Agent Alpha and the Angel maker

Bicykle race

*Astrid*

As the car leaves the area at high speed. I instinctively sprint to my car, I mean why run like this if you are not involved in bad things ? “Come on Zac let’s go then”.

We both jump into my car almost at the same time and I follow after the sports car at high speed.

“The glove compartment”. I yell at Zac.

He opens it and pulls out the removable siren I keep there. “This ?”

“Get it on the roof”. I tell him.

He rolls down the window and manages to attach it with the magnet, then he plugs in the jack and the wailing starts.

I turn to look at him, having to yell over the sounds. “What happened there ? What did this guy do ?”

“Well he kinda tried to hit me when I wanted to talk to him about the robbery”. He gives me this small smile, like it explains everything. “Also he smelled like trouble, literally”.

“Well that’s hardly a reason for a full blown car chase. Doesn’t everyone try to hit you on a regular basis ?”. I roll my eyes, seriously I start to question his sanity.

He apparently decided not to answer, instead his long fingers drums on the dashboard as he says. “Come on, come on ... You need to go faster, we can’t let him get away”.

“I need to not have either pedestrians or crashes on my consciousness tomorrow”. I point out, trying to focus.

“Put it on cruise control and get out of the way. I can drive fast and safely at the same time ... give me the wheel”. He kinda tries to lift me out of my seat and get into it himself.

I slap his hands away, first of all I am buckled in, so I can’t just move and secondly I do not have a death wish for me or anyone else, so I am in no mood to let him take over the driving. “Stop that right now”.

“Seriously Astrid, let me take over. I can go much faster than this”. Grabbing the steering wheel, he makes the car swerve.

“Get off the wheel”. I scream at him, elbowing him in the ribs. “And put your seatbelt on”.

It seems he finally realises it won't happen, instead he slaps his large hands down on the dashboard. “Faster, go, go”.

I try my best to catch up to the other car. But fast driving is not my forte, I mean car chases are not exactly an everyday thing here, actually I only remember doing one before.

At least the streets seem almost weirdly deserted of other traffic.

“Turn up here, I Can smell he is going to go left”. Zac urges, almost jumping in the seat. “Go, go, go”.

He is actually right, the car does take a left turn and so do we. Suddenly everything goes very fast as the other car breaks hard, and people flee before it, screaming, luckily it seems no one is hit, but the car slides sideways through a police barrier. I don’t have time to stop completely and we follow it .. .Coming to a stop in the middle of another road.

Suddenly there are racer cycles swarming around us, passing left and right like angry bees. “f**k where are we”.

Zac shrugs. “No idea, but I do not Think we are supposed to be here”.

“s**t, it’s the ‘around Europe’ race, they are coming through Copenhagen today and we are in the middle of it”. I can’t help imagining how much trouble this will get us in.

“Whoops”. Zac laughs heartily.

I watch as the other car is swerving left and right, at least trying not to hit the bikes.. “Zac, you bloody moron, this is your fault”.

Holy … this is not good on my nerves, trying to have a high speed car chase with bikes and camera motorbikes everywhere. My heart is on the way up my throat right now.

“Left … Right .. come on faster, faster, we need to get him”. Zac urges me on. We manage to get up on the side of the car, and the i***t grabs my wheel again, swinging us closer. “Come on, get me as close as possible”.

“Zac, for f***s sake, let me handle the driving”. What the hell crazy antics does he want to do now ? Before I can think more there is a flash from the other car. “f**k, he is shooting at us”.

As there is another flash, Zac gives the wheel another hard pull, making us ram into the side of the other car, and the man in it actually drops the gun.

A police motorcycle comes up beside us, the cop on it waving at us, and I am sure he is yelling at us to stop.

“We should stop”. I tell Zac.

“No, get me closer to him please ?” Zac says, starting to get up in the seat, leaning his body out the rolled down window.

“Oh that doesn’t seem like a smart thing”. I mumble, but I still try to get closer, without knocking over the motorbike.

Zac holds his badge out towards the motorcycle cop. “Hi there officer, agent Lewis here, I need your help … Please keep the bike steady”.

“What are you doing ?” I ask him.

“Just this”. And the freaking psycho actually jumps out the window, landing on the back of the motorbike. Points to the cop for only swerving slightly and not taking a tumble.

“Oh, of course”. I groan. “This can only end badly”. I mumble to myself, trying to keep up. How is it even humanly possible ?

I am wondering if this bastard thinks we are in some kind of action movie ? He is on the back of a motorbike at high speed, driving too close to a car and hitting the driver in the head through an open window. I mean what the actual f**k ... is this how they do it over in Texas ?

I see the driver desperately swerve for a barrier, and I assume he has not seen the low concrete flow pots right behind it.

Zac seems to do a quick assessment, the bike has to turn, following the track, it won’t be able to stop, so he jumps off the back just as it turns, rolling over the asphalt.

Just before the car hits the barrier the driver seems to realise his mistake and he turns desperately, the car slides sideways into the flower pots, flips over it in an impressive side salto and by some miracle lands on the wheels on the other side.

I step on the breaks just as more bikes fly by me, some of the riders cursing me and flipping me off as my car comes to a screeching halt.

Ignoring them, I jump out, running to Zac, who is slowly sitting up. Is this guy immortal or something ? “Are you okay ?”

“Yeah, been better but okay”. He tries to get on his feet with a groan. Then he notices the bad guy jumping out of the smoking car, and waves his arms. “Astrid, villain getting away”.

Pulling out my gun, I take a stance, pointing at him. “Stand still, you are under arrest”.

As Zac gets up, he walks towards the guy, who quickly steps backwards and right out on the street in front of a bus, and I do not have to check that he will not be answering any questions.

I lower my gun, letting out a groan. “Seriously Zac”.

He turns, throwing out his arms . “Seriously, I didn’t kill him”.

—————————————————————————————————————

Lisbeth is looking at us like we are a couple of naughty school kids, then she says sternly. “Today's part of the race was completely ruined, the inner city is a mess, damages for … I don’t want to know how much … Several bikers crashed, not to talk about the guy they are scraping off the front of a bus and the passengers needing psychological first aid … what on Earth possessed you to do this ?”

“Well he did have a tattoo”. I desperately turn to Zac for help. “You should explain about the tattoo”.

Zac smiles sheepishly. “So boss the guy had this flaming skull on his neck. And well it is a very … I have seen it a lot, among the cartels ... in southern Texas”.

“Right, so all we wanted was to question him, or Zac did … but he ran and we followed him at a distance ...” I explain.

“He did shoot at us”. Zac says with conviction.

I jump in again. “Yeah, he pulled a gun, and there were a lot of people so ...”.

“Stop ! Stop !” The director groans. “I send you there to talk to them ... not to get in a car chase through town”.

“But they did attack first”. I point out.

Zac nods. “And the tattoo … he also smelled … weird”.

“He also had a serious bad vibe”. I interject.

Zac almost speaks on top of me. “People only run if they are guilty ... and he had a gun”.

The director holds up her hands. “Stop ! Please just stop. A tattoo, a weird smell and being creepy, not wanting to talk to Zac, that is your reason for you two racing through the city and embarrassing the whole country ?”

“It seemed like the right thing to do”. Zac says with a small sheepish smile. “At the moment”.

“You two .. ”. She says, waving her arms at us. “You are class action lawsuit waiting to happen …You are both of the case and will be assigned new partners as soon as possible”.