Chapter Eight
E van had to make himself stay where he was and not follow Anna back into the women’s washroom.
Baz glared at him. “My Mom? Seriously?”
“The normal rules don’t apply,” Evan said. Keeping a grin off his face took effort. “I think she’s amazing.”
Baz ran both hands through his hair. “God damn it, this whole situation is fucked.”
All of Evan’s humor vanished. “It was all I could do to not strangle Ledger with my bare hands when he showed me the video of him shooting Anna point blank.”
“He was that close to her?” Baz asked.
“We were in a limo,” Brian said, as the door from the men’s room closed behind him. He’d cleaned up, but still wore the same clothes. “He was sitting across from her. I was next to her. He shot her between the eyes and blew the back of her skull off.”
“It was just this Ledger guy?”
“In the car, yes. Gerry Ledger, the Counterterrorism Coordinator for Homeland Security,” Evan said. “At the military base, no. At least one Congressman and one Senator, but they’re not running the operation, Ledger is.”
Baz grimaced. “If Homeland is involved, why aren’t we hip deep in agents and handcuffs?”
“I don’t think this op was sanctioned.”
“Shit, that’s even worse,” Nika said.
“In some ways.” Evan shrugged. “I’ve got Ledger on tape planning my murder. He likely planned to kill anyone who’d seen Anna and Brian.”
“Does he have proof?” Baz asked. “Of my Mom surviving a head shot.”
Evan grinned. “I blew it up and set it on fire.”
Baz chuckled. “Well, SOP for you then.”
“That’s your standard operating procedure for getting rid of evidence? What about cell phone pictures or video?” Nika asked. “That’s hard to control.”
“This guy is more than a little paranoid. He was on top of that shit, no devices allowed. Not that I followed his rules,” Evan said. “I do think he’s going to label Anna, Brian, and likely myself as members of some kind of terrorist plot. His first goal will be to capture and/or kill us.”
“He doesn’t have any respect for Army Intelligence. He talked about me and other soldiers as if we were expendable.” Evan shook his head. “He’s like the worst kind of politician. He believes his own press, and thinks everything he’s done and going to do is justified.”
“Okay, so Ledger is a problem we’re going to have to deal with,” Baz said.
“And those Italians?” Evan asked. “Are they going to try again?”
“I don’t think we can count on any of our allies.” Anna said, from behind them.
Evan turned to find Anna standing in the doorway of the ladies’ room. She was dressed in the same clothes, blood and all, but she’d put a light raincoat on over top of it all. She’d also put on a watch cap, covering her messed up and bloody hair.
She’d wiped the blood and soot off her face and neck.
She looked so young. Carefree, even sweet. Yet, he knew she could be as ruthless as any mob hitman.
“I’ve been thinking.” She paused and took a seat next to him. The expression on her face, serious and sad and spent, made his stomach clench.
Evan gave her his full attention. “Something tells me these aren’t happy thoughts.”
“No.” She looked at him and one corner of her mouth tilted upward. “There aren’t that many of us. One hundred and seventy-six, to be precise. The success rate of conversion is very low. Yvgeny found someone who has a much better chance of becoming one of us, but she is only one person. Despite that, another family tried to kidnap her. They broke treaties that we have kept for hundreds of years.”
“If we can talk to them, explain the situation in detail, maybe we can salvage the situation,” Baz said.
“Are you willing to risk your life on that?” Evan asked his old friend. “Are you willing to risk hers?” He glanced at the cop standing so close to Baz she was touching him.
Baz studied him for a moment before looking at Anna. “Is he right? Are we completely exposed.”
“Not yet, but it could happen at any time. This Ledger fellow has already told too many people. The thing they lack is proof. If they decide to force a confrontation where it can be recorded...” She spread her hands. “We’re hot buttered bread.”
“Toast,” Brian muttered. “We’re toast .”
“We have to get ahead of Ledger,” Nika said. “But it might already be too late to do that.” Her phone went off, interrupting her before she could say anything else.
She took the call, but didn’t move away from the group. She listened for a moment, then shot to her feet. “What?” The word came out in a growl. The tone women used to tell the man she was talking to that he was an idiot and an asshole.
Something in Evan’s pocket buzzed. He reached down and pulled out a cell phone. He looked at it and frowned. His commanding officer’s number.
He accepted the call. “Gunn.”
“What in the flying fuck is going on?” The tone in Major Marek’s voice told him that if he was in the same room with the man, Evan would already be wearing handcuffs. “You’re the last man I would have predicted going rogue.”
