DARK VISIONS

by James Byron Huggins

  “So why did you have to cover for them?”

  “Because some things are about justice, not law.”

  “Why do you say that?”

  “Because court rooms are all about money and expensive lawyers and nuances and technicalities that could send a poor, innocent man to prison for the rest of his life but let a rich man walk just because he can buy his way out of what he damn well deserves.” Joe Mac cleared his throat, settling into the ride like it was just a midnight run. “There’s a big difference between law and justice. You’ll see.”

  “So what are we in this for?”

  “What do you think?”

  “Justice.”

  “You’re getting cold-blooded, kid.”

  “It must the company I keep.”

  * * *

  Jodi parked a full block from the pier, and they walked slowly through the mostly darkened alleys until they neared the entrance to the docks. “Okay, we’re here,” she said quietly, pulling back on Joe Mac’s elbow. “The gate’s open. Imagine that.”

  “Take your binoculars and scan the roofs.”

  Jodi raised the glass and began systematically searching the skyline but saw only shacks and chimneys. Finally, she said, “I don’t see anybody.”

  “Don’t look for bodies. Look for movement.” Joe Mac bared his teeth. “If a person ain’t moving you’re not gonna see them in the dark. Or in the jungle. Look for a chimney that gets wider for a split-second. That’s somebody leaning out to get a better look.”

  Two minutes later she was still looking at shacks and chimneys.

  “They must not be moving.” She froze the binoculars at the corner of a shack that abruptly widened. “Wait a second. I got something. There! The far end of that warehouse! He’s behind a shack at the end of the dock. He just leaned out.”

  “There’s gonna be three of them.”

  “How do you know?”

  “Standard operating procedure. They’ll form a triangle on the pier, so they’ll have us in a kill box with all three sides covered.”

  “So where are the other two snipers?” Jodi asked as she began randomly searching surrounding rooftops.

  “That guy is on the west. The other two will be to the north and south.”

  “Why not the east?”

  “Because he’s not a fish.”

  Jodi blinked. “Oh. Yeah. Sorry.”

  She scanned to the north when shots suddenly rang out on the closest rooftop. She swung the binoculars back and saw at least six figures running frantically around the roof with muzzle flares streaking through the dark from every direction. Then the shooting abruptly ceased and shadows gathered, staring down. They bent out of sight.

  “That’s one,” she said.

  The phone rang and Jodi answered. She placed it in Joe Mac’s hand, and he lifted it to his face; “Yeah?” A pause. “How about the others? Okay, good enough. Keep that rifle ready. We’re going out on the pier.” He shut it off. “They got eyes on all three. Let’s go.”

  “Are you sure it’s safe?” Jodi asked. “I’m not worried about us. I’m worried about Rollins.”

  Joe Mac’s teeth gleamed in a grimace. “I know what I told you about not pushing a bad situation. But in this situation …”

  “We don’t have a choice.”

  “Nope.”

  “Let’s do it, then.”

  Five minutes later they were at the foot of the pier, and at the far end Jodi saw a diminutive figure crouching beside a pylon. She knew instinctively that it was Rollins but he was in a low, cramped, awkward position. Even in the moonlight she could determine he was severely bound.

  “Yeah,” Jodi said quietly, nervously. “Rollins is at the end of the pier, but it looks like he’s chained to one of the pillars. I can’t be sure.” She squinted. “He’s not moving, Joe.”

  Joe Mac inhaled deeply and nodded. “All right. Let’s do it.”

  As they began walking Joe Mac was talking quietly. “Keep your eyes down for a trip wire. It’ll look like fishing line. Real thin. Transparent. And look at the pylons as you get close. Look for duct tape. They might have a claymore or a hand grenade or something like it taped to a pilon with a trip wire running across. You hit the wire and that pulls the pin and we’re dead.”

  It only took them two minutes by Jodi’s calculation to reach Rollins; he was still alive but he was heavily chained to a pylon and he was wearing a vest that was obviously loaded with explosives. Jodi saw a host of wires and blinking red lights, but she didn’t know any more about bombs than what she’d learned at the Academy, and that wasn’t much. Very carefully, she lifted Rollin’s face with a hand.

