From the console between the front seats of Fury’s car, a small machine gun turret unfolded. Before the battering ram could hit him again, Fury gripped the stock and unloaded on the team operating it. The window, so close to breaking, did nothing to stop the bullets.

After taking out the battering ram team, he racked the grenade launcher barrel on the turret and fired into the back of the SUV. It blew up in a huge fireball, catching two of the nearby cars on fire, too.

“Propulsion systems now online,” the car said.

“Full acceleration! Now!” He kept firing as his car slammed the police cars out of the way and squealed down the street. Once he was clear of the initial ambush, he said, “Initiate vertical takeoff!”

“Flight systems damaged.”

“Then activate guidance cameras!”

Rear-​facing camera views showed up on his windshield. Fury cried out in pain from his broken arm as he got back in the driver’s seat. “Give me the wheel!”

He had a little head start, but the assassins were on his tail. He had to alert Maria Hill and get some emergency plans in place for the team. “Get me Agent Hill.”

“Communications array damaged.”

“Well, what’s not damaged?” he shouted in frustration.

“Air-​conditioning is fully operational.” The car computer clearly didn’t understand humor or sarcasm.

“Traffic ahead.”

“Give me an alternate route.”

“Traffic alert on Roosevelt Bridge. All vehicles stopped. Seventeenth Avenue clear in three blocks, directly ahead.”

Fury used the car as a battering ram, slamming through stopped cars and even pushing them against the commandos trying to kill him. They had jumped out of their cars and were firing at him again, but he stayed just far enough ahead to get to the clearer part of Seventeenth Avenue. But his car was too damaged to stay clear for long, and soon two of the police cars were on either side of him again. The assassins inside fired at him, but Fury pressed back into the seat and stayed out of their field of fire.

He saw an approaching intersection and slammed on his brakes. The two police cars rocketed ahead and a moving truck passing through the intersection crashed into both of them, knocking them out of commission. “Get me off the grid!” he shouted as he swerved onto a side street.

“Calculating route to secure location,” the computer said.

That was when Fury saw a masked figure, all in black, standing in the middle of the road. He watched Fury’s battered SUV accelerate toward him. Aiming carefully, he fired a small disk that skipped off the road and exploded under Fury’s car, flipping it upside down. The car skidded to a halt on its roof. Inside, Fury was dizzy and in terrible pain. He had blood in his eye from cuts on his face. He hurt in more places than he could count. His arm wasn’t the only thing broken now.

The masked man approached, drawing a gun. Fury had one last thing he could do. He might have been badly injured, but he wasn’t done quite yet. He dug in the glove compartment and came out with a compact laser torch. Good thing DC had a lot of tunnels under its streets....

By the time the figure in black got to Fury’s car, he was gone. The hole he’d cut in the street still smoked around the edges. Q8VEGu1B/nUyk2EI5+ZSpK1IpWxllpfj71dK+hMOej/yFn0GVE0UDCDL/KI3sHp+