by Abbott, Jeff
But her demeanor was brisk and efficient and the apartment was spotlessly clean. The doctor helped him get Snow into a small bedroom stuffed with medical gear.
‘Outside,’ the doctor ordered.
‘It’s gonna be okay,’ he said to Snow. ‘I’m going to kill him for you.’
‘No. I’ll kill Schoolboy for me,’ she whispered.
‘I don’t wish to hear these promises,’ the doctor said. ‘Outside, please, sir.’
He realized that he could care about Snow. It was unsettling. He sat on the couch in the apartment and an hour later the doctor emerged. He had been watching the news accounts of the shooting - no mention of Snow or him or anyone fitting their descriptions fleeing the scene.
The doctor dropped a bullet in his hand. ‘Since you seem sentimental about revenge. She asked you to keep this for her.’
‘I’ll bet she did.’ Mouser closed his fist around the bullet.
‘She needs rest but she will be fine. Bullet in the meat of the shoulder, didn’t hit anything major but she’s going to be sore for several days. I’ll give you a couple of bottles of painkillers and gear to tend the wound. You know how to change a dressing?’
‘Yes, ma’am.’
‘I gave her blood. I keep a stash. Rest will set her straight. Good luck.’
‘Can she stay here while she recovers?’
‘Let me suggest a motel nearby. You can recover in privacy and I’m close enough to come tend to her if needed.’
He felt a surge of gratitude. This was why he was glad to be part of the Night Road; it had gotten him this doctor. Without the Night Road, he would have had nowhere to turn. ‘Can I see her?’
‘Yeah. I’ll get your goods ready. Then I will look at your leg, change the dressing. She told me you needed care as well.’
Snow lay in the bed. She seemed smaller. She stared at the ceiling. The room smelled of blood and chemicals and wet paper. He took her hand; she pulled free from his fingers, which surprised him more.
‘Don’t be mad,’ he said.
‘Schoolboy’s gotten away from us three times now. It’s embarrassing. He’s a nothing.’
He crossed his arms. ‘Did you have to kill the cop and the little freak?’
Her eyes, half-lidded, opened widely. ‘Yes. The cop was the greater threat. The little freak would have been stuck on us like a flea on a dog, wanting to be our new best friend, according to what Henry said.’ She put the flat of her hand over her eyes. ‘The nerve of that bastard. Shooting me.’
The doctor came in, clucked over Mouser’s stab wound. She changed the bandage and told Snow she’d done a good job tending to Mouser. Snow thanked her. They left and got settled into a cheap motel. The room was clean, smelled of disinfectant and the cable TV worked. He tucked Snow into bed, gently.
She watched him. ‘Don’t get all sweet on me,’ she said, sleepy from the medications.
‘I don’t do sweet.’
She gave out a soft growl of a laugh. She touched the back of his hand, tenderly. He didn’t know what to say.
His phone buzzed.
‘Mouser? Henry asked me to call you. We have a lead on your targets.’ One of Henry’s friends, another member of the Night Road, he thought; the voice was dry, Southern.
‘A lead.’
‘On Eric Lindoe and his girl.’
‘They’re in Thailand, according to Henry.’
‘No. They were ticketed on the flight but they were not, repeat not, on the arrival manifest. They didn’t get on the plane. No charges on their cards in Thailand, no records of their passports going through Thai customs. We cracked the relevant databases fifteen minutes ago.’
‘Where are they?’
‘They might still be in Chicago. No one’s looking for them there.’ Oh, yes, please, he thought. ‘Where in Chicago?’
‘They have not used credit cards. They could be staying with a friend. We checked Aubrey’s phone records and several of her calls are placed to a woman named Grace Crosby. I did a cross-check and Grace Crosby’s credit card was charged in Detroit today. So Crosby might have let them stay in her apartment while she’s gone.’
‘Where is this apartment?’
The voice fed him an address in Lincoln Park.
‘I can be there in twenty minutes.’
‘Call me when you get there, I can give you a gift.’
‘What?’
