Chapter 14: … messed with the trajectory; secured;
Prompts: Race against the clock; search party;
Storm Sewer, Manhattan Island, January 2015
"How we doing, Lionel?" Kara stretched her back, over on the other side of the stream, opposite Fusco. He'd tipped his head over the top of the metal chair, grimacing with the sound of her voice. Didn't say anything.
"So stubborn." She paced for a few steps alongside the stream, then back. Glanced over at him.
"Suit yourself. But I don't think I'd let this go on too long, Lionel. A couple of cycles, right? Remember my warning… dead foot… I mean, you've already lost an eye. Is one man worth all that? Seems like too much to ask…"
A growl escaped. He hadn't wanted to react to anything she'd say to get to him, but it'd erupted out of him before he could stop it.
She waited a little longer, watching him in his chair, the one foot submerged in the stream. Her breath made a little cloud of mist in the cold there. Didn't seem like he'd had enough yet.
This might take some time. Stubborn fool.
Kara hopped across the stream and headed for one of the men, the one Fusco had called Pecdeck.
"His phone?"
He slipped his hand into his coat pocket and came out with Fusco's phone. She glanced at the screen. Of course, no bars down here. Her phone, either. So, no way for Reese to contact her, when he was ready to make a deal.
She tipped her head back toward Fusco, then back to her man.
"You know what to do. I'll be back," and she swung the phone at him. He nodded, and she turned around, tapping the setting for the cellphone's light, and then aiming it down the pipe toward the entrance.
They heard her steps and watched the bounce of her light, dimmer and dimmer, until it was gone.
Up above on the road, they'd moved the cars. Two of them – the van, and the one she'd driven. Could just about make out a glint from the headlights, in the woods across the road. Struggled up the last of the ravine and headed over, stamping the mud and the weeds off her shoes on the street.
Her tires spun a little in the wet and then grabbed, shooting her forward. Nobody out on the road yet, so she pulled out and sped off, eyes on the rearview mirror for anybody around.
Kara smiled. Wouldn't be long now. Something was bound to break loose.
Big-hearted Reese wasn't about to let Fusco pay. He'd have to come for him. Fusco was just the bait. She had bigger game in mind.
Never could tell how far up the food-chain she'd get with the right one to dangle.
secured;
Street-side, near the Storm Sewer, minutes later
GPS said he was nearly on top of the place.
Reese rolled along, scanning either side of the road ahead. Saw headlights, way back, in his rearview mirror. Slowed even more then and pulled a little closer to the edge. Scanned into the woods. Should be around here, close.
Checked the other side, too… Something…
Reese squinted. Too dark to see.
That pair of headlights was making good time back there. Getting pretty close now.
He reached behind him, left-handed, and pulled his weapon, resting it so the tip of the barrel was just below the bottom of his window.
Rolled the glass down. Just in case. Didn't wanna have to shoot through it, so close. And, anyway, it messed with the trajectory to fire through glass.
Headlights blinked twice behind him. Joey?
Seemed to slow, coming up; then, even slower.
Reese readied himself, pulling his head back behind the window frame. The car pulled up alongside him, and Reese glanced through the open window of the other car.
Joey.
Reese nodded and lowered his gun. Leaned out, closer to Joey's window so he didn't have to raise his voice too much.
"Pull your car around and face the lights into the woods over there. Think I see something." Joey nodded back and pulled forward then swung a tight left across the road.
The sweep of his lights caught something back there in the woods.
Joey glanced back to Reese, nodding, and then pulled his car around, stopping across the road from him, facing the opposite way.
Reese had already checked both directions. Nobody coming. Swung out of the car and met Joey at the back of Finch's sedan. Popped the trunk, and Joey grinned.
"Nice!"
Mini-arsenal inside. A lot to pick from.
"Made a stop on the way," Reese said, in his whisper-voice.
His Team had weapons caches all over the Island, and even out into Brooklyn and Queens. Could never be too careful. Didn't wanna show up at a gunfight with a pea-shooter.
They helped themselves.
Reese lifted a night-vision goggle and frowned over to Joey.
"Only had one. Here, you take it."
Joey grinned bigger. "Got one-a my own. Keep it," he said.
He headed back over to his car and popped the trunk. Came out with his own, like he'd said. And another belt of flash-bangs and assorted nuisance-makers for their assault.
"Better check that car in the woods, first," Reese said. They closed their trunks but didn't slam them. Reese crossed over to Joey's side and they headed along the edge of the road, until they were even with the car hidden back in the woods.
They'd checked their weapons as they'd walked, and now held them at the ready. Looked like the driver had wanted to get the van off the road. Hadn't wanted to attract any attention, like a passing patrol.
They crept up. Looked it over for any wires or obvious booby-traps. Glanced inside.
Nobody there. Joey had brought something along to pop the door locks. He slipped it down alongside the glass in the window and gave it a yank. Glanced out at the road. The light had gone on inside the van. Reese held his gun ready. Joey swung the door and Reese glanced inside.
"Clear," Reese said, and walked up.
