This could be the longest night in recorded history.
They strolled along the street together, hand in hand. Vinny had never felt so at peace before, things had never felt so right. He knew it was the woman whose hand he was holding who was responsible for this. In the midst of the chaos that his life was these days, she was the rock of stability and comfort he so desperately needed. He looked at her with a mixture of amazement and thankfulness. He knew dealing with him day in and day out couldn't be easy - even though she was also part of the secret organization there were many things he could not share with her. Jonathan had repeated so many times his fear of someone slipping with some vital bit of information that Vinny told Hope very little. In fact, he hadn't even told her that he worked with Jon in the resistance. That was more because he didn't want her to worry than because of any secrecy issue, as he suspected she would if she knew how deep into this he was. Associating with Jon and Robert Kilroy could be very dangerous these days, but he didn't want her concerned over it. As far as Hope still knew, he was just another anonymous middle management type of person within the organization. He knew it bothered her, for she sometimes asked questions she knew full well he couldn't answer and then got annoyed with his close mouthed stance. But these moments were few and far between, and he was under no illusion that love was a smoothly paved road. He smiled and sighed in contentment, and Hope turned to look at this sound. She smiled at the look on his face. "Happy?"
"Very," he answered back. They walked for another moment in silence.
"Can we have dinner together tomorrow night?" she asked sweetly.
He sighed inwardly. She wasn't going to like this, he knew, but there was nothing he could do. "Sorry, can't."
She frowned, her voice disapproving. "More secret meetings?"
Vinny stopped walking and turned toward her, his hands open in a gesture of
helplessness. "Hope."
"I know, I know," she said, cutting off his denial. "You have work to do, and I understand how important it is. but it takes you away from me so often. And I have no idea where you go and who you're with. if I didn't have a trusting nature, I'd accuse you of seeing someone else."
Somehow Vinny heard in her voice that her supposedly trusting nature was being sorely tested. "You know there's no one else for me. I hate it that you're thinking like this. I don't know how I can prove to you how I feel."
She spoke quickly, a slightly desperate tinge to her voice. "Let me come with you tomorrow."
"What? You know I can't do that."
"Why not? What could you possibly be doing that I can't be there for?" Her argument switched course, moving toward the real heart of the matter. "Vinny, it's just that I worry about you. I don't want anything to happen to you. I guess I'd just feel better if I could be there with you."
He heard the pain in her voice at his apparent distrust. If he indeed were doing some everyday chore for the resistance then she could certainly be there. but Vinny and Jon were off to air that video and there was no way that he could bring her there. He tried to explain it as best he could. Vinny shook his head sadly. "I appreciate your concern Hope, but I'm not even allowed to tell you what I'll be doing, so bringing you along is out of the question for sure."
She would not meet his gaze, so he gently lifted her chin up so that he could see her eyes. The look there of dejection and sadness was enough to break his heart, but on this topic he would not budge. "You're just going to have to trust me on this one Hope." She nodded, but the look on her face barely diminished.
They turned and continued their walk, but the peaceful feeling he had just a few minutes ago was gone. Maybe Jon was wrong about love being strong enough to
withstand the strain of the guerrilla warfare they were engaged in. Vinny desperately hoped it was, but now he had to wonder. Someday, apparently soon, he was going to be faced with a choice that he didn't want to have to make. and he wasn't quite sure what he would decide if pushed into that corner.
**********************
"You ready?" Jonathan asked his friend as they approached the switching station. They had identified one from the list Anne had provided where the signal could be diverted to show what they wished to the entire population of the greater Chicago area. It had been raining off and on all day, and currently had settled into a continuous soaking drizzle. Jonathan wiped the rain soaked hair from his eyes and glanced at Vinny, who stood with him outside one such building.
"Ready as I'm ever going to be," Vinny answered, trying to sound braver than he felt. He went over the plan again in his head: Jonathan was going to go in and play the tape from the beginning of that last song all the way through to when the concert was broken up by the MMM police. Vinny would be outside as a lookout - there had been too many close calls as of late and they didn't want to take any chances. He hunched further into his jacket, prepared for a long wait outside in the cold damp night.
They checked that their walkie-talkies were working well, and Jonathan went inside the building, pulling his bag of tools higher up on his shoulder. He shook the water from his hair as he ducked into the building. His wet sneakers squeaked on the linoleum floors, echoing in the empty hallways as he made his way further inside. He scanned the shadows as best he could for any surprises - although this was just a switching station and there were no personnel stationed here, there could be repair crews at work at any time day or night. It was getting close to 10pm on Thursday night. Since that day and time had the highest concentration of people watching television, they had figured they could reach the most people possible and achieve the biggest effect from their broadcast. He counted off the doorways as the floor plans described and eventually reached the right door. He tried it and it swung open easily. Jonathan let out a sigh - one obstacle out of the way. He was afraid he was going to be forced to pick the lock to get in.
He stepped inside the small room filled to the ceiling with equipment. In the dim light given off by the monitors and lighted control panels, he unpacked the jamming device and videotape. After a moment of squinting at the wiring he figured out which one he was supposed to attach it to and started to hook it up. He was just about finished when his walkie-talkie came to life. Jon froze when he heard what Vinny was saying.
"Jon, we've got company. I'm outta here - plan B in motion."
Jonathan cursed out loud to no one in particular but kept working. Plan B was their backup in case they got caught in the process of airing the video. Vinny right now was drawing attention away from what Jon was doing, buying him time to get the video on the air. Hopefully, he would be able to fool them into thinking he was there alone and avoid getting arrested for trespassing. Jon shook a stray strand of wet hair out of his eyes and tried not to think about what was going on outside right now. He made the final connections to the wiring and the monitor showed static and snow, then the video rolling. He then opened the communication channel so that he could recite the speech that he and Robert had written explaining the video and their purpose in showing it.
Just then, Jon heard the click of hard-heeled shoes coming down the hallway. He abandoned all thoughts of their public address and glanced around the room for a place to hide. It was small, more a large closet than a real room, with all of the walls covered with wiring and electrical panels and no closets or other exits. Jonathan placed himself in the far corner hoping to blend into the shadows. He watched from his hiding place as a single guard entered the room and saw the monitor. The song was still a good two minutes from being over, and Jonathan's heart lurched into his throat as the guard ripped the wiring free and disrupted the transmission.
"NO!" he screamed and, without thinking of the consequences, Jon leaped out to reconnect the equipment. The guard, who had turned to leave, whirled to see him shoving at cords and cables in a desperate attempt to resurrect his broadcast. Somehow he created a new connection and the video jumped back into life, only a few seconds past where it left off. Jonathan put his body protectively in front of it and grasped for ideas. He stared at the guard, who seemed more annoyed than anything else.
"What are you doing in here?" he snapped at Jonathan. He was tired of chasing after people who trespassed on private property. Although why he, an MMM security guard, was called in to handle this sort of thing he had no idea. It certainly wasn't the first time though. He sometimes felt that Righteous lent out their services as a favor to his rich friends who were too cheap to hire their own security staff. That's how he figured the rich stayed rich, because they were tight fisted.
Jonathan realized with a start that the guard had no idea what he was really doing there. He thought he had a chance to reason with the man. If he could keep him talking for another 90 seconds he could get up to the part of the video where the murder occurred, and that would be self explanatory. Jon pointed to the tiny monitor beside him.
"Look, it's Kilroy's final concert."
The guard threw a fleeting glance at the screen to confirm. "I don't care what it is, tampering with city property is illegal. I'm going to have to take you in." He moved towards Jon but he circled around the equipment, still talking. Gotta just keep him talking, he thought, just distract him long enough.
