Chapter 6

THE FLAT TIRE

 

The black Chevrolet Caprice drove down the highway. Higgins was talking away on his cell phone.

"All I know is that he’s leaving a trail of destruction everywhere he goes. You add that with helping the other guy, Billie Joe McKay will be going to jail for a long time. Did you get the pictures of his truck I sent to you?" Higgins asked.

Higgins stared out the windshield when he seen a woman waving at him from the side of the road. He turned the car towards the woman and slowed down on the shoulder.

           

"I’ll call you back. I have to talk to someone." He added then put down the cell phone. "I’m from the F.B.I., what happened here?"

         

"Some idiot in a big red truck wrecked my property." she said as she pointed down the driveway.

Higgins looked down the driveway and seen the trail that was left behind. 

"Can you do something? He was here about 15 minutes ago." The woman pleaded.

Higgins looked at her. "I’ll go after him."

He floored the gas pedal. The rear tires spun as the car sped off down the highway.

The woman started to run after the car screaming. "You forgot to take down my name!"

The Kenworth rolled on down the highway.  B.J. reached for a can of Pepsi and opened it. He took a sip and reached over towards Jenna. "You thirsty?"

Jenna took the can and took a drink. "Thanks." She gave the can back to B.J.

B.J. set the can down on the dashboard. "I wonder what else is going to happen?"

Jenna stared at him. "Well, we have almost run off the road, been shot at, chased down by a remote control truck and we wrecked someone property. I think the worse is behind us."

B.J. looked into the mirror on the driver’s side. He stared hard for a second. "Great. We have a flat on one of the outside tires on the trailer."

"He started to down shift the gears as he drove the truck into a rest area.  He put the truck in neutral and pulled the yellow toggle button. The brakes activated. As he opened the driver’s door. He climbed down out of the cab and trotted towards the back of the trailer. The rest area had trees surrounding it, picnic tables with trash cans beside them. The driveway was paved as it came off the main highway. The trees blocked the view from the highway.

             

Jenna opened the door on the passenger side and climbed down. She walked around the front of the truck and went towards the back of the trailer.

B.J. looked at the rear outside tire. The tire was flat and coming off the rim.

Jenna walked up looking at the tire. "Do you have a spare?"

B.J. looked at her. "Yeah."

Jenna crouched down looking at the tire closely. She ran her right index finger over one of the bullet holes. "The tire was hit when they were shooting at us."

"Lets get the tire changed so we can get going." B.J. instructed then he went back to the truck.

B.J. stood up looking at the new tire he put on the trailer. "Lets get going."

Jenna reached for the flat tire that was leaning against the trailer. She started to roll it to the truck. "That didn’t take to long."

B.J. picked up the jack and tire iron. He walked along side of Jenna.  They walked up to the truck. B.J. put the jack and tire iron in the small compartment under the sleeper. He shut the small door.  Jenna positioned the flat tire near the fuel tank. Jenna and B.J. lifted the tire up onto the frame between the back of the sleeper and the front of the trailer. They set the tire down on the frame and B.J. started to strap it down. Jenna watched B.J. as he worked with the flat tire.  She leaned closer.

"You making a career out of it?" She asked jokingly as she looked at him.

B.J. looked at her smiling. "Just making sure it doesn’t fall off."

Jenna smiled back looking into his eyes. "Did you know the window to a person’s soul is through their eyes."

B.J. finished up with the tire. "Yes I have heard that."

They looked at each other in the eyes. Jenna stepped closer to B.J. He leaned towards her getting ready to kiss her on the lips.  Their lips touched lightly as B.J. put his arms around Jenna. He held her close as he kissed her on the lips.

There was a sudden blare of the Kenworth’s air horns. Jenna backed away from B.J. as they looked at the truck.

"Bear wants to get going." Jenna replied.

"We should get going." B.J. explained as he looked at Jenna.

"Yeah." She answered then walked away towards the passenger side of the truck.

B.J. climbed back up into the cab of the truck and shut the door behind him. Jenna did the same.

"You pick the strangest time to bug me kid." B.J. told Bear.

Bear smiled and clapped his hands. 

"He didn’t pick a bad time. He’s just trying to keep you respectable." Jenna said as she gave Bear a quick hug.

B.J. reached for the yellow toggle switch and pushed it. He put the truck in gear and was ready to turn the wheel. The truck moved forward as B.J. swung the wheel over to the left.  He worked through the gears building speed. The Kenworth accumulated speed as it went down the highway.

The Next Day....

The Asian looked at his laptop computer. He was typing away at it when the driver walked up.

"What are we going to do?" He asked.

"We are going to stop B.J. Mckay." the Asian added as he typed away on the laptop. "I will be using my brains." The Asian replied.

"Huh?" the driver asked.

"Where the hell did they find you? Your make a better wheel man than a terrorist." the Asian explained. "Did they just pick you up off the street.?"

"No, I was selected for this job." the driver said.

"Where is the gang? They are suppose to be here already." The Asian said as he got up from the passenger seat of the GMC.  A cigarette flicked passed the Asian. He turned around looking a two men standing beside the GMC.

"Mr. Quan I presume." the tall man asked.

"Yes." The Asian replied as he looked at the men.

"What are the details?" the short man asked.

Mr. Quan went for the lap top. He set it on the hood of the GMC and showed the men. On the screen was a map.

"We are going to send B.J. Mckay swimming." Mr. Quan pointed at the map on the screen.

Mr. Quan started another program on the laptop that showed a bridge on the screen. He pointed at the screen. "There is a bridge at a river that I rigged with small charges. There are sensors at one end of the bridge and the moment he passed the two large poles. The bridge will not explode. It will implode and collapse. The bridge will collapse in sections as he crosses it."

The men watched the bridge, on the laptop screen, fall as a small computer generated car crossed it.

"That’s so cool." The driver said as he watched.

The tall man looked. "What do we do?"

"You guys will retrieve the statues that are in the back of his truck." Mr. Quan added.

"That’s easy." the short man replied.

"That’s the fun part. You guys have to go down into the river amongst the wrecked bridge to get the statues. I don’t think you’ll have to worry about him being alive once he falls from the bridge." Mr. Quan said. "The impact alone will kill him."

The tall man looked at Mr. Quan. "Will this work?"

Mr. Quan looked at him. " I have dropped many bridges before in other countries. I know what I’m doing. This is like a walk in the park for me."

"What if someone else crosses it before he does." the short man asked.

Mr. Quan went back to the GMC and reached in towards the passenger seat. He pulled out a newspaper and tossed it on the hood.

The men looked at they read the front page.

It read.   HIGHWAY 125 CLOSED DUE TO SURVEYING

"I shut the highway down this morning. B.J. McKay won’t even know it’s closed because he doesn’t read the local paper." Mr. Quan told them. "He’ll drive right into it. Besides the highway isn’t traveled that much."

"Wow." the short man replied.

"Get going, he’ll be here in about ten minutes." Mr. Quan told them.

On to Chapter 7 - Incident at the Bridge

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