The Lost Scroll of Fudo Shin by Jon F. Merz Read Free Book Online

right.  He loved the way the bike handled.  Not that he was totally adept at driving it, but he felt like he could have opened her up and easily gotten into the airport a lot faster.
    But that would have defied the ground rules that Vanessa had laid down and potentially exposed Jimmy to police scrutiny.  Something he most definitely did not need at the moment.
    He wondered if there were reports on the news about the orphanage.  He felt a lump in his throat start to swell as he remembered the brilliant flames that had decimated his home.
    And his friends.
    "I'll get the bastard responsible for this," he said to himself over the roar of the bike.
    The sign for the airport came up sooner than he thought and Jimmy glanced down to find that he was traveling at almost seventy miles per hour.  He applied the brakes and brought his speed back down.
    A giant jet thundered overhead.
    And Jimmy almost missed seeing the black Escalade converging on him, its silver grill grinning like a lion about to feast on its prey.  
    Any ideas that it might just be another car on the road went out the window as he saw the driver leering at him through the windshield.  The Escalade sped up.
    The enemy.
    Jimmy gunned the throttle and shot away even as the Escalade came thundering at him.  It had the weight to crush him into a bloody smear.  But Jimmy had maneuverability and he used this now even as his heart thundered in his chest.
    So much the bad guys not knowing where I'd be, he thought with a frown.  Vanessa was wrong.
    They split up , said the voice in his head.  Vanessa knew that would happen but you have fewer enemies to worry about now than if they had stayed together.
    Wonderful, thought Jimmy.  I don't suppose you have any ideas?
    But the voice stayed silent.  Jimmy nodded.  Thought so.  He saw two signs ahead, one for the straight route to the airport and another that would take him into a neighborhood close by.  He chose the neighborhood, thinking he might have a chance to lose the hulking truck.
    He shot left at the end of the exit ramp and immediately found himself in a working class neighborhood of old row houses and alleyways.  Jimmy aimed the Ducati at a narrow alley and shot through it.  The Escalade followed behind him, crushing garbage cans under its bulk.  Litter shot up in all directions as the massive truck barreled closer and closer.
    Jimmy slid to the right and gunned the engine to put some space between him and the Escalade.  But the big SUV engine growled and shot after him.  Jimmy put the bike up toward seventy again and hoped it was enough.
    Where are the cops?
    He felt the bump from behind and glanced back to see the Escalade nudging him with its front bumper.  Jimmy poured the gas on and saw the chance to turn coming up on his left.
    But in order to make the turn correctly, he'd have to brake.  But if he slowed down, the Escalade would run him over.
    Jimmy's heart pounded mercilessly in his chest and he knew he'd have to take the chance that he could make the turn without killing himself.
    At the very last second, he jerked the handlebars and the Ducati seemed to almost fishtail him on to the street to his left.  The Escalade screeched on its brakes and attempted the same turn at speed, but couldn't manage the maneuver.
    Jimmy hung on for dear life and threw his weight to the other side of the bike, willing it to stay upright. 
    He felt the wheels scrambling for purchase on the road but then he got the bike back under control and glanced back in time to see the Escalade trying to get itself turned into his direction again.
    Jimmy didn't wait.  He revved the throttle and shot away.
    He needed to lose the Escalade.  But how?  There was no way they'd let him reach the airport alive unless he took them out.  But all he had was his hanbo.
    And that wouldn't do much good for him.
    Unless...
    Jimmy guided the Ducati down another street, determined to avoid any long straight roads that the Escalade