Chapter 9 – The Farm
Peter thought the school day would never end, but he was – finally – walking to the subway with Ned and MJ. This was their first chance to talk about what to do now, after their visit to Roxxon yesterday. Tyler had left them at 47th Street, heading to Nelson & Murdock to "do homework" and eavesdrop. Maybe he would hear something useful.
They were a block from the subway entrance when Peter felt the tingling on the back of his neck that spelled danger. He quickly glanced around them but didn't see anything out of the ordinary. Then a large black SUV with dark tinted windows swerved to the curb behind them. Several other motorists honked but got out of the way. As the SUV's doors opened, Ned ran into an alley just ahead of them. "Bad idea," Peter thought, but it was too late. He had to follow Ned. MJ ran into the alley after him.
Three men dressed in black got out of the SUV. They looked familiar, kind of like larger versions of the men at the reception desk at Roxxon. Much larger. They chased the three teenagers toward the end of the alley. The closed end. They were trapped. "Shit," Peter swore under his breath.
MJ squeezed behind a dumpster at the end of the alley.
One of the men caught up to Ned, who had lagged behind Peter and MJ, and grabbed him. As Ned struggled to escape from his grasp, the man pulled a piece of cloth out of his pocket and slapped it over Ned's nose and mouth. Ned stopped struggling, his knees buckled, and he went limp. The man half-carried, half-dragged him to the SUV and shoved him inside.
"Noooo!" Peter yelled. He started to sprint toward Ned, but one of the other men – the largest one – intercepted him. He tried to grab Peter, but Peter slipped out of his grasp, breaking the man's wrist in the process. Peter gasped, horrified at the sound of bones breaking, but a broken wrist wasn't enough to stop the man. He charged at Peter, swinging wildly with his good arm. Peter dodged the roundhouse punch, then darted behind the man and jumped up on his back. The man thrashed from side to side, trying to throw Peter off, but he hung on and began pummeling the back and sides of the man's head. Peter put all of his strength into a blow to the temple, and the man crumpled to the ground.
Now Peter needed to make sure he stayed down. His web shooters were hidden in the bottom of his backpack, along with his Spider-man shirt and mask, but they might as well be in his room in Queens. If he used his webs, people would know Spider-man was here. Maybe the thugs from Roxxon wouldn't figure out he was Spider-man, but MJ would. He couldn't risk it. There had to be something else he could use. He dumped out his backpack and spotted a roll of duct tape, left over from . . . something. It was almost empty, but there was enough left to secure the man's wrists and ankles and cover his mouth.
MJ screamed. While Peter was fighting the big man, the third man had dragged her out from behind the dumpster. MJ was already nearing the far end of the alley, kicking and biting her captor. Peter sprinted after her, but he was too late. The man slapped a piece of cloth over her mouth and nose. Like Ned, she went limp within seconds. He picked her up and threw her inside the SUV.
"Go, go, go!" he yelled as he climbed into the vehicle. It peeled off, tires squealing.
Peter ran out of the alley. He had to follow the SUV. He could stop it, if only he could catch up to it. At the end of the block, he stopped and took stock of the situation. As his luck would have it, traffic was moving, and the SUV was already at the end of the next block. There was no way he was going to catch it, unless he used his webs. But he couldn't use them as Peter Parker, and there was nowhere to put on his Spider-man shirt and mask without being spotted. Then he remembered the duct-taped goon he'd left in the alley. He knew where the SUV was going, but he would never give up that information voluntarily. Peter needed a way to make him talk. Fortunately, he knew someone who could do just that.
Peter ran back to the alley. The big man was still out, as far as he could tell. He pulled out his phone, opened his contacts, and found the person he wanted to call. "C'mon, c'mon, pick up," he muttered, fidgeting, as the phone rang.
Finally, someone answered. "Matthew Murdock."
"Mr. Murdock, it's Peter, you gotta help me, they took Ned and MJ, I need you, I mean, I need, you know, the other guy."
"Breathe, Peter, breathe."
Peter drew in a shuddering breath. "OK."
"Now tell me what happened."
"We were walking to the subway, you know, Ned, MJ, and me, and three guys jumped out of an SUV and grabbed Ned and MJ and two of them shoved them in the SUV and drove away."
"You said there were three guys – " Matt began.
"Uh, right."
"Where's the third one?"
"Um, he's, uh, he's here," Peter stammered. "I, uh, knocked him out and, uh, broke his wrist. I think."
Matt sighed. "Where are you?"
