eXistenZ Read Online Free PDF Page B

and Pikul pulled open the passenger door. Frances, a magazine propped up on the dash under the dome light, looked startled at their sudden arrival.
    “You again?” she said.
    “Start the engine, ma’am. We got to go.”
    “I don’t take orders from you, young man!”
    “Frances?” Allegra’s voice rose up from behind Pikul. “We need the car.”
    “What’s all the commotion, Miss Geller?”
    “No commotion. We have to leave.”
    Frances noticed Allegra’s blood-soaked sleeve. “Are you all right, Miss Geller?” she said anxiously. “What’s been going on back there?”
    “Things got a little out of hand. But now we’d like to be on our way. I guess I must tell you we need this vehicle, and we need it with the keys. But this time we want it without you.”
    “Miss Geller, you know I drive for you, but my paycheck comes from Antenna. I can’t abandon my vehicle without the say-so of my boss.”
    Allegra moved swiftly, stretching her good hand around Pikul’s back and slipping her hand brusquely into his trouser pocket. He jumped in astonishment at the intimacy the feeling gave him. When she withdrew her hand, she was holding the cadaver-gun. She pointed it at Frances’s face.
    “Get down from the driver’s seat, Frances,” Allegra said. “You can tell your boss you were hijacked.”
    “Sorry, Miss Geller,” Frances said, and chuckled. “It’s gonna take more than a dead squirrel to get me out of this seat.”
    Pikul was going to explain about the gun but Allegra wasted no more time. She fired two shots, the first through the side window behind Frances’s head, the second into the cushion of the headrest.
    “Shit!” Pikul shouted, his head ringing from the explosions.
    Frances was already halfway out of the car.
    “You have to push down the shift lever to get it into reverse,” she said at the window. “It’s got a nearly full tank of gas. Don’t use four-wheel drive unless you need to.”
    Her head dropped down out of sight.
    “Thanks, Frances,” Allegra called.
    Pikul moved across into the driver’s seat, and Allegra followed him into the vehicle, slamming the door behind her.
    Pikul turned the ignition, and the engine fired smoothly right away. They lowered both windows to vent the gun smoke out. Pikul was momentarily confounded by the unfamiliar manual gear lever and the reach of the pedals, but he’d driven many different kinds of vehicles in the past. He swung the heavy Land Rover around in reverse, then bumped and crashed across the verge and made a lurching turn onto the highway. He put his foot to the floor and they accelerated away.
    They headed north, toward the distant line of mountains.

    The cones of the headlights picked out the road ahead. The white division markings in the center of the highway shot soundlessly by beneath their wheels, like tracer shells fired low from far ahead. The engine made a powerful, soothing sound, and the interior of the saloon was lined with thick, noise-suppressing fabric, but the hard suspension transmitted the uneven surface of the road to them.
    Allegra was wedged against the door stanchion, her head tipped away from him, her face pale in the glow from the dash. After their getaway had been secured and they were certain no other vehicle was in pursuit, she’d lapsed into this withdrawn state. Her hands rested listlessly in her lap, and she responded to his questions with vague movements of her head. Pikul had given up trying to talk to her after a few minutes, and let the road sweep by and the miles build up.
    Finally, she stirred, focusing on the restricted nighttime view ahead. A semi, its headlights undipped and glaring at them, approached on the other side, a curve of orange glitter-lights surrounding the cab. They’d barely registered this when the thing thundered past and out of sight. The Land Rover shook in the wash of turbulent air that followed the truck’s passage. Allegra peered through the window at her side: vague shapes