As they continued moving down the tunnel toward the light, Jon began to notice that there was no walkway on the other side of it, so Halladay was walking down along the track itself, hugging the wall on the far side. When they got closer to the light, Jon could tell it was coming from the ceiling of a small platform along the line, which seemed too small for a train stop and was probably used for maintenance. Not all the ceiling lights on the platform were working—just enough of them that he could see, on the far side of it, a closed door similar to the one in the basement of the restaurant. In front of that entrance, about twenty feet away from it and about five feet from the ledge above the tracks, were three large support pillars, equally spaced from one another.
Good cover for our approach, thought Jon, and whispered across the tracks to Halladay, telling him he should use the first one. Then he told Amira to go across the tracks to the middle pillar, but to hang back for a minute first, while he moved along the walkway to the other end of the platform. If someone was watching from the patches of darkness near the Below entrance, he wanted to make sure it was he who was exposed first rather than Amira.
25
No one was watching from the shadows on either side of the platform, but someone did appear from them when the three cops were almost in position behind the pillars. Halladay had climbed up and situated himself behind the pillar on the left, Jon had done the same behind the pillar on the right, and Amira was crossing the tracks toward the one in the middle when they all heard heavy footsteps coming down the stairs at the right side of the platform.
Jon gestured to Amira to get down, and she wisely took another couple of steps forward and crouched in the shadowed area near the platform where the light was blocked by the wall. Jon and Halladay stayed behind the big square pillars so that whoever was coming couldn’t see them either, but Jon listened intently to the footsteps and got ready to move if they happened to come toward him. They didn’t, but proceeded along the back wall of the platform to the door of the Below, which was in the center of it.
Then Jon risked a glance around the edge of the pillar and saw Shinsky using a key to open the lock on the door, and pull it open. The big killer didn’t enter the room, however, but stopped halfway into the doorway when he saw who was inside.
“Sturm?” Shinsky said, obviously puzzled. “Where’s Williams? He told me to meet him here.”
“He’ll be back in a minute.” Jon could hear this voice from within the room. “Come on in. And thanks for not using those stupid code names.”
Shinsky moved forward into the room cautiously, leaving the door open behind him.
“Really happy to see you,” Sturm said menacingly, the whole tone of her voice changing suddenly.
“Aw, come on,” Jon heard Shinsky say, and knew intuitively that Sturm had pulled a gun on the big man, even though he couldn’t see what was happening in the room.
Jon stepped out from behind his pillar, his own gun drawn, and moved slowly toward the Below across the right side of the platform, knowing that he wasn’t visible to the killers because of the angle and the door. Halladay and Amira, who had climbed up from the tracks, also moved out from their pillars toward the door, but they were a lot farther away than Jon because they had to be more careful not to be seen from inside the room.
“Williams isn’t coming back, is he?” This from Shinsky, as Jon heard what sounded like the fastening of handcuffs.
“No,” Sturm’s voice said, “he’s throwing a Dayfall party somewhere else.”
“Can you please make it quick?” Shinsky said, as Jon moved closer to the door and heard the sound of something solid being dragged across the floor.
“Now, where would be the fun in that?” Sturm said. “Sit down.”
Jon imagined the bowling ball–shaped killer stepping aside to get some tape or rope to tie Shinsky to a chair, and figured this would be as good a time as any for the cops to rush the room. He also thought it might be good if Shinsky was still somewhat mobile when they did, because the big man could possibly become a distraction for Sturm. He wasn’t sure about this, but had to make a decision, so he took the leap and gestured with his head to the other two cops behind him that he was making his move and they should back him up.
He was planning to kick the door farther open and assume a firing stance on the right side of the doorway, hoping Sturm might be partially turned away and would surrender, or at least that he could fire before she brought her own gun to bear. He thought that one of his two fellow cops would also have an angle, from behind him, if needed. But he didn’t get a chance to do any of that, because before he could put his foot around the bottom corner of the partially open door, a grenade flew out past him and bounced into the middle of the platform.
A second later, Sturm pulled the door shut from inside and slammed it with a loud bang that Jon initially thought was the grenade exploding. When he realized it wasn’t, everything seemed to blur into slow motion as he yelled and waved for Halladay and Amira to take cover and watched them rush behind the two pillars they had used before. Because Jon was farther away from that cover and actually had to run past the grenade to seek it, he made another split-second choice and decided to forget the pillars and just dive over the edge of the platform, trying to clear it as fast as he could so the shrapnel wouldn’t hit any part of his body.
The grenade exploded at the same time he was going over the edge, and after he landed hard on the dirt and metal of the track, he thought he’d been hit because of the pain shooting through various parts of his body. But a quick inspection revealed that it was probably just a result of the impact of his violent fall, and he also realized he had dropped his gun in the panic. He pulled out the second one he had brought and pointed it over the top of the wall, resting his arms on the floor of the platform so only they and the top of his head were exposed.
The platform was darker now, thanks to the explosion, but at least one of the lights on the sides of it was still working. The door of the Below remained closed, and a quick scan of the platform showed it was empty except for the debris from the blast. So Jon relaxed just enough to look to his left and check on the other two cops, who were safe behind their respective pillars. The sides that had been facing the grenade were mangled, but they were obviously load-bearing and solidly built.
“How the hell did he know we were out here?” Jon said to them, but kept his eyes on the door to the Below.
“I don’t know,” Halladay said, an adrenaline-fueled smile on his face. “Special Forces are special.”
Jon saw the door unlock and open slightly, and started firing on it, as close to the opening as he could get. Halladay and Amira joined him, but it became obvious that the bullets hitting the door were stopped by its thick metal, and any that got through the crack weren’t hitting anyone inside.
The former soldier managed to throw out two grenades this time before pulling the door completely shut again.