Cut and Run 5 - Armed and Dangerous

have some heat while we wait?” Cameron asked, voice wavering.
    Ty shook his head. “If we get stuck we’ll need to conserve it.”
    “Stuck? Is that really a possibility?”
    “No.”
    “Yes,” Ty said in a louder voice.
    “Agent Grady,” Julian said through gritted teeth.
    “He’s not stupid, Cross, he deserves the truth.”
    “Not from you,” Julian growled, barely able to rein in his temper. What it was about Ty that caused him to lose control so easily, he could not fathom.
    “Well, he’s sure as hell not getting it from you.”
    “I’m… I’m sitting right here,” Cameron muttered.
    “What do you think your boyfriend does, Jacobs?” Ty asked him, his hazel eyes seeming to pierce right through the mirror as he looked at Cameron.
    Cameron swallowed hard. “He deals in antiques.”
    Ty snorted and shook his head, muttering to himself as he looked out into the wall of white around them. Occasionally they could see the motel’s sign, the neon like a beacon of salvation amidst the world of white. But the chill and the silence were still oppressive.
    Julian stared into the falling snowflakes, reflected blue in the moonlight, clamping down on the angry words running through his mind, trying to remain outwardly calm, for his own sake as much as Cameron’s.
    The passenger door popped open, and Zane stuck his head in. His hair was wet with melting snow, and his shoulders were covered with flakes. “We got the last room at the inn.”
    “Must be our lucky day,” Ty muttered as he got out of the car and both doors slammed.
    Julian met Cameron’s eyes.
    “I’ll die before anything happens to you,” he promised.
    “That’s what I’m afraid of,” Cameron whispered.

    “W E LOST them,” Agent X reported to his superior without emotion.
    “What do you mean, you lost them? How can you lose two FBI agents with a prisoner who don’t know they’re being tailed?”
    “I believe we need to consider the possibility that they’ve caught wind of us,” Agent X said. “They went through security at Midway like they were supposed to, but I believe they caused a commotion in order to flee. We never picked them up at O’Hare, and we later got reports of an FBI sedan being stolen. The GPS tracking on the sedan has been disabled. They’re avoiding official channels, zigzagging and scrambling. It’s classic maneuvering.”
    His superior sighed. “Yes, it would appear they know we’re after them.”
    “We picked up their trail when they used a credit card at a hotel in Portage, Indiana. And again when they got on the toll road. They’re trying to make the trip overland.”
    “That seems imprudent, to go to all that trouble and then use a credit card.”
    “I said they know we’re after them, not that they’re particularly smart. But we lost them again when they took an unexpected detour off the toll road into Michigan.”
    “Michigan.”
    “Yes, sir. Michigan.”
    “What’s in Michigan?”
    “Snow.”
    “What?
    “A lot of snow.”
    “I see. Find them, understand? Our one true advantage was the element of surprise. I know Richard Burns, he’s not an idiot. If he knows we’re coming, make no mistake, he’s put his best operatives on this. Whatever they’re doing, it has a purpose. Julian Cross cannot make it to DC. Do what you have to.”
    “I understand, sir.”

    R ICHARD B URNS sat in his darkened office, eyes on a computer monitor, brow furrowed. Years ago he had installed a special tracking device in Ty Grady’s wristwatch for times like this. Ty could turn it on and off at will and only employed it when he was working a special assignment or in trouble, if he was able. Burns could also ping it remotely when he needed to. It was on now. Ty had turned it on moments after getting Burns’ initial call.
    His signal had popped up just west of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and made its way to Chicago just as Ty had been ordered. Now it was near the state line of Michigan and Indiana, holding steady.
    Burns didn’t understand why. Jonas exited the private washroom in Burns’ office, having just showered, and he came to stand over Burns’ shoulder, watching the computer screen in consternation.
    “Why are they heading north? Are they evading someone?”
    Burns shook his head and clicked a button that moved the grid onto one of two flat-screen televisions on the panel on the far wall. “They would have called in if they’d picked up anyone following them or run into