The Warning

by Michelle E Lowe

  Rivera shifted into reverse, floored it, then threw the gearshift into drive. “Keep your heads down back there.”

  The rear windshield shattered. Beads of glass rained over the men in the back. Zimmerman ran over the ramp, firing until the car skidded around a corner.

  “You all right?” Rivera asked between breaths.

  “Yeah.”

  “You guys okay back there?” he asked, glancing in the rearview mirror.

  Glass chattered off the men as they rose from the floorboards. “I … I think so,” Novak replied.

  Crawford brushed glass pebbles off his side of the seat. “Where are you taking us?”

  Knox ignored him and said to Rivera, “Did you speak to Loy?”

  “Yeah. He completely folded like you said he would. We just have to swing by and pick him up.”

  “First, I need you to take me to 55th and Broadway. Then go collect Loy and take these guys to the 28th Precinct.”

  “The 28th?” Rivera said, confused. “Isn’t that the first precinct you worked at?”

  “Yep. I have some old friends—trustworthy friends—who can help you stow these two and Loy away for a while.”

  “For how long? Why not turn them in and let them confess?”

  “Bring them in to who?” Knox retorted. “We only know a few of the people in the Department who are involved. I have no idea how many more there are.”

  “What about your so-called friends at the precinct?” Crawford challenged. “How do you know they aren’t involved?”

  “Because I’ve known them my entire career.”

  “You’ve also known Osborn that long,” Rivera remarked.

  “Yeah,” Crawford spoke up again. “You could be taking us straight to the guillotine for all you know.”

  “Would you shut the hell up?” Knox fired back. “If you don’t, you better hope Novak can remove a bullet from your kneecap with his bare hands.”

  Crawford shut his mouth.

  “Why Broadway?” Rivera asked.

  “It’s a couple of blocks up from Midtown. Drop me off there, and I’ll walk the rest of the way. It’ll be safer.”

  “You’re going to see Crowe?”

  Knox touched the hole in his jacket.

  “I have to tell him something. It’s important.”

  * * * * *

  Sakura entered the editing room where Lee sat at his workstation. “Got it ready?”

  Lee glanced at her before turning back to the computer. “Yeah. Just finishing up loading it all on a card now.”

  She stood by as the computer downloaded the last five percent of footage. Seconds later, the screen read DOWNLOAD COMPLETE and the card slid out of the server. Lee reached for it, but Sakura beat him to it.

  “Thanks,” she said, giving him a kiss on the cheek.

  She had nearly reached the door when he called to her. “I hope you know what you’re about to do.”

  She said nothing, only smiled and disappeared around the doorway. As she headed down the hall for Greene’s office, her phone rang. She answered it while continuing her stroll.

  “Yoko,” came Greene’s voice from the other end. “Where the hell are you?”

  “I’m here at the station, on my way to see you.”

  “What are you doing here? You should be covering Midtown Precinct where that kid’s being held.”

  She stopped in the middle of the hall. “For one, you told me to come back; and two, I have something a hundred times better than that. Just let me show you.”

  “No time. Whatever you have, it’ll have to wait until tomorrow. We don’t have the time to show any raw footage at this hour.”

  “But it’s already been edited,” she tried.

  “Every news station is at the precinct right now. I need you there covering this story while we’re still holding the highest ratings. Now, get down there.”

  Dead air lingered after he hung up. She stood in the middle of the corridor, holding the phone to her ear.

  The hell with that, she thought. I’m airing this story tonight.

  She rushed back to the editing room. “Lee, I need your help.”

  Nikolai lay on the cot, this time nowhere near sleep. He stared at the ceiling, motionless and bleeding. After the police had left, he’d remained on the floor, feeling the cold concrete on his face. It had taken every ounce of strength for him to crawl his way to the cot and lift himself onto it. Every inch throbbed with every beat of his heart. He’d been kicked and hit for over a minute. He’d taken the blows in his sides, legs, stomach, chest, and worse, his back. His arms had covered his head, yet his face ached from Geiger’s single blow. He could still taste blood in his mouth and feel stabbing pains in his body. They made his previous back pain seem like a distant memory.

  He lay still, only blinking from time to time. He’d long since placed himself in a numbing trance of unawareness.

  “Crowe? Crowe? Can you hear me?”

  When the voice finally broke through his thoughts, he slid his eyes over to the bars. Geiger and Cooper had left only the hallway lights on. The figure by the cell door was a bit blurry. “Knox,” he said as he sat up.

  “I’m sorry for what happened,” Knox said. “I didn’t mean for it to go down like this.”

  “I know,” he said, standing up and limping to the bars, where the lights exposed his bruised and battered face.

  “What happened?”

  He held the bars for support. “Just a gift from a couple of New York’s finest. Does it surprise you?”

  “You don’t deserve this.”

  “Don’t I know it? But don’t try doing anything about it; otherwise, the only cop on my side will end up like me. Or worse.”

  Knox sighed vehemently. He shook his head slowly, giving Nikolai a profound expression of sympathy. “There’s something you need to know, something I didn’t get a chance to tell you earlier about what happened before Jade died.”

  “What?”

