Kick Start: Dangerous Ground 5 Read Online Free PDF Page A

slammed the door behind him, opened the passenger seat door and said, “Did you want me to drive?”
    “No. Get in.”
    Will got in, buckled up, saying mildly, “National emergency?”
    “I think maybe we’re being followed.”
    “You’re kidding.” Will studied his profile. “You’re not kidding.”
    “No.” Taylor put the Land Cruiser into drive. “Did you happen to notice that black Porsche behind us on the five?”
    “You think we’re being followed by a guy in a Porsche? That’s not exactly inconspicuous.”
    “I don’t think he’s the inconspicuous type.”
    Will studied the mini-mart as they drove past. “I don’t see the driver anywhere.”
    Taylor lifted a shoulder.
    “Okay,” Will said, declining to argue with what Taylor was not bothering to articulate. He opened the glove compartment and pulled out a map. Very old school in these matters, Will. “You want me to find us a back road?”
    Taylor nodded, watching the rearview. The mini-mart door opened and the man in black stepped out, looking after them. “He’s on the move.”
    “I see him.”
    Taylor glanced at Will. “They had wasabi peas in the mini-mart.”
    Will was watching his side mirror. “Well, then it’s all for the best.”
    “They’re probably a million years old.”
    “Just makes them more of a delicacy right? Are you packing?”
    “Yep.” Taylor said ruefully, “I’m probably paranoid. He still hasn’t pulled out of the driveway.”
    “Take a left up here on Bannerman Road.”
    Taylor took a left on Bannerman. Will navigated the next few miles of back roads and then they were back on the Interstate. Taylor put the pedal to the metal.
    “No sign of Mr. Black,” reported Will after a time as they flew past cattle ranches and the occasional billboard.
    “I guess I’m just edgy,” said Taylor.
    “Maybe. What put you on edge?”
    “Just a feeling in my gut. He knew me.”
    “Did you recognize him?”
    “No.”
    “Okay.” Will didn’t bother to argue or point out all the obvious non-alarming possibilities. He trusted Taylor’s instinct. “You want to get a motel for the night or drive on through?”
    “Up to you.”
    “Let’s drive.”
    Taylor nodded.
    The sun was setting, the sky turning a hectic orange and indigo, the golden California hills fading into anonymous brown and gray shadows.
    There was no sign of Mr. Black on the road behind them. No sign that anyone was paying any particular attention to them, and now both Taylor and Will were keeping an eye out for patterns in the traffic around them.
    “I’m surprised Gretchen would recognize you,” Taylor said abruptly. He kept circling back to this. It bothered him. It especially bothered him because he’d mostly forgotten about Gretchen.
    “Maybe she has a good memory for faces.”
    “Maybe. Did you recognize her?”
    “I did when she started screaming.”
    “But you must get that a lot?”
    Will briefly turned his gaze to Taylor. “Ha.”
    Taylor smirked, but returned to his line of thought. “I’ve got a pretty good memory for faces, but I don’t think I’d be able to pick Gretchen out of a lineup. Not if I didn’t know I was looking for her.”
    “I can tell you this, she was as surprised to see me, as I was to see her.”
    Taylor mulled that over. “Okay. So running into her was random.” He didn’t like coincidences.
    “I think so.”
    “The fact that she recognized you? That means she did some checking up on us after New Mexico.”
    “It’s possible. Hedwig did say Gretchen was a girl who held onto a grudge.”
    “I wonder if losing us our jobs will be enough for her.”
    Will looked his way again. “You think she might come after us?”
    “It’s been known to happen.” Taylor’s thoughts shied away from the memory of Alexandra Sugimori. He’d made his share of enemies through the years, and his experience was that enemies had long memories.
    “You think Gretchen sent someone after us?”
    “Not very likely, is