Red Phoenix: A Thomas Caine Thriller (The Thomas Caine Series Book 2)

by Andrew Warren

The truck made a violent turn, lurching to the right. Caine and Jia fell to the ground as the wheels of the massive vehicle trampled over a row of parked cars. Their metal frames groaned and shrieked in protest as they crumpled under the weight of the two-hundred-and-twenty-ton vehicle. Windows shattered and shards of glass exploded across the street like glittering snow.

  The pair of Audis followed the massive truck. They charged up and over the curb, weaving through the maze of demolished cars. Clearing the sidewalk, all three vehicles tore across the dirt field.

  They were on a collision course, heading straight for the rows of abandoned houses.

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  “This thing is out of control!” Caine shouted.

  “They must have hit the driver,” Jia shouted back. “If I can get to the controls, I can stop it.” She slid a spare magazine for the Glock from her harness and handed it to Caine. “Cover me.”

  Caine nodded as he checked the load remaining in the small pistol.

  Jia charged up the side of the dirt mound and ran to the front of the box bed. She leapt up, grabbed the edge, and pulled herself onto the front upper lip of the dump bin.

  The rear Audi immediately opened fire. Bullets traced her movements across the dirt, sending puffs of dust and debris flying. A few stray shots ricocheted off the metal edges of the truck.

  Caine sent another double tap flying towards the rear sedan. Glass fragments exploded from the windshield as his bullets slammed into the car. The slide on the tiny pistol flew back and locked in the open position. The magazine only held six rounds, plus a bullet in the chamber. The weapon was now empty.

  The car swerved back and forth across the street as Jia climbed over the lip. She dropped down to a metal deck mounted a few feet above the main cabin of the vehicle.

  Caine reloaded the pistol. As he racked the slide, he felt his stomach lurch. The truck heaved up into the air, and he heard an explosive crash from the front of the vehicle. The truck slammed back down to the ground. He spun around and saw smashed beams of wood and debris flying through the air.

  The truck was plowing through the abandoned houses as if they were made of matchsticks. The vehicle towered over the tiny dwellings, its giant, heavy-duty wheels grinding the crumbling shacks to dust as it lumbered forward.

  Caine heard the snarl of the Audi’s high-performance engine. One of the vehicles had closed in. It was almost bumper to bumper with the back of the truck. Ladders ran down both sides of the massive truck’s rear deck. The Audi’s front end was below the bottom rung on the right side.

  Caine fired three times. The driver jerked behind the shattered windshield as the bullets tore into his body. The gray sedan veered off. It vaulted over a mound of dirt and launched into the air. Caine watched as it flew through the wall of one of the abandoned houses and crashed to a halt.

  The truck lurched into the air again, and Caine tumbled to the ground. He heard a splintering crash as another shack was pulverized beneath the surging vehicle. Then he felt the truck shift to the left. They were moving back towards the street. Up ahead, an intersection ran underneath the concrete bridge of a freeway overpass.

  Had Jia regained control of the vehicle? If so, why weren’t they stopping?

  As he picked himself up from the dirt, he sensed movement behind him. He spun around and saw a blur of motion, someone charging towards him. The rear ladders … someone must have climbed up from the sedan! The truck was so high off the ground, he hadn’t been able to see them beneath the rear edge of the dump bin.

  The pistol roared in his hand, but it was too late … the Chinese man was upon him. Caine saw a bright red gash open on his attacker’s shoulder, but the bullet had only grazed him.

  The man grabbed Caine’s gun hand, pushing it off to the right side. He swung a right hook towards Caine’s face. Caine ducked his head and raised his shoulders. His left arm shot up, diverting the force of the blow. As he blocked the punch, he planted the heel of his right foot above the man’s belt buckle.

  Caine’s left hand wrapped around the back of his attacker’s neck. As soon as he felt his fingers make contact, he dropped his weight, keeping his body as close to the man as possible. Rounding his back, he fell to the ground and kicked up. His attacker flew over him, crashing into the wall fragment behind them.