  “The guy I told you about—Crawford—he admitted that she knew. Jade knew the entire time that the man in her apartment wasn’t you. She didn’t die thinking it was you.”

  He was speechless. Tears welled in his eyes and he put his face in his hand. He bit his lower lip to keep from sobbing out loud.

  He’d assumed she’d thought he had come to kill her. Her own lover, the one person she felt truly safe with. The pain he felt right then, even the worst he’d ever experienced, was like basking in the warmth of the sun compared to thinking she’d believed he’d betrayed her like that.

  Then it was gone. It left him feeling as light as air itself. He slid down against the bars, crying.

  “Are you all right?” Knox asked, crouching next to him.

  “Thank you,” he said. “Thank you for telling me that.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  Sergeant Young sat comfortably at the front desk, reading the news off his phone, when the front doors opened. A man entered with a doctor, a man in red-and-yellow-striped pajama bottoms, and another dressed in a short hospital gown with bandages around his head. In all his years of experience, they were hardly enough to raise an eyebrow for. “Can I help you?”

  “I’m Detective Alfonso Rivera,” the first man said, showing his badge. “I was sent here by Lucas Knox.”

  “Knox?”

  “Yeah,” Rivera confirmed, putting away his identification. “He used to work here.”

  “Hey, Sarsha,” the sergeant called to the woman behind him.

  “What?” she groaned from her workstation. “I’m in the middle of typing a report.”

  “Lucas Knox sent some people to us.”

  She raised her chin from her computer monitor. “Lucas? Really?” She came to the front desk, where she studied the four men. “Yep, looks like Knox’s type.”

  “I need to use one of your holding cells,” Rivera explained. “It’s urgent.”

  “Are these people your prisoners?” she inquired.

  “No, they
’re witnesses, very important witnesses.”

  “Okay,” the officer said. “We’ll take ’em down to holding.”

  Jeri was helping Quill pack the computers and other smaller items into backpacks when Marko and the rest of his team exited the kitchen. The moment they came out, they were bombarded with questions.

  “Were you able to get to the reporter?” a young man asked. “Is the story going on the air?”

  “Did you hear that Nikolai got caught?” someone else in the group reported unhelpfully.

  No one responded. Instead, Marko walked to the main stage and jumped on it. “All right, everyone, listen up! I have some things to explain.”

  Jeri joined everyone as they gathered around to listen.

  “Yes, we were able to reach Miss Yoko and get the story to her; and yes, we know about Nikolai.”

  “What are we going to do?” someone cut in. “How are we going to get him out of jail?”

  “There isn’t anything we can do for him now. You need to understand that breaking someone out of a locked fortress is more difficult than robbing a bank. The only thing we can do is wait for the video to air and let everything take its course.”

  Jeri glanced over the small crowd. Some had already come to terms with the danger of an attempted jailbreak, while others shook their heads in disbelief.

  “If we tried getting him out, we’d all be killed or arrested. Every one of you knows that,” Marko added.

  “What do we do now?” a woman near the stage asked.

  “We go home. From there, we go back to our lives as planned.”

  As the group broke away to finish packing, Jeri snuck off to the bathroom.

  I can help get him out. My father is a police captain, and he can do something once he knows the truth.

  “Hello?” her mother answered on the first ring.

  “Mom? It’s … it’s me, Jeri.”

  “Jeri? I thought you were dead! Where are you?”

  “Keep it up,” Grant whispered, sitting next to his wife. He hooked both their cell phones into his handheld call tracer. “Don’t let her suspect that we knew she’s been alive this whole time.”

  Vivian waved at him to be quiet.

  “I can’t tell you where I am, but I’m coming home to talk to Dad about something important.”

  “Jeri, we thought you were dead. Do you realize the agony you’ve put us through?”

  Hearing her daughter’s voice nearly broke her into tears.

  “I’m sorry, Mom; but you have to realize it was for a good cause. Watch the news, and I’ll explain everything when I get there.”

  When Jeri hung up, Vivian lowered the phone and turned to her husband.

  “Got it,” he said, reading the address from the tiny screen on the tracer.

  “What are you going to do now?” she asked as he stood.

  “I’m going to wait a half hour to give her time to leave. Then I’m calling my officers and we’re going after those sons of bitches.”

  Chapter 27

  Jean gazed out her window. A few remaining news vans still were parked on the street while eager reporters stood nearby, waiting for her to come out. She left the window and headed for the living room, holding herself. Tremors constantly shook her and her eyes were dry from crying. She believed Knox hadn’t used her to get to Nikolai, but making the mistake of listening to him made her want to scream.

  The only light and sound in her apartment came from the television. Instead of watching the news, she’d turned it to a classic black-and-white movie, The Wild One. She could no longer stomach the reports covering the arrest of her brother. Throughout the night, the TV had shown nothing but Nikolai and discussed whatever they could dig up about his childhood and previous arrests. The media had become a VH1’s Behind the Music or E! True Hollywood Story about common people.

  Sleep was far out of reach, even though her body begged for rest. Instead, she paced back and forth across her living room, staying within the light of the television, as if afraid to step into the shadows.

  “Doctor Crowe?” came a voice not from Marlon Brando.

