10.43 am
"We have to get to New Jersey," Scott said, "and the fastest way, from where we are, is the Staten Island Ferry."
"All right. When does it leave?"
"I don't know. We'll see when we get there."
Scott was picking up some speed when he spotted the red SUV in the rearview mirror.
"We've got company," he told his partner, "shit, this is no good."
"Put the pedal to the metal, as you Americans say," Lorna said, "let me check something."
Lorna checked the backpack and finally found what she was looking for. She grabbed one of the cell phones, the Pocket PC and a cable, connecting them. Scott looked over at her lap, not understanding.
"What are you doing?"
"Wireless Internet darling," she purred while she logged on to the New York City site, "it's a marvelous thing."
"What are they doing?" Carmen asked Mark.
"I don't know. Can't you see anything?" he asked her as he maneuvered their SUV until the writer could look into Scott's lap.
"No, I'm not high enough. And whatever's going on is happening on her end."
"All right, let me try something then."
Mark pulled the breaks on rather abruptly, raising a lot of smoke while Scott sped past him. But as soon as he did, Mark gunned the car, siding up to them on the other side, giving him a picture view of Lorna's lap.
"She plugged the cell phone to the Pocket PC."
"What? Why?"
"Don't ask me. You got some sort of cable in there? Something that'd go from the cell to the little PC?"
"I don't know… let me check…"
"Fuckin' bastards are cheating!" Scott said when he saw Mark looking down at Lorna's lap.
"What? Oh dear!"
The young woman turned around, giving her back to Mark.
"How's it going?"
"I have it… there's a ferry leaving in five minutes. Do you think we can make it?"
"Oh yeah, we'll make it. Buckle in girlfriend."
Scott's car shot up past traffic so fast Mark could hardly keep up with them. But he managed to keep eye contact even as they wove in and out of lanes.
"They're still after us," Lorna said desolately.
"We have to make it before them. Listen, get the money out to pay for the ferry. You're going to have to get out of the car and pay for us while I board, all right?"
"What if I miss the ferry?" Lorna asked.
"You won't. I promise."
"The man's a maniac," Carmen said as she walked Scott drive. "He could get himself killed driving like that."
"The promise of three million dollars in cold hard cash will make people do a lot of crazy things."
"But to drive like that?"
"I'm just as bad, aren't i?"
Carmen couldn't deny that since Mark was driving just as riskily.
"Get out," Scott shouted as Lorna as she fumbled with the safety belt buckle. "GO! GO! GO!"
Scott waited until Lorna was talking to the guy at the booth before shooting ahead and parking the car in one of the last available spots. He got out of the car and went to the rear of the car, watching Lorna stuff the change into her jacket pocket. She made a mad dash for the ferry but when it started slowly moving off the pier, she stopped, frozen by fear.
"Come on, jump!" Scott shouted.
"I can't… I'll fall in!"
"No you won't. Just go back and run for it. I'll catch you."
"What if you can't catch me?"
"I will catch you, I swear it!"
While Lorna ran back to the top of the pier, Mark and Carmen's SUV came to a skidding halt next to the booth and he shot out of it, running after the young attorney. The blood was pumping so loudly into Lorna's ears that she didn't hear Scott's warnings nor did she feel the loud thud of Mark's feet on the pier as he went after her. on the ferry, a worried Scott watched as the distance between the pier and the boat stretched to a full three feet before Lorna made her desperate leap.
Luckily, the young woman didn't see how far she was from making it until she was in the air and it was too late for her to back out. Her feet landed on the large rim surrounding the bulky vessel and Scott was there, his hands tightly wrapped her wrists. He hauled her into the boat, hugging her tight, resolving right then and there to never tell her how close Mark had been to grasping her ponytail and stopping her from joining him.