right hand had a painful vise-grip around her fingers. His sweaty face flushed red. “Johnny!” Lucy noticed the truck slowing down. “Speed up! Please go faster!” It continued to slow. She pulled her hand free from his, punched the seatbelt buckle release, and slid forward with her hand on the steering wheel. The traffic sped around them before she stomped her foot on top of his boot, pressing down on the accelerator. The truck surged forward. “Johnny!” she shouted with her face near his.
“We died—”
“No, we didn’t,” Lucy yelled again. “You’ve seen a glimpse of what would have happened.” She looked over her shoulder and lowered her voice, gaining more control over her trembling muscles. “But we’ve already changed some of it.” She watched the gas-filled semi’s headlights move into the next lane. “Now help me change the rest.” With her free hand, she socked him on the shoulder as hard as the tight space permitted, readily getting his attention.
“Ow! Why did—”
“Drive,” she said, lowering her voice further. It took on a harsh edge. “We have to stay ahead of that Suburban.” Lucy removed her foot from the gas pedal and sat up straight. Grasping her handbag with shaky fingers, she ripped it open to reach the hidden compartment and took out the plastic canister as the engine groaned with the increasing g-force. “I know what they want. Those men have tried twice to get my package, and I think I’m going to give it to them.”
“What? What do you mean? And what just happened?” Johnny asked breathlessly, glancing between the road ahead of him and at what she was doing.
Lucy pointed out the windshield. “You concentrate on driving as fast as your truck can go. I’ll take care of those agents.” As Lucy dug out her Swiss Army knife from her front pocket, she took a quick look over at the speedometer. The needle moved past one hundred. He must have taken her seriously. “Get over in the fast lane.” She pulled out the bottle opener attachment.
“Are you going to tell me what I saw?” Johnny yelled, his demanding question coming out as one long word. He pulled over to the far left lane and sped by two cars. “And tell me why I’m not dead?”
“I’ll tell you everything, I swear.” Lucy popped the plastic lid off the canister with her thumb and slid the metal roll of 35mm film onto the palm of her hand. “I just—I just can’t do it right now.” After another calming breath, anger began to fill in the emotional cracks of her fear. She didn’t know which was worse. Both could lead her to be careless.
“We’re being chased!” Johnny hit the steering wheel with the heel of his hand.
Turning around in her seat, Lucy checked out the back window at the headlights keeping pace several car lengths behind. “Yeah, that would be the scumbags.” Using her handy tool, she had the metal end-cap off the protective cover in a single heartbeat. The inch-wide acetate coiled out into the air from her fingers.
“Is that film?”
“Yeah—”
“You just over-exposed it.”
Lucy reached up and punched on the two interior lights in front of the rearview mirror. “Not enough yet.” Holding onto the ends, she slowly slid the three-foot long strip of film across both lights—twice. “This is what they want. I’m going to give it to them, but that doesn’t mean they’re going to like what they get.” She dropped the strip to her lap and tugged her hair over her shoulder. “I don’t want them to see what’s on this stupid film.”
“Did you take those pictures?”
“No, I didn’t. A field agent took them. I just deliver them. I don’t know what’s on them, and I don’t care, either.”
Johnny exhaled loudly. “And now you’ll never know.”
“That’s fine with me.” Lucy quickly braided her long hair with swift, knowledgeable strokes of her fingers.
“What are you going to do?”
He sounded worried. Lucy was too, but her drastic measure seemed