  She whispered, “Rollins? Hey. Wake up.”

  Rollins blinked slowly and finally focused on her, but where Jodi had expected relief she saw only alarm. “Snipers!” he rasped.

  “Don’t worry,” Jodi said quietly. “We took them out before they took us out. Is this thing a bomb, Jack?”

  Closing his eyes, Rollings nodded with the most perilous exhaustion Jodi had ever witnessed. He whispered, “I can’t move. They said … a mercury switch. If I even twitch, it’s over. For all of us.” He was barely breathing. “They didn’t put this on me until after I called. I would have never called you if …”

  “It’s all right,” said Jodi. “We’re gonna get you out. Jack. I’m calling SWAT. I’m telling them to bring the bomb techs. Joe? Is that our play?”

  Grim, Joe Mac nodded.

  “Hang on, Jack. This’ll be over soon.” Jodi took out her cell and began to dial; she reached the first number when –

  The pylon to Jodi’s side exploded in splinters and one second later the crack of a gunshot rolled over the pier like a sonic boom; she was stunned at the force of the bullet that hit the wood brace of the pier and was flat on the boards. Looking across, she saw Joe Mac had fallen to the planks, too, and drawn a .45.

  “Where is he!” shouted Joe Mac.

  “I don’t see him!”

  “He’s gotta be on another rooftop further out!”

  Another bullet hit the pier directly in front of Jodi’s face and she screamed as she rolled to the side knowing she’d been hit but not knowing whether it was splinters or a bullet. She smashed into a pylon still screaming and sweeping her face with a hand. In another moment she held her hand in front of her eyes glaring down.

  There was no blood.

  “Jesus!” she cried.

  Another bullet hit the dock where she’d just laid tearing a long furrow in the planks. Then shots exploded from the nearest warehouse roof where the Kosiniski brothers and whoever else opened fire on the fourth sniper.

  Jodi only knew one thing; Joe Mac was no good at all in this situation. He couldn’t see, couldn’t move. And Rollins had a bomb strapped to him.

  She was on her own.

  She shut her eyes; “Come on!”

  She fiercely spun to her knees and was at Rollin’s side ignoring a pylon that exploded behind her although she’d felt the concussion of the bullet as it tore through the air over her head. She screamed, “Joe what do I do with a mercury switch?”

  “Find the wire to the blasting cap!” Joe Mac bellowed.

  “What wire is that!” Jodi was leaning close, scanning everything. “There’s three wires, and they’re all leading to the same thing!” She instinctively ducked as the very pylon Rollins was chained to exploded in a shower of splinters. “They’re all leading to this pack on his chest! Which wire do I pull?”

  Training she couldn’t even remember receiving sparked Jodi to rip her flashlight from her waist. She clicked the chest plate and saw three wires – red, green, blue; the red wire was in the center with the others flanking it. She searched and saw that the red wire fed into tubes of what appeared to be more than enough to destroy the dock.

  “Joe!” she screamed. “I’ve got red, blue, and green! Which wire is it!”

  Rollins bellowed as a bullet passed between his body and Jodi, smashing through his right
arm, and Jodi screamed as she expected him to twist away, but Rollins didn’t move. His eyes were wide and horrified, he was gaping, and, yet, he somehow didn’t move even as the blood rained across the two of them.

  “Get out of here!” Rollins shouted.

  “No!” Jodi shouted. “I’m gonna get you out!”

  “Jodi if you don’t run you’re gonna die! Get outta here!”

  Another bullet hit the pylon beside Rollins’ head. He twisted his face to the side, and when he looked back Jodi saw the realization of death in his face.

  “Run!” he whispered.

  For the briefest moment, Jodi stared into his eyes and knew it was over. There was no way to defuse this thing under rifle fire, and they realized it together. It was a moment that was both profound and brief, and then it was gone and Jodi leaped to Joe Mac’s side, hauling him to his feet. “Put your arm around me!” Jodi screamed. “We have to run!”

