NYPD Red

Chapter 94



GABRIEL HAD SEEN it a hundred times in the movies. In a high-speed chase scene, the cop car turns into the back wheels of an escaping vehicle, causing it to spin out of control.

He used the exact same concept to flip the cops’ Zodiac around and send Jordan flying into the water. The cop landed flat on his back.

By the time he got his bearings, he was totally separated from his partner, and now Gabriel could take them out one at a time.

Jordan first. Benoit closed in on him, firing as he went. At one point he was less than ten feet from his target, but the water was choppy, and none of his shots hit the mark.

Slow down, a voice said.

It was Gabriel the director.

Gabriel the action hero eased up on the throttle and circled the boat for another run.

Steady, steady, steady, the director said. Now.

He fired.

Jordan grabbed his shoulder, flew back, and went under.

“One down,” Gabriel said. He turned to Kylie. Her boat was disabled or she’d have come at him. She had no place to go.

He slowed his Zodiac to a crawl and stopped twenty feet from her.

It was dark, but her body was clearly backlit by the setting sun. She was kneeling in a shooter’s stance.

“NYPD!” she yelled. “Drop your gun and hold your hands up high.”

“You don’t have a gun, bitch!” he screamed. “Otherwise you’d have opened fire on me before I nailed your partner.”

“Final warning!” she called out. “Drop your gun and get your hands in the air.”

Shoot her, the voice said. This time it wasn’t the director.

It was Lexi. She was here for the final scene. Uninvited, but of course she showed up anyway. He laughed. That Lexi—he never could control her.

Shoot her for me, Gabe. Shoot her.

He pulled the trigger.

Click.

He was out of bullets.

Ram her. Run her down. Cut her in half. Kill her.

Gabriel put his hand on the throttle. MacDonald’s Zodiac was directly in his path. She was still aiming at him. And then he saw it in her hand, silhouetted against the sky.

It was boxy with a square front and yellow stripes on the side.

She squeezed the trigger.