“That was you?”
She nodded.
It only took me a second to decide. She’d ordered me to leave Manhattan in the first place. And now that I found myself in trouble, she’d come to my aid. It wasn’t enough to make up for her role in the whole affair.
But it’s a start.
I removed my arm from her neck. “Which way?”
“Follow me.”
Crouching down, I followed her through the tunnel. At the end, she hoisted herself onto the concrete ledge and angled north, heading along the Lexington Avenue Line.
I followed suit and as I darted after her, I heard the lapping of water below me. It sounded deeper than I remembered.
My emotions roiled. My headache worsened. My sense of balance diminished. Gritting my teeth, I forged on, determined to put as much distance as possible between Standish and us.
Subway stations and maintenance tunnels blurred as we raced north. My headache spread until it encompassed my entire body. My vision clouded over in endless colors, leaving me nearly blind.
I heard a dull rushing noise. I wasn’t sure if it was my imagination or something else. Either way, it sounded familiar. Familiar and intense.
Stumbling, I fell onto the ledge, scraping my hands on the concrete.
Beverly swiveled around. “What’s wrong?”
“I’m fine,” I mumbled. “Just another one of these damn episodes.”
“Do you hear that?”
“It sounds like water.”
“More like a flood.”
I looked down. Despite the colorful blurriness, I saw several feet of water churning through the bottom of the tunnel. It looked like a canal, albeit one with serious water flow issues. The sight of it stunned me into silence.
“We should get to a platform.” My words slurred at the end of my sentence. I felt my muscles give way.
I never saw it coming. Abruptly, a wall of water ripped into my body, sweeping me right off the ledge.
I toppled toward the track bed.
The third rail.
I hit the water.
My brain exploded into colors.
And then I lost consciousness.
Chapter 28
As he stalked across the laboratory, Standish cursed his stupidity. He’d made a foolish mistake by not killing Cyclone Reed. And very shortly, he’d have to answer for it.
He forced himself to look on the bright side of things. The hidden laboratory, missing for over thirty years, had finally come to light. And Reed’s escape wasn’t really his fault. The blame belonged to that turncoat, Beverly Ginger.
He stopped and turned in a circle. After two hours of work, the laboratory had been completely transformed. Yellow caution tape wound around the room, forming walking lanes and blocking off areas of interest. Light fixtures hung from the ceiling, covering the space in a bright glow. Masked workers concentrated on the two corpses, examining them carefully. Later the corpses would be bagged and toted to the surface for more tests.
Meanwhile, two photographers roamed the room, taking pictures of every detail. Other workers followed them around, carefully securing and bagging all items for later examination. A third set of workers followed the second set, vacuuming and sweeping up the mounds of dust.
A small smile crossed his face. The operation was neat and well organized. If the room held answers, he would uncover them.
“Hello, Ryan.”
As Standish turned around, he felt his stomach muscles clench. “Hi, Jack. Was it difficult getting down here?”
Chase shrugged. “I’ve been through worse.”
“I’ll bet.”
“I saw some of my people are wounded. What happened?”
“Cyclone happened. He just showed up out of nowhere. I was about to kill him when all hell broke loose. Someone turned out the lights and fired a few bullets. In the confusion, Cyclone escaped.”
“Who helped him?”
“Beverly Ginger.”
Chase frowned. “Are you sure?”
“Some of the workers noticed her fiddling with the lights. And at least one person saw her and Cyclone running away.”
“Where are they now?”
“Our guys are tracking them through the tunnels. It shouldn’t take long to find them.”
“For your sake, I hope you’re right.”
Standish felt a twinge of annoyance.
“So, where is it?” Chase continued. “Where’s die Glocke?”
“I’m not sure.”
“How can you not be sure? It looks like a bell, a giant bell. Six feet tall. Four feet wide. Even a moron would recognize it.”
“I know what it looks like.” Standish glared at him. “It’s not here.”
“Are you certain?”
“I’ve been in this lab for over two hours now. If die Glocke was here, I would’ve seen it.”
Chase’s face tightened and lines emerged. Standish felt the man’s eyes lingering on him. He suddenly felt uncomfortable and his hands started to shake. Taking a deep breath, he hiked across the room and stopped in front of the strange metal rigging.
“We may not have die Glocke,” he called out. “But we have its holding structure.”
Chase walked over to join him. “That’s definitely the right size and shape.”
Standish stepped back and took a long look at the rigging. His eyes swept across its surface, looking for anything that might hint at die Glocke’s current whereabouts.
The floor underneath the rigging was swept clean of debris and dust. As such, he could see that the concrete was heavily smeared and cracked in multiple places. It was an impressive sight and told him everything he needed to know about die Glocke’s power.
“This doesn’t make sense,” Chase said. “Where could it have gone?”
“Don’t know. But I’ll find it.”
“You’d better find it.”
“There’s another option though.”
“Is that right?”
Standish waved his hand at the desk. “We found those papers. They might contain Hartek’s blueprints for die Glocke.”
Chase studied his face. “It sounds promising. But you’re hiding something from me. What is it?”
Standish sighed. “One of your scientists already looked through them. He told me that for the most part, they contain unreadable gibberish and strange equations. He might be able to decipher them. But it will take time.”
“Did you find a journal?”
“Journal?”
Chase nodded. “Back in 1976, my contact told me that Hartek recorded his discoveries and breakthroughs in a journal. It was his life’s work, contained in the covers of a small leather book. If we find it, we might be able to use it to duplicate Hartek’s research.”
“We haven’t found it yet.”
Chase walked over to the desk and began searching drawers. At first, he merely shifted through their contents. But his movements became increasingly frantic.
Standish watched his actions with distaste. A controlled environment, strong organization, and smart, educated decisions. That was the formula for success. Ultimately, Chase’s haphazard search would only make things harder on everyone.
Chase pulled out the top drawer on the right hand side. He flipped it over, dumped its contents on the floor and scanned them with his steely eyes.
Breathing heavily, he yanked out the second drawer and repeated the process. Then he grabbed the last drawer and tried to jerk it out of the desk. It didn’t move.
Looking to the side, he noticed the key in the lock. After turning it, he removed the drawer and started to flip it over. Then he stopped. His face turned bright red.
Standish watched as the drawer dropped to the ground, crashing against the mess of papers and trinkets. Leaning over, he took a closer look. It was empty except for a thick layer of dust. However, in the very center of the drawer, was a dust-free space. It was about the size of a small paperback book.