There had to be a way. He could rush one door perhaps and hope for the best, a small number of men to encounter and defeat. No, that was too chancy, long odds surely with a virtual army to defeat before he was finished. Then he remembered something. These buildings had all been constructed long ago between the two world wars. For safety and security reasons, they shared a common cellar. That was the answer!
Entry into a neighboring building would assure him of passage into the one he sought. Bane left his car around the corner in a towaway zone and headed back to Davey Phelps.
Trench entered the lobby of the building with a Twin Bear on either side of him, confident that COBRA’s men had the outside sufficiently surrounded. Those residents returning or leaving, if they asked, were informed that a joint police-federal operation was in progress and were told not so politely to stay out of the way.
Trench nodded to the blue-eyed Bear, Pugh, signaling him to remain in the lobby while his brother led the way upstairs. Pugh crossed his arms and stood directly between the door and the stairs. No one would be getting by him. His brown-eyed brother, Soam, started up the steps with Trench close behind. The killer didn’t trust the elevator, not with a boy who could turn fire alarms crazy seven floors above.
By the fifth floor, the two men had slowed their pace to a crawl, gliding across the steps with no hint of any noise that might forfeit their presence. Halfway up the sixth, Soam withdrew a thick, razor-sharp hunting knife from a sheath on his belt. Trench worked his gun free of its holster.
They crept to the designated room on the seventh floor, Trench making sure it was the correct one, and stood on opposite sides of the door.
Inside, The Vibes told Davey Phelps they were there and he lurched to his feet, pressing himself into the room’s far corner. If only The Chill could make him invisible, part of the wall. But his head was still splitting and The Chill continued to elude him. So he would give himself up, hold his hands up in the air just like criminals did when cornered in the movies.
Then The Vibes screeched through Davey’s head and he knew at once these men had come to kill him, not take him. He had started to push himself away from the wall when the door exploded off its hinges revealing a man as wide and tall as the frame.
Soam showed his knife.
The dark cellar stairs came to an end in the Ferdinand’s lobby. Bane opened the door just a crack, enough to catch sight of the giant hovering in the hallway. His back was to Bane, an easy enough shot for the Browning and Bane cursed himself for not bringing a silencer. He’d have to take the giant with his bare hands which promised to be no simple task, at the very least time consuming. He had surprise on his side, though, and could be across the floor before the monster knew what hit him.
He was almost right.
Pugh turned at the last instant before Bane’s arm closed around his throat. The Bear lashed out with a forearm that landed with the impact of an oak tree, cheating Bane of his balance. The giant followed the blow up immediately, but Bane was in motion again, ducking under the giant’s outstretched arms and ramming his kidney hard with an elbow. Pugh felt the blow, wincing, and staggered to turn. Bane closed again but the Bear caught him with a glancing blow to the head. He lurched back, stunned, his senses clearing in time to realize the giant was stalking him, closing for the kill, a huge knife glinting in his hand.
Bane backpedaled, holding his distance. The giant shifted the knife agilely from his right hand to his left, smiling, red hair flaming in the light. A sudden shift and he was closing Bane into a corner, sensing the end.
Bane felt his shoulders graze wood.
The Bear took the bait.
The knife came forward at the same instant Bane did, but the giant was totally unprepared for a frontal assault. Bane deflected the knife hand easily, simultaneously jabbing a set of strong, rigid fingers up toward the eyes. They mashed home, the giant howling in pain and raising his hands to comfort his torn sockets.
The knife slipped to the floor.
The Bear staggered backward, fighting to see Bane who was on him before he could blink. First to the groin and then the throat. He smashed the giant’s windpipe with tight, gnarled fingers till he felt cartilage crack and withdraw. The Bear toppled over like a felled tree, clawing the floor madly as the last of life bottlenecked in his crushed throat.
Bane bolted for the steps.
The red-haired monster hesitated before entering Davey’s apartment, as though unsure, expecting something to happen. When it didn’t, he crossed into the darkness, slicing the air with the shining blade that marked his path.
The giant moved toward him like a cat and Davey wanted to say, “It’s okay. I give up.” But no words came because he knew they wouldn’t matter. Davey could read the giant’s eyes too well, his intentions as plain as his pupils. A shadow flickered in the hallway, so there must be another of them waiting beyond the door, and Davey knew suddenly it was the tall man he had seen that morning on the sidewalk, the real cold one whose thoughts were buried deeper than the others’.
The giant was drawing closer, almost upon him, the knife just out of range. Davey watched his eyes shimmer eagerly and then saw the knife plunging toward his stomach, felt the horrible moment of pain and the sick feeling of warm blood pulsing out. He felt himself sliding down the wall, already dead, but his eyes, strangely, still seeing until the giant stuck the knife in deeper and yanked up, splitting his whole abdomen in two and spilling its contents all over the floor.
Davey’s hands went to his stomach and found it whole. He looked up to see the giant still approaching, a final lunge away. It had been The Vibes, Davey realized. The Vibes had shown him what was about to happen and the reality of his own death sent a quiver up his spine and Davey knew he had The Chill again.
The red-haired monster drew his knife back.
Davey pushed for The Chill, ignoring the blasting in his head, pushed for The Chill with everything he had.
The red-haired monster stopped in his tracks, as though an invisible door were suddenly before him. His face grew puzzled, uncertain. Then Soam’s eyes bulged in agonizing fear as he realized his knife hand was headed for his own midsection. He couldn’t control it. Desperately, he latched his other massive hand onto the trembling wrist, slowing the blade’s progress but not halting it.
Davey made The Chill stronger.
Soam’s knife hand was trembling horribly now but still the blade snailed on. He tightened his grip with his other fingers, trying to shut off the blood flow. The razor-sharp edge neared his stomach.
It was taking too long, Trench realized, and decided to check the room. His eyes first caught the frozen Twin Bear and the knife ready to pass into his midsection by his own hand. The boy’s attention was riveted upon him. Trench couldn’t believe his eyes. He was aware only partially that his strategy had paid off. He withdrew his gun slowly, careful not to draw the boy’s eye, and leveled it for a head shot. A simple squeeze of the trigger and the boy’s brains would be coating the wallpaper and with them, his power.
Soam felt the tip of the blade pierce his flesh, then sink steadily deeper.