‘So why do you think only that one?’
‘Not only that one.’
‘But you just said ...’ Cole didn’t finish his sentence. He looked flustered.
‘Only one of our cars mattered. But there were others. And they are all sitting on that trailer.’
Cole looked across towards the other cars. They were a mixture of different models. There were Ford’s, Buick’s, Cadillac’s and others.
‘But they’re just cars. There’s nothing different about them.’
‘Really, are you sure about that? Think again.’ Hedge was trying to lead him to the conclusion he had already reached. He realised though, that he needed to do it quickly.
Cole looked again and shook his shoulders. ‘I just see normal cars, standard everyday vehicles.’
‘But even our two Mustangs had their differences.’
‘That’s not true. They were identical, apart from the colour.’
‘And the speed?’
‘Ok, so the dark grey one was a bit slower.’
Hedge turned and looked at Cole. His face had a very serious look. ‘No. That’s not the issue. It wasn’t slower. The engines were identical. They were both V8’s. No. Not slower, just heavier. I’ll bet you all these cars are heavier than their standard models.’
‘What? Why would they all be heavier?’
‘They’re carrying extra weight, that’s why. And I’ll wager that they have all come back across the border from Mexico, returning to their original point of hire somewhere on the west coast.’
Cole stared at the trailer. Then he turned round one hundred and eighty degrees, and looked up at the building behind him, the new tower, the One World Trade Center.
His mouth opened slowly and two words came out.
‘Oh shit.’
Hedge ran over and tried the door to the white tractor unit. It was unlocked. He climbed up, sat on the driver’s seat and checked around the inside. He found what he was looking for straight away. All the keys to the cars were piled up on the passenger seat. He shuffled through them until he found the keys to the dark grey Mustang. Then he jumped down from the unit, and ran to the back of the trailer.
‘We need to check this out to confirm what we’re thinking. We could do with a screwdriver or something similar.’
Cole moved his arm round to his lower back, lifted his jacket, and pulled a knife from a leather pouch. It was small, with a shiny, four inch steel blade.
‘Will this do?’
Hedge looked disapprovingly at the weapon, and murmured something under his breath.
‘I’ll take that as a yes then,’ said Cole with a hint of a smile.
Hedge pressed the open door button on the key. The Mustang’s locking mechanism disengaged with a sharp click. Jumping up onto the trailer, he pulled open the driver’s door.
‘Start here. Take this panel off.’ He was pointing at the hard, plastic panelling on the inside of the door.
Cole moved up onto the transporter and kneeled down by the door of the Mustang. He started working on the panelling with his knife. The blade was sharp, and it didn’t take him long to cut away some of the plastic. Then, using brute force, Cole forced his hand into the small space he had made, and pulled hard.
The plastic panel broke off, revealing the internal of the car door. Inside the door they should have seen just an empty space. But, it wasn’t empty. Where there should have been just a cavity, there were instead several rectangular shaped packets. They were wedged in tightly against each other, covering all the available area. Each packet was about six inches wide and two inches deep. The surface of the packets seemed to be made of brown, waxy paper.
Cole turned his head upwards. He made a small slit in the roof of the Mustang, and once again fed his hand in and pulled hard. A large part in the roof material came away, revealing more of the brown, wax covered packets, wedged tightly inside the roof space.
‘I don’t recognise this stuff. It looks new. Also, the smell is usually familiar. You can often trace the type of material to the particular smell. I don’t know this one.’
‘So you don’t know for certain?’ There was deep nervousness in Hedge’s voice.
‘I know one thing for absolute certain,’ replied Cole. ‘We are sitting in one bloody massive bomb.’
Chapter Forty
‘Look at this.’
Hedge was pointing at a black cable coming from the front of the dark grey Mustang.
It seemed to be connected to the next vehicle on the transporter.
‘You know what that is, don’t you?’ Cole was looking more and more concerned as every second passed.
