The Big Catch

"Yes. It's a great performer and surprisingly rugged when dealing with wildlife. Different color though, red is an attention getter," Jason quipped as he signed and initialed in all the places marked.

The agent pressed a button on his desk as Jason signed. A man appeared and handed the agent a set of keys. Jason pushed the forms across the desk, the agent separated the forms into two piles, one he stapled together, the other he slipped into an envelope with Jason's credit card and drivers license. He handed the envelope and the keys to Jason.

"Bobby will help you with your luggage. The car is out back. Bobby?"

"Right this way," Bobby said, pointing back the way they had come.

He led them out to a brand new Dodge Charger, black with tinted windows. The trunk was open. Jason placed the bags in the trunk and closed it. Janet climbed in the passenger side with her oversized purse and the bag from the hardware store that now had the briefcase and the die grinder within. Jason got in the driver's seat and started the car. It rumbled pleasantly as he slipped it into reverse and backed up. Their old rental still sat where Jason had parked it, looking like the proud veteran of a grueling road rage. Bobby stood there looking at it and shaking his head as the rental agent joined him, shaking his head in disbelief too. "You know, Bob... Some days, I really hate my job. A moose."

"We need to make another stop," Janet said as the car rolled along Main Street. "My laptop is toast, I need a new one. There is a Radio Shack just down the street."

"Right. New computer for the lady," Jason quipped, bringing the car to a stop in front of the shop.

Janet ran into the store and bought one of the only models they had in stock. It cost a pretty penny, but was worth what she paid. She climbed in the backseat and took it out of its packaging. She fired it up, plugging it in first. She had a converter from her other computer to draw power from the car's cigarette lighter socket. Even though they didn't include the part that went in the socket there was still one in every car out of Detroit. As Jason drove out of town on route 58, she brought the computer to life. Twenty minutes later she plugged in her broadband cellular modem and was connected to the internet via the cellular network she subscribed to.

"We are live. Where to now," she asked.

"Find us a motel. An out of the way motel."

"Sure thing." Janet bent over the keyboard. "I have some. They are a little out of our way, but I don't think whoever is chasing us will think we went there."

"Where is 'there'?"

"China Lake Weapons Center, a little town called Ridgecrest."

"A military town. Great."

"Ooo, sorry. Will that bring back too many memories?" Janet asked softly.

"No. Where do I turn?"

"Route 359, there will be a sign..."

"I figured. It's right next to Fort Irwin. I've been there. A stop over really."

"Prey tell?"

"Can't. Classified."

"Ah, okay. Turn coming up."

"I see it." Jason gently turned onto the new road and accelerated smoothly to the posted speed limit.

"At South China Lake Boulevard turn right again. That will take us up into downtown Ridgecrest. It looks like all the motels and hotels are on that road."

"Right."

Janet thought Jason sounded tired. She felt exhausted now that the adrenaline had been burned up by her system. She could only imagine how Jason felt. The turn came up and Jason once more guided the car onto the new roadway. They soon were passing through a business district.

"Which one," Jason asked.

"I don't care. Do you have a preference?"

"Not really," he said, turning into the America's Best Inn and Suites motel.

"As good as any I suppose." Janet started to gather her things. The new notebook went into her purse. The old one she would need to transfer data and programs to the new one, that too went into the purse.

Jason stepped out of the car and went inside the office to register for a room. He came out shortly with a keycard, climbed back in the car and drove around to their room. He parked in front of 112.

"This is us."

"Just one room?" Janet asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I'm sorry. I'll go back and get you..."

"I'm only joking," she said, sliding out of the passenger seat and dragging everything with her.

Jason just nodded. He was tired. He could see that Janet was too. He went to the trunk and took their luggage out. Once in the room, the door locked and the deadbolt set. They looked at each other and smiled. The room had two beds. Janet set her purse on the table and hurried to the bed. She collapsed on top of it and was asleep an instant later.

Jason smiled at her as a soft snore escaped her throat. He made sure the safety latch was set and climbed into the other bed and fell asleep. Car chases were exhausting.

Jason woke to the sound of a buzz saw wreaking havoc in his head. Sitting up in bed, he saw Janet standing over the briefcase on the table, grinding away at the side of the case. She had on a pair of safety glasses and a pair of gloves. Jason looked at his watch. It was five in the evening. Then his stomach growled. Laughing he waved his hand in the air to attract Jan's attention. She must have caught the movement out of the corner of her eyes. She turned off the grinder and turned toward him with a questioning look on her pretty face.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"Trying to get inside this damn case. I'm wondering what's in here to cause us all this trouble."

