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The doubts the security officials seemed to have had mysteriously vanished as they pulled out their guns. Immediately they yelled at everyone to move out of the way, while they tried to find a good moment to shoot at the fleeing suspects. Once everything was clear, some of the officers shot at Eric and Diane, but the bullets missed and ricocheted elsewhere. They were both out of the building a few seconds later, leaving the panic behind them.

Eric signaled Diane to keep close as they ran in an oblique line to stray away from future bullets. They took cover behind a stationed car nearby, while Eric took out his new pistol. Crouching down behind him was Diane, who still did not have the slightest idea what had happened. She was asked to cover his back in case someone was to strike them from behind and because he did not want to show her his premature shooting skills.

It was quiet for a few seconds, and when the first officer came out, Eric shot a bullet, fortunately hitting him straight in the gut. The man crouched in pain, grabbing a hold of the wound, and yelled in agony. Eric noticed he had a strategic advantage here; they only had one exit to come out of, making them an easy target. He saw another guard looking to pull the dying man aside, and tried to shoot him as well, but missed and hit the doors. He quickly realized he only had a single magazine of six bullets; he figured he should not have been wasting them on something so useless. Seeing no one would dare come out, and fearing they would be secretly sneaking elsewhere, Eric tried to find a way to safely get out of the area. He glanced behind his back briefly and noticed traffic on a nearby street. This shifted his focus off of the airport and onto Diane, who was asked to stay put once again.

Eric got another glimpse of the door; no one. He turned around and quickly made his way to one of the cars stuck in traffic. Raising his gun toward the male driver, threatening to shoot, he began to yell menacingly.

"Get out of the car! Get out or I'll blow your fucking brains out right now!"

The driver clearly did not want to take any chances with the man who had already killed well over five people, and got out of the car with his hands above his head, pleading not to shoot. Eric then signaled to Diane to get in, just before the airport security began to rush out of nowhere. Bullets grazed the sky as Eric tried to get the car out of harm's way, which had already begun to intercept bullets. Diane was not as shaken up as Eric thought she would be, but instead had an expression on her face showing regret for not boarding a plane fast enough.

When Eric got the car out of the area, sirens had already started to signal the arrival of cop cars. Initially, he was not sure where to go, but signs with directions to New York were vast and plastered all over the place. With his concentration required on the road ahead of him, however, he did not have the time to navigate.

There were small gaps between the cars ahead of him which allowed him to roll at an ambient speed of around 50km/h, placing him somewhat far from police, while avoiding any collisions with other drivers. At one point, he was obligated to use the shoulder lane to navigate past cars, and although it was a great alternative, he wanted to stay on the main road as much as possible.

After driving about five minutes, with police still on his tail from afar, Eric found a highway entrance labeled "New York", and quickly shifted his direction onto the ramp. The three-lane highway was an excellent source for speed, but the closer he would have gotten to New York, the denser the traffic would have been. Nevertheless, once he got onto the ramp, he started to accelerate, making use of the space. Well above the speed limit, he managed to smoothly avoid all cars in front of him, going from lane to lane to do so. He knew it was not over, however.

...

Parker came back from his meeting with the press. Twenty meters from his surveillance room, he could hear loud discussions, which was a first. He entered the room, and indeed, everyone was around each other's computer, pointing out information and discussing their findings. They had barely even noticed Alan enter the room. The former tried to grab their attention.

"Alright everyone, listen up", he commanded. "The media has a bit more information on our target, meaning we'll have a much better eye on him. You should all be checking local and national news breaks to see if they catch anything. Any updates?"

The same man from the last brief got up, thinking he had the most authority of the group. "Well sir, we have --"

Alan interrupted. "Sit down, boy. Give someone else a chance." He pointed at a young brunette with glasses, sitting near the far left end of the room. "You there. Come over here and give me an update."