‘At first I thought it was a security system. All the cars seem to be connected by these cables. There are a lot of expensive cars here, so I assumed it was something to deter thieves.’
‘That’s what you’re supposed to think.’ Cole kneeled down and ran his fingers over the smooth plastic surface. ‘This is electrical cable, heavy duty at that. And it’s linking all these vehicles together, probably so that they can be detonated in one huge explosion.’
‘If all of these are packed with this explosive stuff, and they all go off together, how much damage could that do?’ Hedge asked the question, but he really didn’t want to know the answer.
‘All the cars, plus whatever they have packed into the structure of the car carrier. If I were them, I would be using all the available space in the cars and the trailer. Then there is the tractor unit, plus it’s very large fuel tanks. All in all, that’s an incredible amount of capacity.’
‘Bloody hell, I forgot about the tractor unit.’
‘As I said, I don’t know this explosive. It looks like a new product. From some of the lettering I can make out, it’s possibly of Chinese or North Korean origin. I expect it’s extremely powerful. If this lot goes off, it will do a massive amount of damage.’
‘Exactly how much damage?’
Cole surveyed the scene. His voice was grave.
‘See these crowds of people around the Memorial, and queuing for the tower, they would all be blown to pieces. Close to an explosion like that, it would be impossible to even recognise any human remains. Even those people some distance away would be severely injured. There would be hundreds of casualties.’
‘What about the building? Presumably it’s going to be strong enough to withstand the blast.’
Cole shook his head.
‘If this stuff is as powerful as I think it might be, then this building could be seriously damaged, and thousands of people inside it would be at risk. At worst, the explosion could bring the whole thing down. My guess is that would be exactly what the people behind this would be hoping for.’
Hedge said nothing.
His face was white, and his eyes were staring up at the tower.
Chapter Forty One
‘Hey, you guys. You can’t leave that thing there. You’ve got ten seconds to start it up and get it out of here.’
The police officer unclipped his baton, and waved it at them. Clearly he thought it added something to his authority.
Cole turned and walked quickly over towards the NYPD man. When he spoke, his tone was confident, and his voice was full of urgency.
‘This doesn’t belong to us officer. It has been deliberately left here, and the driver has disappeared. You have to clear all these people from this area. This whole car trailer is one big bomb, and it could go off at anytime. Everyone in this vicinity is in serious danger.’
The officer stared at Cole, as if he was weighing him up. He looked like he was about to say something, but then he changed his mind. He started to walk towards the trailer. Clearly he wanted to confirm the situation for himself, before he raised the alarm.
He was about five yards away from the vehicle, when he suddenly stopped. Both his arms dropped down to his sides, and the baton fell from his grasp and clattered on the concrete floor. He seemed to stand quite still for a second, possibly even two, but then he lurched f
orward. His body hit the ground with a thud, and there was a sharp crack as his head smashed into the hard surface.
Hedge stood still. Unable to comprehend what had just happened.
Cole ran over to help the officer. As he reached where he lay, he knelt down and turned him over. He knew straight away that the man was dead. He wasn’t breathing, and his face was broken into a bloody mess as a result of the impact with the ground.
Cole realised immediately what had killed the man lying before him. He had seen it many times before. Blood was pumping out of his chest, and soaking the front of his police tunic. The man had been shot. Cole had heard no noise, so the killer was almost certainly using a high powered, silenced sniper’s rifle.
Acting on instinct, he found himself rolling his body to his left. As he did so, a splinter of stone flew up at him, and a small hole appeared in the surface of the concrete, in the exact spot where he had just been kneeling.
‘Someone is shooting at us. That last one was close. This sniper is an expert, no doubt about it. Find some cover immediately.’
They both ran towards the car trailer, and ducked down under it.
Cole thought for a moment then he made his decision.
‘I need to find the shooter. We can’t do anything else until we neutralise him. I managed to spot roughly where he was shooting from. Even a silenced rifle has a muzzle flash.’
