CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT

Caleb drove like a madman on Route 9 and checked his rearview to see a dozen police cruisers trailing him. They were gaining fast, and he didn’t know how much longer he could shake them.

“We’re not going to outrun them,” Caitlin said. “Should we pull over?”

Caleb shook his head.

“Too late for that,” he said. “They’ll throw us in jail. We’ll never save Scarlet. Not in time.”

“But Scarlet’s upstate. It’s a ten-hour drive—we’ll never make it in time.”

Caleb drove on, his mind racing with a million thoughts. He knew she was right. He knew the police would catch up to them soon enough. He knew they could not travel all the way upstate in this pickup. More than anything, he knew that they needed to rescue Scarlet. Nothing else mattered.

As Caleb drove in desperation, racking his brain for what they could do, suddenly they passed a sign lit up in the night, going almost a hundred miles an hour, and he had an idea. Duchess Air Force Base. It made Caleb think of work. His fighter jets.

C