Jon knew the GS presence was typical; the company had taken over subway security from the Transit Authority after the flagger—that was one of the reasons they were able to remake the subterranean world for their own use. But he wondered if there might be a greater proliferation of such guards right now because of him. Or maybe it was because of Dayfall, since the commuter crowds were light and didn’t seem to warrant that much security.
Regardless of the reason, that obviously wasn’t the way for him to go, so he doubled back slightly into the dark tunnel and found a door on the right side with stairs leading downward. He knew the subways farther below the station were more likely to be empty, because of flooding and the fact that a lot of ongoing construction had to be abandoned when the River Rise occurred. Sure enough, there was a vacant platform two levels down the stairs, and he was soon able to find a tunnel that ran south, confirmed by an old sign he located with his flashlight.
Jon picked a pathway in the middle of the two sets of tracks that seemed smooth ahead of him, as far as the light could reveal, and started jogging along it. He ran in darkness as much as possible, but the fourth time that he turned the flashlight back on, he immediately sensed something wasn’t quite right in the darkness ahead. He didn’t sense it quickly enough to stop jogging in time, however, and soon found himself stepping into the air, flailing both his legs and arms, and free-falling for what seemed like an eternity.
In seeming slow motion, he waited for the inevitable collision with the rock floor below to break all the bones in his legs, snap his spine, and finally burst his head like a ripe fruit when his broken body jerked it forward to the ground.
Jon got lucky again. His legs hit the surface of a body of water instead, and his feet and knees were slowed enough by it to be uninjured when they touched the submerged floor about five feet below. The shock of striking anything when he expected certain death was enough to take the wind out of him, and he almost lost consciousness, but he was able to recover enough to push his head back up above the surface. He also managed to get his feet under him enough that he could stand, with his head and the top of his shoulders now out of the water.
What he couldn’t do was see anything. The flashlight had flown from his hand during the drop, and it must not have fallen close to him because sweeping his arms around him in the water didn’t help him find it. So he just stood still where he was for a few moments, as a feeling of fear caused by the total and unbreakable darkness started to come over him. He knew he was not really in danger at this point, however, so he forced the irrational terror out of his mind, and tried to think about what to do now.
His fall probably had been a good thirty feet, judging by the length of it and his impact on the water, so he must have dropped off the edge of an unfinished tunnel into a larger cavern—maybe one that had been dug for two levels of tunnels and tracks—and was now on the ground floor. That meant the way he wanted to go would be in the opposite direction of the mouth of the tunnel he had fallen from. But in the pitch black he couldn’t tell which direction that was, so he moved slowly in the one he was facing, with his hand outstretched in front of him, and kept moving until it hit something.
What it hit, after about twenty feet, was an iron wall, with an uneven surface that had deep recesses every few feet, with metal objects half-protruding from them. Jon felt one of those objects, and it reminded him of a thick flying saucer with a ring around it that narrowed as it proceeded outward. He moved back and forth along the surface of the wall and soon discovered it was not a wall at all, because it ended on both sides and was only about as wide as a subway tunnel. That seemingly unconscious comparison, and the fact that his feet could feel the tracks running under it, led Jon to figure out that it was the front of a huge boring machine that had been used to dig the tunnels, and was left down here in these watery graveyards after the flooding.
A few minutes of further consideration gave Jon a sense of direction. If what he was facing was the front of the machine, then behind him would be either a rock wall meant for boring or a tunnel already bored. Behind and above him would be the tunnel he had fallen from, and ahead of him would be the way south. He could either make his way along the tracks and through the water in that direction, or hopefully find a ladder and ascend to the level above at the other end of the cavern, to continue moving that way. The second option would be better, he realized, because he couldn’t be sure that the lower level tunnels would go through, even if this end of them had been dug already. Besides, he didn’t want to be in this disgusting water for too long.
He couldn’t do anything about that problem yet, so he simply pulled his way around the edge of the boring machine and pushed himself along its side. He wondered how long it would take him to feel his way to the other end of the cavern, and find a way up to the next level, and he began worrying that all this would be for nothing if he didn’t reach the Flatiron in time to stop the detonation of the bombs.
While he was still moving along the side of the massive “earthworm,” he heard a distant rumble ahead of him and caught some weak glimmers of light entering the cavern. As the sound grew louder, it seemed familiar to him, and he soon remembered it as the motor of one of the little boats that Shinsky had used to escape in the flooded tunnel the day before.
Jon felt the side of the big dead tool for a way to climb up to the top of it, and soon found a place that worked for him. By the time he was secure in a spot high up on the machinery, the headlight from the dinghy was shining brightly from a tunnel up ahead and illuminating much of the cavern. As Jon had imagined, it was very large and had four big open circles at both ends, two on top of the other two, where the trains would come into this bi-level station. Yellow tarp lined the sides of the whole upper level, and other abandoned machinery could be seen poking out of the water on the bottom floor.