  As the man picked himself up, Caine aimed his pistol. Before he could pull the trigger, the howl of automatic gunfire assaulted his ears. Dropping to the ground, he saw puffs of dirt and rocks fly through the air. Bullets sprayed across the back of the truck. The remaining Audi had dropped behind them, and the driver was firing through the shattered windshield.

  Suddenly, the car slammed on its brakes and fell back. Rocks and debris began to spill from the rear of the truck. Caine felt his body raise up into the air. His view of the houses and buildings around them began to tilt at a strange angle.

  His attacker picked himself up and looked around in shock. He began to slide towards Caine.

  A hydraulic whine filled the air, and Caine realized what was happening. The enormous bed of the dump truck was tilting up. It was spilling its contents onto the road … with Caine and the Triad gangster still inside!

  The mountain of dirt and rocks began to shift. The partially demolished house splintered and cracked as it tore loose from the pile of dirt.

  Caine rolled to the side of the dump bed, scrambling to find a handhold as the avalanche of debris slid towards him.

  Jia crouched down on the upper deck of the massive WTW220E dump truck. A low metal railing stood between her and the edge of the deck. Beyond the railing, she could see the rows of tiny houses standing in the truck's path.

  She gripped the railing and held on as the truck drove over one of the shacks. The front end of the massive vehicle lifted up into the air, then slammed back down as it crashed through the tiny dwelling. Jia heard the roar of gunfire. She turned and looked down into the dump bed. Caine was engaged in close combat with one of Fang’s men. They had boarded the massive vehicle.

  Again, the truck lurched into the air as it tore through another house. After it leveled out, Jia leapt over the edge of the railing, swung around, and dropped. She fell ten feet through the air and landed in a crouch on the lower deck. To her right was the passenger side of the vehicle’s control cabin. Although it was the size of the semi-truck cab, it looked comically small in the center of the monstrous industrial vehicle.

  The body of the driver slouched over the controls and blood spattered the bullet-ridden front windshield. She yanked open the door and slid into the cabin. As the goliath vehicle plowed through another shack, Jia unbuckled the dead driver. She kicked him out the driver’s side door.

  “Baoquian. Sorry about that,” she muttered as the corpse fell to the deck on the other side of cabin.

  Another shack was looming ahead of her. She spun the wheel to the left, sending the truck careening back towards the street.

  Suddenly, she heard footsteps clanging across metal. Looking to her right, she saw another one of Fang’s men. He had climbed up a ladder on the side of the vehicle. Now he was charging towards the open door on the passenger side of the cabin. His jacket and hair whipped in the wind as he ran across the deck towards her.

  She stepped on the gas, speeding up the truck to try and throw him off balance. He stumbled forward and grabbed the edge of the door frame. He swung into the cabin and launched a kick, slamming her head into the driver’s side window.

  As he scrambled across the seat towards her, she launched a quick jab into the soft flesh of his neck. She heard a metallic click. Looking down, she saw him flip open a balisong knife in his right hand. She ducked forward as he swung the blade towards her face. The knife grazed past her hair and plunged into the soft foam back of the driver’s seat.

  The truck drifted into traffic as she let go of the wheel and slammed both fists into her attacker’s kidneys. She heard cars honk their horns and brakes squealing. The other cars swerved out of the path of t
he lumbering truck.

  Her attacker grunted in pain and released his grip on the knife. She reached back and grasped for it with her left hand. She used her right arm to block another kick, pinning his leg against the back of the seat.

  Her fingers wrapped around the hilt of the knife. She tore it lose from the seat and stabbed it into the man’s inner thigh. He screamed in pain, and his hands dropped to his groin as he tried to yank the blade out of his flesh.

  Before he could remove the knife, Jia grabbed the hair on the back of his head. She slammed his face into the cracked windshield. Glittering shards exploded onto the outer deck as his head smashed through the weakened glass.

  The thug screamed in pain as the glass tore bloody gashes across his face. He clawed at the dashboard, struggling to pull himself back inside. Jia turned her attention back to the road. She gritted her teeth as she saw a rickety double-decker bus growing closer through the windshield. A few excited tourists pointed out the rear window. The passengers on the top level screamed as the truck loomed over them.

