She and Kat wandered to the railing overlooking the ground floor. From here, they could watch the equipment zipping back and forth, carrying stuff out of the way. The whole so-called raid looked tiny and insignificant from up here.
Just then, one of the forklifts moved another container aside, and Chief Bates waved up from the floor. "Come on down! We found it."
The friends hurried down. In the far back corner of the warehouse, they discovered the flat surface of a safe buried in solid concrete. It sat two inches lower than the floor to leave room for an electronic key panel. Three green lights blinked at random intervals under the number buttons.
Nate called over his shoulder. "Hey, Vinnie! This one is all yours."
A man in jeans and a flannel shirt elbowed through the assembled officers. He took one look at the safe and halted.
"Where's that, jackhammer?" Chief Bates yelled. "Dig it up."
Vinnie held out his hand. "I wouldn't do that. It's rigged to explode if anyone disturbs it."
Chief Bates spun around. "How can you tell?"
"This brand of safe always uses explosive rigs. It's their unique market proposition."
Nate jerked his thumb at the guy and growled to Blake. "Listen to this."
"How do we get it up?" Chief Bates asked.
"You can't," Vinnie told him. "It's impossible."
"Don't give me impossible," the Chief rumbled. "We're getting it up, and we're getting inside. We didn't come here to leave the damn thing behind. Get it up and open it."
Vinnie raised his eyebrows and puffed out his cheeks. "If that's the way you feel, I suggest you start at the outer edge and chip away at the concrete until you locate the explosives, the wiring, the pressure sensors—the whole megillah."
Blake guffawed, but when Chief Bates shot him a withering glare, he fell silent. Chief Bates whirled away. "You heard the man! Get to work tearing up this floor. Start at the outer edges and stop if you find anything out of the ordinary."
The heavy equipment moved in. Jo and her friends inched away again. Jo whispered in Kat's ear. "How can they chip away using jackhammers and backhoes? They'll blow the charges the instant they find anything."
Kat crept closer to the loading door. "Does the word clusterfuck mean anything to you?"
When the friends emerged into the open, they discovered Kingston standing nose to nose with Shirley Hawkins, the Soledad Police Department's legal representative.
"Do you realize the liability your Department will be facing when I get this warrant challenged in court? Did you think to inform Chief Bates of that before he destroyed my place of business?"
Shirley stood her ground. "The Department didn't issue this warrant, Mr. Kingston. We simply applied for it based on the mounting evidence against you. Judge Cox signed off on the warrant. If you succeed in getting it thrown out in a legal challenge, the Department won't face any liability at all. Seriously, you should study the law a little more. It would do you good."
He started to bluster again, but Jo didn't wait around to hear more. She set off to take a walk around the yard until the digging-out process ended. She elbowed Kat to ask if she wanted to come with her.
At that moment, a sickening thump caught her ear and she stiffened. Against her will, her eyes skipped over the horizon in search of the source. The blasted remains of the ship the chopper blew up yesterday no longer sat at the jetty. A yawning hole occupied that space, but the chopper didn't come from there.
The thumping noise got louder with every passing moment, but the bird still didn't show itself. Jo's heart lodged in her throat, wheeling right and left. Where was it? Would it burst into view and blast them all to smithereens?
Voices and engine noises came from inside the warehouse. The people working in there didn't hear the chopper coming. Was it really coming, or did she just imagine it?
She rotated the other way. The noise sounded right on top of her, but she still didn't see anything. Her heart smashed her ribs. Her hand flew to her sidearm. Part of her called out for the Dark Avenger to get her out of this, the way he did before, but he didn't come. Why should he when the chopper wasn't even here?
Should she go inside and alert Chief Bates? She glanced toward the loading door when the bulbous grey insect levitated over the rooftops of Soledad itself. It didn't come from the docks and warehouses the way she expected. It appeared from behind Main Street and rose out of the countryside behind the railroad tracks.
Fear gripped her insides. She wanted to hide, but the next instant, those emotions incinerated in a black rage. She lunged for the warehouse. "Get out! Everybody out! Run for it!"