  They staggered thirty steps before the concussion of a supersonic bullet passed Jodi on the right, and she knew from that angle that –

  TEN

  White light … white … ceiling …

  Jodi blinked … focusing …

  The walls of an ambulance.

  She realized she was laying in the back of an ambulance, and then she weakly raised her right arm to see an IV tube. It took her a while before she also realized she was on a gurney; she felt, then saw, safety straps around her waist and legs.

  An ambulance attendant climbed in the open doors and bent; he lifted her left wrist and felt her pulse.

  Jodi whispered, “What … happened?”

  “I don’t know,” he answered. “All I know is that there was an explosion, and you guys were somehow involved. Some longshoremen fished you and another detective out of the water.”

  “What about … Rollins?”

  “He’s in the other ambulance.”

  “No,” Jodi shook her head. “What about Rollins? He was on the pier.”

  The EMT put a hand on her chest, pushing her down. “Hey, hey, hey, settle down. You just got blown up. You might have a concussion or something worse.”

  Jodi blurted, “But Rollins was on the pier!”

  The EMT was her age, dark hair, and looked compassionate and competent and calm as he said quietly, “Detective Strong, there’s nothing left of the pier. You and your friend were blown into the water, and you got rescued by dock workers.” He hesitated. “But the harbor police are looking for survivors. Rollins might have made it.”

  Absolute exhaustion claimed Jodi and she laid back.

  “No,” she whispered, “he didn’t make it …”

  She closed her eyes.

  * * *

  This time it was different.

  A who’s who of the FBI and the great city of New York arrived at the hospital within an hour, and Jodi finally understood what Joe Mac had meant about it being worse; she was in a room by herself, but the nurse told her it was standing room only in the corridor. From the mayor to the Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the New York City FBI field office, they were waiting to bury her with questions.

  Jodi found herself staring at the ceiling.

  “I gotta get outta here …”

  She closed her eyes trying to recall the last hour; she remembered the pier, the ambulance, the emergency room, X-rays, and then they had moved her in here and gave her a shot of something to help her relax. But they hadn’t cut her clothes off, so they should be in the closet.

  She ran a half-dozen scenarios through her mind trying to scheme up a way to escape this, but everything she conjured seemed doomed; it would be next to impossible to walk unobserved past a hundred law enforcement officers highly trained to observe.

  A nurse entered the room and smiled encouragingly, “You feeling a little better?” She began removing tabs from her chest. “The doctor said you don’t have a concussion, and your EKG looks normal. But he wants an MRI. You up to it?”

  “Yes!”

  It took another few seconds to “unplug” her, and then the nurse spun the bed around and pushed her into the corridor. As they moved down the hall Jodi pretended to be staring blandly at the overhead lights, but she was in fact stunned at the politicians, cops, and television crews that were wall to wall. Two minutes later they were on another floor, and she asked the nurse, “Where is the other officer who came in with me?”

  “He’s getting his MRI,” she smiled. “I have to tell you: He’s not a happy camper.”

  Jodi grunted, “I’ll bet.” She began to calculate.

  “What hospital?” she asked hoarsely.

  “You’re in Lennox Hill.”

  Lennox Hill happened to be the one hospital she had never been to in her life. She only knew it had the reputation of being a stellar teaching medical center with a five-star rating from patients. And she only knew that much because some of her friends had joyous memories of their deliveries in this place. Then her mind moved on, and she knew that if they put her in the same room as Joe Mac they were as good as gone clothes or no clothes.

  “I need to see the other police officer,” she said weakly.

  “I’ll arrange for you to see him right after your MRI,” said the nurse.

  Clearly it was best to be cooperative, so Jodi said nothing more until the nurse stopped the bed, put on the brakes, and patted her arm. “It’ll just be a few minutes,” she smiled with what seemed like genuine concern. “Just try and relax.”

  “Okay.”

