Ellie ran. She pounded the asphalt, knowing she had to get as much distance between herself and La Bruja’s people as she could. She stumbled east, crossing over the junction. She put her head down and sprinted for all that she was worth.

* * *

Hicks heard the rifle shot and knew that it must be Chase.

He took a breath, held it, then exhaled, popping up from behind the trunk and bringing the pistol with him. The two shooters had been frozen by the boom of the rifle and, for a moment, their attention was elsewhere. He would make their neglect of him expensive. He sighted one of them, the man on the left of the car, and fired, pulling the trigger three times. The first two rounds missed, high and to the right, but the third smacked him in the leg. The impact unbalanced him and he fell, landing heavily on his side.

His partner turned and fired a barrage that smashed into the car, forcing Hicks down again. He was next to the passenger door. He was getting low on ammunition and he remembered that he had a magazine on the seat. He opened the door, reached in and found the spare. He saw his phone on the floor and grabbed that, too.

“Hicks!”

It was Ziggy over the speaker.

“I’m here,” he said.

“You need to move. The police are coming. There’s a car on its way.”

Hicks would have loved to be able to move, but that was easier said than done. He was penned in and outgunned.

He heard the sound of an engine, and the screech of rubber on asphalt.

“Hicks?”

He peeked around the side of the door and saw that the Dodge minivan was moving away from him. He shuffled forward to the front of the car, gripped his pistol tightly, and stood. He checked down the road and couldn’t see either of the men who had been shooting at him. He took the chance to move forwards, reaching the back of the Duster. The vehicle had been shot to pieces, riddled at close range with automatic gunfire. There were three men inside, all of them unmoving, all of them struck multiple times, all of them already dead.

Hicks took a breath, readied himself to shoot, and stepped around the corner of the van. The Dodge was a hundred yards away, across the junction and already out of range. Next was the Toyota, with a woman in a balaclava sheltering behind it. Hicks looked across the junction and saw Chase; he was crouched behind his car, leaning against the hood with the big lever-action rifle aimed at the junction.