The young lady was not very comfortable with the request, and blushed as she got up to walk to the front of the room, stopping a few feet in front of him. Her blond hair flowed as she looked up to face him, but was immediately intimidated by his big eyes and bold look. "Well sir, we've found the suspect near the entrance of the airport not too long ago. He seems to have access to our team's communication system, meaning he has either stolen an officer's earpiece, or he managed to use his own and hacked into our encrypted system, which is highly unlikely. We also have no idea how he managed to enter the terminal in the first place."

Alan frowned. "Ugh. Very good. Where is he now?"

She continued. "Well, again we have no clue as to where he came from, but our team spotted him in the terminal with the female suspect we showed you on the video tape. Security communicated for a moment over shooting him, but civilians crowded the area, and making them move would have blown our cover. He ran off into the streets, firing a gun twice, and severely wounding one of our members. Witnesses say he stole a car from a nearby driver and drove off onto a highway. Our police forces are after him as we speak, but they're far behind him."

"Where is he heading now?"

"Judging by his flight destination, we figure here in New York."

A grin appeared on Alan's face. "Good." She blushed over the compliment as she went back to her seat. "Here's what we'll do. We beef up security everywhere around here, with all we've got. How many police forces do we have in total in and around New York?"

A few keystrokes, and someone answered. "Around 41 squadrons, totaling about 1280 members."

"Use them all."

...

The car was in excess of 135km/h, well over the speed limit of 110. Eric was zipping in and out of lanes, with Diane literally hanging on to her seat. They had been driving for over ten minutes, and had covered over 15 kilometers, each of them closely followed by the cops' sirens about 100 meters behind. Eric tried his best to stay as concentrated as he could, looking for ways to overtake the increasing traffic without colliding with other vehicles, as well as looking out for police, who were always behind him. Diane was impatient over the driving, and needed to speak.

"Okay, what the hell are you doing?", she inquired. "You told me to leave you alone, and I wasn't safe here. Then you come and grab me from the airport as I'm getting my plane ticket, causing a gunfight which could have killed us in a flash. What's wrong with you?"

Eric did not seem to lose much of his concentration. He did not want to seem like a hypocrite, so he lied. "They're looking for you as much as they're looking for me. The second you get on that plane, they see it on your purchases, and you'll be caught in an instant. You had no other choice."

This came to a shock to her, who had never realized this. "What? I'm being tracked as well? That's insane, I didn't even do anything! I just met you yesterday and, and I didn't do anything!"

"Diane, calm down. It's not your fault. They just want me, and they'll try and get to you first. But I won't let that happen. I've already lost one friend, and I'm not going to lo--"

Suddenly, Diane yelled in terror. "Eric! Look out!"

As Eric snapped out of his temporary daze, he noticed a police car had made its way beside him, to the right. It came to the side of his car and collided with it like a raging bull, knocking Eric's control out of his grasp. At such a high speed, the time was not very ideal to be wiping out, which was apparent as he hit into another car beside him on the third lane. The former went directly into the ditch separating the two-way highway, while Eric regained control and watched the police car get back into position, ready to attack again. This time, before he got the chance to hit him, Eric slammed on the brakes, barely dodging the cop car which almost went straight off of the road. Eric retaliated and bumped him in the rear corner of his car, initiating a PIT maneuver - the exact same technique the police in Thunder Bay had used on him and Matt. As a result, the car swerved through the two lanes on the right, going off the road and slipping down the ditch.

As Eric regained control of the car, - and his concentration - he sped up as much as before, noticing most of the traffic had backed off or sped up to get away from the fight. Unfortunately, this proved to be a great advantage to the police behind him, who turned their sirens back on and crept ten feet behind Eric. With a grunt demonstrating his frustration, Eric continued to accelerate to attempt to leave them eating dust; however, they managed to follow his lead and stay right behind him. He knew they would not try anything at a speed of 140 km/h, the risk factor being much too wide; with this in mind, he increased his speed bit by bit.