"Don't you understand? That's the concert where Kilroy was supposed to have
killed that MMM protester. If you watch it, you'll see that isn't how it really happened."
The guard stopped then, looking at the screen curiously. Unfortunately, he was standing directly between Jonathan and the one way out of the room, so trying to run for it was currently not an option. Jon watched his face intently to see what kind of reaction the guard had to the news.
The officer watched as Robert sang and the view of the stage changed. After a moment, he shrugged and looked back at Jon. "Why should I care what happened? He was convicted of a crime and he's got to serve his time."
"He didn't commit any crime!" Jonathan said, desperation creeping into his voice. Just keep him occupied a while longer. "You'll see, the video will show it. An MMM guard killed that kid, not Kilroy." Jonathan flinched as the look on the guards' face changed from mildly curious to hostile. Wrong thing to say.
"Are you accusing us of being murderers?" He asked menacingly, coming toward Jonathan again. "You know, it's tough enough to do my job without accusations like that."
He threw himself at Jonathan and knocked him to the ground, attempting to handcuff him. Jon struggled with the larger man, who was not able to get the handcuffs secured with him squirming around. Jon shoved at the guard's shoulder, trying to push him off, but he wasn't budging. He put his elbow down on the floor and pushed, leveraging the entire right side of his body off the ground and taking the guard with him. The MMM guard, thrown off balance, rolled off him and Jon immediately sprang to his feet and backed away toward what he hoped was the door. The guard, now angry at being eluded, lunged at him again. Jon, not knowing what to expect, put his body sideways and perpendicular to the guard so as to present a smaller target and for better balance in case he tried to knock him to the floor again. The guard attempted to land a punch, but Jonathan's instincts served him well. Since the guard pulled his arm around in a roundhouse, he left his entire body exposed. Jon had the opportunity to send a vicious jab to the center of his stomach. As the guard bent inward at the injury his punch came down on Jonathan's ear painfully. The force of the blow sent him a step backward, tripping over a cable snaked across the floor and slamming his back into a wall full of switches and knobs. His eyes closed involuntarily at impact, and he gritted his teeth against the pain of all those pieces of metal and plastic jammed into his back. His eyes flew open in time to see the guard a foot away looking to grab him by his jacket.
The sirens cut through the ringing in Jonathan's head, and both of them froze where they were and stared at the monitor. Jon saw the scene unfolding on the monitor and pointed at it, although there was no need. The guard was already looking at it as well.
"There! See?" Jon insisted as the monitor showed the murder clearly. The guard had a look of puzzlement and disbelief on his face as he watched, and Jon knew that this was his chance to make a break for it. He used that moment of distraction to bolt out of the small room and run breakneck down the hallway.
****************
Back at the bar, Robert sat with Eddie and Harry, watching the television. About fifteen minutes into the show static filled the screen, then they saw the footage of the concert. Robert sat expectantly, waiting to hear the speech that he and Jonathan had worked out to explain their side of the story. Instead, there was silence, and then the scene disappeared into more static.
"Hey, what happened?" Harry exclaimed. Not more than ten seconds later the video popped back on. Harry sighed in relief, but somehow Robert knew that all was not going as planned. Instead of the speech they had written, he heard a strange man's voice. With a sinking feeling Robert knew Jon was in trouble.
They heard the entire conversation Jonathan and the guard had, as well as some mysterious crashing noises. The video ended showing MMM guards escorting concertgoers out of the theater, and then more static. The small group sat in silence, wondering what had happened to Jon and Vinny. After another short time of dead air, a message on the screen asked them to please stand by as the station was experiencing technical difficulties.
Just as MMM guards were storming the stage on the video, the guard Jon had fled from chased after him. In his rush to attempt to apprehend Jonathan he left the videotape running. As Jonathan sped through the building, he prayed that the security guard he had encountered was alone. Reaching the front door, he instinctively headed in the opposite direction from which he came, so as not to lead any of Righteous' men back to Kilroy. He ran blindly, not knowing the area and so not knowing where to head. He made some random turns down streets unfamiliar to him, listening for pursuit. He didn't have very long to wait - he'd only gotten two blocks away from the switching station when he heard sirens. They were not, however, off in the distance and getting closer - they were almost on top of him.
Where the hell did they come from, he wondered as he stopped for a moment at an intersection to try and find somewhere he could go that a car couldn't. He peered down the street into the rain filled darkness and saw an area a few blocks away where the buildings ended and he could see the dark outlines of trees. A park, perfect. He took off again, splashing into puddles he could not avoid in the dark.
As he reached the park, Jon saw the reflection of red police cars' lights on the rain slicked shine of the street. He plunged into the park, swerving to avoid a half-seen bench by the entrance. He left the paved path and tried to find the thickest concentration of bushes and trees to lose himself in, but city parks were not particularly dense with greenery. He heard the police - they sounded as if they had just gotten into the park itself, as he heard shouted orders to spread out and cover all areas. Jon muttered another curse under his breath - how did they find him so quickly? It's as if they were waiting for him, as if they knew about their entire plan. He had no time to ponder what that might mean; he needed to get out of there. It was way too easy for the police to close off the park and scour the place, and if they did that he'd be caught for certain.
Cresting a small ridge Jon saw the last thing he expected - a Righteous anti-rock rally. He knew that Righteous ran numerous assemblies all over the city. It seemed that it wandered the city, appearing in a different public park every night. As with most Righteous rallies, this one featured his infamous record burning bonfire. From the size of it, the gathering was winding down; the pile of ash large and the flames small. Jon headed toward it, hoping to blend into the still sizable crowd and slip out unnoticed. A general alarm had still not been raised and he crossed his fingers that his luck would hold for just a while longer.
As he reached the crowd, he realized immediately something was wrong. The normal pre-recorded message from Righteous was not playing, and no holographic representation of Righteous could be seen hovering over the flames of the fire. Instead there was a dark smudge barely visible through the rain, the holographic display on but showing something blurred. The crowd was obviously agitated, and as he got closer he could make out the words coming over the speaker system. Righteous' voice boomed at him from what seemed all sides, the numerous loud speakers scattered around the park amplifying his anxiety as well as Righteous' voice.
"I repeat, what you have just seen was a foul lie created by the criminals who wish to destroy all that we have worked for," Righteous' voice came to him over the public address system. "The footage you saw was not real, but a creation of a group so desperate to get their message across that they would lie to you." Jon realized with a shock the video footage must have been shown here in the park as well, a side affect they had not intended. Of course Righteous was doing damage control - the thought of how furious Righteous had to be right now and how he must be scrambling to repair the damage almost made him smile in spite of his predicament.
Vinny limped wearily into the room, looking like he'd been dunked in a pool. Dripping from the rain, exhausted from his running and nursing a twisted ankle he'd received en route, he came into the bar. All three men there immediately jumped to their feet and came over to him.
"Where have you been? What happened?" the scattered questions came at him as he stood there.
"I'm fine, thanks for asking," Vinny said sarcastically. He did not answer them right away, walking to sit down in the nearest chair to ease the throb in his ankle. "Where's Jon?" asked Robert.
Vinny looked up intently, his face showed immediate concern. "He's not here?"
"No. There was some sort of trouble when he put the video on, a guard came in and interrupted him."
"Yeah, I had to lead three of them on a wild goose chase to get them away from the building." Vinny said thoughtfully. "Damn! I thought all of them followed me."
