Lenny nodded and maneuvered the machine onto the side of a six-story apartment, remembering in the nick of time to strap himself in. The machine chugged and lurched its way up the wall. He ignored the yells and protests of the building’s occupants and the people on the street below being showered by debris.
The spyder struck a water tower as the machine crested. Twenty thousand gallons of water spilled out of the tank and onto the roof then gushed over the edge and down on to the street. Screams from ground level rose up to them. The clanging of bells sounded along the street.
He increased the speed. They had to make themselves scarce before the police arrived. If they were caught, especially with the load of explosives, they would be in deep trouble.
Over an adjourning building, the zepcab sedately floated away.
He directed the spyder down the building and across the street. People peppered them with fruit and detritus. The spyder quickly climbed the building the zepcab crossed. He saw the floating machine as it moved beyond the tower. It was time to make a bold move or they would never catch up with the spies.
He triggered the jumping mechanism. The spyder leapt from halfway up the building’s wall to the top.
“Geez. You could warn a guy, ya know,” Squiggy complained. “My head almost bounced off here.”
“Sorry,” Lenny said. He searched for the spies. Their zepcab was just over the next building.
One more time. He boosted the jumping power. “Hang on! We’re going again. I’m going to try and land on that zepcab. Maybe we can force them to the ground so we can take them back to the boss.”
“I’m ready,” Squiggy said.
Lenny activated the jumping mechanism again. The machine crouched then leaped forward, sailing off the building toward the zepcab, which abruptly dropped. Unable to stop, the spyder soared over the top. Instead of a building, only open harbor beckoned. The spyder plunged into the water. A massive wave of water splashed out then rolled back in to engulf the spyder, which sank without a sound.
Minutes passed. A few bubbles erupted from the water. Then, coughing and sputtering, Lenny surfaced, an arm around Squiggy’s neck. As the water cleared from his eyes he could see the crowd gathered gawking at them. No sense trying to hide. He dragged Squiggy through the water to the shore.
Helping hands pulled the pair out of the water. Squiggy lay on the boardwalk and didn’t make a sound. Lenny flapped his partner’s arms up and down to clear the water from his lungs. The whistles of approaching police sounded in the distance.
He hefted Squiggy over his shoulder in a fireman carry and searched wildly for some form of transportation. He spotted another zepcab and threw his friend into it.
“Get us out of here!” Lenny shouted.
The driver looked back at the big man. He started to say something, then stared hard at Lenny’s face. “Yes, sir.” He activated the zepcab. It rose from the street and floated out over the harbor. “Where to, sir?”
Lenny thought quickly. “Take us to the nearest medical clinic. My friend needs help.”
“Yes, sir.” The zepcab adjusted its direction and floated away from the approaching police and headed toward medical help.
Squiggy lay on the seat of the cab, breathing shallowly.
Thirteen
“Would you two mind explaining to me what the heck that was?” the cab driver asked.
“I do think it’s called a crawler or a spyder. They’re notoriously slow,” Jack said matter-of-factly.
“I know what they’re called,” the zepcab driver said. “I mean why was it following you guys? Are you doing something illegal or something? Perhaps I should drop you two off on the nearest rooftop stop and be done with this. You know, I got seven kids to take care of, and I don’t need no bad business like this. I can find me plenty of legitimate fares, you know. Lots of people need rides to where they’re going, and they ain’t done nothing wrong.”
Betsy, keeping her mouth shut, handed him a five-dollar bill.
“So you said you wanted to get to the Park Avenue Station,” he said as if nothing was out of the ordinary. “Sure thing. I can get you there faster than any other zepcab in town. Just you hold on. If there’s any more funny business, you can be sure I’ll drop the two of you off in a heartbeat. I don’t care how many fivers you throw my way. You got that?” The driver pumped a lever three times and yanked another back.
She put a hand on Jack’s leg and nodded to the driver.
