by Jeff Abbott
‘The stairway’s ahead to your left,’ Aubrey said.
His circle of light found the door. He eased the door open. The stairway was pitch-dark.
Luke had to assume the worst. Where will they strike? The stairways and hallways were crowded right now, and Mouser and Snow would want privacy to kill him. The staircase would spit them out into the foyer. He pictured the small lobby in his mind – the staircase on the far left side, the old-style tile flooring, the dimensions of the room. If you wanted to ambush someone – it was close to a front exit. In the confusion Snow and Mouser could be out in the street and gone in seconds.
He stopped and Aubrey ran into his back.
‘Stop at the second floor – we’re not going out into the lobby.’
They went down the stairs and opened the second floor door and the hallway was empty.
‘Is there an exit to the back?’
‘Only through the lobby. Not from the residential floors.’
‘Stop,’ Eric said. Luke pulled the light toward his face and Eric blinked.
‘I’m going to talk to whoever’s after us. I’ll make a deal.’ Eric sounded confident again.
‘They won’t stop to talk.’
‘They will with me. I’m calling the shots, Luke. I’m sorry.’
‘Talk later, move now. Please,’ Aubrey said. Then she gave a gasp and in the disc of the flashlight’s glow Luke saw the pistol in Eric’s hand.
21
Waiting in the lobby for his targets to emerge, Mouser had not foreseen a big problem.
People with flashlights in a darkened building tend to shine the circle of light square in the faces of people nearby. They expect to see neighbors, and maintenance men, and they have a sudden bright suspicion of people they don’t know. Mouser edged back toward a column.
Two older women were standing in the lobby, miffed at the inconvenience of ruined dinners, and one kept pointing a light in his direction.
‘I’m sorry,’ she finally said. ‘Do you live in the building?’
‘No, ma’am, my friend does and she asked me to wait in the lobby.’
‘Who’s your friend?’
‘Grace Crosby.’
The answer seemed to satisfy the woman. ‘Well, they better get the power back on. We got half-cooked pork chops sitting in a skillet.’
‘Told you we should have baked them,’ the other woman said. ‘Oven would have finished the job, kept ’em hot.’
The first woman growled in annoyance and agreement. But she performed a valuable service for Mouser – she flashed her light toward every entrant into the lobby from the stairwell, as regular as a sentry. So he would see Aubrey and Eric before they saw him, and they would be blinded for a second or two. His hand in his coat pocket held a Glock 18. He could kill the woman immediately, hustle Eric to a place where he could be questioned, and find the missing money. If the two elderly women got in the way, too bad. Darkness and chaos would give him cover enough to escape with Eric.
Then the job would be done and he could take Snow someplace safe. They would have their reward; they could start to reshape the world. Make Hellfire happen and begin to truly kill the Beast.
Sooner or later, his targets would come.
Ten minutes went by and they hadn’t appeared.
The stair door clanged again and the old woman shone light against unfamiliar faces and he knew he’d worried too much about extracting Eric quickly onto the street. Wrong approach in the blackout. He headed for the stairwell.
22
When Eric got the flashlight, Luke realized. Aubrey had a gun hidden in the apartment and Eric grabbed the gun when he got the flashlight.
‘Aubrey, come here,’ Eric said.
Aubrey stayed put. ‘This is insane, Eric. Just – stop it.’
‘He’s going to force my hand. I’m not going to the police. Neither are you. If he’s gone, we’re free.’
‘Free?’ Luke said.
‘They’re not here for us. They’re here for him.’
‘Bull. They’re here for Eric and their fifty million bucks, and he knows it,’ Luke said. ‘That’s why he offered to go talk to them. Unless that was just his way of abandoning you, Aubrey, and he was going to run for his own sorry life once he hit the front door.’
‘That’s a lie!’ Eric snapped.
‘Eric, stop it,’ Aubrey said.
‘Don’t you switch sides on me, Aubrey, not after all I did for you.’
Luke shone the light on her face and her expression had turned angry. ‘You’re an asshole,’ she told Eric. ‘I should have broken up with you ages ago. You are not a hero.’