"Not all," Robert said gravely. "Now he's out there somewhere. Hopefully - " his thought was interrupted with the end of the static on the screen and the vision of a Righteous meeting in some park.
Jon wound his way through the crowd, trying at the same time to blend in, work his way through to the exit and judge the crowds' reaction to what they had seen. It was mixed, as he thought it would be - some were screaming their support of him, some were positive it was a fake, but most seemed confused and unsure what to think. Jon realized a long time ago that he was depending heavily on the media to pick this story up - he was sure once that happened the truth would quickly come out.
"Look! That's us!" someone a few yards away from him exclaimed. Jon looked up and sure enough, it was an overhead shot of the park they were in. Spotlights suddenly started searching the crowd and Righteous' came over the speakers again, so loud here in the heart of the crowd it sounded as if he were screaming right into Jon's ear.
"The rebel leader Jonathan Chance is here in this park! He has come here himself to try and disrupt our lawful assembly, to sow the seeds of his lies." Jon heard the rest of what Righteous was saying but he was no longer paying attention. He broke through the mob of people, knowing that blending in was no longer an option. He pushed his way out, past a man who recognized him and screamed "There he is!" A number of others around him turned, and one person even tried to grab his arm and detain him but Jon was moving fast and jerked it out of his grasp. He finally broke free from the people and ran straight for the nearest exit, a few MMM followers trailing him in pursuit.
Distracted by the people following him, Jon didn't see the cyclist coming up on his left. Brakes screeching, the cyclist slid across the rain-slicked street and fell, taking Jon down with him. Jon jumped up, the scrape on his hand flaring in pain.
"'Sorry, I didn't see you - are you ok?" he asked as he assisted the man to his feet.
"Yeah, thanks," the bicyclist said, brushing himself off.
"Good," Jon said and grabbed his bike. He was on it and yards away before he heard the angry protests demanding he come back with his property blending with his yelling MMM pursuers. Sorry friend, Jon thought, I need this more than you do right now.
Luckily the rain lessened for a moment, leaving Jon free to look around him and try and figure out where he was. He rode deftly, weaving in and out of the late night traffic. All those years of being a bike messenger in this city had left him with two skills that were suddenly very valuable - speed on a bike and knowledge of all the one way streets downtown where it would be difficult for a cop car to follow. For the first time since he fled the switching station he felt he had a real chance to reach safety.
Jon rode in the direction he hoped was south, heading into the heart of the city. He wanted to lose himself in whatever downtown traffic there was at this time of night. He heard the sirens closing in on him as he sped along, dodging between cars and running red lights hoping to put distance between himself and his pursuers. The cold rain, which had started up again and was now settling into a steady downpour, stung his face as he whizzed along. His speed and agility kept him from being caught right away, but the traffic parted readily for the angry sirens and he couldn't seem to lose them.
A thin mist rolled in off Lake Michigan, lowering his visibility further and adding to the feeling of dread building in him. At this rate they would catch up to him. Jonathan felt them as a tangible presence, he could imagine the barrel of the gun pressed into his back. then a barely legible street sign announced his salvation. They had reached an older part of the city where there were a number of narrow one way streets that could be better described as alleys. Jon swerved, cutting across the traffic abruptly to the annoyance of many motorists. Jon took a sharp left into the alley, immediately plunging himself into the darkness. No streetlights were here to illuminate the rain soaked evening, and the lights from the main road could not penetrate this far in on such a night.
He took the road at full speed knowing that the police cars couldn't follow, the alley was too narrow. He sped along with confidence, having ridden here many times, for as a bike messenger he was always looking for shortcuts. Jon hoped fervently that it would take them some time to figure out which way he went and that no one would be waiting for him on the other side. The street ahead, from what he could see of it, looked wide open. He flew down the alleyway, optimistically planning his route back to the bar from where he was, but at the same time paradoxically expecting any moment to see flashing lights blocking his escape. Jon reached the end of the alley and planned on shooting across the street and through another alleyway, when everything went wrong.
When he and the bike finally skidded to a stop, he pushed himself painfully upright to get a good look around. Sewer pipes lay strewn across the street, and orange construction signs announced the street closing. No wonder there was no cross traffic, Jon thought, as he sat on the ground in the rain and took stock of his injuries. Aside from numerous scrapes and cuts and a few sore places where he'd have some lovely bruises, he seemed fine. The only thing that had him worried was when he felt the gash on his forehead, his hand came away wet with blood. As he forced himself to his feet, using a traffic cone as a support, he found two more things wrong - the blurry vision he had attributed to the dismal weather was more probably linked to the dizziness he felt when he tried to stand. And the throb he felt in his right knee where he had landed on it would only get worse. Nothing that won't heal, he thought as he limped over to the bicycle and started to pick it up. Unlike this, he added morosely, and abandoned the effort. It was a total disaster, with a front wheel so badly twisted that it no longer could turn and a chain that was off its tracks and in a tangle.
He abandoned the bicycle there, not caring that it would let the police know where he had gone and what had happened to him. He simply didn't think he could drag it off the street and hide it somewhere the way he felt right now.
Vinny sat and watched in stunned silence the scene unfolding before them. He watched as Jonathan fled the park on bicycle, and his sprits lifted when it seemed that the police had lost him. Later on, they showed how the twisted remains of his getaway vehicle were found, and the flashlights the police panned across the construction site highlighted the blood smeared on the bright orange construction cones.
"God, would you look at that?" Vinny breathed almost to himself. His heart went out to his friend, wandering hurt in the dark rainy night.
"He got up and walked away. he can't be hurt that bad." Eddie added hopefully. No one had the energy to answer him back with optimism they didn't feel.
Jonathan limped across the street and down the next alleyway, hoping to lose the police he heard converging behind him. As he slipped into the alley, he could just see out of the corner of his eye police cars blockading the end of the street he'd just left. He used his hands to guide him down the dark street, leaning on the building for guidance and support. Reaching the corner, he peered around the edge of the building looking for signs of pursuit. Seeing none, he stood there for a moment trying to get his bearings, blinking away the trickle of rain and blood that ran into his eyes. Being in an older section of town, there were a number of brownstones that had stairways going down into the basement. On a night like tonight, unless they were looking carefully for someone hiding in the stairway, no one would notice him. He crossed the street as quickly as his injured knee would allow and went all the way down the stairs. He crouched down on the wet concrete, hoping to make himself as small as possible and blend in.
Jon spent what felt like an hour huddled there in a puddle, his injured knee getting stiffer by the minute and his head throbbing. Eventually he heard people walking by, talking loudly to each other about spreading out and looking for him. He forced himself to stay calm and wait it out, concentrating on the sound of their footsteps slowly diminishing. He waited for another handful of minutes and attempted to stand up. He faltered, his right leg buckling under him, numb from injury and loss of circulation. Jon caught himself on the handrail and stood on his left leg, massaging some life back into his right with his free hand. Bending over made his dizziness even worse, and he had a hard time deciding which hurt more, his knee or his head.
Thankfully, it seemed during his wait that the cut over his eye had stopped bleeding. Eventually he felt as if he could summon the energy to climb back up the stairs, and he did so carefully. Jon took stock of his surroundings. Looking at the street signs he saw that he was miles away from the bar and was in no condition to attempt to walk back there. Down the block from where he stood a delivery truck was idling. At this late hour, Jon figured he should be done with his deliveries for the night, and headed back to the garage. Grabbing at the chance for a free ride somewhere the cops would never guess to look, Jon hurried over to it as well as he could and climbed on the narrow ledge, making sure the driver could not spot him in his side mirror.