Hedge was lying flat on the ground. His breathing was heavy and erratic.
‘What do you want me to do?’
‘Just stay here for now. Keep down. If you show yourself, this guy will easily pick you off.’
‘That’s great. I’m happy to stay right here. No problem.’
‘Good. I’ll signal to you somehow when I’ve dealt with the sniper.’
‘What if you can’t deal with him? He may shoot you first.’
‘He won’t. He’s good, but I’m better.’
‘So when I see your signal, then what?’
‘Then you get the easy job.’
‘Which is?’
‘Drive this bloody great thing as far away from here as you can. Good luck with that.’
‘What the hell ...’ Hedge started to protest. It was too late. Cole had jumped up, and sprinted off.
As he was running, Cole looked up at the buildings facing him. There were several high rise blocks, mostly offices, but some residential. He had only seen it very briefly, but it had definitely been a muzzle flash. Cole knew his weapons, and he recognised the flash of a high velocity bullet when he saw one.
He stopped running for a few seconds, and ducked in behind a bus shelter. He pulled out the Sig Sauer, which he was carrying in his jacket pocket. He still had a distance to go before he reached the building he was heading for. Leaning the right side of his body out from behind the shelter, he quickly fired off four rounds in the direction of the muzzle flash he had seen a short while ago. It was a relatively long distance for the handgun, but it served its purpose. He watched as the barrel of the rifle disappeared inside the window. The shooter had clearly been spooked by someone firing back at him. That gave Cole a few valuable seconds. Jumping out from the shelter, he started to sprint again.
Cole ran across the street, heading for the ground floor door to a tall residential block. He pulled open the unlocked door, and quickly located the staircase. The sniper had been on the sixth floor, and Cole bounded up the stairs like a gazelle. Not bad for someone his age, he thought to himself.
Then he was passing the fifth floor and heading for the final flight of stairs.
Just as he neared the first step, a door opened in front of him, and an old lady stepped out. She must have been at least ninety years old, she stooped badly and her face was heavily wrinkled. She held up a small, thin hand as Cole approached.
‘There’s a bad man up there. He’s been upsetting my baby. She hasn’t stopped crying ever since he went past our door.’
‘What did this man look like?’ asked Cole.
‘I didn’t get a good look at him, but he was a big guy. He had wide shoulders, like a buffalo.’
‘Is he still up there?’
‘He hasn’t come down yet. Baby is still upset.’
Cole was confused, Baby? The woman was way too old to have a child, or even to look after one.’
‘Baby?’ he said.
‘Baby, come here.’ The old woman turned to face back into her apartment.
Cole stepped back a pace in shock. A huge dog had appeared in the hallway. It must have been over three feet tall, and it looked ferocious. Its eyes were black, and its stare was frightening. The dog’s mouth hung open revealing teeth that looked like it would be a match for a reasonable sized shark.
‘This is Baby, my little German Shepherd. Isn’t she cute?’
Cole nodded. ‘Yeah, she’s cute. Look, I have to go. Lock your door and stay inside.’
‘Are you going to get that big guy? Baby will come with you. I’ll be waiting here for her.’
With that she stepped back into her apartment and shut the door.
Cole stared at the dog. It stared back.
‘Shit,’ he said, and ran for the stairs.
The dog bounded after him.
At the top of the stairs Cole froze. There were many apartments on this floor. He had no idea where the sniper might have been hiding. He raised the Sig, and started walking slowly down the hallway.
Behind him the dog barked once, then confidently brushed past him and stopped quietly outside a painted door some ten yards down the hallway.
Cole walked carefully past three front doors, and then stopped next to Baby.
‘You had better be right about this,’ he said softly.
The dog looked up at him, but didn’t move.
Cole took hold of the door handle, pushed it down, and then shoved hard. He flew into the room, temporarily unbalanced, as the door had offered no resistance.