Jack couldn’t help but keep looking out the windows, keeping his gaze on each and every rooftop both over and under the zepcab, certain the crawler with the two gorillas would be there and sure to pounce in their direction. Something caught his eye. Something that raced up the side of a building—only an external lift. Even people on rooftops caught his attention, but none of them had a bloodstained, polka-dotted pink handkerchief on their head.
“Please sit back and relax,” she said and let out a heavy sigh.
“You don’t understand, they could—”
“Jack, I do understand, but you gawking out the window will only attract attention to us. If you relax, this trip will not only pass by faster, but you’ll find yourself in a better state of mind once we reach our destination. Now settle down. I’m trying to collection my own thoughts.”
He opened his mouth, but nothing seemed like the best thing he could say so he closed his mouth and sat back. Despite no longer shifting about to look out the windows, he didn’t relax and the trip by no means went by any faster. If anything, sitting and staring straight forward did nothing but make him more anxious. He almost pulled out his chronometer, but knew that would only upset Betsy further.
After the longest cab ride of his life, he stepped out in front of the Park Avenue Station. The only excitement during the remainder of the ride was when a sudden air current dropped the cab several yards.
The first thing he did was to put his hand in his pocket.
“If your hand comes out and it doesn’t have money for the zepcab driver…”
She didn’t need to finish her statement. Jack left his hand in his pocket and produced three dollars from another pocket. She took the money and frowned. He tugged out another dollar. She shook her head and handed the four dollars to the driver.
He grabbed the money and spat on the floor. “You call this a tip? Are you kidding me? After all I went through for you two to get you here in a hurry, and this is the way you treat me? See if I ever pick you up again. I don’t care if it’s raining. How do you expect me to feed seven hungry kids with chicken scratch like this? I knew I shoulda left the two you on a rooftop.”
She handed him a fifty-cent piece.
With a smile the cabbie said, “You be sure to have a lovely day. If you ever need me don’t hesitate to flag me down. All six of my kids will sure be happy when I get home.”
“Six? I thought you said seven,” Jack said.
“Bye now!” the cabbie tipped his cap.
The zepcab rose into the air, laughter emanating from the open windows.
“The shipment should be here soon. We should get inside,” Jack said, pointing at the station.
“Slow down there, Mr. Kane. I think we need to know what we’re looking for before we go in. Do you have any idea?”
“Well certainly. Someone who looks like they’re trying to sabotage the piano industry.” It was obvious, wasn’t it? Why did she insist in asking such questions?
She sighed. “And those people look like?”
“Like the two goons I put a tracking device on.”
She was really trying his patience. He had to stop himself from bouncing from foot to foot.
“Are you telling me they’re the ones trying to sabotage the piano industry and they’re not British spies?”
He wanted to get going. They were wasting time with all these questions. Didn’t she understand that? “Why would British spies want to sabotage the piano industry? That makes no sense whatsoever. I swear, Betsy, sometimes I wo
nder about your fixation on the British spy issue.”
“It’s not an issue. Well, all right, it is an issue, but it’s not just my issue. There are still British agents here in the states who don’t feel it was right we won our independence. Don’t you ever read my pamphlets?”
His gaze descended to her feet.
“Jack! I’m shocked that after all the time you’ve helped me with distribution and printing and helping me with… I can’t go on.” She turned her back on him.
“It’s just that…what I mean is… Well I…and…” He looked up. “Betsy?”
When he put his hand on her shoulder, she shrugged it away. His attention was split between the station and Betsy. He needed to be inside, looking, investigating, and getting to that shipment of wood. He didn’t have time to explain to her why he never read her pamphlets. She told him everything she printed either when he helped her deliver them or when she came over.
“I’d rather get the news directly from you instead of getting it secondhand from reading it.”
