Alice aimed her flashlight in the faces of the two young men who had been here earlier: Kevin and Sapo. Shana knew sapo was Spanish for “toad,” and the ugly little man looked like one. She powered down Alice’s cell phone, killing its glow so she wouldn’t be seen.
“How did you get up here?” Alice said as the men
entered the condo.
“There’s no doorman downstairs,” Kevin said. “Your lobby’s flooded.”
Alice locked the door. “I don’t believe this shit. I’m paying for doorman service, and he just let you two up here? Please tell me you checked on our spots like I told you.”
“Everything’s good,” Kevin said.
“But I bet you didn’t cap Raheem yet, did you?”
“No, but we saw him.”
“So why didn’t you cap him?”
“Because he had other ideas,” Sapo said.
“What—?”
Kevin slipped behind Alice, putting her in a choke hold, and Alice dropped her flashlight.
Shana could no longer see anything, but she heard awful juicy wet stabbing sounds, followed by a dull moan and gurgling. Her heart pounded for what felt like a full minute, and then a dark shape fell to the floor, blocking the flashlight.
“Stupid bitch,” Sapo said in the darkness.
“Go find that little shorty,” Kevin said.
One of the men picked up Aunt Alice’s flashlight, and Shana felt her eyes bulging in their sockets as the beam swung in her direction. Sucking in her breath, she closed the door and pushed the button lock. She ran to her closet and opened its door, then entered it using Alice’s phone for illumination.
Five feet away, the doorknob turned.
Shana closed the closet door and turned to her left, where a wooden clothes hamper had been built into the wall. Parting the clothes on the rod, she faced the surface of the hamper, which appeared to be part of the closet’s construction.
In the hall, one of the men pounded on her bedroom door, causing her to jump.
She removed a board in back and set it over the one in front. Then she scrambled on top of the hamper and moved between the clothes hanging on the rod above it, trying not to disturb them.
The bedroom door burst open.
Shana crawled through the opening into the hamper and pulled the loose board back into place just as the closet door opened. Crouching low to the floor with Aunt Alice’s cell phone clutched in one hand, she held her breath in the darkness.
Through the floor she felt the vibrations from footsteps. The man jerked her clothes across the rod. She pictured him pulling on the first board, which would have held fast. Then he walked away and she let her breath out.
“Where is she?” the other man said.
“I don’t know, not in there.”
Their voices grew too muffled to hear.
Careful not to bump the hamper with her head or
elbows, Shana sat. She pressed the cell phone until the light from the screen came on again. Using the glow from the screen, she searched her hiding place for the business card Maria had given her.
Jake sat on his cot with his hands clasped before him and Maria sitting beside him. A single candle on the end table beside them highlighted their features in a soft glow.
“How do you feel?” Maria said.
He thought about it. “Contaminated. I’ve felt that way ever since we got back from Pavot Island.”
“The Magic?”
He nodded. “I feel like it’s coated the inside of my skin and my brain.”
“Why didn’t you say something?”
“It’s hard to articulate the craving to go out and score a drug that can turn you into a zonbie. There aren’t any
support groups like AA for it, either.”
“That’s why you need to confide in the people around you.”
“It’s been so long since I had anyone I could confide in. I’ve been carrying around secrets for years, one lie
after another. With Sheryl, it was the coke and dirty money. With Edgar, it was all this supernatural shit and killing the Cipher. With you, it was that Katrina had turned Edgar into a raven.”
“You also lied about sleeping with Laurel, but I’ve decided to give you a pass on that one for now.”
“Every time I get dragged into something, there’s always someone like Geoghegan around to give me the third degree, and all I can do is lie through my teeth. It’s become a way of life for me. Laurel was the only person I could talk to.”
“Maybe you want to rephrase that,” she said.
“You dogged me for almost a year. A person obsessed with proving you did something you didn’t do is the last one whose shoulder you want to cry on. Now I don’t even want to spill my guts to Laurel.”
“That doesn’t seem to matter. She just takes whatever thoughts you don’t care to share.”
“It’s not like she can help it.”
“She said you don’t trust her.”
“I never told her that but it’s true. When Katrina turned Edgar into a raven, Laurel never told me that one of Ramera Evans’s blood relatives could reverse the curse. I had to find that out on my own.” Even in his time of confession, he couldn’t tell Maria that information had come to him via Sheryl.
“Maybe she didn’t know.”
“I’m tired of her knowing everything about me.”
“Confronting Lilith like that was stupid.”
“I just wanted to buy the city more time.”
“Did they hurt you?”
He thought of Lilith commanding him to behave like a dog. “Just my pride.”
“That isn’t all they did, though, was it?”
Avoiding her eyes, he shook his head.
“This is some world you live in,” she said in a low voice.
“If anything happens to me, get the hell out of New York.”
Maria stared at him for a moment before speaking. “Why? Lilith has seen me. She already knows who I am. I find it hard to believe she’s behind this hurricane, but I’d be stupid to discount she’s a witch after what I saw on Pavot Island. If she’s as powerful as you say she is, she can destroy me anytime she wants, can’t she?”