‘I can cut the power to the building. Another friend gave us a tap into the power grid. I can kill the power in the whole neighborhood. We mastered how to do this in preparation for Hellfire. Make the overall situation during the attack worse, you know.’
He thanked his fellow Night Roader and hung up. Wow, work as a team effort. Hope stirred in his chest. This would all be resolved soon. The loose ends tied into neat knots, the money in the right pockets again. Mouser leaned close to Snow. She was fast asleep. He risked the slightest kiss on her forehead. She didn’t stir. He headed for his car, the warmth of her still on his lips.
20
Luke froze in the darkness.
Silence hung between the three of them and then Eric said, ‘This isn’t coincidence. No way. You were followed.’
‘Me? No, I followed you. I wasn’t—’
‘You don’t know what these people are capable of,’ Eric said. ‘You’ve just killed us all. They found us. We had them tricked into believing we’d gone to Thailand.’
‘It’s just a blackout.’ It had to be. ‘The Night Road couldn’t control the power to a city utility.’
‘You’re an idiot. You found these scumbags for Henry and now you’re going to underestimate them? They’ve put major plans into place for a massive attack. Screwing with the power grid is entirely possible for them.’ Terror wrenched his words into a half-scream.
Aubrey said, ‘We have to get out of here.’ Now steel calm coated her voice.
Luke went to the window. ‘They can’t have killed the power to the whole neighborhood.’ But he could only see light in a distant gleam, several streets away. Holy God. His surprise was eclipsed by an immediate sense of danger.
In the hallway, they could hear rumbling, voices calling out to each other, neighbors hailing neighbors.
‘They could be waiting for us in the hallway,’ Luke said.
‘There’s not a fire escape,’ Aubrey said.
‘The ledge is wide enough - maybe—’ Eric started.
‘Are you insane?’ Luke grabbed his arm. ‘We’re not climbing the outside of the building.’
‘You don’t know what we’re up against. These people - they’re brutal.’
‘Let’s go, please.’ Panic now creeping into Aubrey’s voice.
‘Take her with you,’ Eric said. He went into the kitchen, rummaged in a drawer, and produced a flashlight. ‘They want me, they want the money. Take her with you. Let them chase me.’
‘No. You come with us,’ Aubrey said. ‘I’m not leaving you.’ She sounded outraged at the suggestion.
‘I can’t. I’ll stay here, make a deal with the Night Road.’
The money was key to the Night Road’s survival, Luke realized. It had to be, funds for a cataclysm far bigger than the train bombing in Texas. It couldn’t fall into their hands, so Eric had to come with them.
‘Forget it, Eric, we’re sticking together.’ Luke opened the door. Most of the neighbors huddled in the hallway, a few with flashlights. Luke heard laughter, the pop of a beer can opening, people making the convivial best of the blackout, not wanting to sit alone in the dark.
Luke grabbed Aubrey’s arm - she was the only way he could ensure Eric stayed with them. She didn’t pull her arm away as they winded through the hallway.
‘The stairway’s ahead to your left,’ Aubrey said.
His circle of light found the door. He eased the door open. The stairway was pitch-dark.
Luke had to assume the worst. Where will they strike? The stairways and hallways were crowded right now, and Mouser and Snow would want p
rivacy to kill him. The staircase would spit them out into the foyer. He pictured the small lobby in his mind - the staircase on the far left side, the old-style tile flooring, the dimensions of the room. If you wanted to ambush someone - it was close to a front exit. In the confusion Snow and Mouser could be out in the street and gone in seconds.
He stopped and Aubrey ran into his back.
‘Stop at the second floor - we’re not going out into the lobby.’
They went down the stairs and opened the second floor door and the hallway was empty.
‘Is there an exit to the back?’
‘Only through the lobby. Not from the residential floors.’
‘Stop,’ Eric said. Luke pulled the light toward his face and Eric blinked.
‘I’m going to talk to whoever’s after us. I’ll make a deal.’ Eric sounded confident again.
‘They won’t stop to talk.’
‘They will with me. I’m calling the shots, Luke. I’m sorry.’