Peter told him.
"I'm on my way."
"You mean – ?"
"Yeah. Him."
Matt ended the call, then swore quietly. "Fuck." What had Peter gotten himself into now? Only one way to find out. He went to the closet, opened his father's foot locker, and took out his black suit. Good thing he was at his apartment when Peter called. He quickly changed his clothes and climbed the stairs to the roof access two at a time.
# # # #
Matt jumped down from the fire escape on the building at the closed end of the alley. Peter was about halfway down the alley, a large, unmoving shape at his feet. That would be the man Peter took out. Apparently the stories about Spider-man's strength weren't exaggerated.
Peter looked up when he heard Matt land. "Thank God, you're here!" he exclaimed.
"Keep your voice down," Matt cautioned. "There are people in these buildings."
"Oh. Right."
The man at Peter's feet moaned. He was coming around. Matt gave him a few light slaps to the sides of his head, then pulled the duct tape off his mouth. That woke him up the rest of the way. "Motherfucker!" he growled.
"Do you know who I am?" Matt asked, in a low, menacing voice.
"Yeah. Daredevil, or some such bullshit. So what?"
"Our young friend here," Matt said, gesturing in Peter's general direction, "needs to know where your friends took his friends."
"Go to hell. I ain't tellin' you nothin'."
Matt stood over him, his hands on his hips. "This is how it's gonna go. If you keep stonewalling me, you're not gonna like what happens. If you lie to me, I will know. You won't like what happens then, either. You're gonna tell me. You can do it the easy way or the hard way." Matt licked his lips, then added, "You decide."
"You think I'm stupid enough to tell you?" the man sneered.
Instead of answering him, Matt took a small knife out of his pants pocket and used it to cut the duct tape binding the man's wrists, then pulled off the tape. The man gave a yelp of pain when the tape came off his broken wrist.
"Last chance," Matt said.
"Fuck you."
Matt grabbed the man's already-broken wrist and twisted it hard. Bones crunched. The man screamed. "I don't think you're stupid." Matt said. "Stupid would be not telling me. Because I'm gonna keep doing this – " He gave the man's wrist a slight twist, then let go. " – until you tell me."
The man gulped air but said nothing.
Bones crunched again. The man's face was a bloodless white, his jaw clenched. Peter felt sick to his stomach. Matt took hold of the man's wrist again, but before he could twist it, the man began to sob. Between sobs, he said, "Please . . . please . . . don't . . . don't hurt me." Matt released his hold on the man's wrist and waited until his sobs faded away. He sniffed and took a deep breath. "I'll tell you where they are." He blurted out an address in the Thirties, near the docks. Then he sat up straighter. A defiant look crossed his face. "Fat lot of good it'll do you, asshole."
Matt grabbed the man's wrist and twisted again. He fell to one side, unconscious.
Peter ran to the far end of the alley and vomited until nothing was left in his stomach. Then he straightened up, wiped his mouth on his sleeve, and walked back to where Matt was waiting. "Did you really have to do that?" he asked, gesturing toward the big man on the ground.
Matt answered him with a question. "Why'd you call me, Peter?"
"To find out where they took Ned and MJ."
"Exactly. And that's what I did." After a beat, he said, "Now I have a question for you. Who are they and what do they want with your friends?"
Oh, shit. He couldn't lie, not to Daredevil. They were so busted. "Um, I think they're, uh, something to do with Roxxon Corporation."
"Why would you think that?"
"We, um, Ned and MJ and Tyler and me, we went there yesterday to find out what Mr. Robertson was doing for them. We told them it was for the Tech Times. That's the school newspaper."
"What the hell did you think you were doing?" Matt demanded.
Peter had no answer for that.
Matt frowned. "Wait a minute. How'd you know to go to Roxxon?"
"Um, we just, I mean, uh," Peter spluttered.
Matt thought for a moment, then said, "Of course." He nodded as if to himself. "It was Tyler, wasn't it?"
"Uh," Peter began.
Matt waved a hand. "Forget about it. I'm not asking you to rat him out. I know it was Tyler." He gave a short, mirthless laugh. "Sneaky little bastard. 'Doing his homework,' my ass."
"What're you gonna do to him?" he asked.
"Nothing. Just talk to him."
"You're not gonna hurt him?"
"What? No!" Matt exclaimed angrily. "Why would you even think that?"