  The nursed walked from the room and Jodi sat up. She threw off the sheet, stared down, then ripped the IV from her arm. She swung her legs over the edge and hit the cold floor only to collapse clumsily against the bed, knees buckling.

  Groaning, she took deep breaths trying to focus as wide white circles passed before her eyes. It took longer than she liked but, finally, she recovered and studied her surroundings; it was a waiting room with a large glass window allowing a clear view of the MRI tube; they were just now removing Joe Mac.

  Joe Mac was in the same shape – an IV, a hospital gown, and a large bandage on his forehead. Jodi simply pushed open the door to the room and grabbed him by the arm.

  “Joe!” she said sternly. “It’s me!”

  Joe Mac straightened as if he’d been hit with a shot of adrenaline.

  “We gotta move!”

  “What are you doing?” asked the nurse. “Wait! You’re both hurt!”

  Jodi didn’t slow down as she hit the corridor with Joe in tow. She wasn’t going to wait for them to call security who would in turn call a stampede of police officers stationed outside their rooms; they had maybe one minute to get clear of this hospital.

  The elevator was directly beside the room, and she hit the button. The doors opened immediately, thank god, and she fairly fell into it and hit the first-floor button. They must have only been on the second floor because five seconds later the doors opened and she dragged Joe into an open lobby teeming with people who turned as one to behold what Jodi knew what must have been an amusing sight.

  The security guard at the exit raised a hand as if to demand an explanation but Jodi said sternly, “This is a police matter! Stand down!”

  If she’d had her badge and gun it might have worked but it was impossible to appear authoritative when you’re near-naked and bent and dragging an old blind man through a crowd of gaping onlookers.

  The guard patiently raised both hands.

  “Hold on, lady. I think you need to see a doctor before you –”

  “Marvin!” Jodi gasped.

  The doors opened, and Marvin came out of the night; he seemed to understand the situation perfectly and took a single decisive stride before he lashed out and connected with a left fist against the side of the guard’s head. With a shout the guard spun around and collapsed.

  Marvin leaped forward and grabbed Joe Mac, hauling an arm over his shoulders. He surged back through the door with Jodi following fast.

  “Hey!” someone shouted. “Stop!�
��

  Marvin stopped and whipped out the 45; his aim was dead steady and another security guard half-way across the lobby froze.

  Marvin shook his head.

  “Go!” he said without looking at Jodi.

  As Jodi rushed past him, she was aware that he was backing out with her. But it took her a second to realize Captain Brightbarton was driving the squad car waiting outside the doors. He was glaring over the front seat, a single hand on the wheel.

  “Hurry it up!” he shouted.

  Pushing Joe Mac ahead of her into the back seat, Jodi piled in as Marvin slid into the front and slammed the door.

  Brightbarton didn’t need any direction. He floored it, and they cleared the parking lot in seconds. Then they were flying, and Jodi stared back to see how many squad cars were in pursuit but after two minutes she saw nothing and twisted back again and collapsed.

  For a while she wasn’t certain whether she was conscious or unconscious.

  “You all right?” Marvin finally asked.

  “Yeah,” she moaned. “Ah … Yeah … I think so.” She leaned her head back. “How did you …”

  Marvin shook his head, “I woke up worried, so I went downstairs to check on you. Needless to say, you weren’t there. I didn’t know what else to do, so I woke the captain up, and he started listening to radio traffic.”

  “Yeah,” Jodi nodded. “Yeah …”

  “We heard the call go out from the pier,” Marvin continued. “The captain made a couple of calls and verified that one of you were involved. We figured out the rest.” He cleared his throat. “We knew we had to get you out of the hospital if you’re weren’t too hurt. But it looks like you were doing pretty good by yourself.”

  “We wouldn’t a’ made it,” Jodi managed and swallowed hard. “He had us.” She focused on Marvin’s sweating face. “Thanks.”

  “No problem.” He passed a white plastic bag over the seat. “Here’s some clothes. We picked them up coming into town. I figured that they probably cut your other clothes off in the emergency room, and you couldn’t hardly make a run for it naked.” He gestured. “The fat ones are for Joe.”