Chapter 8 – Undercover, Part Four

Matt

Matt waited a couple of days before passing on the information about the drug operation on 50th Street. He doubted anyone would connect Mike Murphy and Daredevil, but it was safer to be sure the distributor was gone before Vanessa made a move. He was trying to be careful, even if Foggy and Karen didn't believe him. When he passed on the information, he didn't ask for the details of what Vanessa was going to do, and he avoided that block of West 50th Street when he went out as Daredevil. He found out that Vanessa had taken out the operation at the same time everyone else in the office did, when he came to work the morning after the attack. Everyone was talking about it, albeit in hushed tones. Owlsley was raging, again, but this time there seemed to be no question about the identity of the rat. Suspicion immediately fell on the distributor who had left the city a couple of days before the location was hit. So far, Owlsley's men had failed to find him. Matt kept his fingers crossed that they wouldn't.

In the meantime, Matt had other problems. Owlsley wasn't satisfied with eliminating the men he thought had ratted him out. There was talk around the office that Owlsley was planning something big, to take out Vanessa's organization once and for all, but no one seemed to know the details, and Matt didn't yet have the access to be privy to the boss's plans. That was both a curse and a blessing; a curse, because he couldn't get the information he needed to stop the operation, and a blessing, because he was less likely to come under suspicion.

His opportunity finally came one evening, when he was pretending to work late, and Tommy Greco was holding a meeting with the men he'd tapped to lead the operation against Vanessa. By this time, Greco was so accustomed to Matt's habit of "working late" that the security chief barely noticed his presence. Matt abandoned any pretense of working and listened to them discuss the plan. The more he heard, the more alarmed he became. Owlsley wasn't messing around. He was going after Vanessa. The plan was simple: invade the art gallery during an opening, kidnap Vanessa, make her talk, then kill her. Matt tried not to think about what they would do to get her to talk. One thing was certain: she would resist at first, but in the end, she'd talk. Everyone did.

As soon as he heard Greco and the other men leave, Matt closed the file he had been pretending to work on. Then he listened, making sure they were gone. When he was certain they had departed, he headed for Mike's apartment, stopping only to buy a new burner phone. He needed it to warn Foggy and Karen. When he arrived on the eighth floor, he didn't go to his own apartment. Instead, he knocked on the door of 8A. Mandy admitted him without hesitating, apparently picking up on his sense of urgency. He started talking as soon as she closed the door.

"Oh, shit," Mandy breathed when he was finished.

"Yep."

"I'll let her know. We'll take care of it."

"OK." Matt didn't ask her to let him know what Vanessa's people were going to do. It was better if he didn't know.

By the time the eighth floor was quiet, it was after midnight. Matt slipped out of his apartment and into the stairwell and ascended to the roof. There he pulled out the burner phone and called Foggy.

"Uh, h'lo?" Foggy sounded more than half-asleep. Damn, he must've awakened him.

"Hey, Foggy."

"Matt?" Foggy sounded more awake now. "Are you OK?"

"I'm fine. I just need you to do something."

"OK."

"You need to find someplace safe, out of the city, and go there. You and Marci and Karen."

"What the hell, Matt?" Foggy was fully awake now.

Matt had spent a good part of the evening debating how much to tell Foggy. Finally, he realized he had to tell Foggy the whole story. Foggy needed to keep himself, Karen, and Marci safe. He couldn't do that if Matt kept him in the dark about what they were facing. He took a deep breath and said, "Owlsley's going after Vanessa. He's planning to kidnap her and make her talk, then kill her. Owlsley thinks she has someone working for her who's been sabotaging his operations."

"He's not wrong about that," Foggy observed.

"No, he's not," Matt agreed grimly. "If Owlsley grabs her, it's only a matter of time before she talks. If she gives me up – and she will, sooner or later – Owlsley won't only come after me, he'll come for you, too."

Foggy thought out loud. "The flash drive you gave Karen."

"Vanessa doesn't know I gave a copy to Karen, but it doesn't matter. Owlsley will assume you know something, because of your connection to me. He won't leave any loose ends."

"Damn," Foggy swore, then fell silent.

"You still there, buddy?" Matt asked after a couple of minutes of silence from his friend.

"Yeah, just thinking," Foggy replied. "When did you say this was going down?"

"I didn't, but it's two nights from now. Vanessa's having an opening at her gallery. They're going to hit it then."

"Shit, I got a trial starting the morning after that."

"So get a continuance."

"Easy for you to say. We drew Vargas," Foggy said, naming a judge who was well-known for his dislike of continuances. "And it's not as if I can tell him what's really going on."

"You'll figure it out," Matt assured him. "I have faith in your powers of persuasion."

"Thanks for nothin'," Foggy replied sarcastically. After a moment, he continued, "I'm thinking, I know a place – "

Matt was quick to interrupt him. "No. Don't tell me. It's best if I don't know where you are. And don't take your phones or anything else that could be used to track you."

"But how will we know when it's safe to come back?"

"You'll know. Just watch the news."

"And if Owlsley gets Vanessa . . . ?"

"Run. And keep running."

"What about you?"

"If Owlsley gets Vanessa," Matt told him, "there's nothing you can do for me. Just make sure you, Karen, and Marci are safe."

