Descent

by Hamish Spiers

  Maia pulled him closer to her side. “Asten and Selina have invited us around for dinner tonight if you’re interested. Would you like to go? Say hello to Elise?”

  Zak gave her a smile, marveling at the way the strands of her hair reflected the moon, and at the glow of her eyes in the soft evening light.

  “I’d love to, Princess.”

  As a special bonus, enjoy a free preview of The Sentinel, another page turning adventure from the creator of Star Frontier.

  A late night train pulled into a station. A number of people got off, a number of people got on and then it was away again. One of those who had just got on was a man with a large piece of luggage. A bag full of all sorts of interesting things, including a costume of Kevlar armor and harpoons. To avoid unnecessary attention, he sat towards the back of the carriage behind the other passengers, including another who had gotten on at the same station. Jason watched that man closely. When his quarry disembarked at Grand Central, he did too. And once he was sure that the man was heading into the building of the same name, he went his own way. He knew exactly where Alex Grigorie was going.

  He scaled a neighboring building, one a little closer to Grand Central than the one he had used for his surveillance of the place. On the rooftop, he checked some climbing anchors he had put in place earlier. There was a wire running from them to some others on the rooftop of Grand Central, carefully positioned so as not to be visible in the offensive bright beams of light that projected from that eyesore into the night sky.

  Jason then opened his bag and pulled out the pieces for his costume. He quickly changed into it and produced a flying fox contraption, and another little device, from the bag. He hooked the flying fox contraption onto the wire and swung across to the monstrous building where Grigorie and the mayor would soon be meeting, if they weren’t already.

  The mayor’s office was on the top floor. Looking into the room was a little tricky but not overly so, thanks to a bit of ingenuity on Geoffrey’s part; the other device Jason had gotten out of the bag. The small and unremarkable looking piece of equipment had two functions. One was a fairly simple prospect: a reverse periscope that, after he affixed it on the roof ledge, allowed him to see what was going on in the mayor’s office without being seen himself. The second function however was the trickier one, a sensor that amplified sound and cleared the interference of dampening effects caused by walls and windows. The device allowed him to both see and hear what was going on underneath him and the audio was transmitted directly into a receptor built into the left side of his helmet. It was probably illegal, as it basically espionage equipment, but then again so was vigilantism.

  Jason then made himself comfortable and listened and watched.

  “Martin,” Burges said, gesturing to the man who had just entered the room, “allow me to introduce Alex Grigorie.”

  Lamont gave the newcomer one look and turned to the mayor. “Are you nuts, Reggie?”

  Burges smiled and clapped a hand on Lamont’s shoulder. “Martin, Martin. Relax. No one’s going to know. I’ve already cleared this with Commissioner Levings.”

  “What do you mean you’ve cleared this?”

  “I’ve covered myself. I’ve covered us. The -”

  “Us? Jesus Christ, you’ve roped me into this too?”

  “The official story,” Burges said, cutting him off, “is that this man is a transport consultant who’s advising me and that the similarities between his appearance and that of the terrorist who’s being hunted across the country are entirely coincidental. Does that work better for you or do you want me to write it down?”

  “Shove it, Reggie,” Lamont told him. “All right...” He took a moment to recompose himself and even managed to extend a hand to Alex. “It’s Mr. Lamont to you, pal, until I get to know you better. I’m only Martin to my friends and this asshole here. Nice to meet you, comrade.”

  Grigorie ignored the lame joke, shaking his hand but not saying anything as yet.

  “All right,” Lamont said, turning to Burges. “Now, do you want to tell me what you’re doing harboring this walking liability here?” He glanced back to Grigorie. “No offence.”

  The urban terrorist just glared in return.

  “Grigorie here’s the answer to our problems,” Burges said. “Your problem and my problem that you didn’t want to hear about.”

  “Get to the point.”

