The attackers bundled the stabbed man, Carla and the knife into the taxi. One man drove, the other squeezed into the back. The fourth man and Philippe ran to another car and closely followed the taxi.
Max realized how Philippe’s thought processes worked. Philippe was determined to avenge all the trouble that Max and Carla, especially Carla, had caused. He knew that Max would feel survivor’s guilt for losing Carla; uncertainty and anguish would tear at Max’s mind: Was Carla alive or dead? If she was alive now, how long would she stay that way? This torture would hurt Max far more than the physical pain he would face very soon.
Max pulled himself together as a police car approached. Staggering towards it as it stopped, he told the police officer to chase the two cars, their tail lights already faint in the distance. A stickler for procedure, the police officer climbed out of the car, intending to take a statement and review the situation before deciding what to do next.
Grabbing the police officer, Max impatiently ripped off his radio, pushed him to the ground, jumped into the police car, started it and drove off behind Philippe.
Believing no one was following, the men drove sedately, anxious not to draw unwanted attention by speeding. Max soon caught up and followed at a discreet distance to avoid the assailants thinking the police were pursuing them.
Max knew the police officer would have phoned in by now and they would already be tracking the car. With time running out, he pondered as he approached a road junction, his eyes glued to the distant vehicles. After a quick glance left and right, seeing nothing coming, he accelerated towards the receding tail lights.
A blinding light from his right filled the side window...
The briefest blast of agony, too painful to bear, too instant to understand it was pain-.
Voices, familiar words, but unintelligible-.
Electrocution.
More vague voices. “He’s back in sinus rhythm.”
Then a man was pushing on his chest, pressing and releasing alternately, the taste and smell of blood, metallic, unpleasant... Now he was looking up at lights racing above, racing from foot to head. Blackness and nothingness enveloped him-.