Page 37 of Reset

“Then we find out who’s paying him.” Callum glanced at Joe.

“Or,” the cop said, standing and tucking his hat under his arm, “you hand this over to the police and let us do our job.”

Joe caught David’s eye, and the spy gave a slight nod, letting Joe know that Elle had already made copies of the video.

“Wouldn’t do anything else, officer,” Joe said with an alligator’s smile.

The cop wasn’t fooled, but he didn’t push the issue. He held out a palm for the flash drive.

“No’ so fast.” Callum pointed at the screen. “Does that guy match the description you got for the woman’s abductor?”

Officer Jensen gave a terse nod. “Going off the time stamp, it looks like the woman was taken first.” He let out a sigh. “The brass will want to take over when they see this.”

“Aye, I bet they will.” Callum folded his arms and stared the man down. “Just you make sure they keep us in the loop when they do.”

“I’ll try.” Again the cop held out his hand for the drive.

“Try hard,” Callum ordered as Elle handed it over.

Once he had the footage, the officer headed to the door and opened it. “I’m going to assume this is the only copy, apart from the one at the hospital,” he said. “And I’m going to give you some advice. Let the police do their jobs, and don’t go running off like a bunch of cowboys looking for wild west justice. We’ve dealt with situations like this before. Stand down and let the experts handle it.”

When there was no reply, he shook his head and closed the door behind him.

As soon as it clicked shut, Callum turned to David and Harvard. “Do you two know how to get to this Prentice guy?”

They shared a look, then nodded.

“Leave it with us,” David said.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

There was no way in hell Ryan was going to survive being shot in the head just to end his days as a Happy Meal for rats.

“Faster,” he ordered as he pulled on Sarah’s hand and she stumbled over the uneven surface.

Her shoes were totally fine for running—yeah, right…

He broke out in a cold sweat as they ran. Rats. It had to be rats. Not just one, no. A whole bloody army of the disease-carrying vermin. Anything else and he’d have been fine. But a swarm of rats? Pack of rats? Plague of rats? Did it really matter what they were called? All that mattered was that they were right behind them. With their dead black eyes that reminded him of sharks, and their weird pink paws that looked like tiny baby hands but thinner. And the tails? Those thick, nasty, naked tails…

Just thinking about the tails made him want to vomit.

The tails were the worst part of a rat. Not the ever-growing teeth that gnawed through concrete, or the disease they spread, or the way they could contort to get into the tiniest space. No. It was the tails. The tails were just wrong. Like someone stuck a worm or a baby snake onto the backside of a rodent and called it good.

And why did they need to be so long? And squirm? It was like a rat’s tail had a life of its own.

“Ryan, we can’t outrun them. We need to stop and think.”

“Hell, no.”

They could totally outrun them. Okay, maybe Sarah couldn’t, but he definitely could. Of course, he couldn’t leave her behind to get gnawed to death. Which meant they couldn’t outrun them after all, not like this.

He knew just what they needed to do. “Kick off your shoes—they’re slowing us down.”

“I’m not taking off my shoes.” She sounded breathless.

Ryan should have quizzed her on her fitness level before this whole thing started. At least then he’d have been prepared when she couldn’t keep up.

“Ryan, rats can run faster than humans. We can’t outrun them. We need another plan.”