RB Chapter 167 Pursuit

It was just a few minutes to 9:00am. The time when the sun had just graced the world with its presence, the plants, still having a few dewdrops on their green leaves. The time of day when the temperature fluctuated depending on where you were. If you were in a shadow, it would be a bit chilly, and if you stood in the sun, it would be warm.

Vroom!

The sound of a car engine could be heard off in the distance, powerful and strong! Dust was trailing behind the car from which the sound of the engine was coming from because it was moving at a very fast speed. The lack of rain for a long time had caused the firm ground making up the road to start eroding due to the fact that it was regularly facing the friction of car tires. 

The car creating the dust cloud was being driven with such speed, that it resembled a mad enraged bull charging at something. Any pothole, stone or bump was ignored by the driver, simply rushing through every one of them like they didn't exist.

The car was black, a four wheel drive with large tires and armor plates. The windows appeared to have been made from thickened glass to prevent shattering. It was large and heavy, its tires new, leaving noticeable treadmarks in the soil.

Inside of the car, no one was complaining due to the speed. Except for the palpable tension, the passengers were otherwise calm. Such speed wasn't enough to place their lives in peril!

Chloe's eyes were concentrated on the road. She was the driver, and Eric felt her rage. She was taking it out on the car. Her lips were pursed into a line and she wasn't in the mood for conversation from what he could tell. She stared at the road as if she were facing an invisible opponent, hellbent on cutting them down.

The back of the car was occupied by Sally and Elena. Elena was glaring at Sally, malice in her gaze, causing the former to put a large space between them. She could feel it, the inner predator in the girl, it was enraged, only being held back by the flimsy gate that was humanity.

"...Elena, could you stop scaring her?" Eric sighed. He had had no choice but to intervene. Elena's glare was truly unnerving.

"I want her to die! We don't even know Leah's current state. She was as injured as us when she was taken...and if Monki is being pursued, then there is little chance for his group to tend to her injuries! For all we know she might already be dead!" Elena shouted, her brown eyes containing hate and rage, all being directed towards Sally.

"Monki...will definitely not let that happen." Sally assured, but even she sounded unsure.

"Heh...he's a crazy psycho. Right now, due to the unexpected explosion, he has become a fugitive. He doesn't have the luxury of thinking about Leah's life!" Elena argued.

Eric felt an oncoming headache. Even he lacked the means to refute her argument. He didn't know Monki that well to bring out a suitable argument.

As the tension was on the verge of escalating, Chloe pulled on the hand brake and turned the wheel causing the car to drift and the passengers to be pushed in a direction. Elena hadn't used a seat belt, so she was thrown onto Sally. Chloe appeared calm, her body leaning to the side, but held in place by the seat belt.

"I am driving, your bickering is distracting." Chloe said calmly when the car repositioned itself onto another road, the one heading north. She had slowed down upon reaching the corner, and now, her foot was on the accelerator.

Elena looked up from Sally's lap and saw that the latter was staring at her with a calm gaze. She hurriedly jumped away and back to her seat, fumbling with the seat belt, a blush on her cheeks.

"Why didn't you accept Mugumivu's offer?" Sally asked. She was trying to make small talk. The tension was getting to her.

"Why should we? You of all should know. Your group alienated us, so your ties must be strong. How could we trust him? For all we know he might be in cahoots with that guy." Chloe said, her eyes still on the road, the beast of a car not slowing down in the slightest under her rough driving. Elena and Eric nodded at her words.

"Mugumivu wouldn't side with Monki if that's what you fear." Sally shook her head in denial. Her face told it all, she was very sure that something like that wouldn't happen. 

"That's the thing. You trust them because you know them. We don't know them, so we have to be cautious." Eric said, refusing to acknowledge her words.

"I don't trust anyone. I just analyse their behaviour and reach a logical conclusion." Sally became defensive.

"Oh! Then all the more reason not to trust your judgement." Elena said in sarcasm.