They spent a couple of minutes looking through the van. Some blood in the back. And on the metal floor, a thick, dark button, like off a heavy coat – with a snarl of dark thread hanging off it. Musta ripped off the coat. Pretty sure it'd be Fusco's.
They closed all the doors, careful not to make any extra noise and headed back for the road. At least they wouldn't have to worry about a surprise attack from anyone hiding in the van.
On the way back, they practically stumbled into the ruts left by another car. Looked like someone had spun the tires on the muddy ground for a while before the tires had finally bitten.
The someone had driven off – so maybe they'd be coming back. The two men acknowledged and moved on.
The scene looked eerie in the green from their night-vision. Turned in where they saw some of the brittle weeds trampled, and followed the path away from the road, into the woods. Up ahead, something solid and rounded sticking up from the ground.
They closed in, and found the old stone archway over the top of the storm sewer pipe below. Running water, and the smell of it, wafting up. They searched both sides of the stone archway, looking for the best way down. A lot of the weeds and such had been trampled down over on the right. They must have gone that way with Fusco.
Joey gestured that he'd go first. Thinking about Reese's bad knee – and this hill was pretty steep. Not gonna be easy for him to stay on his feet. He got himself as low as he could in the weeds and started to pick his way down the slope. Reese followed.
At the bottom, they could see the open end of the pipe.
Joey watched Reese fit a clip-on thermal imager over the night-vision, and he stood by while Reese scanned for any hot body signals out there. Didn't want a surprise following behind them into the pipe. After a minute of scouting the terrain, Reese waved him on, and Joey started up toward the pipe. Reese kept scanning.
Joey heard a snap, like a finger-snap, from behind him and he stopped, instantly, crouching. Reese had stopped, too.
He looked back and Reese pointed back to his goggles with two fingers and then toward the end of the pipe. He lifted three fingers then. Three fingers up.
So, he'd picked up three bodies on the thermal, just inside the opening of the pipe. Crap.
Joey searched the terrain. No way to get to them without going all the way back up to the top of the ravine and down the other side. Couldn't be sure they wouldn't pick him off on his way down the hill. They needed another way.
He turned back to Reese and found him reaching for something in one of the pockets on his flash-bang belt. Came out with a handful of spheres with some short spikey legs sticking out of them.
Tossed inside an enclosed space they didn't roll very far, because of the spikey legs grabbing the surface. Didn't make much noise, either. Filled with a colorless gas that'd bring down a few enemy soldiers, they were meant to be set off remotely, a safe distance away.
Just the ticket. Someone just had to get close enough to toss them inside.
Reese had started forward with them, but Joey stopped him. He shook his finger "no" and pointed back to himself. He'd go. Held his hands out toward Reese, and Reese dumped the little spheres into his. Joey nodded his head at Reese and turned back to the pipe.
Decided he'd bear left, bringing him back into the weeds on the hillside that ran all the way to the stonework surrounding the end of the pipe. A much better angle to keep them from seeing him. Through his own goggles he could see they weren't wearing any themselves. Long guns and other assorted nastiness nearby, but no goggles or helmets.
He and Reese had no idea how far inside the pipe they were keeping Fusco, so it was crucial to keep the noise to a minimum if they wanted to maintain the element of surprise for themselves, later on. Take out this nest of bad boys and keep going.
He stayed low, using the old, dry weeds to shield him. Glanced back to Reese every little while. Saw him hand-signal to keep moving.
Kept on until he was nearly an arm's length away from the stone. He knelt down and turned back to Reese. Had his hand pointing straight up while he scanned the space one more time before the breach.
Then he dropped his hand, wagging it forward – Joey's signal to go. He lifted himself just a bit and double-timed to the stone, glanced in front of it, and then tossed the spheres inside, close to where they were in there. The noise from the stream might even help.
He swung back behind the stone, uphill from the opening and whipped his head around.
Reese had the detonator in his hand and Joey saw him punch it; and nothing…
No big boom or flash. Just what was supposed to happen. Nothing.
Until they'd started dropping, right where they were in there.
He couldn't see, so he'd have to depend on a signal from Reese. Heard a muffled thud, maybe a second. Couldn't be sure about anything more. Reese was straining to get a good look. He'd started up, walking toward the pipe.
Joey slid down through the tall grass next to the stone side, and then up onto his feet. Raised a mask over his nose and mouth for the gas, and raised his weapon, hoping he wouldn't need it.
Quick-glanced around the stone side. Nobody there ready to shoot him.
Once more. Nobody.
Committed a little more, going around the corner - in front of the stone arch - and glanced inside. Exhaled. Three down.
Joey turned back to Reese and signaled three down with his hand. By the time he'd rounded the corner and stepped inside, Reese was there at his side, sighting down the pipe with his gear.
They kept their masks in place while they gathered the three and laid them out.
Wound plenty of duct tape around their hands, behind them; plenty more around their ankles, one ankle latched over the top of the other before they got taped; and more for their faces – eyes and mouths.
Once they'd been packaged-up pretty, Joey slid them out of the end of the tunnel and around to the far side.
Found a piece of pipe to tape them to – lots more windings for that.
Ran out of tape on that roll, but the three were secured, now.
Time to go find Fusco.