Chief Bates rounded on her. "What the hell are you talking about?"
The telltale thump answered him. It vibrated the walls and everyone stood rooted to the spot listening. Jo rushed them, yelling her head off. "Get out! Everybody get out now! Get as far away from the warehouse as you can."
Vinnie bumped into her racing outside. The equipment operators drove their loaders and backhoes through the big door. One of the men tried to wrestle his jackhammer out of the concrete. Jo seized him by the sleeve. "Drop it! Run! Move it."
She shoved him toward the exit. She cast one last glance around to make sure everyone got out, and then she bolted.
The chopper swung low over Soledad and unleashed a rocket just as Jo ran clear. The missile spiraled through the still air and pounded into the warehouse's back wall.
The equipment operators scattered yelling. The other dockworkers gaped and pointed, and then they fled en masse. Kingston's legal team closed around him, and Julian protected his back, escorting him out of danger. Even the Police officers retreated before the advancing craft.
Jo pulled her sidearm, but Nate reacted faster. He leveled his gun past her shoulder and fired. The chopper's windowless face hovered over the Police Station well out of range. Nate's bullets glanced off its nose and ricocheted away.
Jo raised her weapon, but she could see from here it wouldn't do any good. The chopper swayed there coming no nearer. It released another three rockets that smashed into the warehouse.
"What the Christ is he doing?" Blake bellowed.
"Can't you see?" Kat shrieked. "He's trying to destroy the warehouse. He wants to stop us from retrieving the evidence."
She wasn't the only one who thought so. Chief Bates marched around the yard oblivious to the danger. He roared over the noise. "Get the SWAT crew up here. Where are the anti-aircraft guns?"
"What the hell is he talking about?" Kat yelled.
Jo shook her head. Chief Bates never told them about bringing anti-aircraft weapons to this raid, but that didn't matter now. A large black Police van trundled toward the open security gate. As soon as it poked its nose into the yard, the chopper opened fire.
Bullets peppered the tarmac in front of the van and it skidded backward. Every time the driver tried to veer around the chopper's fire, the craft adjusted its position to cut it off. The van couldn't get anywhere near the yard.
Chief Bates stormed back and forth, thundering at the top of his lungs, but Jo couldn't hear him over the din. The chopper angled its fire back at the warehouse.
A series of rocket blasts punched through the back wall, and a plume of fire huffed to the loading door. One more shot, and it would tear the depot apart. They could kiss their precious evidence goodbye.
Chief Bates rushed to the gate and bellowed something to the SWAT van driver. The vehicle screeched backward and whipped sideways. The wheels shrieked against the pavement. The van peeled to the opening in the fence where the railroad tracks entered the yard.
The van bounced over the rails and pulled up short in front of Chief Bates. A panel flipped open on its roof. Jo gaped in shock as a huge cannon levitated into view.
It rotated to aim for the chopper, but before it got a shot off, the bird surged forward and streaked for the docks. Its rotors escalated to a scream. The anti-aircraft gun pivoted, but it couldn't keep up with the chopper's pace.
The chopper soared over Soledad. It would cross the fence in a matter of seconds. At the last moment, it flew over the Lord Henry Hotel, and a figure popped into view.
Jo stared in disbelief as a man dressed from head to toe in black sprinted across the hotel roof. He took a flying leap that would have put any stuntman to shame. His arms and legs wheeled in mid-air, and he grabbed the chopper's skids.
The craft wobbled above Main Street with the Dark Avenger dangling from its underside. The chopper attempted to adjust its course, but the Dark Avenger's weight made it pivot out of line.
By the time it recovered, the Dark Avenger had consolidated his grip on the skids. He swung his legs and heaved over the bar. He scrambled onto the skid and turned his attention to the drone itself.
The chopper lurched forward and zoomed over the fence. It took a wild, careening turn around the docks and came back to pointing its weapons at the warehouse.
Several more rockets released from the bird, they spiraled over Jo's head and collided with the warehouse from the front. The last remaining walls imploded, and a colossal tower of rippling fire erupted out of the roof. The warehouse folded in on itself with an earth-shaking rumble.
