The Phoenix Variant: The Fifth Column 3 Read online

  Nasira was already walking past them. ‘Stay behind me.’

  Aviary took the multitool and the knife. ‘Thanks!’ she whispered.

  Sophia watched Nasira and Aviary leave.

  DC sighed, crouched against the rail car, his carbine nestled between his legs.

  ‘I didn’t even know you and your friends were here,’ DC said. ‘I guess this sort of activity seems to attract you.’

  Sophia stopped ten feet short, remained standing. ‘Or I attract it.’

  Chapter 25

  Nasira kept Aviary in the shadows of the tunnel while she crouched at the edge. She watched the platform.

  The platform had columns covered in square white tiles, and the number 42 was emblazoned on each. There were no trains at the platform. Nasira and Aviary had been there for almost ten minutes and there was no movement, no patrols. DC was right: Denton’s soldiers would just rely on the security cameras.

  It was empty, silent. A single row of fluorescent tubes lit the platform. There was really nowhere to hide. Nasira had left her carbine beside Aviary. It couldn’t fire with her fingerprints so she stuck with what she had, a Glock 19 pistol she’d taken from the cops in Time Square.

  Nasira turned to Aviary. ‘Signal?’

  Aviary shook her head. ‘Nearest wifi is the Apple Store, but that’s in the main concourse. I could maybe snatch it from the west balcony or the west-side escalators.’

  ‘Doubt I can get you anywhere near there in one piece,’ Nasira said. ‘I’m good, but not that good.’

  ‘OK, I’m trying cell-phone towers now,’ Aviary said. ‘We might need to go up another level so I can get a signal.’

  Nasira noticed her eyes light up.

  ‘Or we can hijack a connection!’ Aviary said. ‘From one of the restaurants in the dining concourse! And I’m hungry and I would like some pie maybe.’

  Nasira looked over the platform again. There was a security camera on one end of the platform, mounted to the ceiling with a black dome. It was safe to assume there would be another camera at the opposing end, where the ramp took commuters to the dining concourse of Grand Central terminal.

  ‘Getting you to the dining concourse is easy,’ Nasira said. ‘But getting you there without being seen is something else.’

  Aviary frowned. ‘No signal here.’

  ‘Anywhere else we can stay this low and grab a signal?’ Nasira asked.

  Aviary seemed to think for a moment. ‘There’s a hotspot under the Station Master’s Office. Near Track 36.’

  ‘We’re on Track 11,’ Nasira said. ‘Even if I knew how to get us back out to the connecting tunnel and take us to 36, it would take us fucking forever.’

  ‘Yeah,’ Aviary said. ‘I don’t even think we could get it from this far down anyway. So let’s pretend I never suggested that.’

  Nasira focused on the nearest security camera. She had to think of something. Although the camera was inside a reflective black dome and she couldn’t see its direction, it was very likely to be facing inward. Facing the wall next to it didn’t seem very helpful.

  The camera at the other end of the platform would be facing up the ramp. There was possibly a third camera in the center as well, and she couldn’t be as sure of its direction.

  ‘I think I have a way in,’ Nasira said. She turned to Aviary. ‘You a good climber?’

  ‘I did a beginner’s class in parkour once,’ Aviary said.

  Nasira did her best not to sigh loudly. ‘Gotcha,’ she said. ‘Do what I say when I say. And don’t fuck up.’

  Aviary nodded and pocketed her phone. ‘Wait.’

  ‘What?’ Nasira said.

  Aviary removed something from her ruck. She extended what looked to be a large stubby antenna with a small square block at its base. She leaned between them and placed it on a metal beam in the tunnel wall. It adhered with a click.

  ‘Relay, so we can contact Sophia from the dining concourse,’ Aviary said. ‘I hope.’

  Nasira glared at her. ‘You hope.’

  She crept from the shadow and climbed on the end of the platform. From where she was standing, she was just out of range of the cameras. She reached down and hauled Aviary up. Not that Aviary couldn’t do it herself; Nasira just wanted to get this done without bumping into Special Forces or operatives. Neither of which would be fun.

