“For propaganda purposes,” Malovo had explained.
Thanks to Malovo’s information, they’d been able to identify Ghilzai and Akhund; knew where the accomplice (who’d since been arrested) had hidden the weapons, which had been exchanged for harmless fakes; and were waiting for Ghilzai to pass the word to proceed to the others when the ferry started to leave the dock.
Originally, they had considered remaining on the regular ferry and continuing with the journey, inviting attack even with the tourists aboard, so that the waiting terrorists would not note anything amiss. But there was too much of a risk that the attackers might get through the first line of defense and hurt or kill an innocent adult or child. So they’d come up with the idea of switching ferries, bringing the second ferry with the armed agents over in the middle of the night.
Malovo knew that the main terrorist group would be approaching the ferry from the water, but she said she wasn’t sure of the boat they would be using as they planned to steal one in the night. And that was a source of concern. On any given day in the spring, New York Harbor was jumping with watercraft, from oceangoing freighters and Hudson River barges to cabin cruisers, yachts, and small sailboats. The feds would have to let some of them approach close enough to be sure they were the enemy or risk tipping the terrorists off and allowing them to escape to plan some other attack.
It was the reason Malovo had been brought along for the ride. She would make her appearance from the pilothouse and then go back inside once the attackers had revealed themselves. And indeed that’s what happened.
When they reached the waters off Liberty Island in front of the statue, Malovo walked out of the pilothouse and the captain shut his engines down as if he was following the instructions of Ghilzai. That’s when a large cabin cruiser that had been in with the other boat traffic suddenly veered toward them.
Jaxon had waited for the terrorists’ boat to separate from the vessels around them and move to within a few hundred yards, then gave the word. Suddenly, a half-dozen New York Police Department speedboats and a U.S. Coast Guard gunboat with a fifty-caliber machine gun mounted on the bow materialized seemingly out of nowhere. The gunboat swerved into the path of the cabin cruiser; the terrorists tried to escape, but they were cut off by the NYPD craft surrounding them. At the same time, two dozen federal agents from Jaxon’s office and NIDSA transformed from supposed tourists milling about on deck to armed men ready to repel boarders. They were then joined by an NYPD helicopter with a sharpshooter perched in the open side door.
Surrounded, the terrorists had fired a few shots before cutting their engines and stopping in the water. After a half hour, they’d agreed to talk, and a small rubber dinghy had been launched from the gunboat with a cell phone. Apparently, the group was split on how to proceed; some of them wanted to surrender, but others-apparently foreigners, as they spoke to Lucy in Arabic and Urdu-refused. They’d been told they had until nine, which was now only a few minutes away.
“Something’s happening!” Blanchett shouted.
6
The din of two dozen men and women carrying on a variety of conversations stopped the moment Karp walked into the conference room and took his seat at the head of the long table for the weekly Monday morning bureau chiefs meeting. On either side of him, the New York DAO’s chiefs and assistant chiefs, and a smattering of assistant district attorneys, waited expectantly, some sitting at the table, others occupying whatever seat they could find around the room.
The room itself reflected Karp’s own minimalist attitude, its walls unadorned, the table and chairs about as basic and worn as the building itself. There wasn’t time to worry about the decor. In fact, Karp had never even noted the putrid green color that coated the walls of the corridors, courtrooms, and offices at 10 °Centre Street until Marlene had commented on them a few years earlier.
All that mattered in that room was the fair and effectual process of dealing with the administration of justice for the victims and perpetrators of an average of four hundred murders, twelve hundred rapes, seventeen thousand felony assaults, eighteen thousand burglaries, nineteen thousand robberies, and thirty-eight thousand grand larcenies-not to mention tens of thousands of “lesser” crimes-inflicted every year upon the citizens of New York County.
The meetings had been a fixture of Garrahy’s administration, and while they’d gone by the wayside during the decline of the office after his death, they had been reinstated when Karp was elected to office years later. Outwardly the purpose of the meetings was for assistant district attorneys to present their pre-indictment cases to the other prosecutors in the room, who would then do their best to dissect and question the authenticity and credibility of the evidence, as well as discuss the expected response and counterattack of the defense. And woe to the ADA who came into that meeting unprepared to answer the questions.
On a larger scale, the meetings were to ensure that the office’s two guiding principles for prosecuting the accused were being followed. Also something Karp had picked up from his mentor Garrahy, the principles required that they be 1,000 percent convinced of the accused’s factual guilt and have the legally admissible evidence to prove it. It was not enough to believe that the defendant was “probably” guilty, nor was it acceptable to go to trial without the evidence to prove the case-no matter how convinced the ADA was of a person’s guilt.
As Karp looked around the table, he noticed Kenny Katz off to his left. The slim, muscular young man with dark curly hair had a troubled look on his face and didn’t appear to be tuned in to what was happening in front of him. With the Ellis trial set to start the next week, he knew that his protege was probably feeling the pressure of being in the driver’s seat of his first high-profile case. He decided it was time they had a private talk.
“Tommy Mack,” Karp said, addressing his Homicide Bureau chief, “take over. I just remembered I had something I wanted to discuss with Mr. Katz. … Kenny, could I see you in my office?”