Jon held on tightly as the truck picked up speed. He never guessed how precarious such a perch could be. His hands ached where he scraped them on the sidewalk and the cold seeped through him, but he kept his grip firm. With some relief he noted that the truck was headed back to the warehouse as he had hoped, and the streets were deserted at this hour. The last thing Jon needed was some curious motorist calling the police on their cell phone to report a strange man hanging off the back of a delivery truck.
The driver finally stopped before a closed gate, and he left the truck idling as he went out to unlock it. Jon took this opportunity to hop off the back, looking around him. His strength was rapidly fading, and he knew there was no way he could make it home tonight. He'd just have to find someplace dry to stay until morning.
Squinting to see in the darkness, he spied a hole in the fence surrounding the warehouse next door. He squeezed through it so that he could inspect the place more carefully. He waited a moment in the darkness, listening, but all he heard was the steady rain hitting the metal siding of the building. The warehouse didn't look as if it were in use lately, and as far as he could see there were no watchdogs or security guards.
Jon circled the building, and around the side he found a partially broken window. He tugged the sleeve of his jacket down to cover his hand, and using it he swept the broken pieces clear so that he could climb inside safely. With his stiff knee it was difficult, but after a moment he was in. He stood for another moment, letting his eyes adjust to the darker interior. Nothing met his eyes but a few scattered boxes and papers.
He eased himself down to the floor, vaguely wondering if there were any rats in the place. At this point he really could have cared less, however, he was just happy to be dry and not to be moving. Teeth chattering, he hunched down into his soaking wet jacket, attempting to find some warmth there.
At last he allowed the exhaustion and fear he had felt all evening to overtake him. Tears of anger, pain, and frustration mixed with the rainwater dripping from his hair. How could everything have gone so wrong so quickly? He bowed his head and squeezed his eyes tightly closed, as if he could wring the tears out of them that way, and prepared to wait for daylight.
******************
"How did he get into that switching station? I thought you posted guards at every one we have!" Righteous screamed, enraged at the situation. Lt. Vanish and Col. Hyde stood stiffly in front of him as he paced, refusing to flinch as it would be seen as a sign of weakness.
Alec attempted to explain what had happened. "I did sir, and the guards did
interrupt the transmission- "
Righteous stopped in his tracks and whirled to face Vanish. His ice blue eyes held Alec's soft brown ones for a long moment before he spoke. "But they didn't stop it in time."
"No sir," Alec agreed. "They didn't." The guards bungled attempt at arresting Jonathan was no sabotage that he planned but a lucky accident for his friends. Somehow this consoled him, as if his innocence in this one thing would lessen Righteous' suspicion of him. He didn't really believe that, but the thought comforted him all the same.
"Why is it that you have continually failed in the tasks I have given you?"
Righteous asked rhetorically, sadly. "What happened to the efficient man I promoted a few months ago?"
Alec's heart pounded hard in his chest. Was this it? Was this the moment Righteous found him out and threw him into the deepest dungeon he had? Alec tried desperately to keep his voice under control and not let the fear he felt seep into it. "Sir, I can assure you I've tried every avenue available to me to find Kilroy and Chance, and I'll keep trying, but they're just nowhere to be found."
The expression on Righteous' face was unreadable. Alec stole a sidelong glance at Hyde standing next to him, and he had to suppress the urge to slap the satisfied look off his co-worker's face. After a moment Righteous turned away and walked to his desk.
"Never mind. As of now I'm taking this case off your hands. I'll be handling it personally. Vanish, I need you to take care of my day to day activities."
"But sir, you need to be out there in the public's eye to diffuse any damage that video may have caused," Hyde argued. Righteous looked up from the paperwork he had been fiddling with, and the look in his eyes made Alec's blood run cold. The smile that appeared on his smooth, handsome face did nothing to relieve the malicious promises held in his eyes.
"Have no worry. I'll be making my efforts to locate them very public. That little trick they pulled will cost them dearly."
The cold lump that was sitting in the pit of Alec's stomach solidified a touch more at this announcement. He asked his question as casually as he could. "What do you have planned?"
Righteous responded brusquely. "That's none of your concern, I've got it all under control. You just hold down the fort."
***********
"They didn't catch him, you know. If they had, they'd have announced it." Robert said softly. The wan comfort he could offer did nothing to make Vinny feel any better. Eddie and Harry had left hours ago to go home to their families, but Vinny wanted to stay. He sat with his injured foot up on a chair, staring intently at the front door as if with sheer will he could make his friend walk thorough it.
Robert spoke again. "Vinny, it's late. You should try and get some sleep." Vinny shook his head. "You go ahead. I'll be fine."
Robert looked at him with concern. He just didn't know what to say to make him feel better. No argument that he could think of would persuade him that Jon was safe, so he didn't even try to convince Vinny. He merely squeezed the other man's shoulder in friendship, and told him that if he needed anything to just call. Vinny nodded absently.
Jonathan limped tiredly into the bar, opening the door as quietly as he could. It was still early and he didn't want to startle Robert. He saw Vinny sprawled across two chairs, asleep. With his injuries he could not walk up the stairs quietly, actually he didn't feel as if he could climb them at all. He simply stood at the base of the stairs and rested for a moment. As the front door snicked in its lock Vinny awoke with a start. "Jon!" Vinny sprang up, instantly awake. Jon noticed he was favoring one leg as he walked across the room to meet him.
"What happened to your leg?" Jon asked with concern. Vinny shrugged off the
question.
"Forget about my leg," Vinny brushed off his concern. "Are you ok? You're a
mess." His friend's handsome face was covered with cuts and bruises. There was a nasty looking cut on his forehead, and Vinny noticed a huge gash in the right knee of Jon's jeans. The skin that was exposed was encrusted with dried blood and dirt. Despite it all, Jon managed a crooked smile as he sat gingerly on the stairs.
"You've gotta stop complimenting me like that," Jonathan chided. At the concerned look on Vinny's face, he quickly comforted him. "Really, I'll be fine. No major injuries. I just need some sleep and an entire bottle of aspirin."
Robert came down the stairs rubbing sleep out of his eyes, and immediately made a u turn when he saw Jonathan. Neither Jon nor Vinny noticed him.
"How did you make it back here?" Vinny asked.
"I found an old warehouse to hole up in overnight. When the night shift from the surrounding factories let out, I blended in with them and headed back here."
"You blended looking like that?" Vinny exclaimed in disbelief.
"You'd be surprised what people will ignore." As he was saying this, Robert
returned with the first aid kit and cracked it open. To his surprise, Jon made no move to wave him off as he normally would have done. Jon muttered a distracted thanks, and submitted to his ministrations without further comment.
"Vinny," Jon said as Robert tore open the rip in his jeans so that he could clean the wound on his knee, "someone set us up. Someone told Righteous we'd be there. They were waiting for us." Robert stopped what he was doing and looked up at him. Jonathan's green eyes were riveted, however, on his friend's face.
Vinny nodded in agreement. "I know," he said quietly. "We have to find out who it was."
"Only the five of us knew about it Jon," Vinny said painfully. It was obvious he didn't want to face the fact that one of his close friends could sell them out like that. "Eddie and Harry would never do something like this."
When Jon spoke again, his voice was soft, but firm. "But someone did, Vinny. We need to find out who."
Vinny merely nodded, and Robert realized that they had some sort of procedure in place to deal with this contingency. At this moment, he really didn't want to know what that was, so he focused on ripping open alcohol swabs and cleaning the many small wounds Jon had received. Vinny exited the room, hearing Jon curse as the alcohol stung his cuts.