She wheeled around, starting to put her arms around his neck, but stopped and pulled a kerchief from her sleeve. She took a moment to dry her eyes and returned the kerchief to her sleeve. “Very well. Let’s go and see if we can locate your culprit who’s trying to sabotage the piano industry. I somehow doubt the two dimwits, or what did you call them? Gorillas? Are the ones, but you keep your box handy, and we’ll make sure this shipment gets to Sohmer and Company safely. We did, after all, make a deal with them. We need to uphold our good names.”
“Yes, yes we do, don’t we? Betsy, I—”
She put a finger on his lips. “Don’t say anything, Mr. Kane. Don’t say anything right now.”
“As you wish, my lady.” He kissed her finger.
That brought a smile to her face. A tiny smile, but a smile nonetheless. They definitely needed to have a long talk once they got this all sorted out.
The inside of Park Avenue Station wasn’t easy to navigate unless one had been there several times before. After a few times of moving around, it did make a logical sense, but those new to the station only got in the way and hindered the flow. Experienced travelers recommended coming with a guide the first few times until one understood the ebb and flow of people, carts, and cargo.
While some passages had moving sidewalks, others carried only packages and parcels bound for out-of-town locations. Large metal claws lowered and picked up a package and transported it to an awaiting freight vehicle or to car.
Most trains carried passengers and freight so if a person didn’t know where he or she was going, he or she could easily set off an alarm by going in the wrong direction to the right train.
Jack and Betsy dodged rapidly moving people, many with foul expressions against the two getting in the way.
“Ms. Wilkes, have you ever been here before?” Jack asked, having never been in the station before he really felt they could use a guide.
“My father runs things on the docks,” Betsy said.
Which didn’t answer his question. “But, have you been here before?”
She took his hand and squeezed it tightly. “No.”
Through the dizzying crush of people she navigated, tugging him along with her. She got them into a flow, cursed, and jumped from one flow to another. After a moment they were on a moving sidewalk, but despite the fact it was going in the direction they wanted to go, people were walking at a brisk pace. The walkway provided barely enough space for anyone to walk two abreast and Jack, being behind Betsy, took the brunt of the jostling as the crowd pushed past.
In what seemed like far too short a time to have gone any great distance, Betsy slowed suddenly and Jack bumped into her. The moving walkway had ended. They lurched to the right. He tried to look for a sign to find out where they were headed, but there wasn’t enough time and far too many people to avoid. The signs he was able to view only had letters or numbers; nothing that let him know where they were headed.
“Betsy! Betsy!” He really wanted to stop and get his bearings.
“Not now!” She yelled over the din of the crowd.
They dodged into a small alcove where others took time to catch their breath or looked at the large, detailed map. She tapped her finger on a large orange dot that pulsed and navigated it along a twisting path that led to a track. His vision tunneled and it became difficult to breath. So many people so close and moving so fast.
“Is that where we’re going?”
“Yes.”
Betsy, still holding his hand, pulled him back into the rush. Platforms M, B, and 4 all went by, and the crowd thinned only when an overhead track carrying crates of varying sizes blocked one side of the passageway. As the flow of people lessened he felt like he could make sense of his location, but Betsy continued to pull him along.
She turned and said, “We’re almost there.”
“Almost where?”
“To the track where the shipment of wood should be. From what Mr. Sohmer told me, his shipment is most of an entire container car,” she gasped out.
Jack struggled to breathe from all the exertion. “That’s a lot of wood.”
“Nearly three tons.” She slowed her manic pace and let go of his hand.
“Do you have any idea what they’ll use to move it?”
“Mr. Kane, my father works the docks. Of course I have a good idea what they’ll be using to move it.”
Jack also had a few ideas what they’d be using for something that heavy and was certain it wouldn’t be anything airborne. It likely wouldn’t be a walker either, but instead something with fat wheels or even a track loader pulling a fat-wheeled cart. This idea came to him only shortly before he saw a fat-wheeled tractor pulling a fat-wheeled cart.
“Perhaps it’ll be hauled away on that.”
