Captain Ko and the one-legged man were beginning to lose their advantage of leaving the se early. Their pursuers were driving obviously new and well-maintained SUVs and trucks, while they were driving an older model of a on brand sedan. Even when Captain Ko floored their gas pedals a couple of times, the rumbling of the eill did not match the acceleration and speed they were getting.

  “Fuck this car. The owner probably loves it being stolen.” Captain Ko cursed once again as he made an illegal sharp right turn at a crossroad, through explosive honkings from other cars, to get into a narrow single ne road.

  “I still know how to hotwire a car, if you find a spot with lots of cars I try to do it. ” The one-legged man grunted: “But no promises, thanks to the South-Westerhe cars are getting harder to steal without getting the keys.”

  “Yeah I know. And we’re ly in areas with easy cars to do that.” Captain Ko looked around him.

  The road was narrow, and only slightly winding. On both sides were mostly grass and dirt, with some dirty ponds sprinkled around. They were in the cross se area between the Southern Districts and the Northern District, and soon they would cross the edge around Lake Aqiu and into the general area of the Northern District.

  This maneuver worked, the pursuing cars did not expect them to take this sharp a turn, and only three cars mao follow, the rest of them were either left in their way or even crashed into the sides of the inal road. Of the three cars that mao follow, one of them crashed into an ining car and was thrown ich.

  “How long is this road?” The one legged man looked through the back window.

  “I’ll just make another quick turn soon, hold on.” Captain Ko shook his head: “Just keep a for anything, okay?”

  Before the one-legged man could respond, Captain Ko already made the turn. It was a fork in the road where he turned left, and headed into a narrow path with less lights thahers.

  Dirt walls piled on both sides of the road, crooked trees swayed from the night wind. For most of the road the only light sources were the moon and the headlights. There were no other cars in front of them, so Captain Ko could just push his speed ast the legal limit. The only he might have would be if there were any police cars hiding in ers trying to ding the speeders.

  “They’re catg up.” The one-legged man looked bad said. “It’s dark all around, maybe we should ditch a car and find a pce to hide?”

  “I ’t stop now, we’re almost at aurn anyway.” Captain Ko took a swift look at the rearview mirror. The Headlights of two cars could be seen from a great distan the dark. No doubt the pursuers were still oail. They needed more time and more distao actually hide.

  If his memories would serve, there was another fork in front of them - a small detour one could take when heading toward the tral areas of the Northern District. This was a new path carved from the previously somewhat deserted pin, to ee neartment plexes and unities in the area.

  “Okay, do you have any other pns besides getting away from them and sending all the reted dirt out?” The one-legged man asked as he ted the shells he carried: “I don’t know who you’ve entrusted those files to, but I wouldn’t t on any of them. It would be a better case if they just threw your shit into the garbage.”

  “No worries, I am not ting on any of them.” Captain Ko chuckled: “I just want their eo have more arrows in their quivers.”

  “And even if those arrooint to ordinary people one day?”

  “ - my friend, you know we don’t have that luxury.” Captain Ko sighed.

  Newly established, but still somewhat cheap looking single family houses and townhouses of simir designs began appearing on both sides of the road. New neighborhoods, transpnt neighborhoods. A few light posts stood oer range of the neighborhood. Out of five or six of them, only three were lit up, while the rest did not even have bulbs. At least from the looks of everything this neighborhood was very sparsely poputed.

  The rumbling of engines exploded from the left side. A bck SUV burst through the dirt and grass piles from on their left. Captain Ko plunged his feet on the brake but it was still too te - the nose of the SUV rammed right into the head of their car. Their simple old sedan was in no way built for this kind of impact, and within the span of seds they were derailed, thrown into ay townhouse building on the side of the road.

  The moment their car got diverted from their inal dire, Captain Ko had activated his Qi to protect himself while clutg the lead box tightly to his chest. The one-legged man activated his Qi as well, though his was siderably weaker.

  The entire car tumbled on the ground ahrough the side of the building, into the kit area. The moment the car stopped moving, Captain Ko coughed and cut the seatbelt with his fiips and kicked open the car door.

  The one-legged man coughed, unfastened himself and tried his best to push the door open. But he was too weak to do so. Captain Ko pulled the door open for him, carried him out of the car and tried to head into a different building.

  “No - I ’t. Just go without me.” The one-legged man touched his left waist then took a look at his fingers - they were covered in blood.