Chapter 33

Being in New York seemed so strange. Maybe it was being constantly surrounded by people that made me nervous or the feeling that I stood out in the attire that I was wearing. Lizbeth had been pleased with the new look, me, not so much. Okay, I knew that I had to look different yet be able to change that appearance afterwards, quickly. So here I was with a woolen coat on that my mother would have approved of, a wig that would look good on a poodle and 3 inch high heeled shoes. It wasn't just the clothes though that made me feel obvious, it was the brace in my mouth that changed the look of my jaw, cheeks and the glasses that gave a different shape to my face. I didn't want anyone to see me and run my face through a face recognition program.

I had a bag over my shoulder with tools inside, all high grade plastic because of the metal detectors at the entrance to each room, and as I thought of what I needed to do and using those tools I tried to focus my mind. Focus on the task, shit it had been Ranger who had said that to me an age ago. I walked with purpose up the steps of the American Museum of Finance and walked through a large door where we knew the metal detectors were hidden, I was aware of where any cameras were and made sure that I never looked into them, no point in attracting attention to myself.

Stanley had been here several times and recorded the movement of the cameras as they swept around the rooms so now, I had a dance to perform, movement with steps to avoid detection.

Walk to the right ten paces, stop for a count of three. Walk straight ahead for fifteen paces and then wait for six. I recalled the exact movement that I had to make before finding myself upstairs in the one blind spot in the room that I was in. Fortunately, there weren't many people with me and to be honest I was praying that Ethan could do what he'd said he could do. In the original plan the window of time that I had to get into the unit and remove the two circuits was pretty small. I'd be caught on two of the cameras approaching the unit and looking at it.

Looking at the device I smiled at Markovic's ingenuity for its appearance. It was a large round sphere representing the world with each country having the design of the currency it used. Still looking at the cameras I saw them stop moving, which hopefully meant that Ethan had hacked into the ones in this room, putting a loop from a few minutes earlier into the system. Hopefully the men watching the room wouldn't be that observant. I was quickly walking to the large sphere placed in the center of the room while removing a sharp, strong plastic blade from my bag. I was soon prizing Serbia from its position to reveal the internal structure. Needle nosed pliers were in my hand as I started to move into the internal workings. I stopped momentarily to stop my hands from shaking and then taking in a deep breath and breathing out slowly I delved toward the first of the circuits.

Four minutes later I was back in the blind spot watching as the cameras began to move again. I was numb just waiting for guards to come rushing in. I dropped the coat to reveal the, whatever it was called I had on underneath. Pulled the trouser legs of the jogging suit down to my ankles, pulled the heels off the shoes, lost the glasses and wig and pulled up the hood of the black top that I was wearing. My hair had been temporarily died jet black and straightened so with black lipstick on and dark glasses I was ready to get the hell out of here. The bag turned inside out which was where I stuffed the discarded clothes, and I was back to my dance of avoiding cameras to be able to walk to the rear of the building.

As I approached that exit, I pressed my ring, and then heard the sound of alarms going off. I could have walked out the way I'd come in, but Stanley didn't want me being seen back on the street again because we couldn't manage every camera out there, let alone the number of cops who were wearing cameras on their jackets. The exit opened and I was with several other people who had decided that exit was closest to them for getting out. Ten feet down the back street and I was inside a van that was advertising a painting and decorating company.

"Everything go as planned, Angel?"

"Yes, though having Ethan manage the cameras in the room really helped"

As Stanley turned left onto the street, I was waiting for what he might have to say about him being part of this.

"He's a good kid. He's going to give us a lot more flexibility with the skills that he has"

Okay, so now there were three of them accepting and trusting Ethan, seems I was even more outnumbered. As we travelled out of New York and started to head north I was getting nervous. This was the road that would eventually lead to Trenton and I didn't want to be anywhere near there. I pulled the hood down partly over my face and sank low in the seat a move that didn't go unnoticed by Stanley.

"The boat is tied up at the marina, Angel. Don't sweat it, no one will see you"

I was grateful that this marina was just out of Trenton and that Stanley avoided using the main streets. What surprised me was when he pulled off the road and stopped in front of some gates. I wasn't sure what he was doing and watched as he got out of the van and pushed the gates open and then pulled the van to a stop next to another identical van.

