Without even thinking or knowing about it, I was moving across towards Nazari, who was cluelessly bopping around and having a great time listening to the Stones. My hands were flailing out like autonomous grapplers, looking for any part of her that they could bring down. They were ruthless. At the same time, but separately, my eyes were tracking the source of that reflection, and I saw the muzzle flash long before I heard it.

I grabbed at Nazari’s hair and pulled her head down quick. It was vicious and unkind in one way, and loving and helpful in another. It might have been unpleasant, but not as unpleasant as being shot in the head.

That all happened in a fraction of a second. Then, I had her down on the seat, and I was flattening myself over her. I wasn’t paying any attention to the car, likely to crash soon. A car crash was the least of our worries. Half a second after the initial reflection, the bullet passed through the air over our heads. A .50 caliber bullet will make a supersonic shock wave that mulches anything soft into pink mist within twelve inches of its path. Which is why I was flattening us down and hoping for the best.

The projectile rifled through the driver’s side window, came through the cockpit with a wicked hiss, and then shot out through the passenger side. A split second later I heard an enormous boom, as the sound of the rifle fire finally arrived. That was no normal sniper rifle. The bullet stopped eventually, that’s for sure, but on the way it might have taken out a small tree, or vaporized a family of squirrels, you never really know.

I was not conscious of unclipping the seat belt, it just happened. First hers, then mine. The car went off the road, bumping to the left, over the edge and onto the incline. The same side of the road as the shooter. I pulled the hand brake, which didn’t totally stop the car, but softened the impact. We hit a tree on the way down. Lucky again, because the Peugeot hadn’t built up extra speed. I kicked open my door and pulled Nazari out the passenger side. By then she was aware, vaguely, of crisis. She scrambled over. I said, “Get behind the engine block and keep your head down”.

Two rounds slammed into the car in quick sequence, followed by the sound of fast burning powder exploding. One of the supersonic bullets ripped through the Peugeot, and exploded out the other side, about a foot away from me, leaving shredded metal. The other was stopped by the engine block. The gun was so powerful that the impact rocked the car. It felt like a huge angry robot was punching the Peugeot with a sledgehammer. Definitely .50 caliber anti-materiel.