Leanna scanned the star-filled sky, looking for the source of the whump-whump sound of a fast approaching helicopter. She was finally able to identify a brightening spot of light among the tapestry of stars, and hurriedly jumped into the silver sports car, flipping the keys in the ignition. “Get in the car everyone! Let’s go!” she shouted.

“No!” Rosa shouted back. “I’m stopping this right now.” She got out of the car and stood at the edge of the road, facing the light moving quickly towards them.

“Rosa Jardine! Listen to me! Get in the car now! They won’t help you!” Leanna screamed at her. Rosa turned away from Leanna and started waving at the helicopter. A spot light appeared on the desert floor, and soon found Rosa, lighting her up. “Rosa! Please! You don’t know what you’re dealing with!” Rosa looked up at the source at the light, and her mouth opened in horror on seeing the huge black helicopter descending on her.

She backed away and stumbled back to the waiting car. Rosa flipped the passenger seat forward, and let her boy Theo and his dog Arfie into the back seat. She got in herself, and sat silently as Leanna punched the accelerator, and sent the car careening down the dirt road cutting through the desert.

Leanna looked over quickly at Rosa, who was sitting tensely in the passenger seat, with her arms wrapped tightly around her chest. She had pulled up the hood on her yellow hoodie, looking as if she wanted to disappear. Leanna looked back at the winding dirt road, concentrating on avoiding the boulders and bushes along its edges. She couldn’t see anything in the rearview mirror because the dust the Datsun was kicking up was obscuring her view. “Rosa! Can you see a hellcopter heading towards us?” she shouted at her dazed friend.

Rosa didn’t respond, still looking down at her feet in the dim light of the car’s dashboard. Leanna called out to the boy in the back seat, “Theo! Do you see anything?” Theo strained to look through the side and back windows, shaking his head. Leanna could see that he was clearly frightened as well, his eyes wide. She continued speeding down the dirt road, heading towards the dark outline of a series of high hills. Suddenly, the desert around them was flooded with a bright light from above, accompanied with the deafening thumping of helicopter blades. “Dammit! They’ve found us! Everyone, get down!”

Theo dived down to crouch on the floor behind Rosa, and he pulled Arfie down with him. Rosa didn’t respond until Leanna shoved her hard on her shoulder. “Hey! Not so hard!” she protested, and slid down off the passenger seat to crouch on the floor, too.

The light above them moved to become directly in front of them, prompting Leanna to slam on the brakes and make the car spin around. The silver Datsun 280Z started racing back down the road the way they entered the desert, when the light behind them was now in front of them again. Leanna couldn’t spin them around, as there was a large boulder and a group of bushes on the side of the road. She instead braked hard, skidding the car to a stop. She put the car in reverse, backing them away from the blinding lights in front of them. She missed a bend in the road, backing the car off the road into a dry stream bed. The car stopped with a jerk, and before she could pull forward, the helicopter landed directly in front of the vehicle. Realizing she was stuck, she let up on the accelerator and grabbed the door handle.

Over the roar of the helicopter, she shouted to Rosa and Theo, “Stay in the car and stay down!” Leanna removed a necklace from under her identical yellow hoodie, and put it in Rosa’s hand. “Take care of this, and deliver it to Kenji Nobu! He’s our only hope!” As the sound of the helicopter blades started winding down, she pushed open the car door, shouting, “They’re looking for you, not me! We’re dressed the same, so I’ll try to distract them!” She jumped out of the car and started running away from the car and away from the lights into the desert.

“Lee, where are you going? Don’t leave us!” Rosa screamed after her, noticing dark figures passing quickly across the lights after Leanna. She peered over the edge of the door window, not able to see her friend or the figures pursuing her. She ducked down quickly, hearing the popping noises of gunfire. The sound of the helicopters blades started winding up again, and its lights flickered with the movement of figures in front of them. She froze, hearing Leanna screaming and cursing. She could hear behind her seat Theo whimpering softly and Arfie making a low growling sound.

“What are we going to do?” Rosa whispered to Theo, looking down at the necklace Leanna had given her. It had a large silver rose pendant on it, and she put it around her neck, letting it slip under her hoodie.

Rosa looked out the open driver’s side door and saw the boulder and bushes near the car. Rosa whispered to Theo behind her, “Let’s get out and hide behind those bushes over there!” She kept herself low and crawled over the centre console to the driver’s side, and grabbed Theo’s hand, pulling him forward between the seats. She slid over the driver’s seat out the door, with Theo and Arfie following her. They crouched close to the ground and ran without looking back towards the bushes.

Once they got to the bushes, Rosa peered around the boulder next to them, and could see the silhouette of the large black helicopter. She gasped when she saw in the helicopter’s lights her friend Leanna, standing head bowed and handcuffed, in front of a tall, imposing man in an all-black uniform.

*** This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. ***