They strolled along the street together, hand in hand. Vinny had never felt so at peace before, things had never felt so right. He knew it was the woman whose hand he was holding who was responsible for this. In the midst of the chaos that his life was these days, she was the rock of stability and comfort he so desperately needed. He looked at her with a mixture of amazement and thankfulness. He knew dealing with him day in and day out couldn't be easy - even though she was also part of the secret organization there were many things he could not share with her. Jonathan had repeated so many times his fear of someone slipping with some vital bit of information that Vinny told Hope very little. In fact, he hadn't even told her that he worked with Jon in the resistance. That was more because he didn't want her to worry than because of any secrecy issue, as he suspected she would if she knew how deep into this he was. Associating with Jon and Robert Kilroy could be very dangerous these days, but he didn't want her concerned over it. As far as Hope still knew, he was just another anonymous middle management type of person within the organization. He knew it bothered her, for she sometimes asked questions she knew full well he couldn't answer and then got annoyed with his close mouthed stance. But these moments were few and far between, and he was under no illusion that love was a smoothly paved road. He smiled and sighed in contentment, and Hope turned to look at this sound. She smiled at the look on his face. "Happy?"
"Very," he answered back. They walked for another moment in silence.
"Can we have dinner together tomorrow night?" she asked sweetly.
He sighed inwardly. She wasn't going to like this, he knew, but there was nothing he could do. "Sorry, can't."
She frowned, her voice disapproving. "More secret meetings?"
Vinny stopped walking and turned toward her, his hands open in a gesture of
helplessness. "Hope."
"I know, I know," she said, cutting off his denial. "You have work to do, and I understand how important it is. but it takes you away from me so often. And I have no idea where you go and who you're with. if I didn't have a trusting nature, I'd accuse you of seeing someone else."
Somehow Vinny heard in her voice that her supposedly trusting nature was being sorely tested. "You know there's no one else for me. I hate it that you're thinking like this. I don't know how I can prove to you how I feel."
She spoke quickly, a slightly desperate tinge to her voice. "Let me come with you tomorrow."
"What? You know I can't do that."
"Why not? What could you possibly be doing that I can't be there for?" Her argument switched course, moving toward the real heart of the matter. "Vinny, it's just that I worry about you. I don't want anything to happen to you. I guess I'd just feel better if I could be there with you."
He heard the pain in her voice at his apparent distrust. If he indeed were doing some everyday chore for the resistance then she could certainly be there. but Vinny and Jon were off to air that video and there was no way that he could bring her there. He tried to explain it as best he could. Vinny shook his head sadly. "I appreciate your concern Hope, but I'm not even allowed to tell you what I'll be doing, so bringing you along is out of the question for sure."
She would not meet his gaze, so he gently lifted her chin up so that he could see her eyes. The look there of dejection and sadness was enough to break his heart, but on this topic he would not budge. "You're just going to have to trust me on this one Hope." She nodded, but the look on her face barely diminished.
They turned and continued their walk, but the peaceful feeling he had just a few minutes ago was gone. Maybe Jon was wrong about love being strong enough to
withstand the strain of the guerrilla warfare they were engaged in. Vinny desperately hoped it was, but now he had to wonder. Someday, apparently soon, he was going to be faced with a choice that he didn't want to have to make. and he wasn't quite sure what he would decide if pushed into that corner.
**********************
"You ready?" Jonathan asked his friend as they approached the switching station. They had identified one from the list Anne had provided where the signal could be diverted to show what they wished to the entire population of the greater Chicago area. It had been raining off and on all day, and currently had settled into a continuous soaking drizzle. Jonathan wiped the rain soaked hair from his eyes and glanced at Vinny, who stood with him outside one such building.
"Ready as I'm ever going to be," Vinny answered, trying to sound braver than he felt. He went over the plan again in his head: Jonathan was going to go in and play the tape from the beginning of that last song all the way through to when the concert was broken up by the MMM police. Vinny would be outside as a lookout - there had been too many close calls as of late and they didn't want to take any chances. He hunched further into his jacket, prepared for a long wait outside in the cold damp night.
They checked that their walkie-talkies were working well, and Jonathan went inside the building, pulling his bag of tools higher up on his shoulder. He shook the water from his hair as he ducked into the building. His wet sneakers squeaked on the linoleum floors, echoing in the empty hallways as he made his way further inside. He scanned the shadows as best he could for any surprises - although this was just a switching station and there were no personnel stationed here, there could be repair crews at work at any time day or night. It was getting close to 10pm on Thursday night. Since that day and time had the highest concentration of people watching television, they had figured they could reach the most people possible and achieve the biggest effect from their broadcast. He counted off the doorways as the floor plans described and eventually reached the right door. He tried it and it swung open easily. Jonathan let out a sigh - one obstacle out of the way. He was afraid he was going to be forced to pick the lock to get in.
He stepped inside the small room filled to the ceiling with equipment. In the dim light given off by the monitors and lighted control panels, he unpacked the jamming device and videotape. After a moment of squinting at the wiring he figured out which one he was supposed to attach it to and started to hook it up. He was just about finished when his walkie-talkie came to life. Jon froze when he heard what Vinny was saying.
"Jon, we've got company. I'm outta here - plan B in motion."
Jonathan cursed out loud to no one in particular but kept working. Plan B was their backup in case they got caught in the process of airing the video. Vinny right now was drawing attention away from what Jon was doing, buying him time to get the video on the air. Hopefully, he would be able to fool them into thinking he was there alone and avoid getting arrested for trespassing. Jon shook a stray strand of wet hair out of his eyes and tried not to think about what was going on outside right now. He made the final connections to the wiring and the monitor showed static and snow, then the video rolling. He then opened the communication channel so that he could recite the speech that he and Robert had written explaining the video and their purpose in showing it.
Just then, Jon heard the click of hard-heeled shoes coming down the hallway. He abandoned all thoughts of their public address and glanced around the room for a place to hide. It was small, more a large closet than a real room, with all of the walls covered with wiring and electrical panels and no closets or other exits. Jonathan placed himself in the far corner hoping to blend into the shadows. He watched from his hiding place as a single guard entered the room and saw the monitor. The song was still a good two minutes from being over, and Jonathan's heart lurched into his throat as the guard ripped the wiring free and disrupted the transmission.
"NO!" he screamed and, without thinking of the consequences, Jon leaped out to reconnect the equipment. The guard, who had turned to leave, whirled to see him shoving at cords and cables in a desperate attempt to resurrect his broadcast. Somehow he created a new connection and the video jumped back into life, only a few seconds past where it left off. Jonathan put his body protectively in front of it and grasped for ideas. He stared at the guard, who seemed more annoyed than anything else.
"What are you doing in here?" he snapped at Jonathan. He was tired of chasing after people who trespassed on private property. Although why he, an MMM security guard, was called in to handle this sort of thing he had no idea. It certainly wasn't the first time though. He sometimes felt that Righteous lent out their services as a favor to his rich friends who were too cheap to hire their own security staff. That's how he figured the rich stayed rich, because they were tight fisted.
Jonathan realized with a start that the guard had no idea what he was really doing there. He thought he had a chance to reason with the man. If he could keep him talking for another 90 seconds he could get up to the part of the video where the murder occurred, and that would be self explanatory. Jon pointed to the tiny monitor beside him.
"Look, it's Kilroy's final concert."
The guard threw a fleeting glance at the screen to confirm. "I don't care what it is, tampering with city property is illegal. I'm going to have to take you in." He moved towards Jon but he circled around the equipment, still talking. Gotta just keep him talking, he thought, just distract him long enough.