Across from him, Nika sucked in a deep breath. “That’s fucking crazy, he’s an FBI agent,” she yelled into her phone. “Why put a BOLO out on him?” The snarl in her tone did not bode well for someone.
“No, sir,” Evan replied to Marek. “Ledger is the one who has gone rogue. He kidnapped a foreign diplomat and an FBI agent, then told the FBI they both died in a car accident. I doubt he told the Slovenian Embassy anything.”
“So the FBI agent is alive?”
Evan focused on Brian. “Sir, I’m looking right at him. He’s tired, beat up, and more than a little angry at the situation, but he’s alive and well.”
“And he wasn’t helping the diplomat plan a bombing?”
“No, sir.”
“Ledger says you set off a bomb inside the medical building.”
“Did he also mention his plans to kill me and every person who’d had contact with the FBI agent and diplomat?” Evan asked, in his driest tone. “I have a recording of his conversation with a United States congressman and senator. He planned to make my murder look like I gave my life in heroic defense against a foreign terrorist.”
“Terrorism?” Nika scoffed, her voice carrying across the ten feet or so that separated her from him. “He’s fresh out of Quantico, he wouldn’t recognize a bomb if it fell into his lap.”
It looked like he wasn’t the only one being accused of bullshit.
“May I speak candidly?” Evan asked.
“That would be a refreshing change,” his commander said, in a drawl.
“He’s a few fries short of a Happy Meal.”
His boss grunted and gave his I’m considering how to kill you hum. “Maybe so, but I need you to come in and give your side of the story. I’m going to need your evidence to keep you out of jail. The accusations made against you are serious. It’s good news the FBI agent is alive, because they want him back.”
“What do Baz and I have to do with anything?” Nika asked, in a tone that would have had Evan backing up. “I’ve been at the precinct...”
Nika pinched the bridge of her nose. “So let me see if I’ve got this straight. Someone from Homeland Security showed up at the precinct and ordered you all to bring an FBI agent, a foreign diplomat, a cop, and a cab driver in for suspicion of terrorism. You know that sounds like the beginning of a bad joke, right?”
“How badly is the diplomat injured?”
Evan switched his attention to Anna’s face. “She’s in rougher shape than the FBI agent. Ledger shot her. She’s got a concussion, suffering from smoke inhalation, and has a few burns too. She’s refusing medical treatment though. She says she doesn’t trust us. That if one man can go crazy and do this to her, anyone could. She’s insisting on returning to her embassy in New York.”
Over on her side of the table, Nika threw her hands up in the air. “No, I’m not trying to wind anyone up. I’m asking some questions for clarification. Here’s another one. Has a judge signed warrants for everyone’s arrest?” She paused for a second after the question. “Go ahead, I’ll wait.”
“Well,” Evan’s boss said. “That’s what she would say either way, right? Bring her, the FBI agent, and yourself in. We’ll get this sorted.”
Evan paused, looking at Anna. “Sir, she’s terrified, and after what I just saw, I don’t blame her.”
“Bring her in,” his boss barked, into the phone. It was his I’m done talking tone.
“Where, sir?”
“The FBI’s field office in Manhattan.”
That sounded awfully official.
“Understood, sir.” He ended the call.
“No warrants?” Nika said. The change in her tone, from irritated to satisfied, caught his attention. “Then our hands are tied. I don’t care how loud he yells, we can’t just arrest people on those kinds of charges without a warrant. Especially an FBI agent and a diplomat.”
She paused, listening. “Oh, I’m a top suspect now, too? Wow, put me on speaker phone for a second.” A moment later she said, into the phone, “You want to arrest people on terrorism charges you’d better have all your Ts crossed and Is dotted. If not and it gets tossed out because you didn’t follow proper procedures, you’re going to look like an idiot at best and crazy at worst. Right now, you sound crazy.”
She ended the call with a snarl on her face. “Well, that might keep the lid on things for an hour or two, until Ledger finds a judge who’s feeling pissy today.”
“Can they track your phone?” Evan asked.
“Of course, me especially, since I’ve been kidnapped once already. This bar won’t come as a surprise though. Baz and I have come here on several nights after work.”
“We need to move then,” Anna said.
“Where to?” Evan asked.
“I know a place,” Baz said. He glanced at Brian and Anna. “So do you.”
Brian frowned and leaned forward. “The Hotel? Isn’t it an awfully public place?”
“Some things are better done out in the open.”
“Like what?” Anna asked. “We’d be telling everyone where we are.”