Peter felt as if Matt was glaring at him from under his mask, impossible as that was. The prickling sensation that warned him of danger returned. He reminded himself that he wasn't talking to Mr. Murdock, his lawyer. He was talking to Daredevil. He had just witnessed a demonstration of what Daredevil did. "You're Daredevil. You hurt people. That's what you do," he replied.
Matt took a deep breath. "I hurt people, that's true," he said resignedly. "But I hurt criminals, people like him." He gestured toward the unconscious man on the ground. "I don't hurt the people I care about."
Even as he spoke the words, Matt knew they weren't entirely true. He'd hurt Foggy when he let his best friend believe he was dead, underneath Midland Circle. And with his secrets and lies before that. His secrets and lies had hurt Karen, too, ending their relationship before it began. Then he'd hurt her again, when he didn't try to rekindle their relationship after he came back. He told himself it was better that way; she'd only be hurt more badly when he inevitably fucked up, yet again. Besides, they'd moved on, both of them. Sometimes he even believed it.
Matt shook his head to banish those thoughts. "Look, we don't have time for this. I need to go get your friends."
"No," Peter said, "we need to get them."
"Peter, you're – "
He only got that far before Peter interrupted him. "I know what you're gonna say. You think I'm just some kid, but I'm – " He lowered his voice to a whisper. "I'm Spider-man. I can do this. And they're my friends. I heard him tell you where they are. Spider-man's going – with you or by myself."
Matt gave an exasperated sigh. "All right. Have it your way. But we're going together. And when we get there, you do as I say. Got it?"
"Got it." Peter said. Then he gestured toward the still-unconscious man on the ground and asked, "What about him?"
"I'll call Mahoney on the way, tell him the guy tried to mug you. The cops don't need to know about the kidnapping yet, not until your friends are safe."
"What if he talks?"
"I know who we're dealing with. He won't talk, not if he knows what's good for him."
# # # #
As Daredevil and Spider-man approached the address that Roxxon's man had given them, Matt had a sick, sinking sensation in the pit of his stomach. He knew this place. It was "The Farm," where the Hand incubated the "substance" in human blood to produce the serum that reanimated Elektra. It felt empty now. No, almost empty. He tilted his head and focused, picking up four heartbeats in the building.
"C'mon," he told Peter.
"They're here?"
"Yeah."
Peter followed Matt into the building. The ground floor was deserted. Dust covered the floor and the random pieces of furniture scattered around the space. Their footsteps stirred it up as they crossed the room. Peter smothered a sneeze.
"Quiet," Matt cautioned him. Peter nodded.
They reached a door at the far side of the room. It opened onto a stairway leading down to the basement. The stairwell was dark. Peter put a hand on Matt's shoulder and followed him down the stairs. The hallway at the bottom of the stairs was dimly illuminated by light from a room at the far end, enough for Peter to see by.
Matt stopped at the bottom of the stairs and took a deep breath through his nose. There were still traces of the stench that had pervaded the basement, from the caged people whose bodies were being drained to produce the reanimating serum. He'd thought they were prisoners of the Hand and was shocked when they broke out of the hospital and willingly returned to this place. He shook his head. No, that wasn't right. Like Madame Gao's blind disciples, they had been manipulated into following the Hand. They weren't willing accomplices. They were victims of the Hand, too.
From behind him, Peter whispered, "Are you OK, Mr. Murdock?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. Let's go."
They had taken only a few silent steps along the hallway when a man emerged from the room at the far end. He spotted them and muttered, "What the fuck?" Then he called out, Hey, Cal, we got company!"
Another man's voice answered him. "Fuck." Then he appeared at the end of the hall.
Peter and Matt rushed toward the two men. They met at the midpoint of the hallway.
Peter darted out from behind Matt and ran toward Cal, the larger of the two men. Cal unleashed a flurry of punches in Peter's direction, but the teenager's enhanced reflexes allowed him to dodge them. Cal yelled in frustration, put his head down and charged, giving Peter the opening he'd been waiting for. He lifted Cal and slammed him against the wall. The big man slid down to the floor. Peter aimed a punch at his jaw, and he slumped over, unconscious.
While Peter was dealing with Cal, Matt had his hands full with the other man. No Name was a trained fighter, but he didn't have Matt's skills. He telegraphed his first punch, and Matt evaded him, pushing off of the wall with a twisting leap. As soon as he landed, No Name attacked again, connecting with an uppercut to his jaw. Matt's head snapped back. Before No Name could connect again, Matt aimed a punch at his neck, but the man side-stepped the blow, and it landed on his shoulder. No Name stepped up and delivered a solid punch to Matt's midsection. Matt staggered and bent over. When No Name didn't follow the punch inside, Matt counter-attacked, landing a flurry of punches on the man's head. Dazed, No Name dropped his guard, and Matt unleashed a kick to the center of his chest. He went down and stayed down.
