Sam could see where the AgCat was refueling as soon as he pulled into the small, overgrown, nearly abandoned airport. While he could hear the rip of the motorcycle engines behind him, they didn’t seem quite as close as they had before, and he slowed as he approached the plane, not wanting to scare the pilot into taking off again. He saw a young man dressed in overalls and another man, a bit older but still young, who appeared to be the pilot, leaning against the side of the plane talking as the fuel pump did its job. Before he jumped out of the driver's seat, he grabbed the Glock out of the glove compartment, hopeful he wouldn’t need to use it.
The two men looked at him, confused expressions on their faces, as he approached, walking hurriedly. “Howdy there, fellas” he said in his gruff voice. The gun was in his waistband out of sight, but he wouldn’t hesitate to use it if he needed to. “How are you this mornin’?”
The man who appeared to be the pilot glanced at the other young man before hesitatingly saying, “I reckon we’re all right. Can I help you with somethin’?”
Sam nodded sharply, coming to a halt a few steps away from them. “Gonna need to borrow your bird,” he replied, an earnest expression on his face.
“Well, I don’t think…” the pilot began, turning to face him. However, as Sam pulled the gun out of his pants and pointed it at his head, he was suddenly incapable of speech. The other man took off running in the direction of the closest hangar while the pilot raised both hands in the air. “You can have it,” he assured the assailant as he turned and began to walk away.
“That’s what I thought,” Sam nodded. As the pilot also turned to run, he checked the fuel gage and saw that it was only about half full. “That’ll have to do for now,” he muttered, removing the nozzle and tossing it on the ground, fuel still spilling out the end. Shoving the Glock back into his pants, he pulled himself up onto the lower wing and into the pilot’s seat, shutting the canopy and surveying the control panel, unsure that he could remember exactly what he needed to do. However, with a few seconds of intense study, it all came back to him; he had flown planes like this before. The keys were still in the ignition, and the runway was clear. There wasn’t another plane anywhere to be seen--except for that annoying Cessna. As Sam began to taxi out to the runway, he knew he’d have to find a way to evade that plane and make his way to Mexico. Otherwise, he’d die trying.
Cadence watched from a few hundred feet away as the AgCat took off, swearing under her breath but not slowing. Aaron had insisted she stay with him, and that was her intent, even though she could clearly see that he was on Sam already like white on rice. While Sam was flying fairly low, apparently attempting to avoid radar so that Aaron would have a harder time tracking him, Aaron was directly above him, slowing his speed to stay with the less powerful aircraft. Cadence had no idea how this was going to end, but she knew it wouldn’t be pretty; there was no way Aaron was going to let Sam get away, even if that meant it ended in a fiery crash.
And she vaguely recalled Christian mentioning there were no more parachutes.
She couldn’t think about that now as she sped ahead, hoping to stay on Sam’s trail somehow, which would be harder since he could go where she couldn’t; he wasn’t exactly following any roads now. Though she knew cutting across fields would be dangerous, she decided that was her best course. “Christian, Meagan, stick to the roads, and I’ll try cutting through the fields,” she ordered.
“You’re going to kill yourself,” Meagan warned.
“Watch out for cows,” Christian chimed in.
“I’ll be fine,” Cadence assured them, though she wasn’t sure it was true. “Just stick with him.”
“We will do our best,” Meagan replied as Cadence lost sight of her, turning into a pasture while Meagan took the road out of the airport.
Cadence was already having a hard time watching where she was going and keeping an eye on Sam at the same time when Aaron said, “Cadence, I need you to keep a close eye on him. I can see him, but he’s not on my radar, which is making it harder to see exactly where he’s going.”
Muttering a curse word under her breath, she replied, “Okay. But why don’t you just drop down and get behind him.”
“He’s dangerously close to the ground,” Aaron explained, “and I’m not sure he realizes he’s about to enter a tower farm.”
“A what?” Cadence asked, but even as the words came out of her mouth, she could see what he was talking about. Off in the distance, she could see almost a dozen towers sprouting out of the ground like giant metal trees. Sam was headed directly for them, too. “That doesn’t look safe at all,” she muttered, slowing slightly to ascertain the situation before realizing she needed to keep pace and hitting the gas again. She felt really bad for whoever’s crops these were she was tearing up, but she didn’t have time to think about it as she gunned her engine again. “You be careful,” she added, realizing Aaron was just as susceptible to hitting them as Sam.
There was a pause, and Cadence saw Aaron dropping altitude quickly, coming up behind Sam rather abruptly, before he finally said, “This ends today.”
Cadence realized that remark was to her, and only her, and it made her catch her breath. She didn’t like the sound of that. There was no time to argue, nor was there any chance of talking him out of taking unnecessary risks, which was obvious as he began to cut around Sam, as if trying to keep him headed in the direction he was pointed, toward the towers. Cadence knew she needed to find a way to get there as quickly as possible, thoughts of how depleted Jamie would be by the time he got there, and how that was her fault, filling her mind as she raced to what she could only assume was about to be the scene of the “accident.”