He closed his eye. How had it come to this so fast? “Yes.”
“Then we’re better off facing her together.”
He stared at the candle. “We’re not on Pavot Island. You’d think being on our home turf would make this easier, but it doesn’t. She has us right where she wants us.”
Maria looked at the window. “How long can she keep this up? Long enough to starve us out?”
“Noah’s flood lasted forty days.”
“God’s flood, not Noah’s. Whatever Lilith is, she sure as hell isn’t God. There has to be a limit to her powers or at least to her temper. She can’t be willing to destroy the entire city.”
“She sure seems committed.”
Someone knocked on the door.
“Come in,” Jake said.
The door opened, and Carrie stood before them holding a candle. “You’d better come out here.”
Jake and Maria followed Carrie through the office and into the reception area, where Ripper and Laurel sat staring at Ripper’s phone. Jake’s Thunder Ranch lay on the table.
“The power’s out across most of the city,” Ripper said.
Jake, Maria, and Carrie sat around the desk.
“The hurricane is moving in circles around Manhattan,” Laurel said.
“That’s impossible,” Maria said.
“That’s what the weathermen are saying, too,” Ripper said.
“She’s using it to keep anyone from getting out or in,” Laurel said.
The light from his phone lit Ripper’s face from underneath. “The mayor just ordered martial law, the governor’s sending in the National Guard, and the president’s declared Manhattan a national disaster area.”
“The National Guard isn’t getting in here,” Jake said.
“Well, then maybe the c
oast guard.”
“This is on us.”
“Team Helman?”
Before Jake could answer, Maria’s phone emitted a half ring.
“Text,” she said, taking out her phone.
Jake wondered how long it would be before their phones stopped receiving data.
“I’m not in the proper frame of mind to lead any troops.”
“You got us into this mess by rescuing her”—Carrie nodded at Laurel—“so you can damn well be the one to get us out of it.”
Maria stared at her phone. “Oh, my God.”
“What is it?” Jake said.
She showed him the message. “Shana.”
Help. They killed Aunt Alice. I’m hiding in my closet.
Maria started to key in a reply.
But Jake grabbed her arm. “A response could expose her to whoever she’s hiding from.”
“Who’s Shana?” Carrie said.
Shoving her phone into her pocket, Maria stood. “I have to go.”
Jake stood, too. “You don’t even know where she is.”
“Alice’s condo is on Thirty-fourth and Ninth.”
“How the hell do you expect to get there?”
“I’ll take the High Line.”
“That’s all the way on Eleventh Avenue!”
“I’ll find a way. That little girl’s been through hell, and now she’s in danger. Don’t try to stop me.”
“Then let me come with you.”
Maria looked at the others, then back at Jake. “No. That will just ruin your chances against Lilith.”
“What makes you think she’ll let you go?” Ripper said.
Maria turned to Laurel. “If I stick close to the buildings she won’t see me, right?”
“This storm is her creation. She could easily see you.”
“I have to take that chance.”
“Come into my office,” Jake said.
“I don’t have time.”
“It will just take a second.”
They went into the office and Jake closed the door. He took two cartridges for his Glock and handed them to her.
“You may need these.”
She pocketed the magazines. “I hope not.”
“I have something else for you.” Crouching before the safe, he turned the combinations and opened the door, then took out his Glock and an object he had trouble seeing in the candlelight.
Standing, he held the Anting-Anting by its chain. “I don’t know if this will offer any protection from Lilith because I don’t know what the hell she is, but it’s worth a try. In ancient times Jews wore amulets to keep her away. I didn’t think to take it with me this morning; my mind hasn’t been working too well.”
Maria gazed at the Anting-Anting, which Jake had worn when he outsmarted Kalfu. “You keep that.”
“No.” Raising the chain over her head, he placed it around her neck. “You can give it back when you see me.”
She touched the amulet, then looked at Jake and kissed him.
Returning to the reception area with Jake behind her, Maria squinted at Carrie, Ripper, and Laurel in the candlelight. “Good luck to all of you. As soon as I get this little girl someplace safe, I promise to come back.”
“Good luck to you, too,” Laurel said.
“You’ve got my number,” Jake said.
“You’ve got that right.” Maria winked and left.
Carrie stared at Jake with a dumbfounded expression. “You shouldn’t have let her go.”
“He did the right thing,” Laurel said.
“She’ll be safer out there than in here,” Jake said. “This way my feelings for her won’t trip me up, and she can’t get in the way of what I have to do next.”
“What’s up, chief?” Ripper said.
Jake picked up the Thunder Ranch. “Except for what’s in this and in my Glock, we’re out of ammo. But I have plenty of ammo for that big gun that’s in my car, so I’m going to get it.”
26
Using her Maglite for illumination, Maria took out her cell phone as she descended the stairs of the building and pressed a number.
“What’s up, kid?” Bernie said.
“Raheem had Alice killed, and Shana’s holed up in their condo. The triggermen may still be in there.”