"No one will know that we borrowed it. Come on, the boat's a short walk away"

After closing the gates, we walked down a short alley to find ourselves next to the river. It reminded me of that time I'd talked to Lapira and then seen that boat. I never did work out what happened to that warehouse, I remember Ranger saying that he'd gone inside to find it empty. A shiver ran down my spine thinking about what had been happening inside there.

I turned and followed Stanley down onto a walkway that had boats tied up, really disappointed when he climbed on board a boat that looked very old and as though it would sink. It was an old fishing boat with the lines and nets sprawled over the deck but as I stepped onto the deck it did feel pretty solid despite the flaking paint and smell. Stanley was already inside the cabin and as I heard the engine come to life, I decided that I could help by untying the thick ropes wrapped around the wooden posts of the jetty. I joined Stanley as he steered the boat out into the river and it wasn't long before we were slowly moving down the river, the engine was slowly chugging, probably the current from the river pulling us downstream.

Leaning against the side of the cabin I watched the banking as we passed by. The sky was darkening as another day was coming to an end, but I felt relieved that everything had gone to plan. That someone had planted that EMP on Wall Street was mind boggling. Stanley had reckoned that if it had been activated every device in the area that used an electronic component would have stopped working. Every phone and computer and a hell of a lot of other things. The financial crisis that would have resulted would have been catastrophic. Though I still couldn't understand why Markovic would want that to happen. Okay, he was dead now, but when alive he was very rich and probably had more money hidden away. Maybe he held a grudge against the American government? All sorts of ideas went through my mind as I aimlessly looked out from the boat.

It's weird how your eye picks things up, because I was suddenly looking at a large boat moored up on the banking. There was something about that boat that was pulling at my memory, somewhere I'd seen it before. Then it came to me, that was the boat that I'd seen heading to that warehouse.

"Stanley, have you got a camera?"

Because there was just enough light to try to get a photo of it. I heard a cupboard open so turned to see Stanley holding out an SLR camera with a telescopic lens.

"What've you seen?"

I rested my elbows on the sill below the window to steady my hold on the camera and as I zoomed in on the boat answered Stanley.

"I'm sure I recognize that boat as the one that was using that warehouse where I found Ellie"

The camera was switched on so all I had do was start to push down the button. I heard the shutter opening and closing as I moved the lens across the boat.

"Get the number and name of the boat, we might be able to trace who it's registered to"

I knew I'd caught that but was too busy trying to see what was happening. There were men who looked to be loading boxes from the shore onto the boat.

"Slow up a bit can you"

Because it looked as though the men were all onboard and loosening the ropes, leaving one man stood on the dock watching them leave.

"Got to go Angel, before they catch up with us"

I felt and heard as the engine increased its speed cursing as the man on the dock disappeared. The boat had started to move into the river and was slowly catching up with us.

"Get below, then they won't see you"

I opened the hatch and carefully climbed down the steep steps into the galley. It was actually nice to be out of the cold night air and I picked up a blanket to wrap around my shoulders before sitting down on the bench against the hull. The boat was dipping and diving more now so I assumed that we were being helped along by the strong current, I knew that Stanley had timed it for us to be caught in the tide as it went out.

I wasn't aware that I'd laid down and fallen asleep but woke with a start. A look at my watch told me we'd been going for a couple of hours and would be soon at our next destination. Rubbing my eyes, I stood up, holding onto the side to keep my balance. I needed coffee so lit the stove to boil some water while I found two mugs.

"Thanks Angel"

Came from Stanley as I placed his mug in front of him. Looking around I couldn't see much, distant lights from the mainland maybe.

"What happened to that boat?"

Remembering why I'd gone downstairs.

"Ahead of us, see the lights over there?"

I could maybe see where Stanley was pointing to but to be honest, I was more interested in when I could get off this boat. I continued to look in that direction and that was when I saw a bright flash.

"Stanley?"

"I saw it"

I couldn't understand what it was until there was an orange aura where the boat had been. I grabbed the camera and steadying myself tried to find it in the view finder.

"Shit Stanley, it's on fire"

I don't know what I expected Stanley to say or even do because he seemed to be slowing the boat down and heading into shore.

