“Why would I renege? You’re my ticket out of town, remember?”
Lamont nodded, satisfied with the reply. “That’s right. Anyway, I guess we should be at the docks pretty soon. So what happens then?”
“You’re going to intercept one of Vincent’s freight boxes as it’s unloaded and kill all the guys he’s got there.”
“There’s no part of that plan I don’t like. Then what?”
“First of all, I’ll just have to point out that you need to be careful not to shoot the mayor’s mole. The guy’s done his job well so far and in my business, you reward people like that. They might be useful later on.”
“In my business too,” Lamont agreed.
“Good. Now, the next part is that Vincent’s boys have got the driver’s carriage of a train, along with two cargo carriages there.”
“So they can just shift their stuff straight from the docks to their headquarters at Kingsford station?”
“That’s right. Direct. No unloading necessary. No middlemen. Nothing. Then they distribute everything from their base of operations at their own pace.”
“Boy, I’d love to have a set up like that. All right then. Let me guess. Once we secure that freight box, we load it up with explosives -”
“Well, I load it up with explosives but close enough.”
“Got it. And then someone drives the train to the station, jumps off somewhere safe and watches the fireworks.”
“Basically.”
“You’d need damn good timing to pull it all off, though.”
“I believe that’s why the mayor hired me, Mr. Lamont.”
Jason headed for the docks as fast as he could. He was glad he’d put that bug on Lamont’s car a while ago; he knew he wouldn’t have had time to get down to Grand Central’s basement parking lot and tag the vehicle before Lamont and Grigorie left.
He made swift progress, using the network of flying foxes he had set up across the city - quite an impressive network, he realized with some pride. He hadn’t paid that much attention when he had been setting it up, just putting a few more wires in place every few nights, but now it felt as though he’d ended up covering a tenth of the city. He was overestimating the scale of course, but it still blew him away... until he hit a dead end.
He found the remains of a climbing anchor he had put in place earlier, the wire missing. “Son of a bitch,” he muttered. He looked across the gap between him and the building opposite. A while ago, he had talked to Geoffrey about the possibility of getting some gas-powered grappling hooks and they were coming. But they weren’t on hand now and he knew he’d just have to settle for one of his sluggish harpoon hooks instead.
He fumbled in his bag, mindful that time was precious if he wanted to get to the docks before Lamont did.
With the harpoon in his hand, he identified a point on the ledge of the building opposite. He’d done this plenty of times before but never under time restraints. He took aim and fired the hook. It looked like it worked but when he pulled on the wire to test it, the hook dislodged and he realized he’d shot it into a loose girder.
In frustration, he freed his end of the wire and not wishing to leave a hazard - or a highly visible dangling wire that might get people looking up and noticing his other modifications to the Fringe City skyline - he fixed it to another hook and shot it off so the whole tangled mess sat on top of the building opposite and out of sight. Then he dug one of his climbing claws into a down pipe and slid down, the resistance of the tearing metal slowing his descent.
For free samples from other books by Hamish Spiers, visit: http://hamishspiers.com/books/
Universal book links:
Star Frontier: https://www.books2read.com/starfrontier
Star Frontier: Beyond the Veil: https://www.books2read.com/starfrontier-beyondtheveil
Star Frontier: Dangerous Games: https://www.books2read.com/starfrontier-dangerousgames
The Sentinel: https://www.books2read.com/sentinel
Fringe City Nightfall: https://www.books2read.com/fringecitynightfall
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Hamish Spiers is an Australian-based author, telling very human stories in the space opera and vigilante adventure genres. Compelling, fast-paced, intelligent and often moving, his books have something for every reader.
For more information on his books, as well as updates and other content, visit his website at http://hamishspiers.com
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