‘Stop this, we need each other,’ Luke said.
‘Spare me the idiotic let’s work together sentiment,’ Eric said. ‘Aubrey. Move away from him.’
‘And go where?’ Aubrey stayed at Luke’s side. ‘Where are we supposed to hide? How are we supposed to live that way? There’s no rock quite big enough for us to set up housekeeping.’
‘I could have left you to die, Aubrey.’ All the warmth bled out of Eric’s voice. But it wasn’t replaced by anger. Luke heard anguish and bitterness. ‘I gave up everything for you. Even after you dumped me.’
‘Eric, it’s not too late.’
‘I killed a man for you! Jesus, you don’t get a do-over. I killed him.’
‘Under coercion. Under stress.’ Aubrey’s voice went soft, cajoling. ‘You could get everything back, but this is not the way to save our lives.’
‘Give me the gun,’ Luke said.
‘I know you’re a good man at heart, Eric,’ Aubrey said, ‘I know you’re scared. I know what you wanted for you and me. But this isn’t the way…’
Luke moved the light towards Eric’s face, thinking he could blind him, break his resolve. ‘We have to get out of here. Assume they want to flush you out of hiding, force you to tell them where the money is. That means they might be waiting down in the lobby, or the street.’ It wasn’t so different he thought, when he stole food in his runaway days. If you had to hide, you did not hide in an obvious place. ‘We need another way out; we need to hide where they won’t expect us to be.’
‘I have an idea,’ Aubrey said.
23
Mouser hurried up the stairs and as he hit the door the lights surged back into life.
The power company had overridden the darkness he’d been promised.
No matter. He reached the Crosby apartment, tested the knob. Unlocked. He opened it, scanned the room with his Glock, moved from room to room. A shattered glass, a gush of red wine, a fire extinguisher, blots of blood on the carpet.
The apartment was empty. They had not exited through the lobby; he’d have seen them in the windows as he approached. They must still be in the building.
So where would they hide? A neighbor’s? Unlikely – this wasn’t Aubrey and Eric’s real home, they wouldn’t know the neighbors. So they had to be on the roof or in the basement.
The roof would be a dead end. The basement would offer service exits. Maybe onto a back entrance or alley.
Mouser hurried down to the lobby, then across it till he found the basement entrance, and headed down the stairs. A faint red glow from the emergency lights led downward, the red gleam like a mockery of hell.
‘Trust me, I can cut a deal,’ Eric said. ‘I can reason with them. I’ve been planning on it.’
Of course he was, because he was treating the money like a bulletproof shield, Luke thought. ‘They don’t want to negotiate. They’ll force you to hand over the money and they’ll kill you.’ Luke pushed him along into the depths of the basement. Part of the floor was being renovated into ground-level units, but an open stretch of space at the back contained electrical equipment, a nesting of pipes and a set of industrial water heaters. The disorder created a maze of construction junk, half-walls and maintenance equipment.
The power surged back on.
‘Maybe he’s gone,’ Aubrey said. Luke reached to the switch and killed t
he lights again.
‘Let’s see if we can wait him out. Eric, give me the gun,’ Luke said.
‘No.’
‘If this is the same guy who’s after me, if he sees you with a gun, he’ll just shoot you. No time for a deal,’ Luke said.
‘I know what I’m doing. I’m keeping the gun. I’m not going to let them hurt Aubrey.’
Luke heard a door open above.
They hid in the labyrinth of pipes, kneeling to the cool concrete floor. In their hiding place Aubrey was further back, then Luke, then Eric, close to the front. Luke raised a finger to his lips.
Luke listened. Hard. A footstep. Another.
In the trickle of the light he peered between the pipes and a black form passed between the far wall and a table of tools. Stopped. Listened.
In the thin red light Eric stood and came out from the hiding place and walked toward the figure. Luke went still. If he yelled he would betray himself and Aubrey. But Eric was already betraying them.
‘Hey,’ Eric said quietly. ‘Night Road?’
The shadow gave no answer.
Luke stifled the urge to run in blind panic. Eric was either going to save them or hand them over to this enemy.
‘I’m Eric Lindoe.’
