by Amy Gamet
“Let me see if I’ve got this right,” said Matteo. “They’re going to have explosives and we’ve got pepper spray?”
“And righteousness,” said Hawk. “Don’t forget righteousness.”
Matteo shook his head. “I don’t think that’s going to cut it. The crowd is their greatest weapon—the threat of casualties. We need a way to get the crowd to disperse so their explosives can’t hurt anyone. How are guns going to help us do that?”
Hawk snapped his fingers. “Great minds think alike.” He reached into a big canvas duffel bag and withdrew a bullhorn. “I figure I tell them what’s about to go down, and they won’t be able to run away fast enough.”
“If that doesn’t work, we can just start shooting. That should make ’em run,” said Austin.
“Some will run, some will get down on the ground. Not what we’re going for,” said Cowboy.
Matteo’s mind was whirling. “Tell me they won’t bring Nico here. Tell me they’re two separate plans that have nothing to do with each other.”
The men just looked at him.
“Fuck.” Matteo shook his head. “The crowd isn’t their biggest weapon. Grace’s baby is.”
Logan turned the map upside down. “Austin’s right. This map is fucked up.”
The car pulled into the parking lot of the subway station, which was already full. Hundreds of people filled the adjacent park.
“The station itself is directly underneath that park,” said Logan. “With entrances to the subway on either corner. The vigil is about to start in the grand gazebo, right smack in the middle of the park, and dead center over ground zero. As for the tracks, I just don’t know.”
“Objective number one is to clear that park of people,” said Matteo. “Then we find the boy.”
“Hopefully Talia got your message in time to let the local beat know we’re the good guys,” said Hawk.
“One way to find out.” Matteo hopped out of the car and headed for a mounted policeman, then jogged back. “We’re good. They’ve been told.”
The men got out of the vehicle, immediately drawing attention with their camouflage uniforms and large black guns. Hawk pulled out the bullhorn. “Attention, ladies and gentlemen. We have a public safety situation at hand and we need clear the park immediately. The candlelight vigil will need to be rescheduled.”
Everyone was looking at Hawk, but no one moved to leave. Hawk looked to Cowboy, who shrugged, the put the bullhorn back to his mouth. “Terrorists are going to blow up the subway station! Get out of here, now!”
The people ran.
“That definitely worked better,” said Cowboy.
Matteo led the way. “Let’s get down to the station.” He checked his watch. We have less than eight minutes until the vigil was supposed to start.” They split up, one man going down each set of stairs so they covered all the entrances. Foul, hot air blew up from the station as Matteo made his way down.
He could hear Hawk on his bullhorn spreading panic and sending tons of people up the stairway past Matteo. By the time he got all the way to the bottom, the only people there were the HERO Force men themselves.
The station was empty.
Matteo spun in a circle. All that was down here were some bathrooms, an empty ticket booth and the tracks themselves, the tunnels leading away from the platforms. “Three subway lines. Four tunnels here that branch into six tunnels away from the station,” he said.
“And only four of us,” said Logan.
“Where do these tunnels go?” asked Matteo. “What’s most likely?”
Logan pointed to one set of tracks. “It’s a crapshoot, Red. I can’t tell.”
“Fuck.” Matteo shook his head. “So, we’ve got an eighty-three percent chance of picking the right line, and a hundred percent chance of having one of us against a handful of them.”
“That’s right,” said Logan.
“Are the trains running?” asked Hawk.
“Who the fuck knows.” Matteo moved to Logan. “Did you bring the map?”
Logan pulled it out of his pocket and handed it to Matteo, who spread it out on the ground. He lined up the drawing of the subway platform with the single line in the map, then stood up and pointed. “I say we go that way. Two go left and two go right.”
“What if they’re on the other line?” asked Logan.
“They’re not. This map means something to them. It doesn’t need to mean anything to us. They had it for a reason. We take this track.” He folded up the map and tucked it in his own pocket. “Doc, you’re with me. Hawk, Austin, and Cowboy, you go that way.”
They started walking down the middle of the tracks in the opposite direction from the other men, flashlights blazing.
“Watch out for the third rail,” said Logan. “If a train comes, we need to get up on that walkway on your side.”
“Got it.”
“There still won’t be a lot of room, but if we flatten our bodies—”
“Logan, shut up.”
They walked in silence for a hundred yards, the beating of Matteo’s heart in his ears the only sound he could hear. He stopped walking and turned to Logan. “We’ve got this all wrong. Think this through with me. They’re not going to walk along the tracks like we are. They’re going to blow up the station. They’ve already been here.”
“Most likely, yes. They would have set the charges hours, days, or even weeks before now.”
“So why even be here?”
“Because they can’t leave a baby in the middle of the park alone. If they’re really going to try to kill Nico, they want the world to see it.”
“Without the world seeing them.” Matteo shined his flashlight along the sides of the tunnel. “What’s so special about this tunnel that would allow them to do that?”
