Chapter 29 #2
Minutes later, we were pedaling down Pembroke Street having decided Sidney’s Pierce-Arrow was too conspicuous and waiting for a taxi would take too long.
Fortunately, we’d procured bicycles soon after our arrival in Dublin, recognizing their usefulness.
At one point, I’d followed Collins all over the city for random intervals for weeks, trying to locate Alec.
The clock was inching toward the ten o’clock curfew, and it would be far easier to dodge patrols on a bicycle than in a roadster.
Nimble had called to us as we were racing out the garden door that he’d left a message, so I didn’t know whether to hope we’d have reinforcements or not. Regardless, we still had to try to stop Ardmore if blowing up City Hall was truly his plan.
The streets bustled with people mostly on foot and bicycles, squeezing in one last errand or relishing the last drop of enjoyment from their evenings before hurrying home to avoid being caught by the Crown Forces for breaking curfew.
This both helped and hindered our progress, masking our movements from any followers.
When we finally reached Dame Street, we found it as busy as all the others.
The lights of the Empire Palace gleamed bright and several of the shops lining the street sported festive holiday swags and garland.
They lent an unreal quality to this frantic quest. All it needed was a light dusting of snow.
We stowed our bicycles in front of a tavern on Eustace Street and made our way closer on foot.
As near as I could tell, Dublin Castle appeared to be guarded as usual, bristling with a concentration of men, both police and military, around the Palace Street gate.
Our steps slowed as we drew nearer to the City Hall, but not so slow that they would be noticeable to the guards.
We hadn’t discussed a plan. I supposed neither of us knowing exactly what to expect.
Reconnaissance seemed to be the best first step.
However, our progress was soon hindered by the stream of cinema-goers now exiting the Empire from the last picture of the evening.
We were surrounded by a sea of bodies blocking our view of the City Hall and anything that might be going on there.
Not that their lighting of the fuse would be conspicuous, but someone might be loitering about, to give us some indication of their plans.
Then, I spotted Alec moving down the street toward us, glancing left and right.
I felt a surge of relief at the sight of his face and the men following him.
Not that his face was particularly welcoming when he spied us in return.
In fact, it was rather forbidding in the gleam of the streetlight, but I chalked that up to the seriousness of the situation.
A group of people veered into our line of sight, and when Alec appeared again, he looked like he was shouting something, but no one around him reacted nor could we hear him.
Perhaps he was mouthing it, but the dimness of the street between streetlights made it impossible to read his lips.
I shook my head in incomprehension, and he began gesturing his head vehemently to the side as if to indicate something.
“Does he want us to go right down one of these side streets?” I asked Sidney as Alec disappeared again.
“It seems so.”
“Maybe he thinks it’ll be quieter and less conspicuous to confer there.”
It was then that one of the faces between us suddenly came vividly into focus. Perhaps because he was staring at me with a spiteful smirk and a taunting gleam in his eyes.
“It’s Ardmore,” I exclaimed in alarm before darting off after him as he turned to stride swiftly into the mouth of one of the side streets. My only thought was to not let him get away. Not when he’d already created so much bloodshed and seemed poised to cause more.
I heard Sidney shout my name, but I didn’t stop, swerving between bodies and even jostling them aside when needed to reach the lane.
It was darker in the narrow street, with just a few streetlights illuminating its length, and for a moment I thought I’d lost him.
Until a pair of men entered a doorway and he appeared beyond them.
There were fewer people to impede my progress, so I increased my speed, heedless of the puddles dotting the lane.
Sidney called my name again and I could hear footsteps pounding after me, but I ignored them, fixated on one goal.
Stopping Ardmore. I’d been trained in how to bring down someone larger than me, and I was about to put that to the test.
When he abruptly paused in the middle of the street, I should have recognized something was wrong.
But I was too single-mindedly focused to think more than that Ardmore wished to confront me head-on as he pivoted to face me at the junction of a small alley.
I couldn’t see his face, though I noted his hands were tucked into the pockets of his trenchcoat.
I heard the roar of an engine, and then the headlights from a vehicle approaching from the alley cast a glow on Ardmore as his right hand emerged from his pocket. The light glinted off the cold metal of the gun leveled at me.
My feet skidded as I attempted to reverse course.
Time seemed to slow and then speed up as I heard the crack of the gunshot moments before a body slammed into mine, knocking me to the pavement.
For a moment, I lay stunned, my left shoulder and hip reeling from the impact with the ground.
I couldn’t tell if I’d been hit, though I didn’t feel any pain except from the fall.
When the body atop mine finally rolled off me, I realized it wasn’t Sidney, but Alec.
The squeal of tires heralded Ardmore making his escape as the motorcar raced away toward the river.
Shrieks and shouts filled the air around us as people ran away, no doubt assuming this was yet another republican assassination attempt.
They’d grown accustomed to fleeing from them.
Better not to be caught as a witness than forced to try to claim they’d seen nothing.
Sidney dropped to his knees beside me, grasping my arm to turn me toward him. “Verity? Are you hit?”
“I’m all right,” I replied. Anger and frustration filled me. Not only had Ardmore tried to kill me, but he’d gotten away. Again! I cursed aloud, berating myself for being so reckless. If Alec hadn’t knocked me aside …
It was then that I realized Alec wasn’t moving.
“Alec,” I gasped, reaching for him. He groaned as I rolled him onto his back and when I pulled my hand away, it was slick with blood. “Alec!” I cried more urgently, leaning closer to try to examine the wound. His right shoulder was damp with blood. “He’s been shot!”