“It’s a shell game, mom,” Baz said, with a grin that made the hair on Evan’s neck stand up. “They might see us go in, but they’ll have no idea where we go after that.”
Anna sat back as if someone had punched her. “Yvgeny,” she muttered.
“Exactly,” Baz said, with a nod. “My slightly paranoid cousin plans for everything.”
Baz’s smug expression clearly said he thought he’d saved the day.
“So we disappear,” Evan said. “Then what? We can’t stay out of sight forever. We need to deal with Ledger and his cronies.”
“We also need to deal with the other families and their desire to get their hands on any of our people with potential,” Anna added.
“Wait a sec,” Brian said, putting his hand up as if he were in school. “What do you mean, disappear? I don’t want to vanish. I want to go back to work like none of this crap ever happened.”
“We’re going to have to stay one step ahead of law enforcement, the US Army, and Homeland Security until we can prove Ledger lost his marbles and went rogue,” Evan said. “This is a messy situation. It might take a while.”
Anna gave him a sharp look. “What did your commander tell you to do?”
“I’m supposed to bring you and Brian to the FBI office in Manhattan.”
Everyone stopped what they were doing to stare at him.
He only cared about one person’s reaction, though. He watched Anna’s face, studying the smallest changes in expression. But she didn’t hide what she was thinking.
She slowly raised an eyebrow.
A challenge.
A question.
He kept his face impassive. “I won’t be following that order.”
“What?” Baz asked. “ You’re not following orders?”
“Not this time.”
“Why not?” Anna asked.
“Because Ledger has gone off the deep end. He’s made the kind of accusations that often result in a person or persons disappearing off the face of the Earth. Our justice system isn’t built to handle cases where the government can come in, classify someone a terrorist, and in the interest of national security, hold them without trial or legal oversight.”
He leaned forward, almost into her personal space. “This is a case where we have to publicly prove you’re innocent before you’re taken into custody.” Evan glanced at Brian. “I think you might need to do the same.”
“You’re saying that everyone is out to get us?” Brian asked.
“Pretty much.”
“They might have to do that,” Baz said to Evan. “You don’t.”
“An order is an order. If I don’t show up with Anna and Brian, I’ll be the one who disappears.”
“Or you could just take a long time to get there,” Baz said. “Traffic is terrible, and you might get distracted by a good restaurant.”
Evan burst out laughing. “You haven’t changed much. Still trying to find a loophole or outright ignoring orders.”
“What are we doing right now?” Nika asked.
“It’s time to get rid of anything that can track your position,” Baz said. “Turn your phones off and leave them on the table. Then we’ll get out of here.”
Everyone followed Baz’s order, and they left the bar, their phones sitting in a loose pile on the table.
***
H omeland Security Secretary Matthew Ledger entered the hospital through a staff-only entrance and made his way with two of his people to his brother’s cubical in the emergency room.
He was lying on a bed, his suit scorched, torn, and blackened, with an oxygen mask over his face.
Gerry pulled the mask off as soon as the curtain was closed around them. “Matt, there is a very dangerous woman on the—”
“Shut. Up.” Matthew said. He gave his brother another once over and sneered. “You fucked up, Gerry. You fucked up big time.”
“But—”
“She is a diplomat and she was with an FBI agent when you decided to conduct your little experiment.”
Gerry closed his mouth and swallowed hard. “Someone blew up the building we were in. I think it was that Army interrogator.”
Matthew considered it. “That’s enough to arrest some people.” He smiled. “So go arrest them.”
“But,” Gerry began.
“Now, Gerry, before I arrest you for incompetence.” Matthew strode out of the hospital. Once in his car, he called his father.
“Gerry really stuck his foot in it this time.”
“At least we know the intelligence from my Italian friends is at least partially accurate. This is just the kind of foreign power influence and meddling I want to bring to the Senate’s attention.”
“Do you really want Gerry to be the face of this investigation?”
“For now. Some of the information we’ve received is too fantastical to be believed. If anything laughable becomes public, Gerry will take the fall.”
***
I t was a tight fit to get five people into Baz’s cab, but they managed by putting Brian in the back seat with Anna and Nika. Baz got them moving, but they hadn’t gone two blocks when a convoy of four black SUVs passed them going in the opposite direction. No lights or sirens, but they were definitely hauling ass.
“What did I tell you?” Baz asked.
No one answered him.
Police lights ahead were getting closer and closer. No sirens, but they were traveling fast, too. Two NYPD cars zipped by them first, then came a SWAT truck.
