Juan and Alex’s other men in the house were running out of the back of the house, where the entire back wall had now fallen.  They were firing at a Van that was driving away through a path of their own making.

“Where is she?” Alex asked as soon as he ran back there.

“They took her,” Juan said.  “She’s in that van.  They took her!”

Alex, even angrier now, took off too.  While his men were shooting at the retreating Van, and while the van members were firing back, Alex took off through the woods to try with all he had to cut them off at the pass.

He ran through what felt like a jungle of trees and weeds and bushes, lifting his feet up high as he ran.  All he had to go by was the sound of that van’s engine as it tore through the woods further over, to make its way to a never-traveled dirt road at the end of the jungle.  That van was driving straight through, but Alex was running at an angle.

And sure enough, when he made his way through the woods, the van had already gotten on that dirt road and was making its way out of the area.  But Alex waited and waited and as soon as that Van drove past, he began shooting.  He shot and he shot.  He ran into the middle of that dirt road, aiming dead on and continuing to shoot.

The van kept going for several kilometers away from Alex.  But eventually it just stopped.  No wrecking.  No flips.  No turns.  It just stopped.

Alex began running toward the van with both hands on his gun, with his gun pointing directly at that van.

When he made it up to the van, he stepped away from it still pointing.  The driver, he could see, had been shot in the back of the head and had fallen over to his side.

Alex then hurried to the back of the bullet-riddled van, and then, with his weapon still drawn and pointing, he flung open the door and pointed it at the people in the back.  He expected to see Linda somewhere inside, whether dead or alive.  He saw three men inside, all of which had been shot, and all of which were dead.

But he did not see Linda.

And that was when he heard the second van.  He didn’t realize there was even a second van!

He turned around, because the sound was behind him.  But when he turned, it was already too late.  The van had flown out of those woods and was heading straight for him.  He was going to die that day.  There was no doubt in Alex’s mind.  He was going to die!

He tried to fire at them.  He tried to lift his gun and get off a round on their asses.  But it was too close.  It was so close that he could see Linda inside of that ongoing van.  And before he could fire one shot, and before he could even jump out of the way, that van was upon him.

But as out of nowhere as that van had come, Alex’s own Mercedes-Maybach came out of the woodwork too.  It came at an angle.  And it was driven by Kari!

And just as that van was about to make Alex Drakos their roadkill, Kari purposely crashed into the side of the van, causing the van to flip over and over and over again.  Although it landed on all fours, and was upright again, it was enough to keep Alex alive.  Kari moved from under the steering wheel, got over onto the passenger side of the car, and Alex jumped in and took the wheel.

“I told you to leave,” he quickly admonished Kari.  Then he looked at her with nothing but gratitude and love in his eyes.  “Thank God you stayed,” he said.

But although his heart was pounding, he didn’t delay.  The van, now upright, was driving off in the opposite direction!

Alex tried to gun his Mercedes, to chase that motherfucker down, but it was no use.  Even as his men came out of the woods, and began firing at the retreating Van, Alex’s Mercedes had died where it stood. The crash had somehow disabled the engine.  It wouldn’t budge.

And the van, with Linda Drakos inside, got away.

His men ran up to his car.  “You guys okay, Boss?” Juan asked him.

“We’re okay,” Alex replied.  “Go back, get in your cars, and find that van!”

“Yes, sir,” Juan said, and he and their men took off.

Kari looked at Alex and shook her head.

“What?” he asked her.

“I told you,” she said as he continued to press the gas and try to make that car go.  “A two-hundred-thousand-dollar car dies at the first impact, while an old, cheap-ass van takes a licking, flipping over and over, and keeps on ticking.  I told y’all these new cars aren’t worth a damn!”

Alex actually smiled.  Leave it to Kari to try to prove a point at a time like this!

But then he took her hand and squeezed it.  That was too close a call for him.

Too close for her, too.  “Where do we go now, Alex?” she asked.

“I didn’t think I’d ever step foot in Greece again.  Perhaps that was just my wish.”  He looked at her.  “Looks like we’re going back,” he said.