When the light came through the tunnel mouth into the cavern, Jon could see that there was only one dinghy, with only one driver in a GS uniform. Which was a relief, because it meant that this was merely a random patrol rather than a posse sent here specifically for him. Feeling confident, Jon readied himself to jump onto the little boat and take it from the GS agent.
But the dinghy driver didn’t come all the way to the far end of the cavern where Jon and the boring machine were. He slowed and stopped the motor next to a medium-sized crane that had been abandoned in the middle of the bottom level, and stepped up on the part of the cab that wasn’t under the water. The GS man started urinating off the side of the roof into the water, and as he did he spoke into his radio, saying that he had reached the end of his loop and would be heading back.
Jon was now stuck in his hiding place, far from the dinghy and with no way to reach it before the man finished and drove it out the other way. Not knowing what else to do, he said, “Hey!” really loudly and ducked back down to where he couldn’t be seen.
He heard the GS agent call for backup and start the dinghy’s motor again, and then prepared himself as it started moving toward him.
29
Jon hoped the dinghy would pass on the other side of the boring machine from the one he was clinging to. He got his wish, and he was able to stay undetected until he heard it move beyond his position.
He pushed himself up and over the top of the big cylinder, hoping his foot wouldn’t get caught in the array of machinery up there, and saw that the man was facing the other way, holding his flashlight in front of him and scanning the water and tunnel mouths in that direction. Apparently it hadn’t even occurred to him that someone might be on top of the big machine, so Jon had the few seconds he needed to launch himself toward the man before he could figure out what was happening and pull his gun.
Jon wanted to hit him with his whole body, but missed slightly, so he had to grab him and pull him down. The momentum spilled both of them off the side of the dinghy, which kept purring slowly along its path as the two men thrashed about in the water. The GS agent must have gotten more of the rancid liquid in h
is mouth because of his surprise, so fortunately for Jon he had to surface quicker and gasp for air, and even more opportunely, he happened to surface right next to the side of the big machine. Jon simply stood up beside him, and while the man was coughing out water, grabbed his head and slammed it with full force into the iron casing. The man immediately stopped moving and slumped face-first into the water.
Jon wasn’t sure whether the GS agent was dead or just unconscious, but didn’t have time to find out. He wedged the man’s arm in between some of the nearby tubing on the side of the boring machine, so he wouldn’t drown if he was still alive. Then Jon made for the dinghy—he could tell by the sound that it had motored over to the side wall of the cavern and was stuck against it. As he did, he heard two more similar engine sounds deep in one of the two tunnels to his left, coming from the north, and could see their lights in the distance.
He climbed into the little boat and pointed it toward the other end of the cavern, turning the throttle up as high as he could while still being able to control it. By the time he reached the other end of the big chamber, he had pretty much figured out how to drive it at full speed, as the other two GS dinghies streaked out of the tunnel and into the cavern.
As Jon had hoped, one of them stopped so the driver could tend to his unconscious comrade, but the other dinghy continued in his direction. Jon fired his ride into one of the two big holes on the south end, driving it in the very center of the tunnel for a few moments until he was confident he could keep it going straight, and turned off all the lights, both front and rear, so his pursuer wouldn’t have a target to shoot at.
The same bizarre, fearful feeling caused by total darkness hit him, but even worse now because he was moving at a high speed and could smash into a wall on either side if he wasn’t careful. He also realized, too late now, that there could be some kind of abandoned equipment, like another boring machine, blocking the middle of the tunnel somewhere up ahead, which could abruptly end his trip. But he was banking on the fact that the first GS agent had come through this tunnel himself, and had been moving at a pretty high speed.
By the time the pursuing craft was in the tunnel behind him and shining its headlight in his direction, Jon could see that he had arrived in another cavern, about half the size of the one he’d just left, except this one had no tunnels at the south end—just a big wall covered in yellow tarp. It made sense to him now that these structures were dug for the East Side Access, which he had seen on the underground map. That system had been meant to stretch north to Queens, so this was the southernmost tip of it, and this cavern was probably the maintenance space where the trains would be laid up and worked on.
As Jon proceeded into the cavern, he moved the dinghy to the left so the pursuer’s headlight wouldn’t be hitting him anymore, and he soon discovered another tunnel veering off into the wall on that side, smaller than the other ones but big enough that he could navigate it with the dinghy. He turned his front light back on to make sure it wasn’t sealed up ahead, which it wasn’t, and he gunned the engine to put distance between him and the other boat, in the hope that its driver wouldn’t realize right away where he’d gone.
Not too far into this smaller tunnel, he found a platform with stairs and a freight elevator leading up, and he was able to turn off the dinghy’s motor and listen to see if the other one had entered it. Not hearing anything, Jon headed up the stairs, not wanting to test the elevator or possibly get trapped in it if someone was at the other end.
The long stairway ended at a concourse in the south end of Grand Central Station, and Jon looked at it through a small window in the door. There were fewer people here, and no Gotham Security guards to be seen, at least in this particular spot. The signs said that the entrance to the platform for the 6 line was just across the concourse, so that meant the unused 4 and 5 were somewhere on this side of it.