  Her heart leapt to her throat. At first, she saw nothing in the dark. “Who’s there?” she said with forced bravery.

  “It’s me, Doctor Crowe,” Ebenezer said, emerging into the light. “Nikolai’s friend.”

  It took a second for her to recognize him. The last time she’d seen him, he’d been badly beaten. When his smooth, chiseled face appeared in the light, she gasped. “How did you get in?”

  “It’s one of the perks of being a Replica; we can get inside most locked areas without being detected.”

  “Why are you here?”

  “Don’t be afraid,” he said soothingly. “I only came to ask if you knew where your brother is.”

  “Where my brother is?” she said shortly. “Haven’t you been watching the news?”

  “I’ve been … preoccupied. Why? What’s happened?”

  Instead of answering him, she reached for the remote resting on the arm of the couch and switched the channel. The screen showed a reporter standing outside the 18th Precinct, where Nikolai had been taken. “He was arrested.”

  She waited for him to respond, but when nothing came, she turned to find herself alone again.

  Knox opened the door to his office to find Shaw sitting at his desk.

  “Knox?” Shaw said with a start. “Didn’t expect to see you here. Sorry, but my computer is acting funny. I came in here to—”

  “Get out of my seat!” Knox demanded, grabbing him by the collar and yanking him up.

  “Hey! What the hell?” Shaw exclaimed as he was tossed aside.

  Knox dropped into his chair and began typing on his keyboard.

  “You’re not supposed to be here,” Shaw growled, moving to the front of the desk.

  Ignoring him, Knox went into the security program and clicked on the cameras in holding. Osborn entered as Crowe’s cell came in view.

  “What are you doing here? Get out. You’re suspended.”

  “Haven’t you heard?” Knox said, leaning back in his chair with a cocky smile. “I’m the big man on campus again. The mayor has given me full clemency. I’ll just sit at my own desk and make sure Crowe doesn’t receive anymore visits from officers.”

  Osborn’s face became red with anger. “He was resisting. We needed to put some pressure on him to keep him in line.”

  “Don’t spoon-feed me bullshit, Howard,” Knox snapped. “I know something is happening and you’re in on it. I know Crowe is innocent and I have the evidence to prove it.” He rose from his seat. “The only thing keeping me from jumping over this desk and bitch-slapping you is the fact that you didn’t try to have me killed at the factory. But you’re still on my shit list for what you helped do to that man down there.”

  Osborn began sweating and expressed a look of amazement on his face. Knox lowered himself back into the chair. “If anyone touches Crowe, I’ll have them arrested. Now, get out of my office. I have work to do bringing your sorry ass down.”

  Osborn and Shaw stood motionless for a moment, then left. Knox skimmed through his Rolodex. He needed to find someone in authority he could trust to bring his witnesses to. He had to get word out to the right people before Osborn called the mayor. Once Osborn found out that he wasn’t Sho’s most favorite person after all …

  Jeri came in through the door to her parent’s apartment with butterflies fluttering inside her stomach. “Mom? Dad?”

  “Jeri?” Vivian came out of the living room into the foyer and embraced her. Jeri returned the hug, feeling the wetness of her mother’s tears against her neck. They pulled away from each other, and Vivian grabbed her by the shoulders. “Don’t you ever pull that kind of shit on me and your father again, you hear me?” she said angrily.

  “Mom,” Jeri said, slowly pushing her hands away. “I’m sorry, but right now, I need to talk to Dad. Where is he?” She went into the living room. “Dad? Dad, I’m home.”

>   She turned from the kitchen entrance and noticed the call tracer on the arm of the chair. She rushed over to read the address displayed on the tiny screen. Her astonishment turned her blood cold. “You both knew? You knew I was alive?”

  She brought out her cell phone and dialed Marko’s number.

  “Your father had to,” Vivian cried. “He has to stop these terrorists. They’ve brainwashed you.”

  “They’re not terrorists,” she snapped. “You don’t have any idea what they’re trying to do.”

  “Hello?” Marko said on the other end.

  “Marko.”

  “Jeri? Where are you? You weren’t supposed to leave alone.”

  “Marko, get out of there! My father is on his way! Get out!”

  Marko pressed END and yelled out, “We’re about to be hit! Dog, Quill, get them out!”

  Dog and Quill left the jeep and began herding the fake hostages toward a private dance room. “Let’s go! Let’s go! Move it!”

  Each knew where to go and what to do. Marko had prepared them in advance. They grabbed backpacks and slung them over their shoulders as they hurried into a small room where both Marko and Dog shoved a heavy round booth away. As it slid, a bundled rope lying on top of the booth fell into a hole as wide as a sewer entrance. Dog tugged on the rope to make sure the knot around an iron hook screwed into the ceiling held strong.

  Marko unclipped a flashlight from his belt and waved them forward. “Go! Go!”

  Quill was the first to grab the knotted rope. “Here,” Marko said, handing the flashlight to her. She took it and said, “You should come with us. It’s too dangerous this way.”

  “You know we have to divert the police from everyone else. We can’t take the chance of them searching for all of us at once. Remember, give us ten minutes, got it?”