We ended up leaving the hotel early that morning. Black River patrols in the town were just absurdly high. Hummers driving around flashing Mark 19 grenade launchers, Browning M2s, miniguns and even a tow missile launcher. Thankfully, we managed to avoid the armored trucks and get out without too much trouble other than a few annoying traffic lights. We stopped for breakfast in the next town and then continued on. The morning turned to noon, noon turned into lunch time and lunch time turned into an hour or so at burger king. After we left burger king we gassed up and continued pushing towards 29.

It was around 2 or so in the afternoon and about 200 miles from 29 that a I noticed a Bugatti Veyron get behind Calen. The car was jet black, even the grill and wheels were black. The headlights were super bright LED's and there was what looked like some kind of GPS on the roof of the car.

"There's a Bugatti Veyron behind me", Calen said over his CB, "how cool is this shit!?"

"Eh", Citrus said, "I could smoke it."

"All three of us could", I said, "look at the censor on top, it's Self Driving."

'Why would you not drive a 2.2 million dollar car yourself?", Citrus asked.

"Because American's have become lazy fucks", I said.

"True true", Citrus said.

More time and 400 miles past. Time and mileage that I thought would take us away from the Self Driving Veyron, it didn't. Calen called about 20 minutes after it showed up that it was following us, but I assumed it was just on a part of it's route that mostly followed ours. It became clear 40 minutes after it showed up that the Self Driving Veyron might not be so Self Driving after all.

"This damn thing is following us", Calen said, "called it."

"Yeah", I said, "you did, question is how do we lose that stupid thing?"

"We can just floor it and split up", Citrus said, "it can't chase all three of us."

"But the cops can", I said, "we don't need to rip up the pavement to get away from a self driving car, we just need to find a sharp corner with a few obstructions in the road, like a bunch of sand."

"Or a pot hole", Citrus said, "next right, there's a deep as hole in the middle of the road."

I looked out the window. Sure enough, right out of the stoplight we were sitting at , there was a huge pot hole."

"Calen", I said, turn on your blinker, right turn."

Calen's blinker came on. Sure enough, so did the Veyron's.

"Black River?", Calen asked.

"No doubt", I said as the light turned green and we all made the turn. Sure enough, the Self Driving Veyron's safety software got the better of it and it stopped mid turn, causing it to get rear ended by a semi trailer that hadn't braked for a red light, sending it into a tail spin.

"I feel so sorry for that poor car", Citrus commented.

"yeah, me too."

The feeling of freedom didn't last. Soon, we got a nasty wake up call when two black escalades pulled up behind us. At first, I thought they were just regular people, until the convertible roofs drew back, revealing twin Mark 19 grenade launchers and M249 SAW Machine guns. Not good!

"Time to punch it!?", Citrus shouted.

"Time to punch it!!", I shouted matting the gas to the floor, dropping down to first gear from sixth. My car's front wheels fought for grip for a mere half second before the treads caught the road and the Honda's Nissan built heart became an eager participant in our escape. Citrus' automatic transmission woke up the Hennessy Venom GT under the hood and torqued the Impala's Rear Wheels so hard the front end cleared the ground by at least 5 feet as the daytime LED's came on and the car shot forward, while Calen's truck overshadowed the sound of it's BMW 3.0 liter with a deranged hiss produced from the turbos.

The Escalades seemed to be short on the horsepower they needed to catch us, but even if we could wind our engines to 18000 RPM we'd never out run a 40mm grenade or a whizzing .223 round. Their were a couple of cars between us and them, which seemed to be why they were holding off on firing. If we didn't use this window of opportunity now, we were screwed.

"Turn up Decker canyon road!", I shouted as Rylar held the CB, "they can't possibly catch us in the corners! You guys know how to drift!?"

"My Impala isn't set up for that!", Citrus said, "it won't bode well with my live axle!"

"I do!", Calen said.

"Let Citrus out front", I ordered, "try and stay at least two cars ahead of us, once we lose them we can figure out what to do!"

"Got ya", Citrus said as I left off the throttle and let her hunk of black iron blow past me. A few seconds later she turned on the signal lights and her Impala gracefully slid through the corner. Calen and I threw our parking brakes and skidded after her, while the Escalades had to reduce their speed to less than 30 to get around it, and even they they looked like the suspension might collapse.

"141 to base", a man's voice over the radio said.

"Base go ahead 141", a woman said.

"I have eyes on a Blue 2006 Honda Civic SI, a Red 2008 Toyota Tacoma and a 1967 Chevy Impala SS with a set of turbos hanging on the back that are racing up Decker Canyon road with two vehicles with heavy weapons on them in pursuit, requesting back up."

"Umm...141, restate that, you said the two vehicles in pursuit have heavy weapons mounted?"