“They think we’re still at the bar,” Brian said, in a sad tone. “They’re prepared for a goddamn shoot out.”
“The FBI beat the NYPD to the scene,” Nika said. “Or was it Homeland Security?”
“Hard to say,” Evan said, looking for more flashing lights in the distance. “But I think the FBI have a greater chance at being able to roll at a moment’s notice.”
“You look upset,” Anna said.
Evan thought she was talking to Nika, but when he turned around, he found Anna looking at Brian.
The kid did look a little pale.
“That asshole really did it,” he muttered. “He really lied to everyone about everything.”
Anna studied the young man for a moment, then patted his shoulder. “I have learned several things about people over the years. Many of them are selfish, self-centered, and greedy. They will commit heinous crimes if they think they can get away with it. And they don’t deal with failure or rejection well. It’s unfortunate that we’ve run into some of them.”
“What do you do about it?” Brian asked.
Good question.
She smiled, but it was there and gone off her face so fast he wasn’t sure he saw it. “You carry on despite them.”
Brian’s frown deepened. “That’s it?”
A dangerous smile came to rest on Anna’s face. “Carrying on includes destroying your enemies.”
“Whew.” Baz laughed. “For a second, you had me wondering if you’re suffering from some lingering brain damage, mom.”
“Must you make a joke out of everything?” Anna asked, rolling her eyes.
“Yes,” everyone in the car said, at the same time.
Anna’s expression changed from annoyed to satisfied.
“Grab a phone out of the glove box,” Baz said to Evan.
Evan opened the box and discovered a half dozen cheap cell phones. He pulled one out. “Who am I calling?”
“The hotel. I need to let my cousins know we’re incoming and to expect enemy fire.”
“Do not start a fight in downtown Manhattan,” Nika ordered.
“Yes, dear,” Baz said, with a deliberately nasal tone.
“Asshole,” she muttered.
“I love you, too,” he said.
Evan turned to stare at the other man. He’d never heard Baz sound this...happy.
Evan cleared his throat. “What’s the phone number?”
Baz told him, and Evan placed the call. He put the phone on speaker.
“What?” a deep, gravelly voice said.
“I’ve got good news for you, grumpy,” Baz said.
“Your good news usually means bad news for everyone else.”
“I’d protest, but you’re probably right. I’m on my way back to the hotel and I think we’re going to get some high maintenance check-ins arriving soon.”
“Some of those are already here.”
“Ah, so the front of the hotel is crowded, and I need to use the service entrance?”
“If you can find it.”
“Thanks, grumpy, you’re a treasure.”
The other guy hung up.
“Where is this service entrance?” Evan asked.
“Somewhere unexpected,” Baz said, looking pleased with himself.
For the next twenty minutes, no one spoke. Brian fell asleep with his head back and his mouth wide open. As they approached Times Square, traffic slowed. It looked like there was a police officer, either in a car or on horseback on almost every block, to Evan.
As they passed another one, Evan asked. “Is this kind of police presence normal?”
“It’s not usually this heavy,” Baz said, the joking tone gone from his voice.
“The FBI is likely monitoring traffic cameras,” Brian said, sounding like he hadn’t quite woken up all the way. “Homeland might be doing the same.”
“We’re not going to be on the street for long,” Baz said.
“If they’re ready for you, they won’t need long,” Brian pointed out. “They just need to be close.”
They turned a couple of corners and approached Grand Central Station.
“Everyone, get ready to jump out of the cab,” Baz ordered. “And stay on my ass once we’re out.”
Seatbelts were released as they pulled up to the curb in the drop off area.
Baz shut off the engine, and they all bailed out of the car. He took Nika’s hand and set off at a fast walk.
Brian followed them, and Evan took Anna’s hand and brought up the rear. They entered the cavernous building and entered the flow of people heading down to the subway platform.
Out of the corner of his eye, Evan saw a police officer study them, then lifted his radio mic to his mouth. But he didn’t follow.
“Those high maintenance people are demanding attention again,” Evan said, loud enough for his voice to carry forward to Baz and his cop.
Baz raised one hand and flipped him off.
Evan couldn’t keep a grin off his face. “I missed you too, buddy.”
They kept going down until they reached the platform, then moved across it toward the far side.
There wasn’t much over there.
A sudden shift in the mood of the crowd, shying away from the edge of the platform and opening a wide area between their group and everyone else, put Evan’s shit meter in its danger zone.