  Nasira pointed up. Above, a row of four metal pipes. The pipes were braced together and ran the length of the platform. There wasn’t enough room to climb on top of them so they’d have to hang underneath like monkeys and make their way across the platform.

  ‘Can I borrow your multitool?’ Nasira asked.

  Aviary grinned. ‘Sure!’

  Nasira took the multitool and zipped it safely inside her front pocket.

  Aviary watched as Nasira walked up the wall and grabbed the pipes. She bounced from the balls of her feet, away from the wall, and lifted her body to the pipes. They held her weight. That was a good start.

  ‘Follow me,’ Nasira said.

  She worked her way along the pipes and then stopped in front of the security camera. It was suspended before her, a fraction lower and aimed down toward the platform. There was a thick cream cable that snaked up from its base. She wrapped an arm around one pipe and used the other to unzip her pocket then pry a serrated saw blade from Aviary’s multitool. It wasn’t easy with one hand but at this angle she had no choice. It took her half a minute to sever the cable. No more camera feed.

  Nasira could hear Aviary clanging about on the pipes behind her. Nasira shushed her and kept moving. She hooked her ankles on the outside of the four pipes and wrapped her hands around the inside pipes. Once she got the rhythm going she could move pretty quickly. The fluorescent tubes buzzed beside her. She soon reached a camera in the center of the platform, just as she’d suspected. So she got to work severing its cable.

  Denton’s people might notice the disconnected camera feeds, but that was a chance she had to take. This was the most discreet method. It certainly beat blowing the cameras up or dazzling them with stupid lasers or, worse, walking out and trying to blend in without helmets. Of the hundreds of cameras in Grand Central terminal, she hoped three black feeds would not raise suspicion. At least not until they had been and gone.

  Aviary kept a reasonable pace behind her, quieter now, as Nasira made her way to the platform entrance. She severed the last camera cable and, pocketing Aviary’s multitool, lowered herself carefully to the platform. She dropped the last few feet as softly as she could and immediately drew her NYPD Glock.

  She covered the ramp and moved for the nearest railing. There was no sign of movement. She risked a glance over her shoulder to find Aviary landing softly next to a pair of trashcans. Aviary actually hadn’t done too badly. But it wasn’t time for congratulations: they’d barely started.

  Nasira tapped her own shoulder, indicating for Aviary to stay close to her at all times. She didn’t know whether Aviary would understand but kept moving up the ramp nevertheless. Once she reached the top she paused.

  ‘Check,’ Nasira said under her breath.

  Aviary pulled out her phone. Nasira kept her Glock on the narrow entrance that fed into the wide dining concourse.

  ‘Nothing,’ Aviary said. ‘We need a restaurant.’

  Nasira exhaled slowly. This was getting more suicidal by the minute. ‘Stay behind me at all times.’

  ‘OK,’ Aviary whispered.

  Nasira listened for any sounds. Again, nothing but silence. She moved out into the dining concourse. It was a long hall cluttered with cafés and bars. Punctuating the walls were entrances to different platforms. She moved along one wall, toward the center. She hated being this exposed.

  Every time she passed an entrance on her wall she nosed her Glock in, but each time the platform was empty. She kept her aim mostly to her left, covering the other side and the entire concourse, along with the various gaps behind bars and tables where someone could hide.

  A restaurant loomed
on her left: Oyster Bar Restaurant read the script on the arch above. The glass doors were closed: breaking them would make enough noise to alert every soldier in ther terminal.

  She considered asking Aviary to check her phone again but didn’t want to be in the open any longer than they had to be. She kept her Glock aimed down the concourse as she crossed from one side to the other, Aviary three paces behind. They reached the first archway, which gave them concealment from most of the concourse.

  Nasira peered through into the century-old subterranean restaurant to see if anyone was inside. The cream-tiled arches divided the restaurant into smaller partitions with vaulted ceilings. The ceilings were lit along the arches with white fairy lights. The restaurant looked untouched; the tables were set with red and white checked tablecloths and napkins.

  She gave Aviary her pistol and went for her lockpicks. The lock was sticky but she seated the pins without much trouble and unlocked the door. She took her pistol back and entered first. She found it easier to hold the Glock with one hand and sweep both sides than to transition between her right and left hand. When she was sure there was no one in the restaurant she nodded to Aviary.