“Your powers of perception amaze even me, Mr. Kane. Let’s ensure this gets loaded.”
A beep came from his pocket, and he pulled out the box. The light pulsed slowly.
“I thought I asked you to keep that in your pocket.”
He didn’t like her stern voice. “Betsy, this means the men from the Waldorf Building are somewhere in this vicinity. I must find a place to don my mask.”
“As you can plainly see, no one is in sight. Better do it quickly before the dockworkers arrive to move this shipment onto the transport vehicle. Then we can get this transferred to Mr. Sohmer and get back onto our investigation.”
“Quite right.” Jack pocketed the box, removed his hat, and put on his mask then replaced his hat. “Keep your eyes peeled for those two gorillas we saw back at the Waldorf Building. They’re sure to be nearby. My devices almost never fail me.”
“Almost?”
“Well, there was this time—”
“Excuse me, miss. You and your machine will have to go back to the personnel area. This is a cargo loading area.” A man in overalls that stretched over his expansive stomach and wearing a hat covering his obviously bald head said as he waddled out of an office door.
“Firstly, my good man, my name is Ms. Wilkes and this isn’t a machine, this is my…companion. Secondly, we are here to escort this shipment of wood personally to the Sohmer and Company Piano Company. We’re here on official business.”
“Firstly, I didn’t ask your name and I don’t care if you keep a machine for a companion. That’s none of my business. Secondly, if you’re going to be accompanying this here shipment anywhere, you need to go either back to the entrance and find your way around or head on down the line. A couple cars up is a passenger car and you can work your way across there and get onto the tractor. Makes no difference to me, but I’m about to fire up the crane, and when it starts spitting hot embers on the deck here, I don’t want no one getting sprayed. Understand? Now move along. I’ve got me some work to do, and you two are holding me up.”
“Come along,” she said to Jack. “It’ll be faster if we make our way through the passenger car.”
~ * ~
The zepcab
hadn’t gotten very far before Squiggy coughed up harbor water. He lay on the floor heaving an impressive amount of liquid out of his mouth as Lenny watched helplessly.
The cabby kept one worried eye on the two men and somehow managed to coax more speed out of the aircraft. They were almost to the nondescript clinic on the East side when Squiggy finally opened his eyes.
“Wha...What happened?”
Lenny grinned with relief. “You tried to drink the whole harbor, you big palooka. Our spyder hit the drink when we missed that zepcab, and you did you best to imitate a rock. You sank right to the bottom. I had to drag your sorry self to the pier.”
“Gee, thanks,” Squiggy said. “I remember now. I thought I was a goner fer sure.”
“Forget about it, buddy. You woulda done the same for me.”
“No, I don’t think so, Lenny. I can’t swim, remember? If’n it had been me, we’da both drowned.”
“Whatever you say,” Lenny said, punching his friend on the shoulder. “You feeling better?”
“Sure, sure.”
“Good.” He tapped the cabby on the shoulder. “Turn this rig around. We need to get back to the pier.”
The cabby nodded and changed the zepcab’s direction.
“Hey, Lenny. Do we have the boss’ explosives? You saved them, right?”
Lenny’s face went white. “No! I was too busy saving your worthless hide. Darn. We can’t go back to the boss without them.” He tapped the cabby’s shoulder again. “Another change of plans, bub. Take us to the Furniture District instead.”
The cabby nodded and turned the zepcab toward the new destination. As soon as he dropped the two men off he revved the motor until it was well away from his former passengers.
“Do you think he’ll notice he didn’t charge us,” Squiggy asked.
“Nah. I think he’s too worried about his own skin to worry about that,” Lenny replied.
“What if he turns us in to the cops?”
“For what? We haven’t visited the explosives shop, and we won’t get caught with anything. No, I think he’ll make himself scarce for a while. We don’t need to worry about him. Now come on. Let’s go get some more explosives before the boss starts to wonder where we are.”
Jack Kane and the Statue of Liberty Page 14