"Don't you understand? That's the concert where Kilroy was supposed to have
killed that MMM protester. If you watch it, you'll see that isn't how it really happened."
The guard stopped then, looking at the screen curiously. Unfortunately, he was standing directly between Jonathan and the one way out of the room, so trying to run for it was currently not an option. Jon watched his face intently to see what kind of reaction the guard had to the news.
The officer watched as Robert sang and the view of the stage changed. After a moment, he shrugged and looked back at Jon. "Why should I care what happened? He was convicted of a crime and he's got to serve his time."
"He didn't commit any crime!" Jonathan said, desperation creeping into his voice. Just keep him occupied a while longer. "You'll see, the video will show it. An MMM guard killed that kid, not Kilroy." Jonathan flinched as the look on the guards' face changed from mildly curious to hostile. Wrong thing to say.
"Are you accusing us of being murderers?" He asked menacingly, coming toward Jonathan again. "You know, it's tough enough to do my job without accusations like that."
He threw himself at Jonathan and knocked him to the ground, attempting to handcuff him. Jon struggled with the larger man, who was not able to get the handcuffs secured with him squirming around. Jon shoved at the guard's shoulder, trying to push him off, but he wasn't budging. He put his elbow down on the floor and pushed, leveraging the entire right side of his body off the ground and taking the guard with him. The MMM guard, thrown off balance, rolled off him and Jon immediately sprang to his feet and backed away toward what he hoped was the door. The guard, now angry at being eluded, lunged at him again. Jon, not knowing what to expect, put his body sideways and perpendicular to the guard so as to present a smaller target and for better balance in case he tried to knock him to the floor again. The guard attempted to land a punch, but Jonathan's instincts served him well. Since the guard pulled his arm around in a roundhouse, he left his entire body exposed. Jon had the opportunity to send a vicious jab to the center of his stomach. As the guard bent inward at the injury his punch came down on Jonathan's ear painfully. The force of the blow sent him a step backward, tripping over a cable snaked across the floor and slamming his back into a wall full of switches and knobs. His eyes closed involuntarily at impact, and he gritted his teeth against the pain of all those pieces of metal and plastic jammed into his back. His eyes flew open in time to see the guard a foot away looking to grab him by his jacket.
The sirens cut through the ringing in Jonathan's head, and both of them froze where they were and stared at the monitor. Jon saw the scene unfolding on the monitor and pointed at it, although there was no need. The guard was already looking at it as well.
"There! See?" Jon insisted as the monitor showed the murder clearly. The guard had a look of puzzlement and disbelief on his face as he watched, and Jon knew that this was his chance to make a break for it. He used that moment of distraction to bolt out of the small room and run breakneck down the hallway.
****************
Back at the bar, Robert sat with Eddie and Harry, watching the television. About fifteen minutes into the show static filled the screen, then they saw the footage of the concert. Robert sat expectantly, waiting to hear the speech that he and Jonathan had worked out to explain their side of the story. Instead, there was silence, and then the scene disappeared into more static.
"Hey, what happened?" Harry exclaimed. Not more than ten seconds later the video popped back on. Harry sighed in relief, but somehow Robert knew that all was not going as planned. Instead of the speech they had written, he heard a strange man's voice. With a sinking feeling Robert knew Jon was in trouble.
They heard the entire conversation Jonathan and the guard had, as well as some mysterious crashing noises. The video ended showing MMM guards escorting concertgoers out of the theater, and then more static. The small group sat in silence, wondering what had happened to Jon and Vinny. After another short time of dead air, a message on the screen asked them to please stand by as the station was experiencing technical difficulties.
Just as MMM guards were storming the stage on the video, the guard Jon had fled from chased after him. In his rush to attempt to apprehend Jonathan he left the videotape running. As Jonathan sped through the building, he prayed that the security guard he had encountered was alone. Reaching the front door, he instinctively headed in the opposite direction from which he came, so as not to lead any of Righteous' men back to Kilroy. He ran blindly, not knowing the area and so not knowing where to head. He made some random turns down streets unfamiliar to him, listening for pursuit. He didn't have very long to wait - he'd only gotten two blocks away from the switching station when he heard sirens. They were not, however, off in the distance and getting closer - they were almost on top of him.
Where the hell did they come from, he wondered as he stopped for a moment at an intersection to try and find somewhere he could go that a car couldn't. He peered down the street into the rain filled darkness and saw an area a few blocks away where the buildings ended and he could see the dark outlines of trees. A park, perfect. He took off again, splashing into puddles he could not avoid in the dark.
As he reached the park, Jon saw the reflection of red police cars' lights on the rain slicked shine of the street. He plunged into the park, swerving to avoid a half-seen bench by the entrance. He left the paved path and tried to find the thickest concentration of bushes and trees to lose himself in, but city parks were not particularly dense with greenery. He heard the police - they sounded as if they had just gotten into the park itself, as he heard shouted orders to spread out and cover all areas. Jon muttered another curse under his breath - how did they find him so quickly? It's as if they were waiting for him, as if they knew about their entire plan. He had no time to ponder what that might mean; he needed to get out of there. It was way too easy for the police to close off the park and scour the place, and if they did that he'd be caught for certain.
Cresting a small ridge Jon saw the last thing he expected - a Righteous anti-rock rally. He knew that Righteous ran numerous assemblies all over the city. It seemed that it wandered the city, appearing in a different public park every night. As with most Righteous rallies, this one featured his infamous record burning bonfire. From the size of it, the gathering was winding down; the pile of ash large and the flames small. Jon headed toward it, hoping to blend into the still sizable crowd and slip out unnoticed. A general alarm had still not been raised and he crossed his fingers that his luck would hold for just a while longer.
As he reached the crowd, he realized immediately something was wrong. The normal pre-recorded message from Righteous was not playing, and no holographic representation of Righteous could be seen hovering over the flames of the fire. Instead there was a dark smudge barely visible through the rain, the holographic display on but showing something blurred. The crowd was obviously agitated, and as he got closer he could make out the words coming over the speaker system. Righteous' voice boomed at him from what seemed all sides, the numerous loud speakers scattered around the park amplifying his anxiety as well as Righteous' voice.
"I repeat, what you have just seen was a foul lie created by the criminals who wish to destroy all that we have worked for," Righteous' voice came to him over the public address system. "The footage you saw was not real, but a creation of a group so desperate to get their message across that they would lie to you." Jon realized with a shock the video footage must have been shown here in the park as well, a side affect they had not intended. Of course Righteous was doing damage control - the thought of how furious Righteous had to be right now and how he must be scrambling to repair the damage almost made him smile in spite of his predicament.
Vinny limped wearily into the room, looking like he'd been dunked in a pool. Dripping from the rain, exhausted from his running and nursing a twisted ankle he'd received en route, he came into the bar. All three men there immediately jumped to their feet and came over to him.
"Where have you been? What happened?" the scattered questions came at him as he stood there.
"I'm fine, thanks for asking," Vinny said sarcastically. He did not answer them right away, walking to sit down in the nearest chair to ease the throb in his ankle. "Where's Jon?" asked Robert.
Vinny looked up intently, his face showed immediate concern. "He's not here?"
"No. There was some sort of trouble when he put the video on, a guard came in and interrupted him."
"Yeah, I had to lead three of them on a wild goose chase to get them away from the building." Vinny said thoughtfully. "Damn! I thought all of them followed me."
