Arianna

“Ajax!” she screamed, seeing him go down from the blow.

Arianna had tried to follow his instructions, but the harpoons were fastened too tightly and the truck had begun to shake as she accelerated. With freedom out of reach, she had been limited to holding tightly alongside the big rig, watching panicked as Ajax took on the entire squad himself.

He had told her about the Extremis squad, normal men imbued with the powers of a shifter. Ajax had read about them in the note from J to Levante. It seemed that Levante was the leader of this cell of their mysterious enemy, but no more than a lackey in the grand scheme of things. Whoever this J was, he seemed to hold the real power. Until they were able to be rid of him, this agency would continue to grow.

Hopefully we can slow that growth down today, she had thought as Ajax went on the attack.

But when one of the Extremis agents leveled him with a blow, all her hopes that they might escape things intact collapsed just as fast as Ajax’s legs.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” she swore. Her look into the mirror at Ajax had revealed something else to her.

Two of the Extremis squad, men far more powerful than her, were shimmying across the cables that attached the two vehicles together. Her heart rate notched up another level, to the point she could practically feel the blood rushing through her body. Gripping the wheel so tightly her knuckles turned white, she kept an eye on the mirror.

There was a hollow bang as the first one reached the side and clambered onto the roof. The harpoons had hit her truck at an upward angle near the top of the side panel, making it easy for them to flip themselves from the wire to the roof, with a grace she could never match.

It was tough to make out what was happening now that she couldn’t see them. There was a lot of banging from the roof over the cargo area behind the cab. The highway streaked by on either side as the two trucks continued their headlong plunge out of the city and into the highway.

Part of her mind wondered why there was no civilian law enforcement, but she figured that they must have been warned off. Whatever this mystery group was, they were powerful. She wondered what was going to happen once they broke free. It wasn’t like the agency could be allowed to continue to exist. The shifter community would agree with that.

She hoped Ajax wouldn’t take part in the dismantling of it, though she knew he would want to.

Arianna cried out as the roof of the cab suddenly buckled and banged loudly from the force of someone landing on it. Feet appeared in the window and the Extremis agent began to enter the cab.

A quick glance in her mirror showed Ajax struggling to his feet on the back of the flatbed trailer. She couldn’t leave, not yet. But even as she watched, a third agent began to cross the distance from the big rig to the cargo truck.

The agent was almost in the window. She needed to do something to slow things down. Focusing, she tried to call forth the strength that she had tapped into on several prior occasions. She needed it to help her deal with the man who just now was slipping into the passenger seat next to her. He had come in feet first, obviously not expecting her to be much of a threat.

Just then, he was right. Arianna couldn’t seem to find the strength she needed, and without it she would be helpless to resist him.

“Evening,” the agent said sarcastically as he turned in the seat to face her.

“Fuck you,” she spat. “If you take me from the wheel right now, your pal out there is going to either be squished or fall and die.”

The agent shrugged. “I doubt the fall would kill him. As you might have surmised, we are somewhat resistant to that sort of thing. Squishing him between the two trucks might, however. But, as I can see, he has now finished his trip.”

Arianna glanced in the mirror to see that he was right. It took her a moment to realize she had taken her gaze off the other man. She yelled as he kicked at her across the cab, trying to push her out the door. Arianna was pushed against the door, her back screaming. She kept her foot outstretched, pushing the pedal down as far as it would go. If Ajax needed her, she intended to be nearby.

“He’s not going to save you now, bitch,” the agent said, grunting with effort as he pushed at her with his booted feet. “Now, get out of here,” he snarled, pulling back with one foot to stomp at her back.

The sole of his foot crashed into her stomach, and Arianna gasped as the breath was driven from her lungs. She looked around in terror as the air refused to come. Her lungs had been crushed. She was going to die from suffocation.

As she struggled to get oxygen to her lungs, Arianna felt something. Something she hadn’t before. Inside of her, there was a…spark, though that didn’t seem to describe it. Like a blossoming of power that surged. She reached out tentatively with her mind, and touched it.

Strength flooded through her body with such a violent surge that her muscles swelled and flexed involuntarily. Her eyes flew open and the muscles of her lungs pumped air rapidly into her system. The world was suddenly crystal clear. She could hear every little sound and sense the world around her with a clarity that she had never experienced before.

Beside her the agent grunted as he couldn’t dislodge her. Arianna turned her head to face him, noting the way the agent’s eyes focused on her, then widened in surprise.

She bared her teeth at him in a smile that no one would have mistaken for anything but the look of a predator ready to strike.

Her free hand, the one not on the wheel, closed around the booted foot on her chest and without waiting she wrenched it violently to the side with all the newfound strength in her body. The agent screamed as bone snapped and ligaments tore. He pulled himself away from her to the far side of the cab of the truck.

Sweat streamed down his face as he breathed heavily, trying to contain the agony that she knew would be coursing through his body right then.

With a snarl she lunged toward him, careful to keep one hand on the wheel and her foot on the gas.

The agent yelled in terror as her hand grabbed his neck and squeezed, pulling him close to her.

“Come here,” she snarled, pulling the man across her lap and into the driver’s side door with a ferocity that stunned the agent.

“Let’s see if your theory about getting squished is correct,” she said, pulling the wheel toward the big rig at the same time she flexed her arm and sent the man through the already weakened door behind her.

The door gave way and the agent went through it. His foot got caught in one of the suddenly slack cables that joined the two trucks. She watched as he fell between the trucks with a scream that was abruptly cut short. She saw the flatbed trailer bounce as it ran over something.

“Asshole,” she growled triumphantly.

Above her she heard the sounds of more booted feet. Right. The other two.

“Time for plan B,” she said and turned the wheel back toward the big rig.

Taking a deep breath, she waited for the flatbed to draw closer. Then, with a final mental thank you to the truck and a prayer to any deity watching, she jumped free, trusting that her new strength would carry her across.

Behind her, she heard a shout from the top of the truck. She slammed into the edge of the flatbed and hung on for dear life, her feet dangling just inches from one of the crazily spinning wheels, which would spell certain death.

She had made it, against all odds. With a sigh of relief, she began to climb her way onto the trailer while the truck fell behind. The cables ripped free from their anchor points on the flatbed as the cargo truck began to wobble and then flipped on its side, the uncontrolled path of it taking out two of the SUVs that had been trailing them as well.

A thud forced her to look up just as one of the shifters completed his leap from the top of the truck to the trailer, landing right in front of her.

Uh-oh.