"Well put it aside for now, I'm ravenous," Jason said.

"I ordered us a pizza, two actually, it should be here..."

A knock at the door stopped her mid-sentence.

"See?" she said, going to the door.

"Wait!" Jason shot up from the bed. He was just in time to keep her from opening it.

He nudged Janet towards the wall on the other side of the door. She flattened her back to it, smiling grimly, holding her knife ready for a stab. Again Jason asked himself where she got it from. He pulled his gun, hid it behind his back and opened the door with his free hand. Outside, he found a delivery guy waiting. He slipped his SiG into his waistband.

"Ah, great, the pizza is here, hon," he called back over his shoulder as he took a wad of bills out of his pocket. "How much?"

"Fifteen-fifty," the boy said.

Jason gave him a twenty, took the pizzas from him and said, "Keep the change."

"Thanks, man," the boy said, turning and running to a car parked next to theirs.

Janet took the pizzas from Jason. He turned and locked the door. Janet put the pies down on the bed, the table was a little crowded. She flipped them open, the smell making her mouth water. She slid a piece out and bit into it, smiling as she did.

"Shit this is good. Better than that crap they serve up in New York," Janet said.

"Nothing can compare to New York pizza," Jason said, taking a piece and biting into it. "Damn, you're right! This is good. Who would have thought you could get a great tasting pizza in a backwater like this?"

The two took their time consuming their meal.

"So, how far have you gotten with the case?"

"Well, from what I could determine, there are no trip wires on the backside of the case, so I started cutting there. I'm about three quarters of the way around..." she paused to take another bite of her pizza. "It should only take another five or so minutes to get through the rest," she said with her mouth full.

"Good. Then we'll know exactly why everyone in the world is chasing us."

"It's not everyone, just a select few...Russians mostly, I would say."

"Me too," Jason said around a mouth full of pizza.

They continued to eat in silence. Janet had another two pieces. Jason had three more. That left them with a whole pie left over.

"Snacks for the trip," Janet said, going back to the table.

"Let me get this covered, I hate eating metal shavings."

Janet put on her safety glasses and gloves once more and picked up the grinder. Placing the cutting wheel against the metal, she pressed the button and sparks began to fly. The noise wasn't all that bad, but the stench of burning metal was horrid. Five minutes after starting, Janet turned off the grinder and set it down. She flipped her gloves off and looked down at the case.

"Well, here goes nothing," she said.

Reaching down, she picked up an edge of the cut out part and lifted it slowly, peeking inside as she did. There were no wires attached to the panel. She tossed it aside and gazed into the case. The prominent item was the wooden case holding the necklace. There was also two black velvet bags, one on either side of the wooden box. There were also two green wrapped bars of what Janet assumed as Semtex. There was Cyrillic writing all over the wrapper of the Semtex. Slowly, very slowly, Janet lifted the wooden box out of the case.

"Careful Jay, the lid might not be latched," Jason said from beside her.

"I know, I know," Janet replied, sliding her hand under the case to hold the top tight to the body of the case.

Fortunately, the lid was latched and Janet was able to lift the box out of the way. She then lifted out the black bags. They were loose, as if they held rocks or marbles. She handed them to Jason.

"Wait, let's see what's in here," he said, loosening the drawstring of one of the bags.

He tipped the bag and into his hand tumbled crystal clear chunks of what appeared to be unpolished glass.

"What are those?" Janet asked.

"Diamonds, I guess. Uncut diamonds?" Jason said, hefting the bag in his hand. "There must be at least a pound of diamonds in each bag. What's the going price for those?"

Janet consulted her laptop, hissing sharply as the information came up. "Holy crap, Jase. We're carrying at least two million dollars worth of stones!"

"Shit. No wonder the Russkies are after us. Oh look, there are cut ones in here too," he said picking one of the faceted stones from his palm. "See if this has a serial number etched into the edge," he said handing the stone to Janet.

Taking the stone, Janet reached into her oversized tote bag. Her hand came out holding a jeweler's loupe. She pressed it to her right eye and brought the stone up into the field of view. She turned the stone this way and that, then stopped suddenly.

"Yep, it's got a serial number etched in its side. These would be hard to fence. The uncut ones..."

