A Chip and a Chair (Seven of Spades, #5)(95)

Dominic eased Levi into a sitting position, at which point Levi’s face whited out and he clutched Dominic’s arm with a trembling hand. They paused for a moment so Levi could breathe through the pain before Dominic brought him slowly to his feet.

“I thought you weren’t in Las Vegas anymore,” the cop said.

Levi made an impatient gesture with his hand, like he was pushing the remark aside. “There’s no time to explain. We need your car.”

He received nothing but a blank stare in return. The others heard him as well, and the second cop turned toward them with a frown.

Understanding Levi’s intention, Dominic added, “Please.” A little courtesy never did any harm.

“Call for backup,” said Levi. “Get these men into custody and get medical attention for Detective Valcourt and DDA Rashid. The rest of us have to go, now, and we need that car to do it.”

He held out his hand, severe and commanding despite being stooped over in obvious pain. The cop hesitated.

“That’s an order, officer,” Martine said, steel all the way through.

Relenting, the cop dropped the keys into Levi’s hand.

“Thank you.” Levi closed his fingers around the keys and looked at Martine. “Get in touch with Denise. Let her know what’s going on but make sure she doesn’t tell anyone else. If I don’t think we’ll make it in time, Carmen will notify you.”

Martine gave a brisk nod. “Good luck.” Her jaw worked, like she wanted to say more, but she left it at that.

Dominic whistled for Rebel and followed as Levi limped to the car. Natasha transferred Leila to one of the cops before doing the same.

Levi stopped at the driver’s-side door, bit his lip, and said, “I don’t think I can drive.”

“Neither can I.” Dominic gestured to his bandaged head. “Concussion.”

They turned as one to Natasha. After a moment, Levi sighed and gave her the keys.

Natasha grinned. “I’ve always wanted to drive one of these things.”



“We can’t stop any bombs if we die in a car crash,” Dominic said through gritted teeth, clinging to the door handle for dear life.

Natasha laughed, cutting the wheel to the left to swing around a car and narrowly avoiding a collision with an oncoming vehicle. She slid back into the right lane and blew through a red light at eighty miles an hour.

Dominic winced and tightened his grip.

There were plenty of cars on the road-it seemed that everyone who hadn’t spontaneously evacuated earlier in the week was now fleeing the riots, which were spreading throughout Downtown and along the length of the Strip. The cop car’s lights and sirens convinced most drivers to get out of the way, and Natasha’s audition for the Fast and the Furious franchise took care of the rest.

Dominic risked a glance over his shoulder to check on Levi and Rebel. Levi had his eyes shut; his jaw was clenched so tightly that the tendons in his neck were popping out, though that could be as much from the cumulative pain of his injuries as from a reaction to Natasha’s insane driving.

It was disconcerting to watch Levi through the mesh grating. Had Levi ever been in the back of a police car before? Probably not, unless it had been part of some Academy exercise. Or hazing ritual.

Natasha whipped around a turn at such vicious speed that the car tilted onto two wheels, then dropped back to all four with a jolt.

“Fuck.” Deciding Levi had the right idea, Dominic closed his eyes.

After years of jogging through the UNLV campus, Dominic was familiar enough with the grounds to direct Natasha to the right area. As they approached, traffic thinned out and Natasha slowed down-slightly-so Dominic dared to open his eyes again.

The evacuated campus was an eerie sight, like one of those abandoned ghost towns. Nobody had bothered to riot here. Made sense: Utopia had instigated the riots in the first place, and they wouldn’t have wanted that pandemonium anywhere near the device controlling their bombs.

Levi leaned forward, resting one hand on the grate while stroking Rebel’s head with the other. “Kill the lights and siren.”

Natasha complied, plunging the car into an abrupt, unnerving silence that grew exponentially more uncomfortable with each passing second.

Carmen spoke first, her voice coming through crystal-clear on their earpieces. “Martine and Leila are safe, so I took them offline.”

“Thank you,” Dominic said. He hadn’t really thought Martine and Leila would face any more danger, but it was nice to have one less thing to worry about.

A block south of the Facilities Management building, Natasha turned off the headlights as well and coasted near-silently into an empty parking lot. “We’re here, Carmen.”

“All right. Remember, I won’t be able to help you here the way I did at the Whitby. This building has no cameras, no security system at all. And I don’t have access to whatever form of communication the people inside are using, either. The most I can do is unlock the fire exit and deactivate its alarm.”

“That’s all we need,” said Levi. “What time is it?”

“You have ten minutes.”

No time to be cute or clever about how they handled this. They got out of the car and closed the rest of the distance on foot with as much stealth as possible, taking cover wherever they could. Dominic kept an eye on Levi, but although Levi was moving stiffly, he wasn’t letting it slow him down.