Elite 2: The Wrong Side of Revolution (17 page)

The man on his left decided to take a different approach and pulled out his own gun. Seeing this Daniel shot out with his left arm and firmly pinned the man’s trigger hand against the door. Thankfully he was a lefty. The man tried to move his arm away from the door but was shocked to find that he couldn’t move an inch against Daniel’s superior strength.

The driver thought about going for his gun but traffic on the interstate was terrible and he thought better of it.

The large Islander on the other side of him began to re-gather himself, but Daniel was able to hit him with another jab to the temple before he was able to make a move. This caused Daniel to have to move his other hand away from the door a few inches, but he quickly shoved it back into place before the Islander with the gun could get into position to take a shot.

The blonde in the front seat tried to position himself to strike, but his motion was severely limited with his right hand pinned to the roof. Daniel propped himself up on the back seat with his right arm, and kicked at the blonde with his other leg, the shoe of his heel connecting with the man’s nose.

Both the Islander to his left and the blonde tried to free their trigger hands, but Daniel ordered his muscles to keep contracting, fueling his muscle fibers with the mix of blood and chemicals that provided them with incredible strength.

The driver, now realizing the severity of the situation, started to pull his gun.

Daniel turned his head to the left, noticing that the large man from the Pacific hadn’t had the time to wrap his finger around the trigger.

Daniel slid his left hand forward, forming his hand over the top of the Islander’s and wrapping his own finger around the trigger. He then pulled the man’s arm toward him, aiming the gun at the driver’s seat, and pulled the trigger.

The gun fired, the bullet traveling through the driver’s seat and into the back of the driver.

The driver buckled forward, losing control of the vehicle. The steering wheel jolted to the right, putting the car on a collision course with the center barrier. The wounded driver was unable to gain control.

Seeing that they were seconds away from crashing, Daniel released his grip on his enemies and placed both hands on the backs of the seats in front of him. He tightened every muscle in his body to its fullest extent and then some, bracing for impact.

Before any of his kidnappers could recover, the front end of the sedan smashed head-on into the concrete barrier at nearly sixty miles an hour. Both of the men in the front seat were pummeled by airbags. Neither of the men in the back had their seatbelts on and went flying—first into the seats in front of them, and then in different directions as the laws of physics took effect. All of the glass in the vehicle shattered and flew all over the place.

Daniel barely moved an inch through the entire crash.

When the car stopped moving everyone inside was unconscious except for Daniel and the blonde man. Daniel took care of that by grabbing the side of his head and slamming it against the area of the car between the front and rear windows. The car now sat almost parallel to the concrete divider. Daniel turned to his right and saw a number of witnesses stopping to check on them, including the passengers of the other black sedan.

Daniel quickly climbed over the large man to his left and slid out the door, hiding behind the side of the car now facing the divider. He peeked up through the window and saw the bald driver of the other car walking over to the wreck.

Daniel dropped down out of sight. He heard someone open the passenger’s side door and begin examining the damage inside. He assumed it was the other driver.

Without hesitation Daniel reached up and grabbed the other driver by his shoulders. He had been tending to the blonde in the front seat and was taken by surprise.

Daniel used his strength to pull the muscular man through the driver’s side window and slammed his upper body down onto the pavement. The man’s neck snapped back, his bald head cracking against the concrete, rendering him unconscious. All that was left now was the British brute.

“Okay then!” He heard the man yell in his English accent, followed by the shrieks of the others who had stopped to help the crash victims.

Daniel again lifted his head to peer through the glassless window, seeing the Brit with his arm wrapped around Jordan’s neck and his pistol pressed to her head. Everyone else was now running back to their cars, scared out of their wits by the random madman.

“You’ve done quite a job here!” The captive yelled to Daniel, “But believe it or not you can still save your bunny lass. All you need to do is come wif me. Try anyfing, and I’ll kill ya.”

Daniel leaned his back against the car, feeling the overwhelming fatigue starting to set in. He quickly shook it off and tried to decide what to do next. He had managed to take out five of Demérs men in epic fashion, but the sixth and final bastard had managed to outsmart him by putting Jordan between them.

Or had he?

Daniel looked at the bottom of the car and remembered his first day in the classroom with Horchoff. He had mentioned that one’s ability to lift a car off of a loved one was what had inspired him to design the procedure in the first place.

“Come on now!” The Brit shouted from the other side of the car.

Daniel took a breath. There was no way the Englishman was going to kill Jordan and let Daniel get away. Doing so would take away Demérs’ only bit of leverage against Daniel and ultimately Richfield, and the boss wouldn’t be very happy about that.

Daniel got up on his feet and squatted, facing the car. He reached down and gripped the bottom, and began to lift. Surprisingly, it only took him a matter of seconds to lift the car up and onto its side.

“What are you doing?” The Brit asked him, sounding genuinely confused.

Daniel took a peek over the side of the car and saw his enemy holding Jordan tightly in front of him. They were only twenty or so feet away.

The man saw Daniel pop his head up and pointed his gun at him. Daniel quickly dropped back down as the British man fired a shot off the side door.

Daniel took a deep breath and reinvigorated his ultra-pump, then began pushing the car forward on its side as hard as he could. His speed quickened with every step, and he could hear his attacker firing shots into the top of the car.

“Ahhh!” The Brit yelled ferociously. Daniel knew he was now only a couple feet away from where they were standing.

The English brute looked around him. A line of cars were stacked up directly behind him, blocking him from escape.