The fat Cuban had been looking out of the window, towards the car trailer. He turned quickly, raised the rifle, and fired.
Cole saw the weapon moving towards him, and dropped to the ground just in time. The dog reacted instantly, and jumped up at the fat Cuban. She barked furiously as she flew through the air. Her mouth was wide open, and she sank her teeth into the fat Cuban’s neck.
He screamed in pain, dropped the rifle, and tried to push the dog away from him.
‘Bloody dog, I’m going to break your neck,’ he managed to shout.
The dog sensed his anger, and bit down harder. Blood started spraying from the man’s neck, and he staggered backwards. Then he was tumbling out of the open window. He screamed as he fell six floors to the ground below. His body, however, didn’t reach the ground. Instead it landed on a metal railing, and the fat man was impaled as three sharp, cast iron spikes pierced his abdomen.
Cole ran to the window.
‘Shit,’ he shouted, ‘the dog. Where’s that bloody dog gone?’
He looked out of the opening, and peered down. He could see the body of the fat Cuban below, folded over the railing. He seemed like a long way down. Then, staring up at him, from a distance of about six inches, was the terrifying face of Baby. She had managed to somehow grab hold of the window frame as she went through it. Her thick claws were digging into the woodwork.
He smiled, took hold of her large front paws, and pulled her back up into the apartment.
‘That bastard didn’t seem to be very keen on dogs, did he?’
The German Shepherd barked once. Then she turned and walked off out of the apartment and back down the stairs.
Chapter Forty Two
Back down on the street outside the One World Trade Center, several police officers had seen the man fall from the building opposite. They had also seen the sniper rifle clatter on the road nearby. Therefore, they assumed, it was safe to come out from where they had been sheltering. They had seen their fellow officer go down, and so they were well aware of the danger.
One of the officers had pulle
d his radio up to his mouth and started screaming instructions into it. While doing so, he walked quickly to the main entrance to the tower and, using his bunched left fist, he smashed straight through the front glass of an emergency alarm panel.
Both these actions meant that within a matter of a few seconds, the whole area was swarming with police, security staff, and a medical team. Loud sirens were going off in the background, and two emergency police vehicles screeched to a halt just yards from the building.
Cole carefully surveyed the scene below from his vantage point on the sixth floor. It looked like chaos down there. People were running in all directions. Loud alarms and flashing lights were everywhere. He tried to locate his friend, but Hedge was nowhere to be seen. Neither was the trailer with the ten cars loaded on it.
He looked to his right, along West Street, but all he saw was a stream of police vehicles heading towards him. He looked to his left. There on the corner, just turning into Vesey Street, was the huge vehicle. It started to gather some speed, and almost immediately it began reeling from side to side. The engine was making a horrific noise. It was clearly being driven by an inexperienced driver.
‘Hedge, I just hope you go careful with that, you bloody idiot,’ he said softly to himself.
Hedge meanwhile was desperately trying to avoid the people running in every conceivable direction. Everyone within a quarter of a mile had heard all the alarms going off. They could also see the police activity, and so they were quickly trying to get away from the area.
The car carrier trailer was picking up speed, and Hedge realised he needed to slow down before he lost control. He was still driving down Vesey Street heading east. Suddenly, just ahead of him, he noticed that the road was blocked with traffic queuing. He tried to shout, telling them to get out of the way, but no one heard him of course. He had no choice, so he made a turn to his left onto a road called Park Row. He was struggling to control the speed of the trailer, so he kept his hand on the horn, trying to warn pedestrians to keep out of his way.
At the end of Park Row, he turned hard right towards the Brooklyn Bridge. After a couple of hundred yards, he could clearly see the river in the distance. The lumbering vehicle was still difficult to control, and he had to pull hard on the steering wheel to keep it going in roughly the direction he wanted to go.
The Transamerica Cell: A fast paced, gripping, action adventure, conspiracy thriller, with a superb, breath-taking ending (Hedge & Cole Book 3) Page 16