"Would be easy to convert to cash almost anywhere, no questions asked," Jason finished.

Jason took the bags to the bed and poured the stones onto the bedspread from the first. He took the second bag and poured it out too. He spread them out and stood there looking down at them. There had to be a hundred or so stones. There were only about twenty or so already cut. The rest were raw, untouched and beautiful. All the uncut stones were first class diamonds.

"Shit!" Janet cursed, looking down at a small nation's GDP.

"This one, this one and this one and this one," Jason said, picking stones from the bed. "And this one and this one."

"What are you doing?" Janet asked.

"For pain and suffering," he told her.

"You can't..."

"Half are yours," he said, smiling.

"In that case, hand them over," Janet ordered, holding out her hand.

Jason poured them all into her palm. Her eyes widened at their weight in her hand.

"Hide them well," Jason told her.

Chuckling in disbelief, she turned and the diamonds disappeared into the tote bag.

"Let's clean this up and..."

"Let's get the Semtex out of there first. It might come in handy later on," Jason suggested.

"Hmm...yes I would hate for some child to stumble upon this," Janet said softly.

Looking intently at the blocks of plastic explosive, she reached in and pulled them out of the case. With trembling fingers, she pulled the blasting caps out of the blocks.

"There, shit's disarmed now. The caps however, are still hooked up to the circuit."

"Easily fixed. Your knife please," Jason said, holding out his hand while he looked a the wires attaching the blasting caps to the detonator circuit.

Janet slapped the cool metal handle into his hand. He took the knife and cut the wires to the blasting caps one at a time.

"Okay, we have the dangerous parts, let's toss the rest of this piece of crap out in the dumpster."

"Okay." Janet gathered up the rest of the case and put it in the plastic bag the die grinder had been in. She was out the door and across the lot at the dumpster in a scant few moments.

When she got back, Jason was scooping up the diamonds and putting them back in their bags.

"Get packed, we're leaving. Now," Jason told her.

"Why? We have this room for the night."

"I want to be on the road. My gut tells me we haven't seen the last of our Russian friends."

"Right," Janet replied. She turned towards the bed and started packing. While Jason got his luggage in order, she made the bags of diamonds disappear.

Suddenly, the door crashed open. Jason exploded into action. He spun in place, grabbed Janet, and threw her out of harm's way. Grunting, she disappeared between the beds. Still spinning, he drew his SiG and fired, shattering the first attacker's kneecap. The noise of the shot caused the others to flinch, giving him just enough time for a brutal neck chop at the man closest to him, sending him sprawling. The third man took a bullet to the thigh. Jason dodged a hastily thrown punch, saw movement in his peripheral vision and fired, hitting the man he just sent to the floor in the knee. With an elbow to the throat, Jason felled guy number four, making sure he stayed down with a quick shot to the knee. The last man through the door, the blond buzz cut guy, suddenly found himself with the hot muzzle of Jason's SiG pressed to his forehead.

"I wouldn't if I were you," Jason told him as the large man started to raise his hand to grab the gun.

"You seem to have me at a disadvantage," the large man said.

Jason quickly aimed his SiG at the left knee of the man and fired. The big man dropped to the floor with a yelp.

"Jesus, why did you do that?"

"That's for shooting at me and my partner. If you want to remain alive, stop chasing us."

"You know I can't."

"Thought so," Jason said, then shot him in the other knee. "That should slow you down for awhile."

"You bastard," the big man howled.

Then Jason felt a hand on his ankle, trying to unbalance him. A moment later, it was gone and someone screamed nearby. Turning on his heel, he saw a knife sticking out of a prone man's thigh. The would-be grappler cried out in pain as Janet pulled the knife out of his leg. Turning quickly back to buzz cut guy on the floor, Jason was just in time to kick the revolver out of his hand.

"Nice try," Jason told him.

"I had to, this is turning out to be my last chance."

"It is. You won't be walking again for a couple of months. Neither will any of your men."

"Then we will not be seeing each other again. I have failed in my assignment. I will be dealt with."

"After you've tried to sideswipe us and shot at us multiple times, it's a little difficult for me to find the sympathy you're looking for," Janet said sweetly.

"Time to go," Jason said, grabbing their stuff.

"Gotcha."

They were out the door and in the car, pulling out of the lot in seconds.

"Up toward the Navel Base. Left on 178. Follow 178, it will get us to Bakersfield," Janet instructed as the Charger thundered down the road.