  “I will if you stop interrupting. I know about your rival organization. It’s run by some guy called Danny Vincent who used to run an operation over in Detroit and they’re currently holed up in Kingsford Station, that derelict station in the news. They’re using it as a temporary warehouse to stockpile the drugs they’re bringing in before they siphon them to the dealers.”

  For a moment, the tension in the room was stretched to breaking point and there was murder in the first degree in Lamont’s eyes. “If you knew about these guys, why didn’t you tell me this before?”

  “Because you didn’t want to hear it before.”

  “That’s no answer.”

  “Well tough, Martin. I told you I had an idea that I wanted to run by you but you shot me down without giving me a chance to discuss it. You wanted to have your little rampage and you’ve had it. You got loads of publicity to boost your already inflated ego and you got your kicks. So I don’t want any more of your crap.”

  “All right, fine. So what’s the story now?”

  “Here you go, Martin. A few weeks ago, I placed a mole in Vincent’s organization and with the info he’s gathered for me, along with the services of my friend Alex here, we can blow their lair of operations sky-high. And in doing so, we’ll take out a sizeable portion of the organization as well as their stockpiles. Also, we can assume this mob has contracts with a number of suppliers here in the city and that they’ve already received down-payments from these guys. So if any of them manage to get out alive and they’ve got any sense, they’re going to skip town before their clients come chasing up their orders.”

  “And what do you get out of this? I always feel suspicious when you say you’re giving me things for free.”

  “You’re as astute as always, Martin,” Burges said, his tone sardonic. “What I get out of this is a chance to make some much needed upgrades to the area.”

  “Upgrades? You bomb Kingsford station and you’ll take out half the neighborhood.”

  Burges smiled. “Exactly. A low-rent neighborhood that’s just wasting space. And here’s a little something for you, Martin. You know how you’ve been pushing me for ages to give you a chance to put in another large legitimate business to help fund your illegitimate one?”

  “Are you finally going to come good on your promises?”

  “I never promised a damn thing but, anyway, with Kingsford leveled and swept up, that whole area’s going to be prime real estate.”

  “Are you kidding me? That land’ll be unserviceable for years until you can get another subway line in. I’m not going to waste good money setting up a business in a ghost town.”

  “I know that’s what it looks like, but trust me. It isn’t the case.”

  Lamont frowned. “What do you mean?”

  “That other line you mentioned? It’s already there.”

  “Come again?”

  “I’ve been working on this for years. There’s already a new line running adjacent to the one that’s there now. And it’s ready to open whenever I decide to bring it into play.”

  At this, Lamont warmed up and there was even a hint of admiration in his expression. “Jesus.”

  “So as you can see,” Burges told him, “that land’ll be worth a fortune. And you can have as much of it as you want. And you can put whatever you want on it too. A shopping centre, a football stadium, a casino. Or all three.”

  “All right,” Lamont said. “So what do you need from me?”

  Jason sat back and let out a long breath. “God, it’d be nice to be wrong for a change,” he muttered. For a moment, he contemplated
whether or not he could stop all of this nonsense by jumping in through the window and thrashing everyone in the room but two things stopped him.

  Although confrontations were almost inevitable now, he wasn’t sure he wanted to risk one with the three men together right then. The mayor probably wouldn’t be a problem but Lamont was likely to be packing a hand gun at least and there was Grigorie to watch out for as well.

  But more than that, he didn’t have enough information to act on. If there were any other variables like timed explosives or more men on the mayor’s payroll awaiting instructions, then premature action might be worse than useless.

  “Well, I think we’re all done here,” Burges announced, clasping his hands and walking around his desk. “Mr. Grigorie will accompany you downstairs, Martin, and will discuss the rest of the details with you in your car.”

  “I’m going somewhere, am I?” Lamont asked.

  Burges smiled. “Of course. You’re not going to get anything done sitting around here.”

  “And where am I going, may I ask?”

  “I can’t say, I’m afraid. Mr. Grigorie will tell you on the way.”