‘I know who you are.’ It was Mouser. ‘I’ve been carrying your picture in my pocket. I thought I was gonna get a nice vacation in Thailand, chasing you down. How you doing?’ His tone was relaxed, friendly. ‘You look beat up.’
Aubrey closed her hand over Luke’s arm.
‘I’m okay,’ Eric answered.
‘Where’s your girlfriend, Mr Lindoe?’ Mouser asked.
‘She’s someplace safe. You don’t need to worry about her. She’ll stay quiet about this mess. But Luke Dantry’s gone.’
‘Excuse me?’
‘There’s an alley exit – for maintenance delivery – on the other side of the basement. He went out the door.’
‘Luke Dantry was here?’
‘Yes.’
‘How long ago?’ Mouser was already turning to run.
‘Five minutes. I doubt you’ll catch him.’
Silence again. Luke’s heartbeat rattled like wind in a chimney.
Mouser said, ‘You have a lot of explaining to do. You have our money.’
‘Yes, but I’ve kept it safe for you.’
‘That’s a piss-poor interpretation of the situation,’ Mouser said.
‘I know where the money’s hidden. I’d like to trade that information.’
‘Fine. Trade it for your continued breathing. Where’s our money?’
Eric made no answer – there was only the creaking of the building, its bones settling and stirring, the outside hum of traffic, the distant murmur of voices. Luke could feel Aubrey’s breath against his shoulder.
‘Let’s make a deal,’ Eric said after a deep breath. ‘If I give you the money, then you let me walk away. Because I’m done with the Night Road. I want out.’
Mouser’s voice devolved into a low hiss. ‘We’re not negotiating. You tell me where the money is. Or you die. Five. Four. Three.’
‘Okay. Here’s the deal. Immunity for me and my girlfriend, from Henry, from the Night Road. All I did was cause a hiccup in the plan, just to get my girlfriend back. I give you the money. We walk away from each other. I just want out, free and clear.’
‘Except I need more than the money.’
‘What?’
‘This British woman, this Jane. She’s the Night Road’s enemy,’ Mouser said. ‘We need to find her, find out how she knows about us. Because that’s the ticket – ain’t nobody supposed to know about us, about what we’re planning, about Hellfire.’
‘I have no idea who she is. All I can give you is the money.’ And then the knife twisted. ‘Luke Dantry knows. He’s figured out you’re the people he found for his stepfather. He won’t stay quiet.’
‘We’ll call Henry, we’ll talk to him on the phone together.’
Between the pipes Luke saw Eric sag in relief.
‘Except.’ The word hung in the air like a sword ready to slash. ‘I would like to know a couple of details.’
‘What?’
‘You and your lady friend were on a flight manifest to Thailand. Now. How the hell did that happen if you didn’t get on the plane?’
Eric was silent.
‘You buy a ticket?’
‘Yes. But we didn’t use the tickets.’
‘But you don’t get on the manifest unless you use the ticket. How did you get on that list?’
‘I don’t know. Clerical error. What does it matter?’ A panicky edge touched Eric’s voice.
‘It matters. Somebody’s trying very hard to protect you, Eric. Somebody with the rather impressive power to alter a flight manifest. Tell me who’s protecting you, Eric.’
The silence from Eric told Luke that Mouser had hit a nerve, had seen the key in Eric’s deceptions. Finally Eric said, hoarse: ‘No one’s trying to protect me.’
‘You cut a deal with someone else. Maybe with someone powerful who’d hide you if you betrayed the Night Road, whispered all our secrets in their ear. Maybe let you keep a chunk of our fifty million.’
‘No.’ But Eric, pushed to the limit, sounded as though he were about to cry.
‘Did that same someone powerful offer a deal to Luke Dantry? Does Luke know where the money is?’
‘No.’
‘I want a name, Eric. Who is protecting you?’
‘No one.’
Luke peered through the pipes and saw Mouser toss an object to Eric. Eric caught it deftly in one hand.
‘What’s this?’ Eric asked.
‘PDA with internet capability. I’m assuming you aren’t hauling around fifty million in tens and twenties. You’ve got the money parked in an account somewhere. Prove it to me that you’ve got it, show me the account balance online, and we can deal. Show me the money, bud.’