Logan jerked his head back. “I know what it is. This tunnel was built before the other two, before the technology to burrow so far underground without destabilizing the earth was perfected.” He moved to the wall, shining his own light on it. “This tunnel isn’t a tunnel at all. This was built on ground level and covered over with steel and concrete.”
“What does it mean, Logan? What are they going to do?”
The other man turned toward him, his lips parted and his eyes far away. “If I were a madman who wanted everyone to see what I was about to do? I’d blow up the park with enough of a bang to clear the roof off the tracks. Send the park flying.”
“Leaving only the tracks below.”
“They’d be ruined. Any train that tried to ride those tracks would derail.” Logan shook his head. “It would take a hell of a lot of explosives to send the park flying. More than you could hide in a subway station.”
“Then how would they get them here?” asked Matteo.
A hot breeze blew down the tunnel toward them, followed by the squeal of metal on metal and the gleam of a train’s headlight. Logan hopped up on the maintenance walkway and Matteo followed him, flattening himself against the wall. The train passed by like a moving picture, loud and rumbling.
They hopped back down onto the tracks and looked at each other with complete understanding.
“Run!” they both yelled.
37
Grace rode with Talia to the park, anxiety making her palms sweat and her head pound. They pulled into a train station parking lot.
“This is the wrong station,” she said. “You said South Street Station. This is Wall Street Station.”
“The next closest one. It will be safer for you to get out here. Come now, we must hurry.”
She followed him down the steps to the station below. A train sat waiting.
“Get on the train,” he said.
“What? No. Where is Matteo?”
Talia pulled a gun out of his jacket. “Get on the train if you ever want to see your baby again.”
She held her breath, suddenly shaking. “Please. Tell me where he is. I’ll give you anything you want.”
“I want you to get on that goddamn
train!”
She turned and got on. Talia stood in the doorway, the weapon trained on her.
“Where is Nico?”
He ignored her.
“I’ll give you safe passage out of the country. Money. Anything.”
Talia laughed. “I don’t want anything from you.”
A loud boom resonated through the underground tunnel and she put a hand on either side of her seat, bracing herself against the vibrations. “What was that?”
“That, my dear, is my cue.” He stepped back and the door to the subway car closed.
She shot out of her seat and banged on the glass. “Wait! What’s going on? What’s happening?” She continued to bang on the glass as the car kept moving.
The train pulled out of the station, leaving Talia behind and Grace’s train car hurtling forward. She ran car by car to the engine. There had to be a conductor, someone who could let her off this thing, but when she reached the front car, she found it completely empty.
She was alone.
A light up ahead on the tracks, and she squinted to make it out. What was so bright? It almost looked like… daylight.
Her eyes widened as her mind made sense out of what she was seeing. The tunnel was open to the outdoors, the tracks blocked and obstructed.
38
Cowboy shined his light back toward South Street Station. “That was a bomb. A big fucking bomb.”
They’d heard the train coming, felt the wind as it moved down the tunnel, then the explosion. They were only a quarter mile or so out of the station when it happened and it felt like the earth was splitting in two.
“That was more than a few blocks of C4,” said Austin.
“You’re right,” said Cowboy. “More like a train full of dynamite.”
“So that’s it, then,” said Hawk. “Bomb detonated, party over.”
Cowboy scratched his head. “I guess so, but we’re not going to get out that way, so let’s keep walking to the next station. I hope Grace’s kid is okay.”
Hawk stopped walking. “Wait. Do you feel that?”
Wind, coming toward them. “There’s a train coming this way.”
“It’s going to run right into the rubble at South Street Station.”
“Fuck. How do we stop a train?” asked Cowboy.
“The third rail gives it electricity,” said Austin. “You have to find some way to short it out.”
“That giant fucking explosion didn’t short it out?” yelled Cowboy.
“It couldn’t have, or the train wouldn’t be moving. Quick. We look around for metal. If we can connect the third rail to the running rail, the electricity will stop,” said Austin. “But we have to hurry.”
Cowboy shined his flashlight up and down the sides of the tunnel. “There! On the next track. There are pieces of metal.” He ran over there and tried to pick one up. It didn’t budge.
The wind was getting stronger.
The other men each grabbed on. “Lift on one, two, three,” said Austin. Together they were able to just get it off the ground. “We need to drop it on the track on my count. As soon as you let go, get the fuck out of the way.” The train’s metal wheels squealed on the bend in the track, the rumble of the locomotive getting louder. “Ready? Just a few more feet. Good. On three. One, two, three!”
The men dropped the steel onto the tracks and scattered in the opposite direction, pressing their bodies against the side of the tunnel. Sparks flew as the train rounded the bend, then everything went dark, including the lights on the train. Its engine was quiet.
“Woot!” yelled Cowboy. “We did it!” They’d stopped the train from crashing into the debris. It was only in the silence that followed their congratulations that he heard the cries of a baby coming from inside.
39
Grace was curled into a ball beneath the covers, her body like a shield around her son. Their train cars were perfectly coordinated to crash into the rubble at the South Street Station at the same time.