"Aint nothing we can do Angel. I'd say there was an explosion the way that went up"

I sat down heavily as he said that, a cold sweat forming on my back. An explosion at sea brought back memories of being on Pavkov's boat in Istanbul. Ellie had been downstairs somewhere, looking at ways to disable the boat leaving me with that damn device, that to be honest looked like a rocket. I'd managed to remove the two circuits when all of a sudden all of the main lights had gone out and been replaced by a rotating red light and alarms ringing out. I'd made my way to the door only to find that it was locked and there was banging outside and men's voices shouting. I'd felt totally panicked being trapped and had hidden inside a bathroom that adjoined the room. I suppose being in there was what had saved my life because there had followed an enormous explosion. My immediate thought had been that the bomb had exploded, that maybe I'd touched something that I shouldn't have. My ears were buzzing from the force of the blast and the whole place had shaken. As I looked around the confined space I found myself surrounding by debris where the walls had splintered from the force, but it gave me the option of crawling through into the room next door.

I suppose that I'd been running on adrenaline by then because I hadn't realized that my stomach was bleeding from a long gash. Everywhere was filled with smoke and I could hear the crackling of fire working its way through the flimsy construction. Once on deck there were flames everywhere but no people that I could see or hear. I was afraid that this was going to be an explosion that I wouldn't survive.

"Stephanie. Come on, we need to get over to the plane now"

Stanley was stood in front of me with his hands on my shoulders and started to move me out onto the deck of the boat. I'd been so lost in those awful memories that I hadn't even realized that the boat had stopped and was now tied up to a buoy next to Stanley's seaplane. I took my bag from Stanley and grabbed the camera and was soon opening the door to the plane and climbing inside. Stanley had untied the ropes and pushed us away from the boat before he started up the engine. This was the part that I hated the most. The way that we bounced around on top of the water before we had enough speed to skim and eventually become airborne. I released the grip that had on the seat belt and opened my eyes, relieved that we were actually in the air. Well maybe not. Stanley wanted to stay under the radar, literally, so the way that he flew was fast and low, constantly changing direction. Ahead of me was 1500 miles that would take us nearly 15 hours with at least 2 stops to refuel. I wasn't too sure how I was going to survive that.

I slept, well dozed, admired the scenery, snacked on the food that Stanley had stored on board and read. Stanley wasn't much of a talker when he was focused on flying, much like someone else I knew when driving. I did think about Ranger, I couldn't help it. What Ethan had told me was worrying me. Okay, I knew he would have gone back to where I'd tumbled from the car, hoping maybe that I was just hiding. I never thought that he would scour the place for any clues. Hell, he'd met with Raynor and Markovic further down the road and allowed them to take the laptop from the car. What the hell did he expect me to think about that happening? What would have happened to me if I'd still been in the car? I couldn't have survived that happening, though I wasn't too sure how well I was surviving now.

I knew that Ranger never drank to excess so he must have been feeling pretty bad. Was that because I'd walked away? Or was it because he realized that what he had done was a deal breaker for me? Yeah, he had been more open with his emotions which to be honest I had found difficult to deal with because I just knew that I couldn't open myself up for fear of being rejected and hurt.

I wasn't too sure how I would cope if he never came back from a mission, that thought scared me, I never wanted to be the reason that he got seriously hurt or died. Maybe that had the strongest impact on me, that I was responsible for him thinking of doing that. In some ways I was surprised that he hadn't just moved on but then again, he hadn't when he'd thought that I'd supposedly left with Joe.

I was keen to know what he would find, if he ever did. In some ways I almost yearned to be with him doing that. I really wanted it to be someone else who had betrayed me but wasn't sure what to do if that came to light. Ranger might hate me for what I'd done but hadn't I told him that, and I was pretty sure that he wouldn't like what I'd become involved with or probably what I was going to be doing.

Whilst I hated getting back to the cabin and felt really cranky, I could feel myself relax as Stanley killed the engine and I got out off the plane onto the old wooden jetty. Maybe it was the fact that I was on solid ground, or the subtle sound of the waves as they lapped against the sand or the sun as it warmed me up. All I wanted to do was to get a shower and sleep in a bed, so I headed for my room trying very hard to ignore the look that Ellie gave me.

"Everything went as planned"

I uttered as I opened the bedroom door and went inside. It was only seeing the black water running down my skin that I remembered about the hair dye. I seemed to spend an age shampooing the stuff out of my hair until the water was eventually clear, by which time I was so tired.