“Wish we could fan out. I hate to be stuck single file if we come upon Dattar and his crew,” Russell said.
“I’m equally afraid of the third rail. It’s mostly covered, but there are small open sections. If somebody gets the idea to switch the electricity back on, I don’t want to be anywhere near it,” Smith said.
He continued forward, with Russell behind him. The tunnel smelled of mildew and dust, but overall it wasn’t as foul as he’d expected. The tunnel’s ceiling was made of jack-arch concrete and the walls were tiled. The sound echoed, as if he were in a shower, so they maintained silence.
Smith figured it would take them 15 minutes to walk it. The water, with its tendency to splash and make noise, slowed them a bit, but they still kept a brisk pace. Smith felt the dirt beneath his feet begin to suck at his shoes, and his feet and calves were soaked. He felt something squish under his sole. It felt dense, like the body of a small animal.
Mouse or rat, Smith thought.
After ten minutes they came upon a recessed opening. Smith turned his hips so that the light shone into the area, but he found nothing. He waved Russell on. After another five minutes, he thought he heard a sound ahead of him. He stopped and switched off his flashlight; Russell did the same. Smith stayed perfectly still. The sound of another soft splash, this one closer, made his skin crawl and his heart start racing. Someone or something was in the tunnel with them.
46
Dattar, Khalil, Manhar, and Rajiid had taken three steps toward the exit, when the lights went off.
The blackness shocked Manhar and, for a moment, he thought the world had come to an end. He heard shuffling and a smothered oath from Khalil.
“What did they do? Shut the rail down again?”
“The lights are on a different system.” Rajiid’s voice came from Manhar’s right. “This is more extensive than just the station.”
“You have a flashlight?” Dattar’s harsh voice grated on Manhar’s ears. He thought he heard a soft splash from behind him, and it made his skin crawl. The rats were jumping in the water.
“There’s one in the cooler. Let me get it.” Manhar heard Rajiid making his way to the trash bin. The total dark was disorienting. He heard the sound of a siren far in the distance and the steady drip of water that still fell from the hose. A hollow sound and then another oath, this one from Rajiid.
“What’s the problem?” Dattar’s voice came through the dark.
“I stubbed my toe on the damn cooler.”
I hope it’s broken, Manhar thought.
After some scratching noises, a light blinked on. Rajiid ran the beam over the area, highlighting Khalil, Dattar, and Manhar.
“Where is she?” Dattar said.
Rajiid moved the light all around the platform. Nolan was gone.
“She has my money,” Dattar shrieked. Manhar couldn’t see Rajiid’s face, but he heard the man make a small, irritated sound.
“She must be in the tunnel. Khalil, could she have gotten past you and up the stairs?”
“Not at all,” Khalil’s voice came from the area near the stairs.
“Find her. Now. She has my money,” Dattar said. “Manhar, into the tunnel.” Manhar tried to think of any possible reason not to enter the tunnel.
“We don’t know which way she went. You need two, maybe more, to go in both directions. And flashlights.”
“She’s in there in the dark and if she can go there, you can too,” Dattar’s voice was harsh. “Rajiid, give him the flashlight. Khalil, go with him. Find her.” Manhar started toward Rajiid, who still held the flashlight. When he got to the man, Rajiid handed it over with a grimace.
“How long before the bacteria sour the tunnel?” Manhar asked.
“Forty minutes if the rail is off, less if the rail is still on.”
“And then?”
“Ten minutes will see it double. At that stage you’ll still have to stand directly over the areas where you applied it. At twenty, it will reach fifteen feet in every direction. At forty it will reach ninety feet each direction.”
“What does it carry?”
“Mutated virus of H5N1. Pandemic strength.”
“Does anyone survive it?” Manhar said.
“Three percent do. Ninety-seven percent do not. If you get it, don’t bother going to the hospital. They can’t help you. Only time will tell if you survive or not.”
“Get moving!” Dattar yelled.
“I will, but first I need a weapon.”
“I want her alive, you idiot,” Dattar said.
“Give me your knife. I won’t kill her.”
Dattar made an irritated sound and shoved the knife and a gun in Manhar’s direction. He took both, and snatched the flashlight from Rajiid. Cowards both of them, Manhar thought. They won’t go into the tunnel to do their own dirty work.
Khalil walked up. “Let’s go. I’ll use this.” He turned to Dattar. “You’d better not leave. Anything happens in the tunnel and I’ll expect you both to jump in and provide backup.”
Dattar waved a second gun in the air. “I’m not leaving without her. I thought I made that very clear.”
Khalil grunted and switched on a stick lighter. The flame flickered. Manhar thought it was ridiculously weak, but Khalil was an expert tracker and huntsman and he presumed the meager light was enough for him. He jumped down onto the track, splashing water as he did. He focused the flashlight down to his left, in the direction where they had discarded the body, and saw nothing. He swung it right and again saw nothing.
“We both go left,” Khalil said. “She’s headed that way.”
“How do you know?”
Khalil pointed to the edge of the platform. A few drops of red glistened in the light beam.
“Ah, you’re right. I’d forgotten she was bleeding.”
Khalil shot him a smirk. “You first,” he said.
Manhar didn’t want to go first. He didn’t like the idea of Khalil at his back with a gun in his hand.
“We walk together,” he said.
Khalil shook his head. “I’m not walking near the third rail. Who knows when it will switch back on?”
“Then I’ll take that side.”
“As you wish.”
They started forward. Manhar didn’t bother to cover the sound of his feet splashing through the water. Let her hear him coming, he thought. As he trudged, he flashed the light from side to side, covering the area. There was nothing. No sign of the woman and no noise of her either. In the distance he heard sirens. They came even with the dead body. Khalil didn’t glance at it. They took a few more steps and Khalil stopped. He held up a hand and Manhar stilled as well. From somewhere in front of them came the noise of splashing. For an instant, then all was quiet.
Khalil stepped to his left and hugged the wall.
47
Smith and Russell kept moving. She tapped him on the shoulder.
“Me first,” she said. “When they start shooting, you need to be behind me. Remember?”
Smith backed off, and she slipped past him. He lined up behind. Every so often the tunnel wall was cut away, either with a narrow archway that looked like a window that had been cemented up, or to a small alcove with a metal staircase that led upward. Graffiti covered the walls. The taggers must have run into the tunnel between arriving trains. Russell slowed before each opening, making sure that no one was waiting to ambush them before taking the risk of stepping even.
They had advanced twenty feet when Smith got the overwhelming sense that someone was in front of them. He put a hand on Russell’s shoulder. She paused. He put his mouth to her ear.
“Someone’s out there.”
He felt her nod. She turned her head to whisper into his ear. “I’m going to lay down rifle fire. Let’s head to an opening and get low.” He crouched down with Russell, moving in tandem.