"Yes."

"Umm...okay hold on."

"Unit 141!", I said kicking the clutch and drifting through an up hill corner as the Escalades must have got the okay to open fire, "this is Specialist Alex Ryan, US Army!", I said quickly coming up with a fake name to keep my actual name off the radio, "I'm the driver of the Blue Honda Civic, my team and I are being fired upon by enemy combatants, we need Police support now!"

"Were working on that now Specialist", The officer on the other end of the radio said, "can you keep them away from populated area's? We'll try and shut down the main street of Bakersfield for you to get through."

"Post your men at the North Limits of the city", I said, "I'll attempt to get in touch with my commanding officers."

"Rodger that specialist."

I pulled out my cell phone and speed dialed Morningstar, trying to balance my screaming Front driver with my left arm and my foot and keep it in fifth gear.

"Hello?", Morningstar said.

"Alex!", I said, "it's Black River! They've chased us dangerously close to Area 29 and if we don't get support now their going to catch us!"

"Hold on", Alex said, "Hawk is sitting on the 29 Runway right now, I'll patch you through to her radio."

There was a slight pause as I threw the phone into Rylar's lap and switched to Hawk's radio frequency.

"Shadow 2-2 this is Thunder 1-1", Hawk said, "I'm spinning up my engines now, headed your way loaded for bear."

"What's your ETA!?", I screamed, "I'm running out of Isopropyl, if that tank goes empty at 5500 RPM I can kiss my motor and my life good bye!"

'ETA in 2 minutes Ace", Hawk said as I heard the jets behind the cockpit spin up, "be advised, John's a minute 30 out and he's bringing an AAS 27B Scorpion Mark 2 attack helo."

"What about ground support for the police!?", Calen asked, "Bakersfield is about to become a goddamn war zone!"

"Connors and the others are coming in on John's Chinook", Hawk said as I heard the Warthog ignite afterburners and rocket into the sky, at the exact same time that two Aston Martin DB7's with huge wings and aerodynamics kits shot past the Escalades and produced two guys armed with M4's.

"Crap!", I said handing Rylar my Desert Eagle, "you know what to do!"

Rylar leaned out the window and put half of the magazine into each of the Aston Martin pursuit cars, stopping their engines. The Escalades pushed right past them, knocking them off the cliff and sending them down a 1500 foot drop. My friends and I continued working our engines and pushing our suspension to the very limit of it's capabilities just to keep from eating a few bullets. Shortly after Hawk hung up the radio, John showed up with a fully loaded attack chopper and cut loose on the Escalades, which wasted no time returning fire, keeping him suppressed just enough that the chase wasn't stopping at all. I counted the seconds in my head from the time John showed up, till the time I heard that tell tale whirring of twin jet engines.

"Shadow 2-2", Hawk said, "this is Thunder 1-1, wheeled up beside you and ready for tasking."

I looked out the window to see Hawk''s smoky black warthog with the A10 Tankbuster face painted on the nose flying beside us.

"Boss", a man over the radio said.

"Go ahead", another man replied.

"We got a problem", the first man said, "an A10 Warthog just showed up and looks ready to rip."

"You only have to chase them a little further solider", the man over the radio said, "what ever you do, don't lose sight of those cars, if you do we have to start all over!"

"Hawk!", I said, "take out those damn Caddies! No mercy!"

"Rodger that", Hawk said, "swinging around for an attack run."

Hawk quickly swung her jet fighter around and wasted the Caddies with a strafing run.

"Target's destroyed", Hawk said.

I sighed in relief as I downshifted and eventually came to a stop, putting the Civic in neutral to let it idle and cool off.

"Unit 141 to Specialist Ryan", the officer said, 'SWAT teams are ready to go."

"No need officer", I said picking up the radio, "we've dealt with the problem and will take it from here."

"Rodger that son", the officer said, "I won't ask questions."

"Thank you sir", I said dropping the CB as Citrus and Calen pulled up to me and stepped out.

"That was....terrifying", Citrus said panting, "I don't think I've ever been that scared in my life."

"Me either", Calen said leaning up against the tires of his truck.

"I just wanna know how they knew who the fuck we were", I sighed.

"Hunter?", Rylar asked.

I sighed, "I hope not. If I find out he sold us to Black River...he gonna die."

"Ace!", Hunter said over the radio, as if on cue, "where are you!?"

I reached inside and grabbed the radio, "sitting on the side of Decker Canyon road. Nick, did you have the BR tracking chip dug out of your hand during the switch?"

"Yes", Hunter said, "I know exactly what your thinking. No, I wouldn't sell my friends out like that. They tracked you some other way."

"How?", I asked.

"I don't know", Nick said, "but I know where we might beable to find out."

'Where?", I asked.

"Russia", Nick said.