"Fine."

"And keep to the speed limit. How do you think they found us?"

"Probably found the wreck we were driving and forced the GPS code to this car out of the agent."

"Yikes." Janet pulled her computer from her tote bag. "I might be able to disable that damn thing."

"That would be nice."

Janet worked for a few minutes, intently looking at her laptop. She opened the glove box and typed in the VIN number she found there. The screen lit up with a schematic of the car's systems. She clicked on the GPS system and turned it off.

"There, all better."

"How did you do that?" Jason asked turning left on to 178.

"There's an app for that," Janet said, giggling.

"Geez," Jason said in disgust.

The car accelerated down the highway.

The road had been twisty and windy, but they had made good time. The car was powerful and fast. They rolled into Bakersfield two hours later. It was now eight at night. The city lights twinkled like jewels ahead of them as they came roaring out of the mountains. It was just a short distance to I-5 from where they were. Once on I-5, it was five more hours to San Francisco. They should arrive in SF about one in the morning.

"Are we going to stop again before we get there?" Janet asked.

"No. I don't want to chance them finding us again."

"So you think there will be more of them?"

"I do. It's what I would do, especially for this kind of money."

"Oh."

The car rolled smoothly onto the entrance ramp. Jason deftly merged into traffic. He accelerated to the speed limit and moved over to one of the middle lanes. The road wasn't that crowded so he had a clear view all around him. Once out of Bakersfield, he pressed the gas pedal a little harder. They were cruising along at eighty miles per hour. Not too fast as to draw attention to themselves. There were cars going faster, passing Jason and Janet on the left. Five hours to go.

It was just outside of Patterson when Jason spotted their tail. He slowed to see if they would pass him. They didn't. He sped up to see if he might lose them. They stuck with them. He drove on, keeping an eye on them.

"Where?" Janet asked.

"Behind us and to the right."

"That big SUV?"

"That's the one."

"How?"

"Saturation search pattern. With enough people and knowing where we are going they can cover a lot of territory."

"Now what?"

"Nothing for now. We keep going. Crap...they're speeding up. Here we go," Jason said tromping on the gas pedal.

They were doing a hundred miles per hour in seconds, the big SUV hot on their tail. Jason could see muzzle flashes coming from the vehicle. He swerved, not too hard, but enough to throw off their aim. The big truck got closer and closer. The driver was good. He was on Jason's bumper in moments. The first hit was just a little tap. When Jason sped away, the truck caught up and hit him harder.

"Son of a bitch," Janet yelled as the car rocked from the collision.

"Yeah, time to end this."

As the truck zoomed up to hit them again, Jason quickly changed lanes and hit the brakes. The truck was now ahead of them, Jason's window was down, his arm out, SiG in hand. He aimed for the front quarter of the Escalade and squeezed off a couple of shots. The front tire of the truck was suddenly flat. Jason accelerated and pulled ahead of the crazily swerving SUV. The truck turned suddenly and flipped over and over down the road. Jason kept driving.

"Holy shit!" Janet cried as she watched the truck disintegrate in the air.

Jason just shook his head as he drove on.

"Keep an eye out, there may be more of them," he told her.

"Right. More bad guys. Will this ever end?"

"When we get to SF."

Jason, steering with his knees, ejected the almost-empty mag, slammed in a new one from his belt and put his SiG away. Then he pulled out his cell phone."

"Do you think that's wise? They may have..."

"My phone doesn't have GPS."

"Ah." Janet quickly pulled her smart phone from her tote bag cum purse and quickly disabled her phones GPS chip. "There, mine doesn't either. That's probably how they found us."

"Could be. Gary Westerling please."

"Who?" Janet asked.

"Old army buddy."

"Okay." Janet went back to looking around for more tails.

"Gary, Jase, I need a favor."

Jason pulled into the Springtown Inn parking lot, stopping in front of the office. He sat for a few minutes before going in to get a room. It wasn't the most pleasant looking place, but it would serve their purposes. A place to hide out until morning. They were in Livermore, just across the bay, well, quite a ways across the bay from San Francisco. Once in the room, the car tucked away out of sight around the back, Jason was once again on the phone with his contacts. Janet was on the computer finding the best way across the bay. Well the quickest way. The next day was Saturday, so traffic should be light, but you never knew. Jason flipped his phone closed. Janet smiled inwardly.