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.“You better pull over when we’ve put a few miles between us and that garage and we’ll have a look at the damage,” Mancini shouted above the engine noise.“I don’t like the sound of that.” He pointed to the dented hood.“Fuck…shit…bastard!” Trey yelled and thumped the steering wheel several times.“Of all the things those ugly motherfuckers could do, they had to go and wreck my car, man.”“Hey, simmer down, Tonto,” Mancini said.“I know we’re balls to the wall here but we need to keep our heads.We’ll ditch the T-Bird if we have to and find another ride in the next town.”Trey swiveled his head and glared at Mancini with rage burning in his eyes.“I ‘aint ditching my T-Bird, man.”Mancini sighed.“This thing won’t eat the road much longer if we don’t stop.We don’t have the time to get it fixed so we got to ditch it.” He thought for a moment on how to placate Trey.“Maybe we can leave it at a garage where they can fix it up and pick it up on the way back from La Paz, how does that sound?”Trey huffed.“It sounds better than abandoning it all together, man.”Mancini turned his head to check on Jorge and Leticia in the backseats.Leticia was slumped against the side of the interior, slid as low as she could in the seat and Jorge repeatedly glanced at the road behind them.“You guys hanging in there, back there?” Mancini asked.Leticia nodded nervously and Jorge gazed at Mancini with his mouth hanging open.“Careful, Jorge, you’ll catch a whole bunch of flies,” Mancini mocked.“This whole thing, this whole situation,” Jorge stammered.“It is getting worse.It is becoming too big, too uncontrollable, way out of control.”Mancini briefly nodded and turned around in his seat.He didn’t know what to say.He knew the entire state of affairs was growing worse with every mile they drove further down the Baja Peninsula.Luiz, Jorge and Ernesto had created a monster that wasn’t easily going to be killed.Chapter Twenty-EightMancini retrieved the map from the glove box and unfurled it on his lap.The Thunderbird’s engine became sluggish and slowed in speed with the knocking sounds growing increasingly worse.Mancini worried they’d break down on the lonely highway in the middle of nowhere.He decided to call Eddie Reinbeck in LA again for a situation report when they stopped.He studied the map but wasn’t sure of their exact location.No landmarks or road signs were visible amongst the dusty, sun-scorched terrain.“You notice any road signs when we were back there at that garage?”Trey glanced at Mancini and shook his head.“Me? No, man.I was too busy pumping gas and then trying to get the fuck out of there in one piece to notice anything like a road sign, dog.”Mancini let his irritation pass.He simply hoped they’d arrive at some kind of uninfected form of civilization soon, while glancing at the Thunderbird’s dash panel.The temperature gauge rose to the red and the engine hissed like a giant snake lay under the hood.Mancini caught a whiff of what smelled like boiling water and cooking engine lubricants.“Okay, pull over on the side of the road,” Mancini instructed Trey.“Let’s take a look under the hood but don’t switch off the engine or it might not fire up again.”Trey groaned and slowed the vehicle, stopping on the sand covered shoulder on the roadside.Mancini took a glance at the road behind the Thunderbird before he got out.The highway was deserted and a strong wind whipped a cloud of sand into his face.He spat out small grains and turned back towards the front of the car, thankful he still wore his sunshades.“Jesus, that wind is starting to hurl a zephyr,” Trey said, as he hauled himself from the driver’s seat.“Ah, that’s the least of our worries, right now,” Mancini said, dismissing the breeze with a flap of his hand.“Open her up, Trey and let’s see what the damage is.”Trey leaned into the interior and engaged the hood catch then followed Mancini around the front of the Thunderbird.They inspected the impact damage and Mancini whistled through his teeth whilst Trey groaned in despair.The horizontal chrome slats on the front grille were broken away from the main frame and poked inwardly towards the engine compartment
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