertheless, he clutched the guy’s ankles with a bone-shattering grip.

With one hand holding the door only inches open to prevent it from flinging into oncoming traffic, William snaked the hand, which was grasping the gun, under the car and aimed his weapon – or so Daniel presumed – at the BMW’s exposed tires. For a few seconds that felt like eons, all Daniel could see of his colleague was his blond mop, the Brit’s head dangerously close to the moving traffic. Then, the sound of multiple gunshots shattered the silence, William’s shoulder snapping back from the recoil. “Got them,” his voice called out, subdued by all the noise on the motorway.

The BMW to their left swerved, tires screeching against hard concrete. “Go, go, go!” Daniel yelled at Julia, fearing the black car would crash into them again, this time with no control.

As the German stepped on the accelerator and the car sped forward, William pulled himself into his seat again, closing the door with shaking hands. “Good work, lads. Now let’s get the hell out of here.”