He glanced over his shoulder and saw a half dozen uniformed NYPD officers moving toward them, their hands on their service weapons.
His stomach clenched hard, and he squeezed Anna’s hand tight.
“Police are gathering behind us,” Anna whispered loud enough for the others to hear.
Baz shrugged, but kept walking.
Nika glanced back. Her eyes were wide and her mouth pinched together.
Brian also glanced back. “Fuck.”
Evan took in a deep breath. He was in uniform and armed. He’d be the obvious choice for who was most dangerous among them. If he could keep the police focused on him, Anna and the rest could disappear into the crowd.
He disentangled his hand from Anna’s and prepared to create a disturbance.
Anna grabbed his hand back and resisted letting him go.
“Anna,” Evan said, using a tone that was harsher than any he’d used with her. “Let go. I can distract them.”
“No,” she said, in a tone that clearly indicated she thought he was an idiot.
The growing quiet was suddenly broken by excited voices coming down onto the platform. A lot of excited voices, and the language they were speaking wasn’t English. It was Mandarin.
A couple of seconds later, several streams of Asian people, each led by one person holding a pole with different color flags on them, threaded their way through the crowd. They took pictures of everything, and several of them rushed the police officers, posing next to and in front of them, while others took their pictures.
Several of them had clusters of helium balloons in their hands, but when they saw the police in uniform, they clapped in excitement, their balloons floating upward to the ceiling.
There were so many, the police came to a complete stop, and started shouting at them to move out of the way, but it didn’t accomplish anything.
Anna tugged on Evan’s hand, pulling him along as Baz walked right up to the wall at the end of the platform and jumped down next to the tracks. He moved off into the darkness of the tunnel.
Evan and Anna followed Brian, and they hurried to catch up to Baz and Nika.
In front of them, the sound of an approaching train made Evan more than a little concerned they were about to get flattened.
“Um, Baz,” Brian shouted, his voice tight.
Baz hopped up on a lip of cement along the edge of the tunnel and opened a small metal panel installed in the wall. He did something inside it, and a door popped open. He pushed it open and went through it.
“Oh, thank God,” Brian said, running to go through the door.
Anna and Evan were right behind him. The oncoming train swept by a couple of seconds later.
Evan closed the door, which clicked when it was flush with the wall. It didn’t have a doorknob. It was completely controlled by the panels on the walls.
There wasn’t a lot of light, just a couple of yellow emergency lights spaced out along the top of the wall.
“What is this?” Brian asked. “Another secret escape route?”
“Why are you surprised?” Nika asked. “You’ve known Yvgeny long enough to know he’s just a little bit paranoid.”
“This is the subway. He would have had to have been here when it was being built to create something like this.” Brian stopped talking just long enough to think it through. “Shit, he was here when it was being built.”
“You have a secret lair?” Evan asked, shaking his head. “Do you have a superhero name too?”
Baz grinned. “Yeah, I’m The Asshole.”
Evan laughed out loud.
“Come on,” Baz said. “It’s a few blocks to the hotel from here.”
They walked down the dimly lit tunnel until they reached a fork in it.
Baz pointed left. “Go that way and you’ll end up at the docks near the ferry terminal.” He gestured to the right. “This way goes deeper into Manhattan. There are a couple of other exits besides the hotel.” He took the right-hand tunnel.
“The city has no idea these tunnels are here?” Nika asked.
“They might show up on some older blueprints,” Baz said. “I’ve seen the ones the city has on their computers. This set of tunnels isn’t on them.”
“How did you manage to do that?” Nika asked.
“Yvgeny.” Baz pulled her closer and whispered in her ear.
Evan frowned and examined the walls, looking for any evidence of cameras or anything like another doorway.
“What is it?” Anna asked.
“We were seconds away from getting caught when those tour groups showed up. Were all those people really just tourists?”
Anna didn’t reply right away. “It does seem awfully coincidental and convenient.”
Ahead of them, Baz and Nika paused at another fork. But this time, no one said anything. They stopped walking, and Baz shoved Nika behind him. He snarled and moved so fast, he seemed to just disappear. Shouts and a crunch from around the corner made it clear someone was there.
Brian stopped and flattened himself against the wall.
Evan pulled his Baretta from its holster and switched the safety off.
Anna glanced at his gun, nodded at him, then walked far enough to see what was on the other side of the fork.
She took a moment to study the scene, then bowed. “What brings you to New York City?”
“We are here to help you.” A woman’s voice, Chinese accent. “As our distraction of the police, allowing you to escape, has proved.”