"Not all," Robert said gravely. "Now he's out there somewhere. Hopefully - " his thought was interrupted with the end of the static on the screen and the vision of a Righteous meeting in some park.
Jon wound his way through the crowd, trying at the same time to blend in, work his way through to the exit and judge the crowds' reaction to what they had seen. It was mixed, as he thought it would be - some were screaming their support of him, some were positive it was a fake, but most seemed confused and unsure what to think. Jon realized a long time ago that he was depending heavily on the media to pick this story up - he was sure once that happened the truth would quickly come out.
"Look! That's us!" someone a few yards away from him exclaimed. Jon looked up and sure enough, it was an overhead shot of the park they were in. Spotlights suddenly started searching the crowd and Righteous' came over the speakers again, so loud here in the heart of the crowd it sounded as if he were screaming right into Jon's ear.
"The rebel leader Jonathan Chance is here in this park! He has come here himself to try and disrupt our lawful assembly, to sow the seeds of his lies." Jon heard the rest of what Righteous was saying but he was no longer paying attention. He broke through the mob of people, knowing that blending in was no longer an option. He pushed his way out, past a man who recognized him and screamed "There he is!" A number of others around him turned, and one person even tried to grab his arm and detain him but Jon was moving fast and jerked it out of his grasp. He finally broke free from the people and ran straight for the nearest exit, a few MMM followers trailing him in pursuit.
Distracted by the people following him, Jon didn't see the cyclist coming up on his left. Brakes screeching, the cyclist slid across the rain-slicked street and fell, taking Jon down with him. Jon jumped up, the scrape on his hand flaring in pain.
"'Sorry, I didn't see you - are you ok?" he asked as he assisted the man to his feet.
"Yeah, thanks," the bicyclist said, brushing himself off.
"Good," Jon said and grabbed his bike. He was on it and yards away before he heard the angry protests demanding he come back with his property blending with his yelling MMM pursuers. Sorry friend, Jon thought, I need this more than you do right now.
Luckily the rain lessened for a moment, leaving Jon free to look around him and try and figure out where he was. He rode deftly, weaving in and out of the late night traffic. All those years of being a bike messenger in this city had left him with two skills that were suddenly very valuable - speed on a bike and knowledge of all the one way streets downtown where it would be difficult for a cop car to follow. For the first time since he fled the switching station he felt he had a real chance to reach safety.
Jon rode in the direction he hoped was south, heading into the heart of the city. He wanted to lose himself in whatever downtown traffic there was at this time of night. He heard the sirens closing in on him as he sped along, dodging between cars and running red lights hoping to put distance between himself and his pursuers. The cold rain, which had started up again and was now settling into a steady downpour, stung his face as he whizzed along. His speed and agility kept him from being caught right away, but the traffic parted readily for the angry sirens and he couldn't seem to lose them.
A thin mist rolled in off Lake Michigan, lowering his visibility further and adding to the feeling of dread building in him. At this rate they would catch up to him. Jonathan felt them as a tangible presence, he could imagine the barrel of the gun pressed into his back. then a barely legible street sign announced his salvation. They had reached an older part of the city where there were a number of narrow one way streets that could be better described as alleys. Jon swerved, cutting across the traffic abruptly to the annoyance of many motorists. Jon took a sharp left into the alley, immediately plunging himself into the darkness. No streetlights were here to illuminate the rain soaked evening, and the lights from the main road could not penetrate this far in on such a night.
He took the road at full speed knowing that the police cars couldn't follow, the alley was too narrow. He sped along with confidence, having ridden here many times, for as a bike messenger he was always looking for shortcuts. Jon hoped fervently that it would take them some time to figure out which way he went and that no one would be waiting for him on the other side. The street ahead, from what he could see of it, looked wide open. He flew down the alleyway, optimistically planning his route back to the bar from where he was, but at the same time paradoxically expecting any moment to see flashing lights blocking his escape. Jon reached the end of the alley and planned on shooting across the street and through another alleyway, when everything went wrong.
When he and the bike finally skidded to a stop, he pushed himself painfully upright to get a good look around. Sewer pipes lay strewn across the street, and orange construction signs announced the street closing. No wonder there was no cross traffic, Jon thought, as he sat on the ground in the rain and took stock of his injuries. Aside from numerous scrapes and cuts and a few sore places where he'd have some lovely bruises, he seemed fine. The only thing that had him worried was when he felt the gash on his forehead, his hand came away wet with blood. As he forced himself to his feet, using a traffic cone as a support, he found two more things wrong - the blurry vision he had attributed to the dismal weather was more probably linked to the dizziness he felt when he tried to stand. And the throb he felt in his right knee where he had landed on it would only get worse. Nothing that won't heal, he thought as he limped over to the bicycle and started to pick it up. Unlike this, he added morosely, and abandoned the effort. It was a total disaster, with a front wheel so badly twisted that it no longer could turn and a chain that was off its tracks and in a tangle.
He abandoned the bicycle there, not caring that it would let the police know where he had gone and what had happened to him. He simply didn't think he could drag it off the street and hide it somewhere the way he felt right now.
Vinny sat and watched in stunned silence the scene unfolding before them. He watched as Jonathan fled the park on bicycle, and his sprits lifted when it seemed that the police had lost him. Later on, they showed how the twisted remains of his getaway vehicle were found, and the flashlights the police panned across the construction site highlighted the blood smeared on the bright orange construction cones.
"God, would you look at that?" Vinny breathed almost to himself. His heart went out to his friend, wandering hurt in the dark rainy night.
"He got up and walked away. he can't be hurt that bad." Eddie added hopefully. No one had the energy to answer him back with optimism they didn't feel.
Jonathan limped across the street and down the next alleyway, hoping to lose the police he heard converging behind him. As he slipped into the alley, he could just see out of the corner of his eye police cars blockading the end of the street he'd just left. He used his hands to guide him down the dark street, leaning on the building for guidance and support. Reaching the corner, he peered around the edge of the building looking for signs of pursuit. Seeing none, he stood there for a moment trying to get his bearings, blinking away the trickle of rain and blood that ran into his eyes. Being in an older section of town, there were a number of brownstones that had stairways going down into the basement. On a night like tonight, unless they were looking carefully for someone hiding in the stairway, no one would notice him. He crossed the street as quickly as his injured knee would allow and went all the way down the stairs. He crouched down on the wet concrete, hoping to make himself as small as possible and blend in.
Jon spent what felt like an hour huddled there in a puddle, his injured knee getting stiffer by the minute and his head throbbing. Eventually he heard people walking by, talking loudly to each other about spreading out and looking for him. He forced himself to stay calm and wait it out, concentrating on the sound of their footsteps slowly diminishing. He waited for another handful of minutes and attempted to stand up. He faltered, his right leg buckling under him, numb from injury and loss of circulation. Jon caught himself on the handrail and stood on his left leg, massaging some life back into his right with his free hand. Bending over made his dizziness even worse, and he had a hard time deciding which hurt more, his knee or his head.
Thankfully, it seemed during his wait that the cut over his eye had stopped bleeding. Eventually he felt as if he could summon the energy to climb back up the stairs, and he did so carefully. Jon took stock of his surroundings. Looking at the street signs he saw that he was miles away from the bar and was in no condition to attempt to walk back there. Down the block from where he stood a delivery truck was idling. At this late hour, Jon figured he should be done with his deliveries for the night, and headed back to the garage. Grabbing at the chance for a free ride somewhere the cops would never guess to look, Jon hurried over to it as well as he could and climbed on the narrow ledge, making sure the driver could not spot him in his side mirror.
