I flipped the tab on the mirror to dim the glare, but the light still spilled into the cabin from the side mirrors.

“There is an old service road about half a mile ahead,” Aaron said, leaning forward to peer through the windshield. “It leads to an abandoned water treatment facility near the river.”

“Is there an exit?” I asked.

“No,” he said. “It’s a dead end.”

“Then we’ll be trapped,” I said.

“They have GPS tracking on this car’s cellular antenna,” Aaron said. “If we stay on the main road, they will simply pit-maneuver us or block us at the county line.”

I glanced at the dashboard.

The navigation screen was still frozen, showing a generic system error message.

“How do we disable the car’s antenna?” I asked.

“We can’t,” he said. “Not without stopping and pulling the fuse under the hood.”

“Then we take the service road,” I said.

I watched the odometer, counting the tenths of a mile.

The SUV behind us surged forward, tapping our rear bumper with a dull metallic thud.

The steering wheel jerked in my hands, but I held it straight.