Pit Stop Read Online Free PDF Page A

the Vega.”
    Reilly dropped the transmission lever down into drive and hit the gas. The car moved, grass and stones brushing the undercarriage as he steered it back onto the interstate, tires squealing as they gripped pavement.
    Once he had the car lined up he put his foot to the floor and the car moved. Garber looked up for a handle to grab on to as the car accelerated.
    â€œHe’s up there, but this’ll catch him,” Reilly said.
    â€œWho is this guy?” Garber asked. “What the hell do you want him for? What’s he done?” Hoping, maybe, that his daughter hadn’t been kidnapped by a serial killer, but some notorious, but nonviolent, embezzler. That might have made him feel, on a panic scale that went from one to ten, only fifteen instead of twenty.
    Even if Reilly had believed the father deserved the truth, there was no way he would have given it to him.
    Telling someone his daughter was trapped in a car with a man who had the capability to wipe out thousands upon thousands of lives; a man who’d had access to a government germ warfare research project that Washington didn’t even acknowledge existed; a man who believed the best way to get attention for his cause was to start sending messages to the government, under the name “Faustus,” threatening a biological Armageddon—well, telling Glen Garber his daughter was caught up with someone like that was just going to make him a tad anxious, wasn’t it?
    So Reilly basically repeated what he’d told the man earlier. “He’s a security threat.”
    To which Garber said, “No shit?”
    The pickup was looming larger in their windshield. Garber could just make out the top of his daughter’s head through the back window.
    Both the truck and the cruiser were pushing a little harder as the highway continued its slow climb.
    â€œSo once we catch up, then what?” Garber asked.
    Reilly reached into his pocket for Garber’s cell phone, put it to his ear, then glanced at the contractor. “We’re still connected. I can hear background noise. Hey! Faustus! You there?”
    He kept the phone pressed to his ear. Listened.
    â€œWhat?” Garber asked.
    â€œThey’re talking about the canister.”
    â€œWhat canister?”
    Reilly shot him a look. “Shh!”
    The FBI agent listened a few more seconds. “Shit,” he muttered, and tossed the phone back to Garber.
    He put it to his ear, shouted his daughter’s name, as Reilly nudged the car up past a hundred.
    The truck was right in front of them.
    And then Reilly drove right into it.
    Which was when Garber asked him if he was out of his mind.
    Without a doubt, Reilly thought. Without a doubt.

    WHEN THE COP CAR RAMMED them from behind, Kelly screamed as her head was snapped back into the headrest. Before she had a chance to turn around and see what had hit them, they were hit a second time.
    The canister fell from her lap, hit the floor in front of her, and rolled around on the floor mat.
    Now she twisted around in her seat to see what exactly had happened. The cruiser had dropped back a car length, and there, in the passenger seat, was her dad.
    â€œDad!” she screamed, even though there was no way he could hear her. But she was sure he saw her mouthing the word.
    Kelly waved. Her dad waved back.
    â€œGive me that!” Kristoff shouted, pointing to the canister. “Right now!”
    He had an idea how he could get Reilly to back off. He’d threaten Reilly the way the kid had been threatening him. With the canister. He’d dangle it out his window, make like he was going to drop it.
    Reilly wouldn’t want that to happen.
    â€œI can’t reach it,” Kelly said, straining to bend over, the shoulder strap restricting her mobility.
    â€œUndo the damn belt!”
    â€œMy dad says I’m never supposed to take off my seat belt.”
    Kristoff gave her a look that said, “Are