After a few minutes, the road which had been abnormally straight finally began to curve to the left, which frightened Eric. He did not want to test his vehicle's traction - especially not at that speed. Nevertheless, he was forced to begin a sharp turn to the left, in order to cross into a new Interstate. He felt the tires slowly give its grip away, and Diane seemed to have noticed as she held onto the handrail above her head. Fortunately, Eric barely maneuvered the car's trajectory onto the new road, accelerating even faster upon completing it. The police, however, were not as lucky. Two cop cars attempted the same feat, but swiveled out of control in dismay, barricading the road. The police behind them were forced to slow down in order to avoid the wreck, allowing Eric to continue his journey with his pursuers left in the dust.

Diane sighed as the car continued to increase its speed."I've been to New York before, if that helps", she noted, in a low tone. "I can tell you where some things are located."

"I'm not even sure we should go to New York at all."

"Why is that?"

"Well, think about it. Our plane was going to New York. If they know we were in it, they know exactly where we're heading. It just seems like a really stupid move."

She seemed to agree, but had an opinion of her own. "I see your point, but I don't think there are many international airports around this area. And, with all that aside, how are you supposed to get on an international flight with a passport the government is tracking?”

"Simple." Without losing the concentration which was much needed at that point, he took out his wallet from the back pocket of his pants. He gave it to her, allowing her to view his passport. "You use one which they aren't tracking."

She seemed flabbergasted. "How did you manage to get this? It looks so... real."

"That's what Matt and I were doing in Fargo. He had a friend who was a really experienced graphic artist, so we got him to do these."

Diane sat back and flipped through the pages of the faux passport in silence. The drive continued for another ten minutes before reaching the city of Stroudsburg. He did not dare stop in this area, and continued to dodge the traffic in front of him, which became denser and denser by the mile. Luckily, no one seemed to have been following him, so he slowed down in order to better accommodate the speed limit, avoiding any unwanted attention. He tried to relax as much as possible in the traffic which began to grow, while he approached closer and closer towards his destination of New York.

...

One day after the interrogation, Xavier and Julia were home once again, with their son and daughter taking their daily afternoon siesta. It was unusually quiet all day. Both of them profited from long naps and slept through the morning, showing the effect of an 18-hour drive with no sleep whatsoever. After being released, they were given back their minivan and their children, and were reassured that thanks to the helpful information, they would not be criminally charged in any way.

While Xavier's fear of his wife lashing out was completely erased, their guilt was far from it. They had revealed information which probably would have cost Eric and Matt their lives. They had heard, however, about the hijacking, and the media's concerns over Matt's disappearance, so they knew they had not caused their deaths - but they felt responsible for helping the enemy.

As usual, the only thing on the news was coverage of the dragon. They had already watched four hours of it, and noticed they were beginning to air re-runs, leaving the two adults hopeless. Finally, Xavier cracked for what was the third time.

"How the hell did I let this happen? I betrayed them. I could have taken the three stupid months of jail and the fine, instead of reneging and ruining two innocent lives. I'm such an idiot."

Julia glared at him from across the sofa. "Xavier, we've talked about this fifteen times already. It's not your fault. You didn't stop in front of a police station to leak all of the information you had. They threatened you and you were forced to reveal everything. Now stop torturing yourself. I've already gotten over the last headache you gave me."

"How do you not care? They trusted us enough to reveal what they were planning, and I pretty much threw it all away for the maggots to eat."

"Honey, shut up. I'm not going to listen anymore. You saw the news; they're alive and well. We don't need to bother ourselves any more with this. Now please, just... shut up."

"No. I'm not going to take this anymore. I made a mistake, and I won't stand by to let it grow on my back for the rest of my life. I'm going to do something about this; fix what I've done wrong."

She changed her expression to a mocking face. "And how do you suppose you'll accomplish that?"

Subsequently, he shifted his whole face into his bear muzzle, including the teeth, the ears, and the big brown eyes, as well as the fur around it all. "I'm going to New York."