Both were saved by the men of HERO Force.
Matteo watched them sleeping with a heavy, grateful heart.
He moved to the bed and climbed in beside her, opening his arms for her and the baby to cuddle against his side.
“I thought you were sleeping,” he said, kissing the top of her head.
“I thought I lost you both,” she whispered.
He could feel her tears, wet on her face and dripping onto his chest. Every emotion he had held in check throughout this day gathered in his throat, constricting his airway and choking his ability to keep it in check any longer.
He squeezed his eyes tightly shut, tears escaping at the corners, and pulled her more against his side. She was fitted tightly against him, her leg tucked over his leg, her arm around his waist, and he knew he’d never held another woman with such intensity of emotion before in his life.
“I want to make love to you, Grace.”
“What about the annulment?”
“I don’t want it.” He touched her face. “I want you.”
It was as natural as dusk following sunset, and he knew there would be no more considering. He needed to be with her just as much as she needed to be with him.
She was his wife.
He turned toward her and kissed the top of her head, then her head turned up to his and he kissed her on the mouth. This was when the marriage would become real, and every move of his hands and his body showed her how much he loved her.
40
Matteo reclined on his side, baby Nico babbling on the bed next to him. He touched the baby’s feet, with his super-soft skin, pudgy rounded tops, and tiny perfect toenails.
His eyes went to the TV on the dresser. Grace looked beautiful in a bright blue suit, the flag waving behind her in the sunshine as she announced her candidacy for president.
“That’s your mama,” he said to the baby. “She’s going to be in charge of the whole country. You should be very proud of her.”
Nico babbled his agreement.
“I’m proud of her, too.” He truly was. These last three months he’d seen her go from a woman who was unsure of herself and looking for approval to someone who could stand up and lead as she clearly was meant to all along. As his father-in-law predicted, the people loved her even more than her predecessor, and Lutsia’s future looked promising and great.
He turned back to the baby, rubbing his belly, making him laugh.
Grace entered the room, a wide smile on her face as she began unbuttoning her jacket. “How’d I do?”
Matteo stood up and wrapped his arms around her waist. “You were amazing.”
The baby grabbed his feet, his noises now higher and happier still. He showed no ill effects from his ordeal, quickly slipping back into his routine with his mother and Matteo.
A knock at the door and Vasile walked in, smiling and scooping up his grandson. “There’s my little man.” Before the door could close behind him, Cowboy and Hawk walked in.
“You about ready to go?” asked Cowboy.
“Yeah. I am. Just let me get my things.”
He stood up, his stare set on Grace. “Guess I’ll be seeing you around.”
“I guess so.”
He walked out of the room with the men of HERO Force by his side. It could be no other way.
“I still think I should have been your best man,” said Cowboy.
“You are. You both are.”
“Hawk doesn’t love you the way I do, Red.”
Matteo put his arm around Cowboy. “I’m going to miss you guys.”
An hour later, he was standing beneath a white arbor in the sand, staring at Grace as they renewed their vows.
“When you first came to this country,” she said, “I thought you were only interested in the money. That I was just another job to you. But then I got to know you, and spend time with you, and then I got to like you. And I realized you didn’t take this job for the money at all, that you did it to help the people of Lutsia, because that’s just the k
ind of man you are.” She took a breath, her bottom lip trembling. “And then I realized I loved you.”
“I promise to take care of you, Grace. As much as any world leader needs taking care of. I promise to be a good father to Nico and to any more children we have along the way. You’re the only person I ever wanted to spend my life with.”
The priest leaned heavily on a cane, but his smile was wide and true. “Aren’t you glad we didn’t skip the vows that time?” he asked. “By the power invested in me by the holy Church and the People’s Republic of Lutsia, I now pronounce you husband and wife.”
41
Cowboy sat at his desk staring into space as he listened to the hubbub around him. A large manila envelope was opened, a stack of papers beside it, and nothing would ever be the same again.
He could hear a couple of the new guys laughing with Hawk. They were just getting their feet on the ground, about to take HERO Force to the next level, and now they were going down. Crashing and burning like the goddamn Hindenburg.
He’d lived an interesting life and made more than his share of enemies over the years, but he never expected anything like this.
His cell phone rang.
Jax.
“You get one, too?” Cowboy asked.
“Yep. What are we going to do?”
Cowboy blew out air. “What the hell are our choices? We’re guilty as fuck.”
“Doesn’t matter. We fight it, Leo. We fight it with everything we’ve got.”
“As soon as the facts come out, HERO Force is done for anyway.”
“Maybe. Maybe not.”
Cowboy shook his head. “I love to agree with you, man, but you are living in a dream world if you think this is anything other than impending doom. If you and me were back in that shit storm again tomorrow, I’d do the same goddamn thing. But that doesn’t make it right, and there ain’t a court in the world that’s going to let us get away with it.”
“You might be right, but I’m not willing to let HERO Force and everything we’ve worked for get flushed down the shitter because of one misstep.”