  Lamont frowned, growing tired of the game. “Why can’t you say?”

  “For the same reason that Mr. Grigorie will be discussing the rest of the details with you on the drive over. The less I know, the easier it is for me to lie about it to the press afterwards. I can act all shocked and condemn this act of senseless violence much more convincingly this way. Also, remember the Black Baron? If this got out, it’d be a hundred times worse.”

  “Great. That makes me feel better.”

  “Martin, relax. You’re too tense. Just do what Mr. Grigorie says. You won’t even need to go near Kingsford station.”

  “All right.”

  “Oh, and one other thing,” Burges called out as Lamont followed Grigorie to the door.

  Lamont turned around.

  “When you’re done, take our guest to the airport. He has a flight out of the country later this evening and he needs to arrive there... what is it these days? Two hours beforehand or something like that?”

  “You know, Reggie, if I go driving around with one of the most wanted men in the country, I might get a whole lot of attention I can live without.”

  “How many times do I have to tell you, Martin? Just relax. I’ve got everything covered. Mr. Grigorie has the best forged documents money can buy and as you can see for yourself, without his beard and long hair, he looks nothing like the man on the national news.”

  “The resemblance is still a bit too strong for my liking,” Lamont muttered. He turned to Grigorie. “All right then, comrade. Let’s go.”

  Reggie Burges waited a few moments after they had gone and reached for his phone. “David. Can you come into my office for a moment?”

  “I’ll be right there.”

  There was a click and Burges put the phone back down. He played with the paperweight on his desk, the mannerism a sign that he’d dropped the calm façade he had put on for Lamont’s benefit.

  His assistant David Merlon appeared at the door. “Yes?”

  “What’s the deal with this unwanted evidence that’s been handed to the police?”

  “I’d say it’s our new friend again,” Merlon replied. “This ‘Sentinel’ guy.”

  “Yes, and he’s a right pain in the ass,” Burges said hurriedly. “But what’s been done about it? Did you talk to Commissioner Levings?”

  Merlon shook his head. “The prick’s screwed it up.”

  “But I told him what to say! Did he use our official line?”

  “Yes, he fed the unit that B.S. about Grigorie being a transport consultant and the rest of it. How he was a resident of San Francisco who was going to assist the transport department in dealing with some safety concerns regarding the Kingsford station upgrade. But he clearly didn’t do a good enough job of selling it.”

  Burges stamped in frustration. “Damn it, what’s wrong with the man?”

  “Do you want a short answer or a laundry list?”

  “This could ruin everything,” Burges muttered, ignoring the quip.

  “I guess Levings just panicked.”

  “So how bad is the situation?” Burges asked.

  “Someone tipped off the Feds that the police had received information on Grigorie’s whereabouts,” Merlon said, “that he was here in Fringe City and that the Police Commissioner had refused to pass the information on.”

  “So in a couple of hours, we’re going to have Federal agents crawling all over the place?”

  “I’d imagine so. You’d better let Lamont know and call the plan off.”

  “Why? They won’t catch him.”

  “He’s got Grigorie.”

  “Good,” Burges replied. “With luck, he can get him to his plane and get him the hell out of here. Then when the Feds rock up, I can be completely shocked by the fact that someone who approached me as a transport consultant was in reality an urban terrorist. Hell, my life could have been in danger. Maybe I’ll have to take some time off to recover from it all. It’ll be fine.”

  “Lamont won’t see it that way.”

  “He won’t know. I’ll tell him that I was just as surprised as he was to learn that the Feds were in town.” He reached for his phone again. “Which will be very easy once we cut Levings off. He’s really dropped the ball this time.”

  Merlon frowned. “Cut him off?”

  “Well, he can pin us,” Burges pointed out. “We can’t have anything to do with him.”

  “Hang on a minute. Do you honestly think you could get a more valuable employee on the police payroll than the commissioner?”

