Zoe slowed after losing the A220s as she entered New Jersey for the first time. As she passed Fort Wadsworth, Traffic Cop sent her a message welcoming her to New Jersey and that the same rules applied here as they did in New York State for as long as she held a valid courier license. She smiled and increased her speed before setting her cruise control as Interstate 278 became the Staten Island Expressway.

Zoe used Traffic Cop’s code to slice into the Elizabeth, New Jersey traffic camera and drone networks. She setup a script to monitor for extra aggressive drivers and tied into the one the city already had for aggressive drivers. Happy with that done, she paid attention to her driving for a while. Zoe then started on a script to slice into Newark’s networks just as soon as she arrived in that city.

*

Zoe had just merged onto Interstate 95 when her Archangel warned her of two motorcycles approaching from the south. She checked the camera networks and saw four more coming from the north.

“This sucks! I don’t think I want to take anymore corporate jobs,” Zoe muttered to herself as the two bikes approaching from the south bracketed her. The driver on her left lifted their helmet visor.

“Pull over and hand us the package,” the left one told her. She glanced to the one on the right and they waved a pistol at her. Turning back to the one on the left, and he flashed his gun at her too.

Zoe faced forward and held up her hands so they could see they were empty but didn’t slow. She took a deep breath and was thankful for the gyroscopic tech in the GT4. She made fists before jerking her hands down while opening them.

“What are you doing?” the man on her left demanded to know. Zoe quickly grabbed her handlebars while the Glue Traps she threw triggered.

Both riders went flying over their handlebars as their bikes came to an abrupt stop. Zoe reported an accident to the police. She hoped she hadn’t killed the two as she increased her speed and checked her rearview. The two riders were sitting up, so Zoe pushed those thoughts from her mind.

*

Zoe ducked left, causing her GT4 to swerve into the left lane cutting a car off as her Archangel screamed a warning. Zoe heard the bullet impact the car behind her.

Cars behind her slammed-on brakes and crashed into the guardrails and one another. Some of the ones in front of her did the same while others went faster. Zoe slammed on brakes and skidded to a stop just before crashing into a van herself. She watched on the drone camera feed as the four south bound attackers jumped cars and her.

“Whoa!” Zoe exclaimed as she looked up watching one of the bikes fly over her head. “I’m not sticking around.”

The four realized their mistake after jumping their bikes and turned around. At that point, Zoe found a path through the wrecks and drove as quickly as possible through them.

*

Zoe used Aperture to slice the leading pursuer as they closed. She had been forced to slow as people had gotten out of their wrecked vehicles to keep from running them over. The attackers hadn’t felt the same need and almost caught up. Zoe ducked another bullet and attacked the lead guy with Caveman.

She watched in the rearview as the super hairy cartoon caveman swung his oversized club like a baseball bat connecting with the attacker. The rider went flying off his bike. The man’s head lifted before falling back. The other three riders rode around him but didn’t stop chasing her.

After a couple more minutes, Zoe cleared the wrecks and was able to accelerate. A moment later and the three pursuers had also cleared it. They started shooting at her again. She weaved in and out of traffic for several minutes before getting fed up with being shot at.

“I’ve had enough of these assholes,” Zoe muttered as she pulled her P750 and tossed Hailstorm in front of her. She quickly turned in her seat, pointed the gun at the target, waited until she had target lock and fired. The shock round missed as the attacker swerved out of the way. This caused the second rider to swerve as well. Zoe fired once more and hit the third rider in the chest. The attacker locked up, causing their bike to fall.

Zoe turned forward and increased her speed again just as Hailstorm activated. She absently noticed that the area attack daemon even looked like a storm in her rearview camera. The other two attackers as well as their bikes were hit and went down like their comrade. Zoe grinned and sped up. Signs stated she was a mile from the airport as did her GPS. She was in the home stretch now.