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point, he is completely surrounded, so he just
stands up, fires off two quick rounds and falls flat on his belly. Their
reaction is exactly what he hopes for. The tired, frustrated Harbingers open
fire, aiming at the last spot they’d seen his head. The resulting volley of
gunfire leaves three Harbingers dead and two more wounded; one so badly he
can’t even walk. Luke jumps up and sprints away blindly, not caring what he
might run into; it can’t be any worse than the hail of bullets that await him
if he's spotted again.
    Moments later, Luke
sees a lone gunman open fire towards a target that he assumes must be Carter. The
return fire is fast and vicious. He just hopes his friend doesn’t pay with his
life for that daring maneuver. Luke collapses in the dirt once more, gasping
for breath and trying not to make a sound at the same time. Fortunately, his
pursuers are not trying to hide their approach. Were they to do that, they'd probably
be a whole lot more successful. Luke risks a brief glance at his watch. It’s
4:45 am. The sun will start to rise in about thirty minutes and if they're
still in the quarry, it’ll all be over for them. It’s time to start climbing
back up.
    That proves to be
a lot more difficult than he thought. Normally, anyone climbing would look
around and pick the best route to make their ascent. Luke doesn’t have that
luxury and just has to hope that the route he picks isn’t too treacherous.
Hopefully, Carter is picking his own way back up as well.
    After many
missteps and several slides back down, Luke finally makes some progress, but
it’s impossible to tell how much further he has to go. Luckily, his pursuers
seem to be concentrating on the other subject of their manhunt. He just hopes
Carter’s climbing and evading skills are up to the task. It’s still dark when
Luke finally crawls over the lip of the quarry. He lies there for a couple of minutes
until his breathing returns to normal. When he looks up again, the sky has
visibly become brighter. He can also see the tree line and that’s where he’s
going to go and with any luck, his bike will still be parked there; otherwise
it’s going be a long, dangerous walk home. If both he and Carter haven’t been
caught by the time it’s fully light, the place will be crawling with just about
every Harbinger there is.
    Luke gets up,
takes a deep breath, lets it out and takes off running. After a couple of minutes,
he realizes it’s been a while since he last heard any gunfire. He hopes that
doesn’t mean they’ve already got Carter. Ten minutes later, Luke is deep into
the trees. He can now see about fifty feet in any direction and the territory
is beginning to look familiar. Even still, he almost misses his bike.
    He jogs up to his
Harley as he fumbles around in his pockets for his keys. About to sit on his
bike, he notices the symbol for the Suicide Kings drawn on the layer of dust
and dew covering his seat. That could mean a lot of things to anyone else, but
to Luke it’s a clear sign from Carter that he’s okay and on his way back to the
club house. Luke jumps on his bike and is off with an ear-splitting roar.
    An hour later, Luke
pulls into the club house parking lot. Carter’s bike is there and so are his
father’s and several others from his father’s most trusted circle. Luke feels
around for his cell phone, but then remembers it’s in the basket at the
gathering table. Whenever they go on a mission like the one last night,
everybody deposits their cell phones in the basket. Originally, it was just a
precaution to avoid blowing their cover during a raid if a phone suddenly went
off, but now they fear for traitors among their ranks.
    Unable to call any
of his guys for back up, Luke pushes the door open and walks in, feeling like
he’s about to be ambushed. No one is in the bar, so he heads to the meeting
room. Unfortunately, he can’t tell what is going on due to the soundproof doors.
Entering, he finds his father sitting at