“How do you know that?”
“Shana sent me a text from inside her closet.”
“Holy mackerel.”
“I’m leaving Jake’s building now to go there.”
“How the hell do you expect to get to that building?”
“I don’t know if I can, but I sure as hell aim to try. I want you to call the 10th Precinct and see if they have anyone in the vicinity they can send to help.”
“No one’s going anywhere. This city is locked down: no cars, no choppers, no friendly neighborhood patrolmen.”
“You never know. Penn Station’s right down the street.”
“It’s underwater, darling.”
“Hell, there could be an off-duty PO who lives in that building.”
“On a cop’s salary?”
“I’m hanging up. Life and death, okay? Make the call.” She ended the call and made another one.
Five minutes later, Maria stood on the last landing before the lobby. Water had filled it three feet deep, engulfing all but the last step. She descended the stairs and waded into the cold water up to her hips. The lower panes of the glass doors had broken from the pressure, allowing the water inside.
She prayed she would see Jake again, but she told herself that every adult in his office had made the decision to be there and Shana was an innocent child with no say in her predicament. Maria would give her life to save the little girl’s, and she didn’t intend to allow Lilith or anyone else to stop her.
Wading across the darkened, flooded lobby, she couldn’t help but search the water for rats. If Lilith had sent them scaling the front of the building, she could just as easily send them to gnaw her to pieces at street level.
She gazed outside at the rain, which struck the water’s surface in great sheets and rendered visibility almost nonexistent. It was just after 2:00 p.m., but it might as well have been nighttime. She couldn’t see the Flatiron Building or the Tower, and across the street the New York Edition Hotel loomed like a monolith, its limestone surface gray in the rain.
Maria stepped outside, and the wind slammed her with such force that it knocked her backwards into the water, submerging her. The current dragged her and she flailed her arms. Her right hand caught the building’s edge, which she grabbed with her left hand as well. Pulling her body forward, she raised her head, gasping for air. Then she pushed herself forward with her legs and held on to the front doorframe. This was going to be harder than she thought.
Three shapes bobbing in the water ahead caused her to reach for her Glock, ready to battle rats if necessary. As the shapes moved closer, she recognized the hands and head of a human corpse dragged by the current. Memories of the zonbies on Pavot Island bubbled in her brain, and she held her breath until the male corpse had floated by.
Using her left arm to shield her eyes from the onslaught, she tried to discern the corner of Twenty-third and Park Avenue ahead, which proved impossible. It occurred to her that if she hadn’t clawed her way back into the entrance, the wind and current would have carried her straight to the Flatiron Building.
And beyond it, she thought.
The corpse had already traveled halfway down the block.
That’s it.
Maria took her sunglasses, phone, and a scarf from her jacket pockets and slid the phone into her pants pocket. She unclipped her holster from her side and secured it to the back of her belt. Then she peeled off her jacket and tossed it inside the lobby. She slipped on the sunglasses and tied the scarf tight around her head.
Taking a breath, she faced the current and kicked off the sidewalk. The river took her but did not submerge her. She rolled over onto her back, attempting to float. The rain struck her face with such vo
lume that she had to blow it out of her nostrils. Her heels tapped the pavement, and her legs swung up again, causing her face to disappear beneath the surface. She let out a slow exhale so she didn’t take in water, and her face broke the surface again.
I’ll get the hang of it, she thought.
When her heels touched the pavement, she gave a gentle kick, just enough to move her toward the middle of the street, so she didn’t have to worry about colliding with a building. The hardest part was dealing with the rain, which stung her face, drops ricocheting inside her nostrils. She inhaled through her mouth and exhaled through her nose to compensate.
Out of the corner of her left eye she glimpsed a gray mass blotting out the sky: the Tower. Just a block to go before she reached the Flatiron Building. Hopefully she would float right by it.
Jake put on the dusty nylon camouflage outfit he had worn to infiltrate Lilian’s estate. The jacket still reeked. He strapped his hunting knife around his right boot and holstered his Thunder Ranch. Then he went into the reception area and handed his holstered Glock to Ripper.
“I’m going with you,” Ripper said.
“No dice. I need you to stay here with the ladies.”
“You can’t swim with one hand,” Laurel said.
“I can. It will just be hard.”
“Take Ripper,” Carrie said. “We’ll be fine here.”
Jake pulled the Thunder Ranch from its holster and held its butt out to Laurel. “Then you take this. Ripper will have my back.”
“That sounds fair,” Carrie said.
“This shouldn’t take more than an hour.”
Ripper fastened the Glock’s holster to his belt. “I’m ready.”
“Please be careful,” Carrie said. “Don’t get eaten by any rats.”
Sliding his heels apart, Ripper kissed her.
“Don’t make me come looking for you,” Laurel said to Jake.
Maria ceased all motion as she floated on her back past the Flatiron Building. She spread her arms and thrust her belly as high as she could to avoid sinking, but water still washed over her face, and she blew air out of her nose to keep from breathing it in. A coughing fit would expose her if anyone watched from the building.
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