  Aviary took cover behind the bar and checked her phone. Nasira let her do her thing while she moved back to the restaurant entrance and locked the door.

  ‘No wifi,’ Aviary said.

  ‘You’re fucking kidding me,’ Nasira said. She stopped when she realized how easily her voice travelled along the vaulted ceiling above. She moved toward the bar.

  Aviary’s hands balled into fists. ‘I … I don’t know where the hell the modem is. Or if they even have one.’

  Nasira jumped over the bar and started opening everything. Soon she drew the same conclusion. There was no modem.

  ‘Fuck,’ Nasira said. ‘Sure there’s no wifi?’

  ‘I’m not lying!’ Aviary shoved the phone into Nasira’s hands.

  The phone buzzed in her hands. ‘It just vibrated.’

  Aviary looked. ‘No it didn’t. There’s no message or anything.’

  Nasira stared at it for a moment. She ripped off the soft rubber case and ran her hand over the back. The phone hummed, prickled her fingertips.

  ‘Is there something spinning inside these phones?’ Nasira said.

  Aviary was just staring at her. ‘Are you serious? It’s not a Nokia 3210. Nothing spins,’ she hissed.

  ‘Just answer the question!’ Nasira whispered back.

  ‘I just answered the question!’ Aviary said. ‘It’s not my fault you’re deaf!’

  Nasira looked at her.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ Aviary said. ‘That was too far. You’re a very good operative and you’re good at everything.’

  ‘No, wait,’ Nasira said.

  Nasira placed the phone on the counter and started running her hands slowly across the surface from one end of the bar to the other. She stopped near the end.

  ‘Something sharp,’ Nasira said. ‘Bright. It gets kind of serrated. Little spikes.’

  ‘What are you talking about?’ Aviary’s eyes widened. ‘You can—’

  Nasira opened the cupboards underneath and pulled everything out. Before her was a flat white modem with blinking green lights. ‘Found you, motherfucker.’

  ‘Whoa,’ Aviary said. ‘That’s better than being a human compass.’

  ‘What the hell did you just say?’ Nasira said.

  ‘Uh.’ Aviary clutched the modem and pulled it onto the counter. ‘I said that’s better than a huge wireless.’

  She watched the redhead remove something from her ruck. It was like a miniature version of the antenna she’d attached to the tunnel wall.

  Aviary attached the tiny antenna to an ethernet port on the back of the modem: it was giving them a wireless internet connection. She was already on her phone, fingertips tapping excitedly.

  ‘Got it,’ Aviary said. ‘Blueprint of the terminal.’ She squinted at the screen. ‘No mention of the base though.’

  ‘Yeah, that doesn’t surprise me,’ Nasira said, watching the restaurant entrance. ‘That DC guy can work it out for us.’

  ‘You don’t like him, do you?’ Aviary said.

  ‘Not since he fucked Sophia over, no,’ Nasira said. ‘Not his biggest fan.’

  ‘OK. So I’ll send the blueprint to her now,’ Aviary said. ‘Hopefully I can hit that relay in the tunnel.’

  ‘Whatever,’ Nasira said, pulling the lid on a bottle of whisky. ‘Just hurry it up.’ She helped herself to the bottle.

  Chapter 26

  Jay had barely made it to Track C with Damien when he noticed movement ahead, in infrared. It was just a sliver of color, obscured by something in the tunnel wall. He held his hand out behind him and a moment later Damien’s chest touched it. Damien stopped, clicked off Sophia’s torch—which was only shooting a tiny shaft of red light through his fingers—and waited.

  Jay turned to Damien and spoke very softly. Softer than he himself could hear, but he knew Damien would.

  ‘One person ahead, two hundred feet,’ Jay said.

  Damien nodded in response. In infrared, his head was a swirl of red and orange inside a circle of green.

  Jay watched the tunnel. Another figure appeared even farther ahead, around a slight bend in the track. There was a subway station a little way along.

