BooksBarbecue
Back The Neighborhood
Chapters (59)
  1. Part I Reconnaissance
  2. Chapter One
  3. Chapter Two
  4. Chapter Three
  5. Part II Incursion
  6. Chapter Four
  7. Chapter Five
  8. Chapter Six
  9. Chapter Seven
  10. Chapter Eight
  11. Chapter Nine
  12. Chapter Ten
  13. Part III Under Siege
  14. Chapter Eleven
  15. Chapter Twelve
  16. Chapter Thirteen
  17. Part IV Course Correction
  18. Chapter Fourteen
  19. Part V Balance of Power
  20. Chapter Fifteen
  21. Chapter Sixteen
  22. Chapter Seventeen
  23. Chapter Eighteen
  24. Chapter Nineteen
  25. Chapter Twenty
  26. Chapter Twenty-One
  27. Chapter Twenty-Two
  28. Chapter Twenty-Three
  29. Chapter Twenty-Four
  30. Chapter Twenty-Five
  31. Chapter Twenty-Six
  32. Chapter Twenty-Seven
  33. Chapter Twenty-Eight
  34. Chapter Twenty-Nine
  35. Part VI Spy versus Spy
  36. Chapter Thirty
  37. Chapter Thirty-One
  38. Chapter Thirty-Two
  39. Chapter Thirty-Three
  40. Part VII Winds of War and Flame
  41. Chapter Thirty-Four
  42. Chapter Thirty-Five
  43. Chapter Thirty-Six
  44. Chapter Thirty-Seven
  45. Chapter Thirty-Eight
  46. Chapter Thirty-Nine
  47. Chapter Forty
  48. Chapter Forty-One
  49. Part VIII Strong to the Finish
  50. Chapter Forty-Two
  51. Chapter Forty-Three
  52. Part IX Spy Games
  53. Chapter Forty-Four
  54. Chapter Forty-Five
  55. Chapter Forty-Six
  56. Part X What Goes Around
  57. Chapter Forty-Seven
  58. Chapter Forty-Eight
  59. About the Author

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Zack said. “Who is this guy?”

“Shut it, Zack. I got this,” Noah said, and raced forward for a second strike.

Explosions of big glass spider-webs suddenly appeared on the windshield as the passenger in the wounded SUV leaned out and opened fire. “Motherfucker,” Noah said through clenched teeth. The two vehicles roared down the road, the Mercedes in front and to the left of the Range Rover.

Zack grabbed his HK and vaulted over the middle console into the back seat. He hit the window button on the left rear door, and the glass immediately began to lower, wind rushing in violently. “When I tell you, floor it, and sorry for the noise. It’s going to be loud. This chase is about to be over.”

Zack ensured the selector level was on semiautomatic and raised the weapon. He exhaled partially, said, “Hit it,” and steadied the barrel on top of the door’s windowsill.

The Range Rover shot forward like a malevolent mechanical predator running down its prey. More starbursts appeared on the Range Rover’s windshield. Wrong target, asshole, Zack thought, and adjusted the red dot in the middle of the holographic scope so that it lay transposed on the shooter in the Mercedes’s passenger window. He opened fire while the SUV was still slightly behind the Mercedes, the explosions of the gunfire deafening inside the Range Rover. The bullets struck the man in the black suit in several places, including the chest and side of the face. The black submachine gun he’d been firing clattered to the pavement and disappeared between the vehicles. His body slumped forward across the open window, arms and head hanging out, just as the Range Rover pulled up directly adjacent to the vehicle. Zack had a perfectly clear line of sight to the driver at near-point-blank range and pulled the trigger four times in quick succession.

The driver never had a chance and was struck in the side of the head and neck, his head slumping against the driver’s window covered in dark red blood.

Zack thought he heard the screams of the children over the roar of the rushing wind, but he wasn’t sure, as he was more concerned with what was about to happen next. With no driver, the Mercedes, traveling at more than fifty miles per hour, turned lazily to the left, moving closer to the rock wall it had previously struck.