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Newmarket was the swankiest part of the city. It was filled with upper-crust boutiques, designer cafés and wide boulevards. This was where the fashionable came to dine and shop.
As they cruised down Broadway, Kendra scanned the side streets. It was a metropolitan labyrinth. There were multiple points of ingress and egress, along with plenty of room to manoeuvre, which made for countless diversions.
Kendra checked her six.
The car had closed in.
It was only one vehicle-length behind now.
They want revenge for what I did to their colleagues in the park. That’s why they’re so eager.
Turning around, Kendra searched for the best place to stop, and she saw it coming up just ahead. It was a bus lane, where a small crowd was embarking and disembarking. Perfect.
‘Right there,’ she told the taxi driver as she leaned forward and pointed. ‘Behind that bus.’
‘That’s an illegal stop. I can’t do that.’
She pouted and tipped her chin. ‘Aw, come on. Just this once?’
He hesitated, then shook his head wearily. ‘Okay. For you. Just this once.’
‘You’re sweet.’
As they pulled up to the sidewalk, she pressed a wad of money into taxi driver’s hand and stepped out. Plunging into the crowd, she glanced over her shoulder.
As expected, the car on her tail had coasted to a stop as well, and two operators disembarked, fanning out in a pincer movement. They were trying to catch her from both left and right.
Meanwhile, the operator behind the wheel started pulling away from the kerb, revving his car’s engine, trying to overtake the bus in his path.
Kendra swallowed.
She knew what he was planning to do.
He wants to get ahead of me and box me in. Give his friends a chance to strike at me from behind.
But Kendra had no intention of making it easy for them.
She needed to disrupt that strategy and force them to reconfigure.
So she zeroed in on the pedestrian crosswalk ahead, and without waiting for the light to turn green, she darted across the street. She zigzagged through the gaps in traffic.
Vehicles honked.
Somebody shouted.
Panting, Kendra reached the sidewalk on the other side.
She rounded the corner.
She was now on a one-way street with traffic flowing from the opposite direction, and the car on her tail couldn’t possibly come after her. So the operator had no choice but to bypass the street and orbit around the block.
But the operators pursuing her on foot weren’t so easily deterred. They quickly recovered from their surprise and came after her. They were widening their pincer formation now, staring hard, abandoning any pretence at being covert.
With her heart hammering, Kendra picked up the pace to avoid being flanked.
Because there were so many civilians around, she didn’t believe that they would use a gun. No, if they really wanted to liquidate her, it would be up close and personal with a needle or a knife.
So don’t give them the opportunity. Just don’t.
Kendra pivoted into the next street.
She glanced across the road.
For a moment, she considered detouring into the primary school just ahead. She wondered if it would give her more room to manoeuvre; more flexibility to go tactical. But, almost immediately, she dismissed the thought.
Damn it. I can’t possibly put children in danger.
Kendra rounded the next corner.
Behind her, the operators were closing in fast, dodging and weaving through the crowd.
Just ahead, the car had reappeared at the intersection, accelerating in.
They’re gaining confidence now. They think they have me boxed in.
Kendra craned her neck this way and that way.
She made a snap decision.
Go right.
She veered off the footpath and hurried down the ramp beside her. She entered the parking garage below the Westfield shopping mall.
The smell of exhaust tickled her nostrils, and the sound of squealing tyres filled her ears. She had only one option now – to misdirect her pursuers in the vastness of the mall itself.