Thunder crashed across the sky and the rain picked up speed. Hunching down, I struggled through the stormy weather.
I decided to make one more stop at ShadowFire’s headquarters. Despite Beverly’s threat about yanking my payment, I needed to tell them about the alligator. Once I did that, I’d leave Manhattan.
This time for good.
A loud pop deafened me.
And then, everything went black.
I looked around. All nearby artificial lights had been extinguished. It looked like a power outage. And judging by the blocks of dark buildings in all directions, it was a massive one.
Seconds passed and I became aware of another light, a smaller one and far more distant. My eyes drifted to the sky. High above, I saw the sun’s rays peeking through the thick cloud cover. It was beautiful, breathtaking even.
There was something strange in the air. I could sense it. It made me feel small, but at the same time, free.
The sound of rain splattering against the sidewalk disappeared. I no longer tasted salt in the air. One by one, my senses faded away until only my eyesight remained.
And as I stared at the wonders of nature, something changed within me. I couldn’t leave New York, not yet. Last time I faced adversity, I’d tucked tail and ran away. I’d spent the last three years running. And all I had to show for it was a trainload of guilt and endless bouts of anxiety.
I didn’t want to run any longer, not from New York, not from Diane, not from anything else. I needed to make peace with my past. I needed to take charge of my future.
Abruptly, a thought hit my brain. It happened so fast that I never even saw it coming. And after it passed, I finally understood.
I adjusted my direction, steering myself back toward the subway tunnels. I just hoped Beverly had left them unlocked. I needed to gather proof before I went to her and Chase. And I needed to do it fast.
If my theory was correct, the Grim Reaper wasn’t done yet.
And that meant that there was more death to come.
Lots of death.
Chapter 21
Sidling up to the wall, I took a quick peek into the layup yard. The space was dark and muted. In the dim light offered by a small, crackling fire, I saw a single shadow. It was large and shaped just like the giant I’d fought the previous night.
Terrific. Just what I need, another round with that monster.
The giant swept across the yard and back again, evidently keeping watch over the area. As my eyes adjusted to the quality of light, I noticed a second person. He seemed to come out of nowhere, a fact I found intriguing. The man walked a couple of yards and disappeared into the far end of the layup yard.
It made sense that the colony lived in that part of the space. The layout provided them with more protection from prying eyes. Fortunately for me, it also made the near end of the yard vulnerable to infiltration.
I continued to observe the near end of the yard for the next couple of minutes. Eventually, a petite woman strode into my line of sight. She glided toward the back wall. As she walked, she pumped her arms, waving a plastic bottle back and forth in the process.
Abruptly, she disappeared into thin air.
Two minutes later, she reemerged. Adopting a swift pace, she walked across the ground, still swinging the same bottle. Moments later, she vanished into the other half of the layup yard.
I turned my attention back to the giant. I timed his movements as he trooped back and forth, in and out of sight, over and over again. After memorizing the pattern, I ducked into the layup yard and flattened myself on the ground. I waited for him to run through his pattern again before standing up. Then I darted toward the back wall.
I heard footsteps as I moved and I turned my head for just a moment.
My foot caught on something.
My arms splayed to the side.
My body tipped.
I fought to keep my balance.
Abruptly, I crashed to the ground with a jarring thud, my gun rattling hard against the concrete. I sucked in a mouthful of air as the giant wheeled around and stared in my direction.
Shit.
Quickly, I rose to a knee and raised a hand in front of my face. “Sorry,” I said in an overly deep tone. “My fault.”
The giant stared at me and I felt like a kid caught shoplifting. My eyes drifted to the obstacle on the floor.
My chest tightened.
It was a body, newly dead.
Steeling myself, I stood up. I was in too deep to back out now. Confidently, I strode toward the back wall.
I felt the giant’s eyes blazing a hole in the back of my head.
I kept walking.
As I neared my destination, I shot a quick glance over my shoulder. The giant had returned to his marching.
I was in the clear.
Letting out a deep sigh, I looked at the ground. I saw plastic tubs full of silverware and chipped plates, piles of unused blankets, and stacks of dog-eared paperback books.
I expanded my search, casting my eyes over the immediate area, seeing more tubs, empty water bottles, a decorative sheet hanging from the wall, stacks of cans…
My eyes shifted back to the sheet on the wall. Besides graffiti, the layup yard lacked decorations of any kind. So why was a single sheet hanging there?
I walked over to it. Something that sounded like white noise caused my ears to perk. I listened to it for a few moments. Then I pulled the sheet aside.
The mouth of a corridor yawned before me.
I stepped into it, let the sheet fall back into place, and found myself in a cramped makeshift area. Turning on my flashlight, I examined the roughly shaped walls and ceiling. The numerous marks and gouges looked manmade and fairly recent.
Shifting my light forward, I headed into the tunnel, descending steeply into the ground. As I walked, the white noise deepened and grew in volume. The tunnel expanded as well, growing wider and wider.
Suddenly, the ground disappeared beneath my foot. Bone chilling water engulfed my leg, threatening to drag it away. Immediately, I yanked it out of the current. Stepping back, I shifted my beam toward the water.
What I saw took my breath away. It lacked romance and style but there was no mistaking the water that rushed through the small cavern.
It was a river.
An underground river.
My heart pounded as I knelt down and jammed my arm into the water. I stretched as far as I could, but the bottom eluded me. Although bested by urban development long ago, the river had survived and perhaps even thrived deep underground.
Shifting positions, I flattened myself next to the waterway. I couldn’t measure it completely, but the stream seemed wide and deep. Then images of Kolen flooded my mind. It didn’t take much imagination to picture an alligator floating nearby. I jerked my arm from the water.
As I stood up, my beam reflected off something in the corner of the cavern. Leaning down, I discovered an empty water bottle wedged into the bedrock. Unless I missed my guess, the colony used the river as a water source.
Some enterprising person had dug out the tunnel to access it. But who? Ghost? Providing a supply of fresh water might explain the intense loyalty his people seemed to feel toward him.
Picking up the bottle, I scooped it into the water and filled it to the brim. Then I capped it and stuck it inside my satchel.
As I turned to leave, I swiftly organized the relevant events in my brain.
Fred Jenson, the mysterious homeless man, pawning a bar of Nazi gold.
The alligator attacks.
The strange disease afflicting the colony.
I wasn’t sure about the first event, but the river was definitely at the physical center of the other two events. I shifted the facts around and reorganized them again. But no matter which way I looked at them, I kept coming back to one inescapable conclusion.