Quickly he pulled his hostage along with him as he darted to his left, trying to escape being crushed by the sliding sedan that was coming right for him. He threw Jordan forward and dove to the ground, just inches away from being smashed into by the vehicle. He caught himself with his trigger hand, making sure not to release his grip on his weapon.

Daniel saw them fall to the ground and quickly rushed over—the car stopped less than a foot from the line of backed-up traffic. The gawkers on the highway screamed and gasped at the scene they were witnessing.

The English attacker rushed to pick himself back up, but Daniel moved too fast. Daniel slammed his foot down on top of the hand holding the gun, shattering every bone in it.

The Brit screamed as he turned and looked up at Daniel.

“Told you I don’t need a weapon,” Daniel said just before slamming his left fist into the side of the man’s jaw.

When the fight was over Daniel ran to Jordan and picked her up off the ground. Tears were streaming down her face.

Daniel removed her gag and tried to calm her down. “It’s over now,” he assured her. “You’re safe.”

That was when he heard sirens coming from off in the distance. He turned back to Jordan. “We have to go.”

He turned and saw the other black sedan still sitting a few yards from the crash site.  He pulled Jordan along with him and led her around to the passenger side of the car. He opened the front door.

“Get in,” he instructed her. Jordan did as she was told and got in the car.

Daniel closed the door behind him and ran over to where the driver of the car still lay on the pavement. He searched his pockets and found the key to the car along with a pocket knife. He looked up and saw the flashing lights making their way through the congested traffic as he ran back to the car.

He jumped in the driver’s seat and cut Jordan’s hand binds before starting the car. Seeing the police cars and ambulance pull up to the scene in the rearview, Daniel put it in drive and took off down the road with the rest of traffic.

Chapter 10

“Where are we going?” Jordan asked, her voice quivering with fear.

“We have to ditch this car soon, before Demérs…er, Gordon finds out what’s happened,” Daniel responded, not quite answering her question.

“Daniel!” Jordan yelled in his ear, “What the hell is going on?”

Daniel looked over at the woman in the seat to his right, realizing that she was nothing more than an innocent bystander; friends with the wrong people at the wrong time.

“Gordon wants me dead,” Daniel replied. “Or at least he did. Now I think he wants to study me.”

Jordan turned to face forward in the passenger’s seat and swallowed harshly. Tears were beginning to trickle down her soft, wintery pale cheeks.

“This has to do with you being so strong now, doesn’t it?” She asked Daniel almost accusingly.

Daniel exited the expressway and headed toward the nearest train station. He contemplated how much he should tell Jordan about the last several months. He had promised never to reveal the secret of his extraordinary transformation, but to hell with it. Jordan was now a part of this whether he and Richfield liked it or not. She deserved to know the truth.

“That’s only a small part of it,” Daniel conceded, determining how to explain the bizarre set of circumstances they were now faced with. “They did something to me—a procedure—it gave me total control over my body. I mean
everything.
I can make myself stronger and faster, I can heal myself, I can digest my own food however I want to—and that’s only the stuff I know
how
to do.”

He looked over at Jordan and saw her staring blankly out the windshield, as though she were deciding whether or not to believe such an outlandish story.

In the silence, he decided to continue, “Gordon wants my abilities. He’s part of some society of rich nutjobs who want to create an army of super people like me so that they can start a war and overthrow the government. Gordon Demérs is a
bad
man.”

He turned again to gauge Jordan’s response. This time she began shaking her head violently in anger. That part of the story had broken through her barrier of tolerance.

“Let me out,” she said quietly yet aggressively.

Daniel remained focused on his driving, unsure of how to respond to her request.

“Let me out!” She screamed as she grabbed the door handle and began banging on the side of the door.

Daniel pulled the car onto a side street and slammed on the brakes. She reached for the handle to open the door.

“Jordan,” Daniel spoke, trying to remain calm.

She pulled the handle and started to open the door. Daniel leaned over and grabbed the interior of the door and pulled it shut.

“Jordan! Listen to me!” He ordered, both frustration and fear beginning to set in.

Jordan paused, then threw herself back into her seat deciding it best to listen to what Daniel had to tell her.

“Listen, I’m sorry but you
cannot
go out there,” he explained. “Gordon knows now that you’re one of my biggest weaknesses. He’ll only come after you again to get to me.”

Daniel leaned back and felt himself overcome with sadness. His face scrunched in an unattractive fashion as he felt moisture begin to well up in his eyes. This was all his fault. Because of his decisions he had put someone he cared about deeply in great danger. He had spent the last two days blaming everyone else, but it was his need to be a “better” man—to be bigger and stronger and richer—it was his
greed
that had led them down this road.

“I’m so sorry,” he managed to tell her before losing his grip on his emotions.

Jordan maintained her pissed-off glare as she turned to Daniel, her eyes full of tears as well.

“Well if what you’re telling me is true,” she said to him, “this isn’t entirely your fault.
I
was the one who got engaged to a psychopath who would threaten to kill his own fiancé to get superpowers.”

Daniel somehow managed to laugh at Jordan’s take on the situation. When she put it like that it sounded absolutely ridiculous.

“We have to get you, and me, to safety,” he told her, looking up to stare out the windshield.

“I’ll call home,” she said, reaching for her cellphone before realizing it wasn’t there.

“Even if you had it you couldn’t use it,” Daniel reasoned. “He knows where your parents live. He won’t hurt them but he can have someone monitor the house, and he is undoubtedly more than capable of tracing your cell phone.”