"But, Matt," Foggy protested, "we can't just leave you."

"You can, and you will. Look, it's basically a precaution. I'm guessing Owlsley won't get Vanessa. She knows he's coming for her. Her people will be waiting for him. But I'm not taking any chances with your safety." He hoped he sounded more confident than he was.

Foggy sighed, loudly enough that Matt thought he probably could have heard it without a phone. "All right. I've got a lot to do. I better get started. Just be careful, will you?"

"See you on the other side," Matt replied, and ended the call, hoping that wasn't the last time he heard Foggy's voice.

Before he went back inside, he smashed the phone and picked up the pieces. He'd get rid of them on the way to work in the morning.

Two nights later, Daredevil took up a position on the roof of a building across the street and two doors down from the building that housed Vanessa's gallery. It was several stories higher than the gallery building, giving his senses an unobstructed "view" of what was happening at the gallery. It had been a long two days, staying in his lane as "Mike Murphy" while making sure the plans for the operation hadn't changed and trying not to think about what would happen if his cover was blown. Now it was time. Whatever was going to happen, would happen.

He had arrived at his location early; the plans he'd overheard hadn't mentioned the time of the attack. The opening at the gallery was still going strong when he got there, but he doubted Owlsley would care about the danger to innocent bystanders. Now people were starting to trickle out of the building, a few at a time. Good. Finally, a few stragglers departed, and he heard the door closing and the click of a lock. Not long after that, two large vehicles pulled up in front of the gallery and stopped, their engines running. Men got out and rushed the building. The glass in the entry doors shattered. Matt heard the "splat!" of silenced gunfire, accompanied by screams and groans. Suddenly, all was quiet. Footsteps ran out of the building, toward the two vehicles. The men's curses floated up to where Matt stood.

"What the fuck was that?"

"A damn shit show!"

"Son of a bitch!"

"Motherfuckers!"

"Shut your fucking mouths!" Matt recognized the last voice: Tommy Greco.

The men piled into the two vehicles. Greco yelled, "Go, go, go!" They peeled away and drove off at high speed. Matt couldn't tell if Vanessa was with them; they were too far away for him to hear individual heartbeats. He heard sirens approaching. Time to go.

When he got back to Mike's apartment, he listened to the news reports on the attack. They were calling it an attempted invasion-style robbery, foiled by the gallery's security men. One of the attackers, not named, had been fatally shot. Vanessa was mentioned only as the owner of the gallery. There was no word on what happened to her during the attack. This was not necessarily reassuring. If she had been kidnapped, the NYPD might be keeping a lid on the news.

After a few hours of restless sleep, Matt dragged himself out of bed. Mike needed to show up at the office as usual today. Especially today. He was drinking coffee when someone knocked on his door. His heart raced as his adrenaline spiked. As he approached the door, he heard the person's heartbeat and relaxed a bit.

He took a deep breath and asked, "Who is it?"

The reply confirmed what he already knew. "Mandy."

He opened the door and stepped back to let her in. "Hey, Mandy."

She followed him into the living room and sat down. "I thought you'd want to know what went down last night." He nodded. "Vanessa's safe. She wasn't even there."

He raised his eyebrows. "Really?"

"Yeah, they took her to a safe house, I don't know where," Mandy confirmed. "The artist was pissed she wasn't there for his opening, but he'll get over it. They told him she was sick, or some such bullshit."

He let out his breath. "Coffee?" he asked, raising his cup.

"No, thanks, I should get back."

"OK. And thanks for letting me know." He stood up to walk her to the door. Then something occurred to him. "Tell them, uh, tell Vanessa's people, she needs to stay at the safe house. Owlsley will try again."

Mandy nodded. "Understood. But you have to make your move against Owlsley, and soon. They won't be able to keep her there indefinitely."

"Got it," he said as she walked out the door.

The office was buzzing when Matt arrived that morning. He could hear the hum of people's lowered voices even before he stepped out of the elevator. He didn't bother to try to pick up their words. He knew what everyone was talking about: last night's failed attempt. There was something else, too: an undercurrent of fear. He could sense it in people's elevated heart rates, the breathlessness of their voices, and the acrid odor of stress sweat. He stopped in the elevator lobby, inclining his head in the direction of Owlsley's corner suite. He wasn't there. Nor were Callahan and Greco. No wonder people were fearful.

It was a long three days before Owlsley, Callahan, and Greco appeared at the office. Matt couldn't help wondering if Greco remembered that he'd been working late, the night they planned the attack on the gallery. Even if Greco remembered, he told himself, there was no way Greco would suspect Matt had heard them. Or was there? One afternoon, he paced off the distance between his desk and the meeting room. He thought it was too far for anyone with normal hearing to hear what was being said in the meeting room, but he wasn't sure. He didn't really remember what it was like to have "normal" hearing. He supposed he'd find out soon enough if they suspected him. In the meantime, if he wasn't going to abandon the mission – and he wasn't – all he could do his keep his head down and do his job.

Two days after Owlsley's return, someone stopped at Matt's desk.

"Yo, Murphy." A man's voice. He didn't recognize it. "Boss wants you in his office. Now."