Once inside Karp’s office, Katz took a seat on the edge of a leather chair beside the front of Karp’s desk. It didn’t take long for the ADA to validate Karp’s assessment of what was bugging him. “You know, you hear a lot about how this is a religious-freedom First Amendment case,” Katz said to his boss, who settled behind his desk. “And then even in the office there’s quite a bit of disagreement about whether reckless manslaughter was the appropriate charge.”
Karp studied the young man for a moment, seeing himself as he’d once looked when he sat in that chair, in front of that desk, confessing his own doubts to the legendary DA Francis Garrahy. It reminded him that one of the most important aspects of his job was training the next generation.
“Look, Kenny, first of all let’s deal with the First Amendment bullshit,” Karp said at last. “Nowhere in the Constitution, including the Bill of Rights, does anyone get immunized against committing murder or child abuse. As Justice Robert Jackson said, the Constitution is not a suicide pact, and it is certainly not a ‘get out of jail free’ card. And as far as our case is concerned, no one is infringing on the defendants’ rights to practice their religion when it comes to their personal decisions. As adults, if they want to put their trust in prayer and eschew modern medicine, even at the risk of their own lives, that is their right. However, there is nothing in law that says that one person’s individual constitutional protection is absolute or trumps the rights of someone else. Or, for that matter, protects someone who commits a crime. For instance, how about the recent example of the leader of that polygamist sect in Arizona? He was charged with sexually assaulting underage girls who he claimed were his wives and said that such a practice fell under religious protections in the Constitution. Do laws against sexual assault, particularly against minors, not apply because someone claims that it’s part of his religion?”
“No, of course not,” Katz said.
“Good, then let’s move on and look at the facts of this case and whether it was charged appropriately,” Karp said. “Th
e way I see it, this is a case of child abuse, plain and simple. And what’s more, such a severe case of child abuse that a ten-year-old boy died as a result. Regardless of the parents’ religious or philosophical beliefs, when they take on the responsibility of bringing a child into this world, they have a duty to provide for that child, including seeking commonly accepted medical help when that child is sick. Talk about rights; that child had the right to count on his parents to protect him and keep him safe, as well as make decisions on his behalf that he was too young to make for himself.”
Karp stood up and looked out the window at the view of the park in Chinatown. “I know you’re well versed in all of this, but I think it helps sometimes to review it, get it clear in your head. I know it does for me. So let’s go over the categories of murder we have in New York.”
He turned back to Katz and held up a finger. “Beginning at the top, there’s ‘intentional murder’-that is to say that the defendant intended to cause the death of the deceased and then in fact caused the death of the deceased. I think we can all agree that the defendants in this case did not intend to cause the death of their son. They knew their son was very sick, but we’ll assume that they truly believed that prayer would cure him.”
“But then doesn’t that get us back to the question of constitutional protections to practice their religion as they saw fit?” Katz asked, warming up to the discussion.
“If that’s the case, then what about Islamic extremists who claim that their actions are sanctioned by God and, in fact, that jihad is their religious duty? Did that give them the constitutional right to murder more than three thousand innocent people on September 11, 2001?”
When Katz didn’t answer, Karp moved on. “The second theory, if you will, of murder in New York is what we call felony murder-a death that occurs during the course of and in furtherance of committing or attempting to commit an underlying felony, such as robbery, rape, or kidnapping. For instance, the wheelman in a robbery; he doesn’t intend for anyone to get killed when he pulls up in front of a liquor store so that his armed accomplice can rob the store. But inside the store, the gun goes off, the store owner drops dead-the wheelman is just as guilty of felony murder as the gunman. In this case, however, there’s no evidence that the Ellises were committing some other felony and in the course of committing that felony, or to cover it up, their son died. So felony murder isn’t appropriate either.”
Karp sat on the edge of his desk. “So that brings us to the theories of ‘reckless’ and ‘negligent’ homicide, and even here you have to add the concept of ‘depraved indifference’ murder. A simple explanation of reckless homicide is that the defendant was aware of the risk that grave physical injury or death might occur due to his actions, but he consciously disregarded the danger and someone died as a result. Depraved indifference has to do with the defendant’s state of mind. For instance, throwing a gasoline bomb into an apartment building at night knowing people are asleep inside is not merely disregarding the danger; it is viciously, wickedly indifferent to the likelihood that your actions will harm or kill other people-depraved. You may not have intended to kill any particular person, or even cared if someone died, so it is not intentional murder, but it is certainly reckless to the degree of depraved indifference.”
“Then didn’t the Ellises show depraved indifference to their son’s suffering and potential for death?” Katz asked.
Karp shook his head. “They did not purposely do something to place their son in danger, not caring if he lived or died. In fact, I think there is ample evidence, which the defense is sure to introduce at trial, that they were shocked and devastated by his death. So we come at last to whether to charge them with negligent homicide or the more severe reckless manslaughter; for that I’ll use an analogy I’ve used many times when explaining the difference for grand juries.”
