The Watcher

by Bill Stenlake

  She nips out onto the forecourt and has a look at the vehicles there. There is nothing suitable that won’t draw attention to her. She looks around and notices another car which is parked on the next lot. That lot is empty though. It is just an ordinary hatchback, but that will be ideal. It won’t be noticeable as a vehicle a terrorist would choose, is her thinking. She rushes back inside, aware that every minute that passes, increases the chances that they will find this place and look at it. She goes to the office area and grabs all of the keys. Amongst them, is the key to the hatchback. She drives it inside the shop and loads up what she needs to take with her. She hasn’t got enough firepower to start a war. Buzz appears to have taken all the heavy duty stuff with him for his last stand. She does have enough small arms firepower to cause a lot of damage. While she is touching it, she feels the fires rekindle and that she needs to get back onto the trail of destruction again soon. It would be so much better if she could have Buzz with her, or preferably even Mario. She pulls the hatchback out of the shop and back onto the lot next door. She goes back and tries to tidy up as best as she can and remove any trace there might be of her, on any of the vehicles in there, particularly Randy’s car.

  She knows she isn’t going to be able to go very far. She is certain that Buzz’s actions will have just made the net around the island tighten again, just as it might have been going to loosen up. She drives off the lot and starts along the street towards the lights. She has no idea where she should be aiming for. She probably isn’t going to get very far in any case. She pulls over to the side to think for a minute. At least she isn’t going to get caught at his apartment or the shop now. She starts rooting through the glovebox, to see if there is an address for where the car belongs. She is in luck on two counts. There is a letter in the glovebox. When she opens it, she can’t help but smile. It says, below the address at the top:

  ‘When the tire is fixed, drop the car back off at my apartment and put the keys on the hook inside. Then drop my apartment keys thru the letterbox. They will be safer in there than left in the car. Thank you. Edna.’

  ‘Thank you Edna’ TZ says, as she starts the car and pulls away. She only has to go 3 blocks, to get to where Edna lives.

  Vee & Bar come to a stop, in their hiding place under the airport bus. It may well have had Manhattan on the board at the front of the bus, but it isn’t going to get anywhere near that now. It is not even going to get anywhere near where it was intended to reach on this journey, a hotel near to the airport. The roads are gridlocked.

  They wait where they are for nearly an hour, but nothing is moving. Maybe they are out there searching all the vehicles, before they get to the city, is the thought going thru their heads. That is not the case. It is the incident with Buzz that has brought all parts of the area to a total standstill. The authorities suspect there may be an accomplice out there somewhere, so everywhere is now in lockdown.

  They think they might be able to get away from their hiding place, but with all this traffic around, it is more than likely that they will be spotted. They really don’t want the attention, if they can help it. Having taken all the trouble to gain entry without being spotted, it would be counter-productive to lose that advantage unnecessarily.

  They make the decision to stay where they are, until darkness falls. By that time the roads have actually started to clear and just before they make their escape from under the bus, they start to move again. They stay where they are, until the bus comes to a halt in front of the hotel. They have to wait until it moves off again, before they can get out safely and unseen. Bar deftly moves them away and into an alleyway. Vee starts to hunt her systems for any information she can find. She can’t find any trace of Ricardo, but she thinks she has found a trace of one of the other two she is looking for. It makes sense too, when she narrows the area down to actually being on the island. They need to get closer, to get her some more information. Bar takes them straight up from their place in the alleyway. There is no easy way to get to where they want to. They certainly don’t want to do it out in the open. Bar keeps near to the tops of the buildings, where he can. He goes down much lower when he has to. When they get to the water that they need to cross to get to Manhattan, they take the decision to dive into the water and approach under the surface, rather than risk being seen skating across the top.

  Bar lands in one of the docks. It is in relative darkness. Vee concentrates on trying to locate their quarry. There is not enough information to do this. She decides to tap into some of the police communications, to see if there is any news coming over them, which might lead them to whichever one it is.

  TZ parks up in the lot besides the building she is going to. She had thought it might be a bit better than it turns out to be. She lets herself in to the building. It is one of the taller ones round here. The apartment is right at the top. She is hoping for a penthouse, but when she gets there, it is just another apartment. She lets herself in and searches around. It is tidy and it is empty. There is a bit of food in the cupboards, but nothing fresh. Edna has gone away somewhere, obviously. TZ turns on the lights in the bedroom. She gets a shock at the picture on the dressing table. It is Randy. She recognizes him straight away. She runs thru to the living room. She looks thru the drawers. She finds some other bits and pieces and a couple more photos of Randy in a small album. It doesn’t take her long to work out the connection. Edna is Randy’s Mom. Shit!