‘Talk later, move now. Please,’ Aubrey said. Then she gave a gasp and in the disc of the flashlight’s glow Luke saw the pistol in Eric’s hand.
21
Waiting in the lobby for his targets to emerge, Mouser had not foreseen a big problem.
People with flashlights in a darkened building tend to shine the circle of light square in the faces of people nearby. They expect to see neighbors, and maintenance men, and they have a sudden bright suspicion of people they don’t know. Mouser edged back toward a column.
Two older women were standing in the lobby, miffed at the inconvenience of ruined dinners, and one kept pointing a light in his direction.
‘I’m sorry,’ she finally said. ‘Do you live in the building?’
‘No, ma’am, my friend does and she asked me to wait in the lobby.’
‘Who’s your friend?’
‘Grace Crosby.’
The answer seemed to satisfy the woman. ‘Well, they better get the power back on. We got half-cooked pork chops sitting in a skillet.’
‘Told you we should have baked them,’ the other woman said. ‘Oven would have finished the job, kept ‘em hot.’
The first woman growled in annoyance and agreement. But she performed a valuable service for Mouser - she flashed her light toward every entrant into the lobby from the stairwell, as regular as a sentry. So he would see Aubrey and Eric before they saw him, and they would be blinded for a second or two. His hand in his coat pocket held a Glock 18. He could kill the woman immediately, hustle Eric to a place where he could be questioned, and find the missing money. If the two elderly women got in the way, too bad. Darkness and chaos would give him cover enough to escape with Eric.
Then the job would be done and he could take Snow someplace safe. They would have their reward; they could start to reshape the world. Make Hellfire happen and begin to truly kill the Beast.
Sooner or later, his targets would come.
Ten minutes went by and they hadn’t appeared.
The stair door clanged again and the old woman shone light against unfamiliar faces and he knew he’d worried too much about extracting Eric quickly onto the street. Wrong approach in the blackout. He headed for the stairwell.
22
When Eric got the flashlight, Luke realized. Aubrey had a gun hidden in the apartment and Eric grabbed the gun when he got the flashlight.
‘Aubrey, come here,’ Eric said.
Aubrey stayed put. ‘This is insane, Eric. Just - stop it.’
‘He’s going to force my hand. I’m not going to the police. Neither are you. If he’s gone, we’re free.’
‘Free?’ Luke said.
‘They’re not here for us. They’re here for him.’
‘Bull. They’re here for Eric and their fifty million bucks, and he knows it,’ Luke said. ‘That’s why he offered to go talk to them. Unless that was just his way of abandoning you, Aubrey, and he was going to run for his own sorry life once he hit the front door.’
‘That’s a lie!’ Eric snapped.
‘Eric, stop it,’ Aubrey said.
‘Don’t you switch sides on me, Aubrey, not after all I did for you.’
Luke shone the light on her face and her expression had turned angry. ‘You’re an asshole,’ she told Eric. ‘I should have broken up with you ages ago. You are not a hero.’
‘Stop this, we need each other,’ Luke said.
‘Spare me the idiotic let’s work together sentiment,’ Eric said. ‘Aubrey. Move away from him.’
‘And go where?’ Aubrey stayed at Luke’s side. ‘Where are we supposed to hide? How are we supposed to live that way? There’s no rock quite big enough for us to set up housekeeping.’
‘I could have left you to die, Aubrey.’ All the warmth bled out of Eric’s voice. But it wasn’t replaced by anger. Luke heard anguish and bitterness. ‘I gave up everything for you. Even after you dumped me.’
‘Eric, it’s not too late.’
‘I killed a man for you! Jesus, you don’t get a do-over. I killed him.’
‘Under coercion. Under stress.’ Aubrey’s voice went soft, cajoling. ‘You could get everything back, but this is not the way to save our lives.’
‘Give me the gun,’ Luke said.