Nate charged to Jo and grabbed her. "Get out of here! Get to safety before he...."
He didn't finish his sentence, as Jo stared straight up at the craft from below. Five rockets suspended from its pylons. The Dark Avenger climbed off the skid and grappled the side of the craft, but there was no cockpit to get inside.
Jo blinked up at the sight in disbelief. Nate still clasped her arm, but neither moved. They couldn't. The ground held their feet in an unbreakable grip. In front of Jo's eyes, three of those rockets detached. Smoke erupted from their back ends, and they shrieked across the yard.
They plowed into what was left of the warehouse, and a devastating boom knocked Jo off balance. She toppled into Nate and he pulled her toward the gate. Chaos reigned all around them, but the Dark Avenger commanded all her attention.
He wedged his foot into the side of the craft and launched himself onto the chopper's body. He climbed almost into the rotor itself, scrambling onto the roof. He crouched under the blades working over the craft on something or other.
He wrenched back his arm and a piece of the housing ripped off. He pitched it over the side and fished out a wad of wires. Nate gave Jo another tug, but she could only gawk in horrified fascination.
Flame and smoke plumed from the remains of the warehouse. The Dark Avenger straddled the chopper, and his eyes crinkled in menacing determination. He plunged both hands into the chopper's skin, and the craft whipped around fast. Jo took a second to realize what he was aiming it at.
Down the jetty, a black limo veered around the loading cranes and parked on the asphalt. Kingston's legal team hustled him toward it. They kept checking over their shoulders, but the chopper didn't move. It swiveled around and didn't turn back.
Kingston made a dive for his limo, and the chopper let rip two rockets at once. They coiled away from each other, crisscrossed flight paths, and slammed into the limo. The vehicle erupted in a devastating explosion.
Kingston and his people cringed backward. They looked behind them at the chopper hanging over their heads, but the Dark Avenger didn't target them. The chopper twirled in a complete circle with the Dark Avenger perched on its top. He cast a flinty gaze at the puny figures on the ground beneath him. Then he turned the chopper and flew away.
Silence descended over the yard except for the puffing whispers of flame coming from the warehouse. They died away and left a pile of smoking rubble where the depot once stood.
One by one, the Police officers emerged from their hiding places. The anti-aircraft gun sank back into its van roof. It never got off a single shot.
Nate straightened up and brushed soot off his clothes. He peered at Jo. "Are you all right?"
She nodded, but she couldn't speak. She stared, first at the ruined limo, and finally at the wreckage of the warehouse. Chief Bates strolled out of nowhere. He kicked at the debris. "Well, that was a complete waste of time."
A voice called through the smoke. "Hey! Take a look at this."
Chief Bates, Nate, Jo, Blake, and Kat stumbled through twisted beams and mangled steel to find Vinnie standing over something. Jo blinked smoke out of her eyes and stared down at the safe.
The same code panel sat in the center of a metal plate. All the concrete had been blasted away from the sturdy iron box. Wires and a few steel rods jutted from its sides, but no lights blinked on the panel anymore. It was dead as a doornail.
"Can you open it?" Chief Bates asked.
"Sure. No problem."
Vinnie took a hammer and a cold chisel out of his overalls. He jammed the chisel under the plate and hammered on it. The dinging noise echoed through the silent yard.
All at once, it made a thudding clunk, and the plate popped up. He pried it back, and everyone peered into the safe. Four manila envelopes leaned sideways in the compartment.
Chief Bates took them out and scowled at the writing on the outsides. He opened one and took out a sheaf of paper. "What does it say?" Blake ventured.
Before Chief Bates could say anything, Gabriel Kingston stormed up to the party. "I demand you arrest that man. He tried to kill me in cold blood. He used that chopper to destroy my warehouse, and then he turned it on me. You're all witnesses."
"We all saw what happened, Gabriel," Kat retorted, "and he didn't use the chopper to destroy your warehouse. He wouldn't have had to tear apart the wiring if he was controlling it. He was trying to stop it from destroying your warehouse. That's what happened, and that's what we saw."