  “We can’t afford him,” Burges argued. “And by your own admission, we’re going to have external investigators all over the city in an hour or two. Besides, since he fumbled the ball so badly, he deserves to be left out on a limb.”

  “Great. And if you cut him off, do you think he’s just going to sit there and take it? If you burn him, he’ll burn you. And then what are you going to do?”

  “Nothing because he’s not going to burn me. I’m cutting him off permanently.”

  “You’re out of your goddamn mind if that means what I think it means. If the Feds come and see that, the next group in town will be the national guard.”

  Burges shrugged. “They’ve come in before, haven’t they?”

  “Yeah, but -”

  “David,” Burges sighed. “You don’t get it, do you? Because contrary to what you think, if external investigators come and see what I’ve got in mind, they’ll go running back to where they came from. You see, the beautiful truth is that the rest of the country thinks Fringe City is beyond salvage and they’re not going to waste precious time and resources trying to stop its inevitable slide into the void.”

  “Well, if that’s the case,” Merlon countered, “if the rest of the country thinks this place is a write-off and that it’s a waste of tax money sending the Feds in, then I guess no one will show up after all, right?”

  Burges shook his head. “What the hell are you talking about?”

  “The rest of the country is taking an interest right now.”

  At this however, Burges relaxed and even managed to smile. “They’re not showing an interest in Fringe City, David. They’re coming here because they’re after someone who tried to bomb one of their subways. Now, relax.”

  “You know, you scare the hell out of me when you say that.”

  Burges nodded, still smiling. “I know. Now, I’ve got to make a call. If you scare as easily as you do, then you won’t want to be privy to this conversation.”

  “Who are you calling?”

  “Someone a lot scarier than me.”

  In the back of his chauffeured car, Lamont eyed his new acquaintance with unveiled distaste. “You know, you don’t talk very much.”

  Grigorie didn’t look at him. “No. Maybe you should try it.”

  Lamont laughed uncomfortably. “Boy, did the
mayor give us a frosty one this time.”

  Grigorie sighed. “Look, I’m a diagnosed psychotic who likes destroying public property and killing people for the sake of it. What do you expect me to be like?”

  “All right,” Lamont replied, raising his hands in a show of surrender. “Settle down.”

  Just then, his cell phone rang. His bodyguard, sitting next to the driver, handed it back to him. “I guess that’ll be for you.”

  “Thanks.” Lamont held the phone close to his ear just in case the call was about something private. “Lamont.”

  He nodded as he listened, digesting the news. “All right, thanks for the heads up. I’ll call you back later.”

  “Trouble?” his bodyguard asked.

  “Someone’s tipped off the cops about Grigorie’s rather close relationship with the mayor.”

  “That’s not good.”

  “Oh and it gets better,” Lamont smiled, giving the terrorist beside him a funny look. “Commissioner Levings covered it up with a bit of B.S. that Burges concocted, so someone down the chain went over his head and called the Feds in to investigate the whole thing.”

  The driver whistled.

  “He’s done it this time then,” the bodyguard said. “He won’t be able to talk his way out of this one.”

  “Yeah,” Lamont agreed, still eyeing Grigorie to make sure the guy wasn’t going to try anything stupid now that his connection to the mayor had been uncovered. “Another hour, tops, and the Feds are going to haul Levings off to a cell, with the mayor straight afterwards.”

  “Then we’d better lie low, right?” the driver asked.

  “You mean call this thing off?” Lamont asked. “Forget it. Burges can’t pin us. There’s nothing on paper he can use. This is our chance to get rid of this ‘Vincent’ guy and his organization and I’m going to take it.”

  “But what about the Feds? They’ll be crawling all over the place in an hour, if they aren’t already.”

  “Great. Perfect cover. With everyone watching the city’s main police headquarters, no one will be paying any attention to the docks or Kingsford station.” He turned to Grigorie. “That is if you’re still happy to go ahead with it, comrade. Mind you though, I don’t like people who renege on their agreements.”