  She felt the wheel shudder beneath her clenched fists. It took all her strength to steer the vehicle. The monster truck swerved left, missing the bus by a matter of inches.

  As she piloted around the screaming tourists, her attacker grabbed a lever on the dashboard. Grunting in pain, he pulled himself back into the cab. Weak from blood loss, he threw a halfhearted punch towards her face. She blocked the blow, but he grabbed her hand, trapping her right arm in a lock. He yanked the knife from his leg and blood sprayed across the dashboard controls.

  A droning alarm sounded in the cab, and a yellow warning light flashed on the dashboard. Jia saw something moving in the rearview mirror. The rear dump bed began to tilt up. She struggled to maintain control of the truck as she dropped her eyes to the bloody dashboard. Which lever had he pulled?

  The Triad gangster lunged towards her, wielding the bloody knife in a shaking, pale hand. With her other arm pinned, she had to let go of the wheel again to block the attack.

  As the two combatants struggled, Jia glanced out the shattered windshield. The truck began to drift towards an intersection covered by a freeway overpass. Behind the cabin, the dump bin tilted higher and higher. The front lip was now several meters taller than the rest of the vehicle.

  Her eyes opened wide, and she muttered a half-whispered curse. With the dump bin open, there was not enough clearance … the massive vehicle would not fit beneath the overpass!

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Caine tucked his pistol in his waistband and scrambled to the edge of the dump bed. His fingers curled around a protruding metal ridge, and he hung on for dear life. Grunting with exertion, he pulled himself forward. The angle of the bed tilted farther and farther back. His attacker struggled to maintain his balance on the shifting mass of dirt and rocks beneath his feet.

  He took several lunching steps towards Caine, his lips curled in an angry snarl. Before he could close the distance, the tumbling wall of debris rolled into him, smashing him to the ground. Caine watched the man’s glare turn to a look of stark horror. He clawed at the mass of earth that was carrying him towards the rear of the dump bed.

  Behind them, Caine heard a splintering crash. The house’s remains slid out the back of the truck and struck the pavement. The Audi’s brakes squealed in protest as the sedan darted around the chunk of debris in the road.

  The angle of the tilting bed continued to grow steeper. The falling dirt and rocks pelted the sedan like hail as it drifted back into position behind them. The Triad gangster uttered a final shriek. Then the falling mass of earth swept him out the back of the truck. He struck the pavement and tumbled like a rag doll. The pursuing sedan careened over the man’s limp body with a loud thud.

  Caine was hanging almost vertically from the side of the dump bed. Using the metal ridges that ran along the side, he pulled himself up the edge, as if he was climbing a ladder. He heard something clattering down the side towards him, and he held out an arm to shield himself. His probing fingers wrapped around the shoulder strap of Jia’s sniper rifle. She had left it behind in the debris.

  Behind him, the Audi swerved again as the last chunks of rock emptied from the truck. It darted back into position, and the driver opened fire again with his submachine gun. Bullets sparked and whined across the vast metal surface of the truck. Hanging from the side of the empty truck bed, Caine realized he had no more cover. He had to climb over to the other side of the dump bed, put it between him and his attacker’s bullets. He slung the rifle over his shoulder and pulled himself further up the ladder of metal ridges.

  Caine reached the last ridge and balanced his feet on the thin strip of metal. He reached out, but the front lip of the dump bin was still just beyond his grasp. He would have to bridge the gap somehow before he could climb to safety.

  Grabbing the side of the bed to steady himself, he unslung the rifle from his shoulder. Another barrage of gunfire ricocheted off the metal around him. Caine felt an arrow of hot air streak past his ear. The man’s aim was getting better.

  He unlatched one end of the rifle’s shoulder strap and tossed the gun over the lip of the vertical dump bed. Then he pulled the strap tight. The long barrel of the rifle wedged itself beneath the edge of the lip, like a grappling hook. If the strap could support his weight, he could use it to pull himself up and over the edge, to safety.

