CHAPTER 69
The American Museum of Natural History was a large complex consuming an entire city block. Its subbasement was a concrete maze of tunnels, pipes and wiring. Conduits ran along the ceilings linking miles of electrical wiring to a hub located in the central part of the basement. The hub was housed inside a thick wire mesh cage with “HIGH VOLTAGE” placards mounted around the outside. The lighting was dim, air stale, and it reeked of mold and mildew mixed with rodent feces and urine. To his good fortune, a utility ladder was propped against a wall next to the exit door.
He grabbed the ladder and, using stolen blueprints of the building, located the first two major support columns. He attached the explosive devices to the concrete masses using black duct tape. The blueprints indicated the basement was roughly 600 feet by 600 feet. The support columns he’d identified were spaced 400 feet apart. He strapped the devices as high as possible near the junction of the pillars and the concrete ceiling. With the load bearing supports gone, the center section of the museum would collapse, pulling the exterior walls with it. His plan was to blow a crater in the building’s lowest level and allow gravity and failing structures weakened by the blast, to cave into the void, sucking down over four thousand men, women, and children into the bowels of New York City.
Artifact storage rooms lined the catacombs of concrete tunnels. Artifacts being recycled or damaged found their way into these rooms. Khan didn’t care, soon enough it would all be one big pile of rubble.
He strapped the third bomb into its strategic spot when he heard a noise and realized for the first time he wasn’t alone in the subbasement. Subconsciously he placed his hand on his weapon. Time was critical. Whoever had joined him down here was a potential threat. He was confident he hadn’t been followed and was certain whoever was in this foul-smelling environment with him was probably museum maintenance. But he’d been sloppy in Spain, let his guard down, left details unchecked, and was almost killed. As soon as he attached the last explosive, he planned to track down the intruder and remove him.
He moved to the fourth and final support pillar and readied the device. He detected movement along a far wall; he placed the device on the floor and leveled his gun — a rat. As he turned back to retrieve the device from the floor he detected movement in his peripheral vision, something moving toward his head.
From where Jake stood he had three choices, straight ahead into the middle of the basement, the corridor to the left, or the corridor to the right. According to the diagram, the corridor in the middle led to an electrical service unit containing breakers and the emergency shutdown panels, not a likely choice for Khan. The corridors to the left and right circled the perimeter of the basement and led to each of the main load-bearing support pillars. Which direction did Khan go?
Jake needed to deactivate as many of the devices as possible before he confronted Khan. Any slipup and Khan could send out the signal and all the remaining devices would detonate. He had to get this right the first time.
Over the course of the past few days, Jake had noticed two important characteristics about Khan’s habits; he always had a backup plan but, more important, he was predictable. Jake knew he could use that to his advantage to bring down the terrorist. Khan’s thinking was undeveloped, how he'd made it this far amazed Jake.
He knew his dilemma, did Khan go left or right? He needed to retrace Khan’s path disabling the devices along the way. Jake’s training taught him that inherent human behavior was typically predictable. When the masses came to a crossroad, 75 % had a tendency to turn to the right. Odds Jake bet his life on.
He ran two hundred feet down the corridor to the right, making a counter-clockwise sweep through the subbasement to locate and neutralize the explosive devices. He located the first support column. Nothing. He didn’t know what to expect but he did expect to find something. He studied the column, tracing its lines from the floor to the black ceiling, noticing only that the top of the column appeared to be painted black. He started to move on when he realized it wasn’t paint, it was tape — black tape.
He retrieved a Maglite from a pocket of his cargo pants. He used it to locate the device and realized his next obstacle — the bomb was out of reach. How did Khan get up there? Jake looked around for something to stand on but found nothing. Just below the tape were metal electrical conduits and below that cast iron plumbing pipes. He jumped, stretching his fingertips as high as they would go but the pipes remained out of reach.
Only one thing left to do; use the column as a one-step ladder to gain the extra height he needed to grab the pipe. He stepped back five paces and ran at the column, placing the soles of his boot three feet from the floor and launching himself upward. His right hand grasped the pipe. The pipe shifted, water trickled from the joints, but he held on tight. He swung his left hand up, grasped the pipe, and pulled himself upward until he could reach the tape.
Hanging from the pipe with his left hand, Jake used his right hand to dig into his pocket and grab his knife. He opened it with the flick of his thumb, and sliced the tape. He pulled the tape loose, removed the device, disarmed it, and dropped to the floor, leaving the inert explosive device dangling from the tape at the top of the support column.
The next column in his counter-clockwise pattern was nearly four hundred feet down the dank corridor. When he reached the column he spooked a rat from its bunker and it scurried out of sight down the next corridor. He repeated the same procedure as before. In quick succession, he had defused the second apparatus and was running another four hundred feet to the next column. He realized he might be getting close enough for Khan to hear him so he altered his gait in an attempt to make less noise when he ran.
When he reached the third column, he stopped and gazed down the adjoining corridor leading to the fourth support. Khan. He noticed Khan was just over half way down the corridor with a utility ladder in one hand, a roll of tape in the other, and a backpack slung over his shoulder. He had to move fast. He’d rendered three of Khan’s bombs inoperative, one in the truck and two in the basement. Two left and then he’d worry about Khan.
Jake bolted up the third column and disarmed the device. He couldn’t run straight at Khan down the last corridor, the terrorist would see him and have time to detonate the remaining device.
He recalled the diagram of the floor plan, corridors around the perimeter and halfway down each corridor was another tunnel that led toward the center electrical room. Backtracking two hundred feet to the center corridor, Jake spotted a crowbar on the floor near the turn. Perfect. Jake didn’t want to shoot the terrorist until all the explosives were disabled. He picked it up and ran toward the center of the structure. Circling around the electrical service room, Jake found the adjacent corridor and ran to cut off Khan’s route.
When he reached the last corridor, he stopped and peeked around the corner. Khan was kneeling over his backpack obviously rigging the final device. Jake moved further down the corridor toward Khan, ducking in every nook and cranny along the way to conceal his approach. He was thirty feet from Khan when he felt something on his leg. A rat. There were several more around him. He instinctively swatted the rat scaring them away — in Khan’s direction.