  Jay could barely see the figure but it was running with purpose and seemed to have a pistol in one hand. The walls ranged from light blue to dark blue and purple—the occasional splotch of green where warmth emerged from a power conduit. Then the closer figure emerged: a colorful mix of green, orange and red.

  ‘Two incoming,’ Jay said again, softly.

  Damien nodded again, reaching for a pistol he didn’t have. Jay remembered they were unarmed.

  Jay led the way, heading back through Track C, the way they’d come. With Damien in tow, he ran the tunnel with lights off. Damien was struggling to keep his footing and stay silent at the same time, but didn’t complain and just followed in Jay’s footsteps.

  They have to be operatives, Jay thought. Just two of them, coming up the tunnel like that with only pistols.

  Jay passed their previous tunnel on the left, Ladder M. There would be another, he hoped. With more options. They just needed to put some distance between them and confuse the operatives about their position. He didn’t know how accurate the tracking was for the rock on Damien’s back but even if it was quite accurate, he still hoped their unpredictable route would buy them enough time to get to the surface and find some wheels.

  They approached another junction, this one more complex. A light splashed across one wall. It was just one of the subway tunnel lights, he realized, when he shifted back to seeing visible light. The junction opened up before them and he started to move more carefully. Additional tunnels sprouted off, three ahead and a fourth on their right.

  Damien pulled at the back of Jay’s tuxedo. Jay stopped and looked to see Damien holding up a hand, signaling to stop. Damien gestured to his ear and pointed ahead. Jay listened but he couldn’t hear what his partner was hearing. It frustrated him that he had the enhanced vision while Damien had the enhanced hearing. Couldn’t they each have both?

  Then he saw it.

  Two operatives moving through the junction. Right toward them.

  Jay sprang from his position, retreating, Damien just a few steps behind. He cursed himself for not having made it to the junction in time. Now they were trapped between two pairs of operatives. He ran for the junction with Ladder M, the way they’d come through, but he knew they wouldn’t get there in time. The operatives they’d first encountered would cut them off.

  ‘Wait!’ Damien hissed.

  Jay turned and noticed Damien pointing up. He followed Damien’s finger. High above, a long line of ventilation grates lined the ceiling. Jay could see the night’s sky through them. It was almost black except for the winking lights of skyscrapers.

  Jay started for the elevated footpath on the side of the tunnel. It w
as narrow but just enough to stand on with both feet. He helped Damien up beside him. It didn’t boost them enough to reach the grates.

  A thin pipe was fixed to the wall at chest height. Just enough to stand on with the heels of his stupid dress shoes. At the very top of the wall, another pipe he could use. It was possible.

  He threw himself up against the wall, finding the tiny pipe with his feet to get high enough to grab the handhold. It was no larger than a thick piece of rope but it kept him against the wall. His hands found the higher pipe before he lost his balance and he clung to the wall, shoulder burning in protest. Damien was grappling for the same position beside him. Jay could see tiny human-shaped blobs of orange and red in the distance. The operatives were closing.

  ‘Hurry up!’ Jay said under his breath.

  Above the higher pipe Jay could see a small ledge—somewhere he could haul himself into. He lifted one knee to his chest and laid his foot flat on the wall. He used his dangling leg to haul himself up. The pendulum effect gave him enough momentum. He threw his elbows over the pipe, onto the ledge. With his other foot on the wall, he pulled his body to the ledge.

  There was nothing between him and the grates, but there were rows of arches across and supporting the ceiling. Jay edged over to one and wrapped his arms around it. Using it as leverage, he pushed off the alcove and away from the wall. Now he was dangling freely from the ceiling. The arch ended where the grate began. He had no way of getting there.

  Damien had followed his steps and was also dangling from an arch. He wrapped a leg around it and pushed himself closer to the grate. Then he gripped the grate itself, fingers through the square holes. Jay watched as Damien hung from the grate using only his fingers. The meteorite was still inside the ruck strapped to his back.

  The operatives were getting closer.

  ‘What are you doing?’ Jay hissed.

  Damien was breathless, but focused. He swung on the grate, curved his body. He kicked up, striking a nearby grate above him. The impact made a resounding clang that carried through the tunnel. They were beyond the point of hiding now.