  Suddenly, the truck lurched across the road. Caine felt his feet slip from the tiny ledge of metal, and the gun barrel scraped across the edge of the lip. He swung out into the middle of the vertical bed, hanging in the air by the thin fabric strap. A sheer cliff of yellow metal stood before him.

  More gunfire sliced beneath his dangling legs. He lifted his feet in the air, and the bullets sparked and whined beneath him. The muscles in his shoulders and arms screamed in pain as he pulled himself hand over hand up the strap. Finally, his right hand grasped the top edge of the dump bin. He let go of the strap and used both hands to pull his body up.

  As his head cleared the edge, he looked up and saw a gray wall of concrete looming in front of him. It was the side of the freeway overpass … They were charging towards it at full speed! The top of the dump bed was now least fifteen feet higher than the rest of the truck. There wasn’t enough clearance … It was going to hit the side of the overpass, and crush him to a pulp in the process.

  Move your ass, his mind screamed. Now!

  Using the last of his reserves of strength, Caine pulled himself up and over the edge. More bullets ricocheted off the top of the dump bed, but he paid them no mind. The concrete wall of the overpass seemed to speed towards him, growing larger and larger. It was just a few feet away …

  Caine cleared the ledge, pushed off, and dropped to the deck above the truck’s cab. He struck the metal surface and rolled forward, stopping when he slammed into the front railing.

  He heard a tremendous crash, followed by the shriek of scraping metal. The front wheels of the giant truck rose up into the air. Caine grabbed the railing in front of him to stop himself from flying off the deck. Behind him, hydraulic lines hissed and popped as they tore loose from their moorings.

  Looking back, he saw concrete chunks raining onto the truck as the edge of the dump bed struck the overpass. The twin metal prongs of the lifting mechanism wrenched free; the massive yellow slab of metal tore loose from the truck. Caine braced himself as the vehicle dropped back to the ground.

  As the truck roared out from under the overpass, the eighty-ton dump bed toppled over. It fell to the ground, crashing onto the Audi sedan. The edge of the metal truck bed bisected the pursing vehicle like a giant razor blade, slashing the car in two. Caine watched as the rear half of the sedan flipped up, spinning through the air. The driver’s body was obliterated by the impact.

  The rest of the truck cleared the overpass and groaned to a stop. Caine heard the sound of shattering glass. Looking down, he saw another of the gangsters launch out the front windshield of the cabin. He rolled
off the front of the truck and tumbled to the pavement. He did not get up.

  Caine leapt down to the lower deck. Jia opened the passenger door and slid out of the cabin. She walked over to Caine and stood next to him as he surveyed the path of devastation the truck had caused.

  She glanced over at him. “That didn’t go as well as I planned. Are you hurt?”

  He stared at her for a moment, then shook his head. “A few minutes ago we were trying to kill each other. Now you’re worried about me?”

  She shrugged. “Things change.”

  The shriek of police sirens rose above the traffic noise. Caine made his way to the side ladder. “Yeah,” he said. “But sometimes they change for the worse.”

  A crowd of spectators began to gather around the smoking fragment of the Audi and the towering WTW220E truck. Caine did his best to hide his face as the crowd snapped pictures with their cellphones. The wailing sirens grew closer. “We have to get off the street,” Caine said.

  Jia ignored the shocked pedestrians and pushed her way through the crowd. “I have a safe house nearby. Follow me.”

  Caine paused for a moment. Jia, if that was even her real name, was a wild card, an unknown variable. She was smart, driven, and well-trained. She had played him before. Was she doing so now? Was she using him to get close to Sean, to complete her mission?

  She’s an unacceptable risk. Take her off the board.

  That was the smart play, he knew. But he could have killed her before … Something had held him back.

  Something happened to her, he thought. She’s been used. Manipulated. Betrayed …

  Caine had survived a life of violence and bloodshed by trusting his instincts. Why was he so unsure now? What was it about this woman that thawed the unbreachable ice of his defenses?

  He made his decision. He followed her, pushing forward through the crowd, ignoring their strange looks and chatter. He did not look back at the devastation they left behind them.