The Boathouse Alley – 6 AM
It had to be close to morning now. Logan guessed that he had arrived at the boathouse at about six o'clock the night before. Usually, the good citizens of Seattle left the waterfront alone at night, but the hail of gunfire would have roused even the sleepiest neighbor. The police would be here soon. The nightmare would be over soon and he could make sure Eva was all right.
Logan reached out for the handle of the small metal door and pushed open the door slowly. At first, Logan noticed only the heady smell of fresh paint. The pre-dawn light cast only a faint light over the alley, but it was enough for Logan to make out the grisly scene. The overturned wheelchair lay with Tim's body sprawled awkwardly beside it. Thick red and blue stripes had been painted on the ground, with one eye sketched in white. Where the other eye should have been, the body lay. Unbidden, the familiar message came into his head.
"This is a streaming freedom video bulletin. The cable hack will last exactly sixty seconds"
Someone with a dubious sense of humor had scrawled the next line, "It cannot be…" above the stripes.
If there had been any doubt that this maniac wanted to destroy Eyes Only, the doubt had been banished by the scene in front of him. It would be clear to the people that Eyes Only had been brutally murdered, his body left as a sign that their protector was gone. Logan gripped the metal door, intending to push himself out of the narrow chute, but the sight before him made him hesitate.
Yeah, sure. If he climbed out of this tunnel into the waiting arms of the police, the nightmare would be over…for now. But the ruse would be up. When the police saw him and realized he was the real owner of the wheelchair, it would be inevitable that they'd connect him to Eyes Only. Vann's boss would eventually figure out that he was still alive. Even though the Seattle PD had cleaned itself up over the past few years, there were still plenty of crooked cops who didn't necessarily appreciate Eyes Only's good deeds. Somehow, Vann's boss would find out he'd been played. And he didn't seem to be the sort of man who appreciated being fooled
Should he let the switch play itself out a little while longer? Maybe he could buy a little more time for Eyes Only and for Max and Eva. He just wished he could get a message to Cindy or Alec or Sebastian. The news hover drones would be here soon. Maybe even Max would see a report. How was he going to contact them?
In the distance, he could hear police sirens. It was now or never.
"Damn." Logan pulled his head back into the tunnel. He yanked the door shut a second time as the sirens drew closer. Logan leaned his forehead against the cold metal door. "Damn, I could almost feel that hot shower I had coming."
He backed himself deeper into the tunnel, pulling his jacket over his head. Just as the first cop cars pulled up, a light drizzle began to fall. Logan settled in for a long day of waiting.
The first cops to respond to the anonymous tip had strolled up casually. They were brought up short by the apparent murder scene of the great Eyes Only. Within a half hour, a dozen investigators and detectives descended on the alley, collecting evidence. The medical examiner knelt next to the body reverently.
"Do you think this is the real Eyes Only?" the nearest detective asked.
"Looks to be about the right age, but I don't even think we'll be able to identify him without dental records. Whoever gunned him down did it at close range and didn't leave us too much to go on. This chair's seen a lot of use, so he's been in it for a while anyway," the doctor sighed.
Logan could only hear snippets of the conversation through the metal door. After a while, the whine of the hover drones announced the arrival of the media. The rain fell steadily and the welcome draft of fresh air which blew in around the door became a chill wind. Logan felt his eyelids drooping and he drifted into a restless sleep.