‘I know you’re a good man at heart, Eric,’ Aubrey said, ‘I know you’re scared. I know what you wanted for you and me. But this isn’t the way …’
Luke moved the light towards Eric’s face, thinking he could blind him, break his resolve. ‘We have to get out of here. Assume they want to flush you out of hiding, force you to tell them where the money is. That means they might be waiting down in the lobby, or the street.’ It wasn’t so different he thought, when he stole food in his runaway days. If you had to hide, you did not hide in an obvious place. ‘We need another way out; we need to hide where they won’t expect us to be.’
‘I have an idea,’ Aubrey said.
23
Mouser hurried up the stairs and as he hit the door the lights surged back into life.
The power company had overridden the darkness he’d been promised.
No matter. He reached the Crosby apartment, tested the knob. Unlocked. He opened it, scanned the room with his Glock, moved from room to room. A shattered glass, a gush of red wine, a fire extinguisher, blots of blood on the carpet.
The apartment was empty. They had not exited through the lobby; he’d have seen them in the windows as he approached. They must still be in the building.
So where would they hide? A neighbor’s? Unlikely - this wasn’t Aubrey and Eric’s real home, they wouldn’t know the neighbors. So they had to be on the roof or in the basement.
The roof would be a dead end. The basement would offer service exits. Maybe onto a back entrance or alley.
Mouser hurried down to the lobby, then across it till he found the basement entrance, and headed down the stairs. A faint red glow from the emergency lights led downward, the red gleam like a mockery of hell.
‘Trust me, I can cut a deal,’ Eric said. ‘I can reason with them. I’ve been planning on it.’
Of course he was, because he was treating the money like a bulletproof shield, Luke thought. ‘They don’t want to negotiate. They’ll force you to hand over the money and they’ll kill you.’ Luke pushed him along into the depths of the basement. Part of the floor was being renovated into ground-level units, but an open stretch of space at the back contained electrical equipment, a nesting of pipes and a set of industrial water heaters. The disorder created a maze of construction junk, half-walls and maintenance equipment.
The power surged back on.
‘Maybe he’s gone,’ Aubrey said. Luke reached to the switch and killed the lights again.
‘Let’s see if we can wait him out. Eric, give me the gun,’ Luke said.
‘No.’
‘If this is the same guy who’s after me, if he sees you with a gun, he’ll just shoot you. No time for a deal,’ Luke said.
‘I know what I’m doing. I’m keeping
the gun. I’m not going to let them hurt Aubrey.’
Luke heard a door open above.
They hid in the labyrinth of pipes, kneeling to the cool concrete floor. In their hiding place Aubrey was further back, then Luke, then Eric, close to the front. Luke raised a finger to his lips.
Luke listened. Hard. A footstep. Another.
In the trickle of the light he peered between the pipes and a black form passed between the far wall and a table of tools. Stopped. Listened.
In the thin red light Eric stood and came out from the hiding place and walked toward the figure. Luke went still. If he yelled he would betray himself and Aubrey. But Eric was already betraying them.
‘Hey,’ Eric said quietly. ‘Night Road?’
The shadow gave no answer.
Luke stifled the urge to run in blind panic. Eric was either going to save them or hand them over to this enemy.
‘I’m Eric Lindoe.’
‘I know who you are.’ It was Mouser. ‘I’ve been carrying your picture in my pocket. I thought I was gonna get a nice vacation in Thailand, chasing you down. How you doing?’ His tone was relaxed, friendly. ‘You look beat up.’
Aubrey closed her hand over Luke’s arm.
‘I’m okay,’ Eric answered.
‘Where’s your girlfriend, Mr Lindoe?’ Mouser asked.
‘She’s someplace safe. You don’t need to worry about her. She’ll stay quiet about this mess. But Luke Dantry’s gone.’
‘Excuse me?’
‘There’s an alley exit - for maintenance delivery - on the other side of the basement. He went out the door.’
‘Luke Dantry was here?’
‘Yes.’
‘How long ago?’ Mouser was already turning to run.
‘Five minutes. I doubt you’ll catch him.’
Silence again. Luke’s heartbeat rattled like wind in a chimney.
Mouser said, ‘You have a lot of explaining to do. You have our money.’