  As she makes this discovery, she hears sirens outside. She looks down and sees that several police cars have pulled up outside. She knows straight away that they are coming to this apartment. How they have made the connection so quickly she doesn’t know, but she knows it anyway. Thankfully she has brought some of her weapons with her. It is not how she was intending to do things, but she is here in this place now, so she might as well just get on with it. She barricades the door with all the furniture she can move. She jams it in and piles it high, so they won’t be able to get thru the door. She moves out onto the balcony, armed with her two rifles. She immediately takes shots at the police cars down below. Their weapons aren’t good enough to return fire. She downs two officers with her first round of shots. It isn’t long before the sound of more sirens is approaching. These ones stop well short of the apartment block. The officers down below have taken cover, as best they can. Those that can safely do so have moved out of the immediate area.

  TZ doesn’t stop though. She starts shooting at anyone who moves on the street below. When she runs out of those targets, she moves her sights onto the people who are watching the events unfold from their apartment windows. She gets more hits than she ever should have done, before people get the message. They are sitting ducks, looking out of windows, with lights on highlighting their presence there. TZ keeps on shooting though, at the windows where there are lights on. In time, people scrabble away from the windows in direct line of sight. They also turn off the lights where they can and are prepared to take the risk getting to the light switches.

  Vee picks up on what is happening. It is well worth a look and when they get close, she knows she has found one of them. They see the block where the action is happening, is being evacuated. It is not easy though, as TZ keeps them on their toes with her random shots. She appears to have a countless supply of ammunition. She is firing at a steady pace. This situation needs to be brought to a close as soon as possible. Typically, TZ has no intention of stopping this on her own and is certainly not going to surrender.

  Suddenly TZ turns her attention to buildings much further away. She has found that her second rifle has a much longer range. It takes the police a few minutes to realize that she is having success with this strategy. As soon as they broadcast it, Vee is on to it. They have to do it now.

  Bar flies them directly towards the apartment’s balcony. TZ has resorted to being inside and shooting from cover there, with one of the doors open. She is less of a target there. Bar takes them thru the open door in a flash. TZ thinks that someone at long last is firing back a
t her. She doesn’t turn to see what has come in thru the open door. Bar flips the column and they turn round, so Vee has a clear shot at her. In less than a tenth of a second, she fires and TZ drops to the floor, lifeless.

  Vee then changes the setting on her weapon and pulverizes the barricade on the doorway. She then sends a live picture of the apartment down to the police control center below them. She shows a close up of TZ lying dead on the floor. It takes a few minutes for the authorities to understand that the threat TZ has been posing has been neutralized. It takes them another half hour, to make it up to the apartment to verify that fact. In the meantime, Vee and Bar are long gone. They have checked out the rest of Manhattan. The other one isn’t here. He must be somewhere else in the country.

  Chapter 45 Mario, Vee & Bar

  Maria storms out of the vehicle, as soon as Mario drives up to the front of the cabin. She doesn’t even wait for it to come to a halt, before the door is open and she is off. She slams the vehicle door shut and she slams the cabin door shut, when she goes in there too. Mario isn’t sure what the best thing to do is. He turns off the engine and sits in silence for a minute or two. He has never seen Maria in this sort of rage before. He hears the words of warning that were meted out, when he first met her. Now he is seeing her like this for the first time. He thinks he will give her a minute or two, to get her thoughts clear, after the vote that snubbed her. He doesn’t want to leave it any longer than that, or she might think that he isn’t on her side too. He has to admit he does not know what she means, when she says this is not the end of it, but it makes him excited. There have been times in the past day or so, when he felt the urge had left him, but now it is back. Maybe what the tribe has done to Maria, will spur her on to do something with him.

  He decides that he has sat there long enough. Enough for her to get in there and sit down, but not too long that she thinks she has scared him. He opens the car door and gets out. No one has followed them up here. He could say that when he goes in. Does he think they would follow her up here so quickly? Only two people might; her father and her brother. They might not be here yet, but he does not think they will come running after her anyway. Do they think that having a simple vote is enough to get rid of her? If they do, then they have got her seriously wrong. It will be interesting to see what they intend to do; now they have had a vote on the matter. It will be equally interesting to hear what Maria is thinking her next move will be.

  Mario opens the cabin door and goes in. Maria is by the sink, getting a glass of water. She turns as he enters, but doesn’t say anything to him.

  ‘I just gave you a minute’ he starts with and when he doesn’t get shot down in flames adds ‘I also waited to see if anyone came up after us, although I think we left too quickly for that to happen yet.’

  ‘It won’t happen at all. It is exactly the same as it was before. They are afraid of me and what I stand for. They are afraid of what I might do, in the name of the tribe. They have settled for what the white man has grudgingly offered back in compensation. They are our lands and it is our wealth that they give back to us; what they want to that is.’

  ‘What are we going to do about it Maria?’ Mario decides the ‘we’ is the best approach here.

  ‘I am not absolutely sure yet. The only thing I can be sure of is; that as long as my father and my brother are alive, then not one member of the tribe is going to follow me. Not a single one of them will stand beside me and take back what is rightfully ours.’

  Mario is almost afraid to ask the question; if she means what he thinks she might be saying, or if it is just a statement of fact. As long as her father and brother are still alive, then the tribe will stay loyal to them. Mario lands on the side that he doesn’t think she is thinking of killing her father and brother. Maria smiles at him. She sees what he might have been thinking.