"He commandeered it. He used it as a weapon against me. He tried to kill me in broad daylight." He rounded on Chief Bates. "I demand you hunt this man down and arrest him for attempted murder and willful destruction of property."
Chief Bates took his time sliding the papers back into the envelope. He raised his eyes to Kingston's face. "Only one person is getting arrested today, Mr. Kingston, and that's you. You're under arrest for pre-meditated murder and conspiracy to commit murder in the deaths of Arthur Christensen, Peter Boyle, Carl Everette...."
"What are you talking about?" Kingston snapped. "You can't charge me with anything. I'm innocent."
"Nice try, but it's all in here." Chief Bates waved the envelope at him. "You arranged for them to be working at the Trenton Warehouse, and then you set the building on fire. You might be a lot of things, but innocent isn't one of them." He sliced his forefinger at Blake. "Get him the hell out of here."
Blake took hold of Kingston's elbow. "Let's go. Your lawyer can come with you."
Kingston put up a protest storming out of the yard. Jo swallowed hard, staring at the envelopes in Chief Bates's hand. "So he did it. Part of me doesn't want to believe it's really over."
"It isn't over," he grumbled. "He's right about that vigilante. He took control of a deadly piece of military hardware, and he used it to target a defenseless civilian. I could turn a blind eye to his actions as long as he waited for these crooks to strike the first blow. I can't do that anymore."
Jo spun around, gasping out loud. "What do you mean, Chief?"
"With Kingston under arrest, you four won't have to work at implicating him anymore. I'm assigning you to hunt this crackpot down and put him away. Find out who he is, and don't quit until you bring him in."
Jo's jaw dropped, and her heart plummeted into her shoes. "But.... he helped us. He basically handed us this evidence on a silver platter. We never would have gotten our hands on it if he hadn't tipped us off."
Chief Bates only shook his head. His harsh, glittering eyes scanned the docks without seeing anything. "He's a dangerous criminal. He took the law into his own hands, and now he breached it in the most spectacular fashion. We got Kingston. Now we have to bring him in, too. Find him. I don't care what you have to do. Just do it."
Chapter 5
Nate punched at his phone. "I
just talked to Misty Swanson, the manager over at the Lord Henry. Ryder Mackenzie is still checked into his room. If we're gonna bust him, we better do it now before he catches wind that we're onto him."
The friends got up from their desks, but Jo never felt worse about being a cop. "Are we really gonna put this guy away after everything he did for us? We would be dead right now if it wasn't for him."
"Kingston would be dead right now, too," Kat pointed out. "The Dark Avenger didn't let him get away."
"He should have done us all a favor and stuffed a rocket down Kingston's throat," Blake muttered. "Then he should have flown off into the sunset and disappeared. That would be the smart thing to do."
"We don't know Mackenzie is the Dark Avenger," Jo remarked. "He's too smart to hang around town waiting to get arrested after attacking Kingston in broad daylight. Why would he stay in town and even at the same hotel where we could find him if he wasn't innocent?"
The friends talked in low tones on their way out of the Station. "At least we don't have to wonder anymore if Chief Bates is the Dark Avenger," Nate murmured. "He was right there with us while the Dark Avenger was climbing all over that chopper."
"He wouldn't send us to arrest himself, either," Blake pointed out. "That would be the height of stupidity."
"So why did the Dark Avenger target Kingston?" Jo asked. "He must have a massive grudge against Kingston to do something like that. We haven't established a connection between Mackenzie and Kingston. As far as we know, they're complete strangers to each other."
"Unless the Dark Avenger just wants to stop Kingston from being such a raging prick," Kat replied. "Maybe the Dark Avenger just took it on himself to put a criminal behind bars."
Blake cracked a grin at her. "You mean kinda like.... oh, I don't know...like Batman?"
Kat made a face. "This isn't Batman. He's just a guy with a sense of justice. Does he really need any other motive?"
"Yeah, he does," Jo told her. "A vigilante putting criminals behind bars wouldn't make such an ostentatious show of flouting the Police. Besides, he didn't have to blow up the limo to bust Kingston. He already did that by unburying the safe."
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