Shadow Tag by Steve Berry, Raymond Khoury Read Free Book Online

Adrenaline was running high all around.
    Malone asked, “What’s going on?”
    “The guys who grabbed us,” Khoury said, “one of them’s knocked out back there. The other two are up there.”
    “Let’s go,” Reilly said. “Stay behind us.” Then he told Berry, “Give me the gun.”
    Berry handed it over.
    They moved quickly but quietly, down the hall and up the stairs—Reilly, Malone, Khoury, and Berry. They crept up the stairs, Malone’s gun leading the way, and emerged into what looked like the ground floor of an empty warehouse. But a door that looked like the main entrance hung wide open.
    Reilly shouted, “Come on,” and he and Malone rushed out into the daylight.
    Khoury looked at Berry, shrugged, then said, “What the hell. We’ve written about this kind of thing often enough. Might as well live it for once.”
    “Go,” Berry said.
    The two writers charged after them.

12
    Malone and Reilly burst out of the warehouse in time to see the two goons getting into a black people carrier that was parked across in the complex’s small forecourt, its nose facing the lot’s low perimeter wall. Beyond were some trees and what looked like train tracks.
    “I’m not losing them again,” Reilly said.
    “I’m not getting grabbed again,” Malone added as he aimed at the goon he had a better bead on, the underling who’d gone to fetch his boss. “Stop, or I’ll shoot.”
    The lead goon was barely inside the vehicle when its engine rumbled to life.
    “Stop,” Malone repeated, but the man didn’t stop climbing in. Instead, he swung around, a gun in hand, and fired.
    Rounds punched into the walls and cars around the agents, who dived for cover behind a nearby vehicle.
    Malone peered out and fired back.
    The rear windshield of the Ford Galaxy burst into smithereens, as did one of its rear lights, just as it lurched back, heading straight at them. Its engine whined as it cut across the parking lot, Malone and Reilly diving out of the way a split second before it plowed into the car they were using for cover and crushed it against the warehouse’s wall. The engine screamed again as the driver slammed it into gear and it accelerated away, down the lot before swerving left and disappearing behind the side of the warehouse complex.
    Malone and Reilly emerged and rushed through the parking lot after it, looking for a car they could use. The cars were all locked, and no one else was around.
    “We’re going to lose them again,” Reilly hissed. “We need to hotwire one of these cars.”
    “Hang on a sec. The two guys who got us out of there,” Malone said, checking behind him. “Where are they?”
    Reilly turned and scanned the warehouse’s entrance.
    There was no sign of them.
     
    As soon as the gunfire erupted, Khoury and Berry stopped and pulled back into the warehouse.
    “There,” Khoury pointed.
    There was another door at the back of the space. It looked like an exit. “Let’s get the hell out of here.”
    “I thought you wanted to live the adventure,” Berry said.
    “Yeah, maybe one with a little less bullets flying around. Especially when we can’t shoot back.”
    They sprinted across the large space and tried the door, which was unlocked. They went through and emerged outside, behind the warehouse—just as the black Galaxy rushed past them.
    “It’s them,” Berry blurted.
    “They’re getting away. Where are those agents?”
    “Maybe they got them.”
    Khoury looked at Berry. Hard resolve bounced back between them. “Screw that. Come on.”
    About thirty yards away from them, the Galaxy swerved to the right and burst out of the lot, narrowly missing a black Audi Q5 that screeched to a halt as it was turning into the warehouse complex.
    Khoury sprinted towards it, with Berry hot on his heels.
    They reached the Audi before it was moving again, its driver, a thin, balding man wearing wire spectacles and a suit, momentarily jolted by the close call.
    “We need your car,” Khoury said,