  ‘I am not going to kill them’ she says, still smiling ‘that would too easy and what is the point? It would only strengthen resolve against me anyway. No, I will try to think of something that I can do to undermine them. I want to do something that changes their stature in the community. I want it to be something that will make everyone think that they were wrong to have trusted the Nadahli. I want them to lose all of the things they have gained. I want them to be disgraced. That will hurt them far more than killing them would achieve. The only thing I have to decide; is what it is exactly that I need to do to achieve this.’

  The room lapses into a silence. Mario feels that only Maria will be able to think of the action she needs to do, to satisfy her need to diminish the tribe’s standing.

  ‘It’s a shame there aren’t four of us.’ She breaks the silence. ‘It would be so much better if we had two vehicles to start the attack. If we could have two people driving and two people with weapons, then we could achieve so much more.’

  ‘Is there no one who will follow you?’ The words are out of his mouth before he gives them much thought. He gets away with it. She goes into deep thought. She stays that way for five minutes or so. Mario can’t read what she might be thinking about. He thinks he has set her onto something though.

  ‘There might be some of the young bucks, though I think they might also have what they need. But it is always interesting, when you put some alcohol into the equation. I think we should go and buy copious amounts of alcohol and take it to the main hall. Her face is lighter and brighter, as she bounces across the room, stopping at Mario’s side to give him a kiss.

  ‘That was a good idea of yours’ she announces.

  ‘I didn’t say much’ he admits.

  ‘Yes, but it was enough to give me a direction.’ She kisses him more urgently this time, but then pushes him away and makes for the door. ‘You can have me later, when they have joined us. Yes, it is amazing the effect alcohol can have on some people.’

  Maria takes the driver’s seat and they make their way down to the meeting hall. There are still a lot of people in the hall when she walks in. For some reason the discussion has continued after she left. Maybe things aren’t so cut and dried after all.

  Maria walks over to the main table. Her brother and her father watch her, as she walks over to them. It is clear to see for Mario, who has entered and is standing by the door; that they are nervous of what she might have come back for. Indeed they should be worried. He is almost worried for them. They do not know what they are dealing with, not that he does either.

  Maria does not talk to them. She stops and turns to address those in the audience. I have come back to say that there are no hard feelings. We will have a celebration this evening, here in the hall. Bring some food and bring your families. Bring some music and we will rejoice in the Nadahli tribe. A cheer goes up in the hall. Her father and brother don’t join in on it. She is up to something, they believe, but they don’t know what.

  ‘I’ll need a couple of willing helpers’ she says to the audience. ‘I need to go and buy some food and drink to bring along. After all, it is my party!’

  This time as she leaves the hall, she has two or three members of the tribe with her. They go to get their trucks. Three vehicles leave the camp to get supplies. Maria intends for there to be much more alcohol than food. She suspects these others with her want the same proportions too.

  Bar has taken them round the island of Manhattan. The communications are thick with the news about TZ. They are also pretty full about Vee and Bar. They are fairly certain that they have lent a hand in the outcome of this event. Vee can’t pick anything up, going north, but can pick up something, going out west. There are also signs of something going out south too. She doesn’t know which is which, but she guesses they are both trails that need to be followed. The west trail intrigues her more, so she tells Bar to follow that trail.

  Maria has been taken to the liquor warehouse. At first they are wary of her, because she is not known, but when they see the color of the cash she is paying with, they lose their resistance to giving her alcohol. With the order paid for in hard dollars, the t
hree pick-ups are turned round and drive the short distance back to the reservation. They are all well loaded.

  When they make it back to the hall, there are more willing helpers there, to unload it for them. Mario thinks that someone must have used their cell phone to get the help, after seeing how much they had bought. This isn’t going to be a quiet celebration party; this is going to be something else. Maria sends Mario off, with a few crates of beer and some bottles of bourbon, to put at the back door of the hall. Hopefully some of the younger ones, who wouldn’t be allowed a drink in the hall, will find the supply there and put it to good use.

  By the time Mario goes back with one more crate fifteen minutes later, the other beers and bourbon have gone. He tells Maria this when he goes back round and she smiles a great big smile. She sends Mario off to the liquor store, to buy another pick-up load. He has plenty of cash to do this. She instructs him to leave some more at the back door when he gets back, before he unloads the rest at the front. By the time he gets back, there are helpers at the back door, ready to relieve him of some more. They are already worse for wear and being a bit aggressive about it.

  When Mario goes into the hall, after the last of his load is emptied and carried in by willing helpers, he can see the mood has already changed. Maria is working the floor. She is making sure that everyone has a drink and access to more, when they want it. The only two people, who aren’t drinking, are her father and her brother. They are powerless to stop what she has started. Suddenly Maria leaps up onto the stage. She doesn’t want them too drunk, but she needs them fired up enough to do something, in their present state.