"I've got to get you to a hospital," he said, wondering how the hell he was going to do that. The SUV was right on his tail, and this road was heading up into the hills and away from medical care. He needed to change that, but the streets were narrow, and there was a steady stream of traffic coming down the other side of the road.
The SUV hit his back bumper, and he pressed his foot down harder on the gas.
"Did you tell Pullman about me?" he asked Yuri.
"No." Yuri began to cough, then heave, having more difficulty breathing.
Jax saw a big turn coming up and made a split-second decision that might kill them both, but Yuri's time was running out. He suddenly slammed on the brakes and yanked the wheel hard to the left, spinning around into the opposite lane. And then he was heading straight toward the SUV.
The driver swerved to the right to avoid a collision. The curve took him over the hilly side of the road, and he plunged through a guardrail and down a hundred-yard drop.
Jax had no time to see what had happened, racing back toward Sunset, to the nearest hospital. "Hang in there, Yuri. I'm getting you help."
"I shouldn't have done it. Mother…sick. Needed money."
"What did you do? Were you moving something in the cars? What was it? Drugs, guns…"
"Secrets," Yuri gasped.
"It's a spy operation? Who's in charge?"
"The Wolf."
"Who's the Wolf?"
"Firebird."
He shook his head in confusion. "What does that mean, Yuri?"
"Where it started. Where they go," Yuri gasped. "Stay away from there. They'll kill you, like they killed me."
Yuri fell forward, slumping over the seat belt.
"Dammit," Jax yelled, slamming his hand on the wheel. As he saw the foam coming out of Yuri's mouth, he knew he was gone. And there wasn't anything he could do about it.
He grabbed his phone and called his boss. "My asset is dead."
"What the hell happened?" Flynn demanded.
"I don't know. He ran out of the dealership and jumped into my car as someone took a shot at him. But he wasn't hit. He died from poison. He said something about a drink before he started gasping for air."
"Where are you now?"
"On my way to the hospital. I had to get rid of the shooter first. He was in a black SUV. I ran it off the road around Viewcrest Avenue. Don't know if the driver lived through the fall."
"Did he see you?"
"Probably."
"Okay. Go to St. Edward's Hospital. I'll meet you there," Flynn said shortly. "I'll send someone to the crash site."
"All right." He ended the call and glanced back at Yuri, wishing he'd been able to get more out of him before he died. All he really had was Wolf and Firebird. What the hell did those words mean?
Two hours later, Jax parked in the underground lot for the Santa Monica offices of his FBI task force. The three-story building had no outside signage and the only company in the building was his specialized unit that worked on special projects outside of the more bureaucratic LA Field Office. The first floor was a fitness room, the second floor housed the office suite, and the third floor was where the techs worked their magic with surveillance devices and cyber research.
He headed straight to the second floor, where he found several members of his team seated at the rectangular table in the conference room. Wyatt Tanner, a brown-haired man with a short beard sat next to a stunning blonde, Savannah Kane. Across from them was the dark-haired, dark-eyed Diego Rivera, and Caitlyn Carlson, an attractive brunette with speculative brown eyes. The head of the task force, Flynn MacKenzie, a tall blond with sharp blue eyes, stood at the end of the table in front of a wall of monitors, one of which featured the employees of Falcon Motors, including the now-deceased Yuri Pashin and his boss Eddie Bozic.
As he entered the room, Flynn gave him an assessing look.
"I'm fine," he said before anyone could ask the question. "And even more determined."
"Good," Flynn said crisply. "We did some digging while you were at the hospital. Savannah, why don't you start?"
"First of all, the man chasing you was Eli Pullman," Savannah replied. "He was dead at the scene of the crash."
"Good." If Eli had seen his face, his cover could have been blown.
"We've taken control of the investigation and we've read Damon in," she continued.
He nodded. They were lucky not to have any territorial issues with