Eric held the phone, looked at the screen. ‘I… I…’
‘What are you waiting for?’
‘I’m not going to show it to you.’
‘I need proof that you’ve still got the whole fifty million.’
Eric didn’t look over toward Luke but he raised his head with a slow dignity. A decision made. He tossed the phone back to Mouser, who caught it one-handed. ‘I’ve got it all, but I’m not showing you the accounts. I have no reason to lie.’
The sound of the shot was a hard slap in the close air of the basement. Under his hand, clamping over her mouth, Luke felt Aubrey choke down a scream.
‘Not any more,’ Mouser said as a soft eulogy.
Luke did not risk peering through the pipes. He tried to breathe silently, through his mouth. Mouser had killed Eric. Just ten feet away from them.
He heard footsteps. A clanking of metal – the unused basement door. The cool night crept into the basement.
Aubrey pressed her face into her elbow, curled on the concrete.
The door clanged shut. Mouser was in the alley.
The gun. Eric still had his gun. In his jacket.
Luke moved from the web of pipes and didn’t even glance behind at Aubrey.
Eric lay dead on his back, a Rorschach of blood on his forehead. Slackening astonishment on his face.
Luke glanced at the door. It began to push open again. Too soon to be anyone but Mouser.
Luke ran and shoved the door hard, kicking his heels against the concrete floor.
A bullet tore through the thin metal, ricocheting into the air an inch from Luke’s scalp.
He slammed the door fully shut, slid the deadbolt.
Luke was running now, yelling for Aubrey. She crouched, shivering over Eric’s body, her mouth trembling, her skin pale as moonlight. He knelt, grabbed the gun from the jacket, a sheaf of papers, a key ring and cell phone from the pocket. A miniature basketball on the key ring bounced against his palm. Luke grabbed it all, put the gun under his own coat.
Luke and Aubrey ran up the stairs, into th
e small crowd in the lobby, out into the cool of the wind-blown street. They took a hard left and ran onto the busy sidewalk. Cars zoomed past, headlights painting them in whites.
It would only be a minute before Mouser was on the street.
People crammed the sidewalks, thronging from the restaurants and stores. Luke and Aubrey ran and he looked ahead and to the left, at the upcoming intersection, and he saw Mouser scanning the street, suddenly raising his hand. Running after them. They dashed out onto Armitage Avenue. Mouser closed fast on them.
In the street they were caught in a wash of lights, a roaring peal of brakes. A Chicago Transit Authority bus honked, veering to avoid Luke and Aubrey. He saw the lighted windows of the bus, commuters standing and sitting, just wanting to get home to their safe cocoons, frightened and gripping the seats and each other as the bus driver hammered its brakes, spun, crunched into cars parked along the avenue.
For a moment Luke thought the bus would either topple on them in its skid or simply run straight over them. But they ran out of its path, Luke glancing back, seeing Mouser vanishing as the bus blocked Luke’s view. A car rammed into the side of the bus.
They ran. Luke heard the squealing of brakes from a truck trying to avoid them. Aubrey grabbed his arm and they ran down a side street. Luke glanced back, didn’t see Mouser in the chaos of the braked cars, didn’t hear another crack of gunshot.
They ran back toward the elevated train station. They fed their cards into the ticket reader and hurried up the staircase.
They stood at the end of the platform, waiting for the rumble of the rails. Aubrey leaned against him, panting. If Mouser made it up the steps…
‘Go,’ he said. ‘Go to the police.’
She looked at him and a toughness in her that he had not seen before settled in her eyes. ‘I’m not sure the police can protect me from people who can kill the power grid. You took his keys?’
‘Yes.’
A train, bound for the Loop, rumbled into the Armitage station. ‘Let’s go,’ she said.
They stepped onto the train. The crowd mixed, doing the dodge-you-first dance, jockeying for seats and stands near the door. The train was less crowded than he thought it would be. Businessmen, rough looking kids, a group of women chattering in Spanish. Luke and Aubrey sat down, as far from everyone else as they could.