Jon held on tightly as the truck picked up speed. He never guessed how precarious such a perch could be. His hands ached where he scraped them on the sidewalk and the cold seeped through him, but he kept his grip firm. With some relief he noted that the truck was headed back to the warehouse as he had hoped, and the streets were deserted at this hour. The last thing Jon needed was some curious motorist calling the police on their cell phone to report a strange man hanging off the back of a delivery truck.
The driver finally stopped before a closed gate, and he left the truck idling as he went out to unlock it. Jon took this opportunity to hop off the back, looking around him. His strength was rapidly fading, and he knew there was no way he could make it home tonight. He'd just have to find someplace dry to stay until morning.
Squinting to see in the darkness, he spied a hole in the fence surrounding the warehouse next door. He squeezed through it so that he could inspect the place more carefully. He waited a moment in the darkness, listening, but all he heard was the steady rain hitting the metal siding of the building. The warehouse didn't look as if it were in use lately, and as far as he could see there were no watchdogs or security guards.
Jon circled the building, and around the side he found a partially broken window. He tugged the sleeve of his jacket down to cover his hand, and using it he swept the broken pieces clear so that he could climb inside safely. With his stiff knee it was difficult, but after a moment he was in. He stood for another moment, letting his eyes adjust to the darker interior. Nothing met his eyes but a few scattered boxes and papers.
He eased himself down to the floor, vaguely wondering if there were any rats in the place. At this point he really could have cared less, however, he was just happy to be dry and not to be moving. Teeth chattering, he hunched down into his soaking wet jacket, attempting to find some warmth there.
At last he allowed the exhaustion and fear he had felt all evening to overtake him. Tears of anger, pain, and frustration mixed with the rainwater dripping from his hair. How could everything have gone so wrong so quickly? He bowed his head and squeezed his eyes tightly closed, as if he could wring the tears out of them that way, and prepared to wait for daylight.
******************
"How did he get into that switching station? I thought you posted guards at every one we have!" Righteous screamed, enraged at the situation. Lt. Vanish and Col. Hyde stood stiffly in front of him as he paced, refusing to flinch as it would be seen as a sign of weakness.
Alec attempted to explain what had happened. "I did sir, and the guards did
interrupt the transmission- "
Righteous stopped in his tracks and whirled to face Vanish. His ice blue eyes held Alec's soft brown ones for a long moment before he spoke. "But they didn't stop it in time."
"No sir," Alec agreed. "They didn't." The guards bungled attempt at arresting Jonathan was no sabotage that he planned but a lucky accident for his friends. Somehow this consoled him, as if his innocence in this one thing would lessen Righteous' suspicion of him. He didn't really believe that, but the thought comforted him all the same.
"Why is it that you have continually failed in the tasks I have given you?"
Righteous asked rhetorically, sadly. "What happened to the efficient man I promoted a few months ago?"
Alec's heart pounded hard in his chest. Was this it? Was this the moment Righteous found him out and threw him into the deepest dungeon he had? Alec tried desperately to keep his voice under control and not let the fear he felt seep into it. "Sir, I can assure you I've tried every avenue available to me to find Kilroy and Chance, and I'll keep trying, but they're just nowhere to be found."
The expression on Righteous' face was unreadable. Alec stole a sidelong glance at Hyde standing next to him, and he had to suppress the urge to slap the satisfied look off his co-worker's face. After a moment Righteous turned away and walked to his desk.
"Never mind. As of now I'm taking this case off your hands. I'll be handling it personally. Vanish, I need you to take care of my day to day activities."
"But sir, you need to be out there in the public's eye to diffuse any damage that video may have caused," Hyde argued. Righteous looked up from the paperwork he had been fiddling with, and the look in his eyes made Alec's blood run cold. The smile that appeared on his smooth, handsome face did nothing to relieve the malicious promises held in his eyes.
"Have no worry. I'll be making my efforts to locate them very public. That little trick they pulled will cost them dearly."
The cold lump that was sitting in the pit of Alec's stomach solidified a touch more at this announcement. He asked his question as casually as he could. "What do you have planned?"
Righteous responded brusquely. "That's none of your concern, I've got it all under control. You just hold down the fort."
***********
"They didn't catch him, you know. If they had, they'd have announced it." Robert said softly. The wan comfort he could offer did nothing to make Vinny feel any better. Eddie and Harry had left hours ago to go home to their families, but Vinny wanted to stay. He sat with his injured foot up on a chair, staring intently at the front door as if with sheer will he could make his friend walk thorough it.
Robert spoke again. "Vinny, it's late. You should try and get some sleep." Vinny shook his head. "You go ahead. I'll be fine."
Robert looked at him with concern. He just didn't know what to say to make him feel better. No argument that he could think of would persuade him that Jon was safe, so he didn't even try to convince Vinny. He merely squeezed the other man's shoulder in friendship, and told him that if he needed anything to just call. Vinny nodded absently.
Jonathan limped tiredly into the bar, opening the door as quietly as he could. It was still early and he didn't want to startle Robert. He saw Vinny sprawled across two chairs, asleep. With his injuries he could not walk up the stairs quietly, actually he didn't feel as if he could climb them at all. He simply stood at the base of the stairs and rested for a moment. As the front door snicked in its lock Vinny awoke with a start. "Jon!" Vinny sprang up, instantly awake. Jon noticed he was favoring one leg as he walked across the room to meet him.
"What happened to your leg?" Jon asked with concern. Vinny shrugged off the
question.
"Forget about my leg," Vinny brushed off his concern. "Are you ok? You're a
mess." His friend's handsome face was covered with cuts and bruises. There was a nasty looking cut on his forehead, and Vinny noticed a huge gash in the right knee of Jon's jeans. The skin that was exposed was encrusted with dried blood and dirt. Despite it all, Jon managed a crooked smile as he sat gingerly on the stairs.
"You've gotta stop complimenting me like that," Jonathan chided. At the concerned look on Vinny's face, he quickly comforted him. "Really, I'll be fine. No major injuries. I just need some sleep and an entire bottle of aspirin."
Robert came down the stairs rubbing sleep out of his eyes, and immediately made a u turn when he saw Jonathan. Neither Jon nor Vinny noticed him.
"How did you make it back here?" Vinny asked.
"I found an old warehouse to hole up in overnight. When the night shift from the surrounding factories let out, I blended in with them and headed back here."
"You blended looking like that?" Vinny exclaimed in disbelief.
"You'd be surprised what people will ignore." As he was saying this, Robert
returned with the first aid kit and cracked it open. To his surprise, Jon made no move to wave him off as he normally would have done. Jon muttered a distracted thanks, and submitted to his ministrations without further comment.
"Vinny," Jon said as Robert tore open the rip in his jeans so that he could clean the wound on his knee, "someone set us up. Someone told Righteous we'd be there. They were waiting for us." Robert stopped what he was doing and looked up at him. Jonathan's green eyes were riveted, however, on his friend's face.
Vinny nodded in agreement. "I know," he said quietly. "We have to find out who it was."
"Only the five of us knew about it Jon," Vinny said painfully. It was obvious he didn't want to face the fact that one of his close friends could sell them out like that. "Eddie and Harry would never do something like this."
When Jon spoke again, his voice was soft, but firm. "But someone did, Vinny. We need to find out who."
Vinny merely nodded, and Robert realized that they had some sort of procedure in place to deal with this contingency. At this moment, he really didn't want to know what that was, so he focused on ripping open alcohol swabs and cleaning the many small wounds Jon had received. Vinny exited the room, hearing Jon curse as the alcohol stung his cuts.