Matt leaned over with his hands on his knees, panting. Peter wasn't even breathing hard. After he caught his breath, Matt reached into a pocket and pulled out some zip ties. He handed them to Peter. "Make sure they don't go anywhere."
Peter nodded. "You got it."
Matt stepped into the room at the end of the hall. The cages he remembered were still there. Two of them were occupied. The boy in one of them – Ned, he presumed – was stirring and moaning. The girl in the other cage – MJ, no doubt – was still out. He felt around and located the padlock that secured Ned's cage. He pulled on it, but it was firmly locked. "Hey, Spider-man," he called softly.
Peter pulled the last zip tie closed and stood up. Matt jerked his head toward the cages. Peter left the two Roxxon men on the hallway floor and joined Matt next to Ned's cage.
"Can you open these?" Matt asked, indicating the padlocks.
"Sure." Peter pulled the padlocks apart to open them. He gazed at MJ in her cage and asked, "Are they . . . all right?"
"I think so," Matt replied. "They've been drugged with . . . something." He leaned over Ned and sniffed. "I don't recognize it. Probably something Roxxon cooked up."
"Should we try to wake them?" Peter asked.
Matt shook his head. "No. They're breathing OK, so it's probably better to let them wake up on their own. The boy – that's your friend Ned, right?" Peter nodded. "He's already starting to come around."
Five minutes later, Ned was awake, if a little groggy. Matt and Peter helped him out of the cage. When it dawned on him who was with Peter, his eyes grew wide. "Omigod, omigod," he said. You're . . . you're Daredevil!"
Matt nodded solemnly.
Ned turned to look at MJ in the cage next to his. "Is she gonna be OK?"
"Yeah," Matt assured him, "we're just waiting for her to wake up on her own." Even as he said it, MJ began to moan. "It won't be long now."
Ned rubbed his temples. "Damn, my head hurts," he said. Then he furrowed his brow, thinking. "Wait a minute. How'd you know about MJ and me?"
"Peter," Matt said. "He called his lawyer from the alley."
"And his lawyer sent you?" Ned asked.
"Right."
"But how'd you know where to find us?"
"The thug who tried to take Peter. I, uh, persuaded him to give up your location."
"Oh, cool," Ned said.
Peter's stomach churned as he remembered what he'd witnessed. It wasn't "cool," but there was no way he was going to tell Ned about it.
MJ stirred and opened her eyes. She gasped and her eyes grew wide when she saw the two vigilantes. Peter held out his hand and helped her out of the cage. She leaned against it, still a little unsteady on her feet. "Thanks," she said. She looked around. "What is this place?"
Matt answered her. "It's better if you don't know." He pulled out his burner phone. "I'll call the cops," he said, holding it up. "Spider-man and I will stay here, out of sight, until they get here. Peter and his lawyer will meet you at the 15th precinct." He stepped away and spoke into the phone in a low voice.
The call finished, he closed the phone and walked back to stand next to Peter. "They're on their way," he said. "We'll be watching, until we're sure you're safe." Matt turned and headed back down the hallway to the stairs. Peter followed him.
Brett Mahoney and a team of cops and paramedics arrived seven minutes later. When the two Roxxon thugs were loaded into ambulances, and Ned and MJ were seated in the back of Mahoney's unmarked car, Matt whispered to Peter to stay hidden. Then he stepped out from behind the dumpster where they had concealed themselves. Mahoney spotted him and met him halfway.
"Looks like our young friends weren't happy with the NYPD's investigation of their teacher's murder," Matt observed dryly.
"And apparently they decided to take matters into their own hands," Mahoney said. "Where d'you suppose they got that idea?"
Matt threw up his hands. "I had nothing to do with it."
"Yeah. Right." After a beat, the detective continued. "They said Peter Parker was with them in the alley, but he didn't get taken."
Matt nodded. "That's right. He and Murdock will meet you at the precinct."
"They also said Spider-man was with you. I'll need to speak to him, too," Mahoney added.
"He was here, but he took off," Matt told him.
"You know where to find him?"
Matt shrugged. "Not really."
"Well, if you see him, tell him."
"Not likely." Matt spun and leaped onto the closed lid of the dumpster, ending the conversation.