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He heard the men in the back seat slide the bolts back on their Heckler & Koch MP7 submachine guns, verifying their condition, before rotating the fire control levers off safe. The man next to him tapped the tablet computer again, then looked up through the windshield as a red Corvette launched through the intersection.

“Is that him?” Li Hu asked.

The man tapped the screen again, then set the tablet down and turned to him. “That’s him.”

He took his foot off the brake and pivoted it to the gas, smoothly and quickly pulling away from the curb. He turned right on Fourth Avenue, several cars behind the classic muscle car, looking at the back of a feminine head sitting behind the steering wheel. “We’re in pursuit,” he told Chen through his earpiece. “He’s with a woman.”

“Who is she?” Chen asked.

Li Hu turned and looked to the man sitting next to him. “Find out who the woman is.”

He picked up the tablet computer in response and opened a separate app. Li Hu kept his eyes glued to the matching pair of twin round taillights on the back of the Corvette, marveling at the way the woman veered the car in and out of traffic. He spoke into his earpiece. “What are my orders?”

Chen didn’t hesitate. “Kill them both.”

Pismo Beach, California

Chen ended the call and watched the silver sedan disappear into the Pismo Preserve parking lot. She was tempted to follow but instead made a hasty U-turn and returned underneath the highway overpass.

She wanted to finish this and get out from under the sedan’s surveillance, but she would do it on her own terms. She had turned the tables and harried her pursuer into a corner, making him question his resolve in continuing the chase. He would continue, of course, but she had bought herself some breathing room.

She dialed another number and waited for the person on the other end to pick up.

“Hello?”

“It’s me,” she said. “I can’t make it to the primary pickup location.”

“Do you have an alternate?”

She turned left on Price Street and accelerated past the Shore Cliff Hotel again, continuing south into Pismo Beach. “Santa Maria,” she said.

“They just left there.”

Undeterred, she asked, “Well, how soon can they be back?”

There was a pause on the other end as he calculated the change in route. “An hour fifteen. Hour thirty, tops.”

“Good. Tell them I’m on my way. I need to take care of something first.”

He paused again, as if considering what that something might be. “Are you clean?”

She gritted her teeth, loath to admit that she wasn’t, but knew there was no point in keeping it a secret. Mantis already knew. “No, but I will be.”

“You know the code.”

He ended the call, and she took her foot off the gas, allowing the Jeep to slow as she neared the congested beach town’s center. As with most such towns, tourists wandered the sidewalks and clogged the streets with their aimless meandering, unaware of the pursuit that was taking place under their noses. Chen didn’t want to set her trap in the heart of Pismo Beach, so she continued south along the divided main thoroughfare, scanning the cross streets for a southbound on-ramp.

There were signs advertising veterinary services and decorative garden art, and even a few quirky ones that proclaimed all happiness depends on a leisurely breakfast and that wine is sunlight held together by water, but she hadn’t seen any showing her where to go. So, she pressed on, stopping at stop signs and yielding to pedestrians, but otherwise driving with the singular focus of escaping Pismo Beach and putting some distance between her and the silver sedan.

By the time the road crossed Pismo Creek, the downtown area had drifted into the distance behind her, and the traffic had become sparse, allowing her to plant her foot on the gas pedal and inch the speedometer needle upward. She didn’t know how long her pursuer would remain at Pismo Preserve, but she knew his car was faster and could gain ground quickly. Her only hope was to find a suitable spot. And find it soon. She merged back onto the freeway and raced south while checking her mirrors.

Still no silver sedan.

Where are you, my friend?

In Arroyo Grande, she exited the 101 and headed south on Halcyon Road. In terms of mileage, it wasn’t any longer than staying on the highway, but it was forecasted to take another ten minutes to reach Santa Maria — ten minutes that would be well spent if her plan worked. After cresting a slight rise above the expansive agricultural fields, Halcyon Road merged with Highway 1, and Chen removed the pistol tucked next to her seat and slipped it into her waistband at the small of her back.