A man who thought best on his feet, Karp rose again and began to pace. “In this scenario, a man takes a child to the rooftop of a New York high-rise to check on his homing pigeons. When they get there, the man notices a gun lying on the ground. He doesn’t bother to see if it’s loaded, nor does he put it in a safe place, but just goes on about his business. But the child goes over, picks up the gun, it discharges, and the child is killed. That’s negligent homicide. The man failed to exercise reasonable judgment to protect the child. He violated the reasonable man’s standard of care.”
Katz nodded and took over the anecdote. “In the second scenario, the man sees the gun, picks it up and discovers it is loaded, but places it back down where he found it. The child picks up the gun and is killed-that’s reckless manslaughter. He was aware of the risk but consciously disregarded it.”
“Right,” Karp agreed. “So were the Ellises aware of the risk that their child would die?”
“Well, they certainly knew that he was very sick and in a lot of pain,” Katz said. “He’d suffered seizures and was probably blind before he went into a coma.”
“I think you just answered the question,” Karp said. “They were aware of the risk that their son was so sick that without medical attention he would die, but they consciously disregarded that fact to stick with their religious belief system, which, again, does not protect them from the criminal act of recklessly disregarding their son’s worsening medical condition.”
Karp looked at Katz and smiled. “So we cool?”
“Yeah, we’re cool,” Katz said.
Suddenly there was a knock on the door; Fulton entered and without speaking turned on a television mounted in the bookcase. The screen was immediately filled with an image, obviously taken from the air, of a ferry sitting still in the waters off Liberty Island. A bold headline across the bottom of the screen announced, “Breaking News: Terrorists Attack Liberty Island Ferry.”
As the videographer went to a wide shot, Karp could see that about one hundred yards from the ferry what appeared to be a cabin cruiser also sat still in the waters. Between the two were a number of smaller boats, several of them with the word “police” clearly visible on them.
“We’re taking you now to the Nine News Sky Copter and reporter Tessa Laine for the latest on this breaking event,” the news anchor said. “What can you tell us, Tessa?”
“Well, so far only that police have apparently intercepted an attempted terrorist attack on a Liberty Island ferry,” Laine reported. “It appears that the police are attempting to negotiate with the terrorists, who are in that boat you see surrounded by police boats.”
“Can you see what is happening on board the ferry?” the anchor asked.
On cue, the cameraman zoomed in on the ferry. “Only that there appear to be armed men on the ferry,” Laine answered, “but as the police seem to be concentrating on the other boat, perhaps the armed men on the ferry are on our side. We’re going to try to get a better picture of the people on the deck of the ferry.”
“Jesus, is that who I think it is?” Fulton asked.
Although the images were small and jumped around quite a bit from the movement of the news helicopter, the screen suddenly showed Karp’s daughter, Lucy; her fiance, Ned, who was peering at the terrorist boat through the scope of a rifle; Espey Jaxon; and U.S. Marshal Jen Capers. However, Karp knew that his friend’s exclamation wasn’t because he’d seen them. It was because of the blond woman who was standing with them, looking at the news helicopter.
“It is,” Karp growled. “It’s Nadya Malovo. She’s back in town.”
7
Jaxon rushed to the railing next to where Blanchett lay looking through the scope of his rifle. “What have you got?” he asked, lifting the binoculars he had hanging around his neck.
“Not sure but there’s a lot of movement and they appear to be arguing, or at least making a lot of aggressive-looking hand gestures,” Blanchett replied.
“They’re fighting,” Lucy confirmed. “One of them just called and said they wanted to give up, but then the phone went dead-”
At that moment, a shot rang out across the
water. “That wasn’t at any of us,” Blanchett said. “I think there’s a mutiny-”
Suddenly, a man jumped from near the terrorist boat’s cabin onto the bow carrying a long tubular device.
“Rocket grenade!” Blanchett yelled.
“Take him out, Ned!” Jaxon shouted back.
The words were hardly out of his mouth before Blanchett’s M40A3 sniper rifle boomed. The man on the bow of the cabin cruiser reacted as though attached to an invisible wire that jerked him backward and off the boat.
The 7.62-millimeter bullet reached him not a moment too soon as while falling, he pulled the trigger on his weapon, launching a rocket-propelled grenade. However, having a hole blown in his chest destroyed his aim and the grenade soared almost straight up before plummeting down harmlessly into the water.
Everything was quiet for a moment, and then all hell broke loose. The cabin cruiser’s engines roared to life and the boat surged forward toward the ferry. Those on board began firing at all the police vessels, the gunboat, the police helicopter, and the ferry.
A burst of automatic fire stitched its way across the water and up the side of the ferry, passing only a few feet from where Jaxon stood. At the same time, a rocket was fired from the cruiser, striking one of the police vessels, which erupted in a ball of fire.
The response was furious. The Coast Guard gunboat opened up with its fifty-caliber, tearing chunks out of the cruiser as it roared across the water toward the ferry. The police officers on the smaller boats also joined in the shooting gallery while trying to run interference for the ferry.
Someone aboard the terrorist boat aimed at the news helicopter and opened fire. Struck, the helicopter began to bellow thick dark smoke and spun out of control into the water.
On board the ferry, the NIDSA agents fired away with their handguns while Blanchett’s big gun boomed again and again.
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