The Fear: Four

A car came roaring through the parking lot, screeched to a stop, a door slammed, and the car took off again. Everything sounded preternaturally loud. Jamie opened his eyes. Lara was looking at him and her eyes were wide open, and so was her mouth. She was stuttering and trying to talk. He looked down and saw blood on her sweater.

“I’m sorry,” she finally got out, “but I didn’t think anyone would come after me in a such a public place.” He was dumbfounded. Whatthefuck?

“I stole something, for a good cause.” She stopped and gasped as a shudder ran through her. “And those guys want it back. I need to get it to my bosses right away.”

“Let me call 911,” Jamie said as he reached for his cell. More blood stained her sweater. She reached out and put her hand on his phone.

“No, wait. Call my bosses. You have to use my phone, get it out of my purse, and speed-dial #2.” He wondered who she worked for as he reached over her to get into the purse. Must be some special people because he saw it was a videophone. He punched the buttons and gave her the phone.

“I’m shot” were the only words she said. Jamie couldn’t see the video but he heard a man reply: “What about the material?”

“I have it but I’m out of play. You need to get here damn fast or it’s gonna be terminal.” He couldn’t believe her tone of voice, as if she barely cared about dying, because as far as he was concerned the only way he was going out was of extreme old age, in his sleep. She shuddered again and he wondered what such pain felt like.

“We can be there in 20 minutes, maybe 15.” There was a pause, Jamie peaked over to see a dark-haired man turn away and type into a laptop. He turned back to the screen and Jamie ducked away. “Who was that I just saw?”

Lara told him that they had just met inside the coffee shop and that Jamie’ed just missed getting a couple of new holes himself. And that he didn’t run away after the gunfire, he’d stayed to see if she was alright. She handed the phone to Jamie.

The man stared at him for a few beats, eyes twitching over Jamie’s face.

“Will you help us?”