"If I am not mistaken, he had orders from the Black Diamond Group to aid you. You could have accepted a part of the help." Sally said, directly ignoring Elena and causing her to sulj and directed her gaze out the window, but her ears were still strained to catch the conversation.

"I know, but right now, he's the branch head. If he wants to sabotage us, its easy." Eric shook his head. 

'We must use our own power to get her back. We won't rely on anyone else!'

He thought as a feeling of weightlessness enveloped him. The car had soared into the air. Chloe had hit a ramp like part of the road at high speed. It was low enough that such a thing, like a car flying wouldn't happen normally, but at the car's current speed, something like that was bound to happen.

"So, tell us, how many parties are after Monki...the composition of his convoy and...where he is." Eric asked. He took the brief weightlessness in stride, as the other passengers.

"Monki's party is travelling in a convoy of three cars. Monki is in the middle one and Leah is located in the one bringing up the rear. The cars are all offroad with the ability to absorb sunlight and also use industrially created fuel. That means that it will be a long time before he has to stop, unless an accident happens." Sally projected a still image, probably captured by a drone.

"Okay...then, that accident will most probably be caused by the pursuing parties." Eric came to such a conclusion.

"I am going to name the groups after Monki in the order of the ones closest to him..." Sally started, attracting their attention. Even Chloe slowed down a bit, though the vehicle was still travelling at an alarming velocity.

"Those in the shadows, the ones who helped Monki. They aren't trackable, but we managed to gain clues from one of the drones Monki shot down."

Sally said, while projecting a video on the car wind shield. A convoy of three black cars could be seen from above, raising a cloud of dust as they tore through the rough terrain. A few drones of various designs could be seen hovering above the convoy, following it like flies on a rotting corpse.

"This was captured by a satellite owned by the Black Diamond Group." Sally answered their inquisitive gazes.

Someone...a person they very much wanted to kill, had his face peek out from the vehicle in the middle. His face alone caused the expressions of the three to morph into those of hatred. Elena bared her teeth, Eric clenched his hands and gritted her teeth, while Chloe's knuckles turned white from the strength she had added to her grip on the steering wheel.

The person who had peeked out was Monki, he turned his eyes above and stared at the drones following the convoy, before flicking his fingers, it had been a blur, but all those in the car knew that it had been a projectile. One of the drones was penetrated cleanly before collapsing into the road in the wake of the convoy. The other drones had increased their altitude upon taking note of the action, trying to get out of his range.

"It seems he has managed to increase his mastery of energy channelling." Eric commented with cold eyes. 'Good, then he won't die too fast when I get my hands on him!'

"Do you have a live feed?" Chloe asked.

"No, the satellite was only able to briefly capture this. It has to focus on the war. The events of Monki need to be kept under wraps, and if the satellite stayed on him, it would have appeared suspicious." Sally surmised.

"You seem to have a keen awareness of the situation. Where did you gain the information about the drone?" Elena asked, suspicious.

"Let's just say I have my ways...but this information is reliable. The people who plotted against Monki are also keeping an eye on him, but no party has been detected pursuing him. Their ultimate targets are all of us, so we have to be cautious!"

"The next party is composed of those from Kampala city, elder Muti. They have drones and a car. They are professionals specialised in scouting and tracking, not just with technology, but biologically. Don't look down on them though, energy channelling can make even those who barely have any combat abilities into lethal killing machines." She warned seriously.

"Besides, there is no way that man would send a party only meant to track and report." She added.

"So Mugumivu is the third party. He stayed back, so who's leading the Black Diamond Group's hunting party?" Eric asked.

"Njibwa." Sally sighed after saying that.

"Why do you sigh?" Chloe asked.