He checked through the window one more time to make sure he couldn’t see any security personnel, and then stepped out of the door and moved along the wall to the right, scanning for any possible access to the old unused lines. Now that he was visible to the few commuters who were in the concourse, he became conscious of how wet, dirty, and smelly he was, and how much his body ached from jogging, climbing, and fighting—not to mention all the nervous tension. The dirt and smell actually came in handy once along the way, however, when he saw a GS uniform coming toward him and he joined a couple homeless men next to a shoeshine stand, quickly sitting down in the midst of their rags and bags. He lowered his head, not just to conceal his face but also to hide the blood that had dripped on his shirt earlier from the bottom of his chin.
The guard walked by without noticing him.
No one else noticed him, either, before he was able to find a roped-off, disabled escalator with the sign above it removed, and head down it. There were a few lights hanging at broad intervals in the tunnel at the bottom of it, enough for him to find the catwalk on the far right side of the tracks, but not enough for him to be seen as he started walking south on it. The catwalk was perfect, because there would likely be no obstruction to collide with on the darkest parts of it, and the far right side was perfect, too, because that’s where the access to the Flatiron Building would be.
As his eyes adjusted and he found nothing to stumble on in his path, Jon started to jog again, reflecting bitterly on how royally he had been shafted by Render and the Mayor. Then he thought about Amira and Halladay and Mallory and started to jog faster. In less than ten minutes he passed the old platforms of the Thirty-Third Street Station, and in another ten, having slowed to a walk for a while to catch his breath, he went by the Twenty-Eighth.
If he remembered correctly, the Flatiron Building and Madison Square Park would be coming up on his right soon, before he got to the next station, so he started looking for the access point he had seen on the map. He had passed several others along the way, which probably led to the basements of other buildings on Broadway or Madison Avenue, and he was assuming that the one he wanted would look the same. There was usually a small tunnel, like a hallway, that had been dug by GS engineers and ran perpendicular from the main subway, with the access door requiring a key at the end of it. The length of those passageways depended on how far they needed to go to reach the various buildings to which they wanted access.
Before long Jon found the corridor he wanted, or at least he was pretty sure it was the one, and turned into it. The already limited light from the tunnel outside only lasted about a hundred feet into the smaller one, and soon he had to feel his way along the wall on one side with his right hand, the other held out in front of him. It was only about another hundred feet until his left hand hit the metal of one of the GS access doors, and after feeling his way to the lock, he used the key to open it.
On the other side of the door was more dim light and another abandoned subway tunnel, this one running almost parallel but slightly diagonal to the 4 line he had traveled along to get here. He guessed this was one of the lines that ran under Broadway from Times Square, which was the more direct route he had decided against earlier. If he was right, this one should pass right next to the basement of the Flatiron Building, which itself was on Broadway. But he wasn’t sure which direction he should go. To the left, which was presumably south, he couldn’t see anything but more tunnel and then darkness after that, but to the right he could tell it opened up into a larger space, probably a station platform. Since the Twenty-Third Street Station was the only one in this area, and it was right next to the Flatiron Building, he took a right and headed for the open space.
As he did, he heard a train traveling through another parallel tunnel to his left and stopping up ahead of him, so now he knew that some of the tracks on this line were still being used.
When he got to the platform, he saw tile mosaics reading 23 at the top borders of the walls on the platform, and a similar tablet lower down spelling out 23RD STREET STATION. He also noticed that there was a seemingly random collection of various kinds of h
ats painted on some of the tiles, and wondered what was up with that. But as he made his way deeper into the station, he was focusing on more important things, like the commuters who could be boarding and debarking from the trains on the two platforms that were in use on the other side. A makeshift wall had been erected between them and the unused platform he was on, but there were enough well-spaced doors in it that he felt a pang of fear that a security guard might come through one of them and shoot or arrest him before he could find Williams.
That feeling was only momentary, though, because what Jon now saw up ahead on the abandoned track made him realize that he wasn’t very far from the explosives expert.
A small utility pickup truck with GS markings was parked next to the platform facing south, equipped with an extra set of flanged steel wheels that allowed it to travel on the tracks. Jon quickly figured out where it had come from, because in its rear bed was a collection of the cube-shaped explosive devices that had been taken from the Below near Times Square.
Jon peered over the back gate at the group of bombs in the bed, and saw that on top of them was a detonator timing apparatus with a green light shining on it, but no minutes or seconds activated yet. He noticed that Williams had stretched two sets of colored wires over the side and onto the platform, where another pair of bombs sat side by side, with green lights lit on them as well. Then the wires stretched farther to an open GS door on the right side of the platform, where there was another pair of bombs—and so on, through the doorway and into the dark hallway on the other side of it. Jon peered down it and could see the pairs of green lights stretching for about thirty feet until they turned a corner and disappeared out of sight.
Dayfall Page 19