"If it was Mugumivu, he might have thought to save Leah, but miss Njibwa, her kindness...is simply a facade. Now that Monki has caused her fiance's position to become unstable, she will stop at nothing to make sure that he's captured...actually, all the parties after the group except ours deem Leah expendable. So we have to catch up as fast as we can!" Sally explained causing their faces to turn grim.

"Oh! Don't pretend to care about Leah." Elena taunted.

"I need to secure an alliance with you, so I have to care. Besides, I...it was my fault." The last part was added in a soft voice.

-----

A groan of pain escaped her lips as the car jolted for the umteenth time. The taste of iron filled her mouth too. She had just woken up from an unconscious state.

Every bone, every muscle and every organ was overloading her nerves with its pain. She grit her teeth through sheer will and focused her ears.

The sounds of arguing and things exploding entered her ears. She felt her body lying on a soft vision which tried to dampen the shock from the moving vehicle, but it had failed miserably.

"Shit!" 

"Every time we shoot down a drone, another replaces it, when is it ever going to stop?"

"I want to run away-no-I should have ran away when I had the chance! I am throwing away my life here!" 

"Shhhhhh! The young master might hear you! Do you want to lose your head?"

"It doesn't matter now! Either way, we are going to die! Those people who are pursuing us only need the young master. Us...we will simply be killed!"

"Shhhhh! Right now its too late, focus in the job!" 

All those words entered Leah's ears. The two people were arguing but, they all appeared to be fearful of the so-called young master. She could also sense a fear of death in their words, even from the one trying to calm the other down.

'Where am I? What are these people talking about? And why am I in a vehicle?'

Leah's mind conjured up a bunch of questions, that she didn't have answers to.

"Shit! Some vehicles are gaining on us!"

"Shoot them!...give me the laser gun if you can't"

She sensed a scuffle and the sound of engines coming from somewhere.

'Why are they running away? What are they running away from?'

'I remember, we were going for a job, then...then...an explosion! But shouldn't I be in the hospital? I don't recognise any of their voices.' 

"Motherfuckin idiot! Why aren't you shooting the cars? Abandon the damn drones! Hurry up!"

"Hey! You fools! Take care of the pursuers, I am focusing in the drones!"

A familiar voice entered her ears. The static signified that the owner wasn't here but transmitting his voice to these two through a device of some sort. But she could never mistake the voice anywhere, it was Monki's! 

'Why is he...could it be...I was kidnapped?' Her body flinched as she finally put two and two together.

'I need to escape, but how? Someone is pursuing them, but I don't know who so I can't request for help. Besides my body is weak. I need to use the energy I have to repair some of the bones and tissues.' She willed her energy and started working in the injuries.

Splitting her attention towards healing, the jolting car and the conversation of the two people proved to be a daunting task, but she persevered. Her eyes were closed. They had been so ever since she woke up...scared that something terrible might happen if the two found out that she had awoken.

-----

"Hey you! In the front car! Accelerate!" Monki ordered, his mouth close to his communication patch. He had risen from his seat, half his body out of the car. He was observing the pursuing vehicles. His spittle was flying all over the place as he barked orders.

His minions, in the last car on the convoy, were continuously firing their weapons, trying to breach the forcefield surrounding the pursuing cars, but it was proving to be a waste of effort.

'The winner sure is rich! Even able to afford a miniature forcefield device!' Monki whistled. Even though he was engaged in a chase, he was excited by the thrill of it.

'Though they can't shoot at us with that thing up...now to take care of the pesky drones.' He had temporary given the drones a respite, due to his attention shifting towards the pursuing vehicles.

As his attention returned to them, a grin tugged at his lips. He fired projectiles toward each, trying to down them. What he was firing were brown needles. But the drones were being controlled by AIs which were capable of calculating the trajectories of the projectiles before he even fired them, thereby moving out if the way beforehand, of course, sometimes mistakes happened, leading to a drone being knocked out of the sky.

'I hope we find a grove or jungle.' He thought. Even though they appeared to be holding on well, he knew that their situation was in fact grim.