bullshit.'
'It's true,' Pigpen insisted. 'I know it. I saw first hand, both before I was homeless and after. Shit, I lived it every day. And there are alligators down there, Forrest, gig albino fuckers with red eyes and white skin. I had a buddy named Wilbanks. He lost a damned leg to one.'
'You lived underground?' Bates asked.
'Not at first, but I ended up down there. I came up to the streets during the day, panhandling and looking for cans to redeem and shit. But at night, I slept way seven stories beneath Grand Central Station, down where there was no trains or cops. We'd pick-axed a hole into the wall.
Gave us access to an old service tunnel. There's all kinds of unused shit like that down there. Train stations and bomb shelters and stuff-just sitting there. It wasn't so bad. I had a place to sleep that was pretty dry, and we rigged some of the electric cables to give us power and light.'
'Why'd you go underground, Pigpen?' Forrest prodded him.
'Didn't have nowhere else to go. I got sent to prison for a DUI charge.
Got out and my old lady was running around on me, and I couldn't find a job. Pretty soon, I ended up below. It's that easy. I started living underneath the city, and that's when I found God.'
'How did you survive?' Stern asked. 'What did you eat?'
'There was a broken sprinkler pipe that we got water from. As for grub, handouts when we could get them, or else we'd go Dumpster diving. And lots and lots of track rabbits.'
'Track rabbits?'
'Rats.' Pigpen smiled. 'We called them track rabbits. They're pretty good, believe it or not. Taste a little like chicken. We'd trap them, or just snatch the little fuckers by the tail and slam them against the wall. God was good at catching them, too, which is why nobody ever tried to eat him.'
Shuddering, Stern made a disgusted face and turned away.
'Hey, Doc, you'd eat track rabbit too, if you were forced to do it. You'd be amazed what a fellow will do to survive.'
Bates sighed in exasperation. 'Get to the point, Pigpen. You're proposing we all hide out in the sewers?'
'Nope. The point is this. God says there's a way out of here.'
'And?'
'If you've got somebody that can fly an airplane, there's a way to get from here to the airport.'
'What the hell we gonna do at the airport?' Forrest kicked the cowering man's chair. 'Come on, Bates. This crazy fuck doesn't know anything.'
Stern said, 'Even if we tried to get there, we wouldn't make it a block with those things outside. They'd tear us to shreds.'
'We ain't going through the city. We're going underneath it. God says we'd go underground, through the sewers and the tunnels.'
'Underground?' Bates looked Pigpen in the eyes. 'Does God realize that there's a little thing called the East River between here and JFK?'
'There used to be.' Pigpen winked. 'But Mr. Ramsey built a tunnel underneath it. And there's other tunnels. The 63rd Street subway tunnel goes under the river. There's a whole bunch more. Stuff like the Long Island Railroad tracks go into Grand Central.'
'The East Side Access project,' Bates said, 'but Mr. Ramsey didn't-'
'Mr. Ramsey,' the vagrant interrupted, 'spent six billion over the last five years building a private network of tunnels. Damn things run from beneath this building to JFK. He even had them install a concrete bomb shelter eight stories down. I know, man. We used to sneak in from our own tunnels at night and steal equipment and stuff that the construction workers left behind. And they hook up with all the other tunnels and shit down there.'
'Something like that would have been in the news,' Stern scoffed. 'An undertaking of that size would have attracted all kinds of attention from the media and the public. There are zoning laws and permits to consider. Union requirements.'
'Mr. Ramsey don't worry about zoning laws,' Pigpen spat, his hand moving up and down God's spine. The cat purred, even when his master stroked him against the grain. 'He's the richest guy in America. And unions?
What the fuck-you think he had somebody other than Ramsey Construction building it?'
Stern and Forrest looked at Bates. He shrugged.
'If it does exist, I've never heard of it.'
His previous night's conversation with Ramsey surfaced.
'Mr. Ramsey, we have to consider the possibility that sooner or later, no matter how well guarded, those things will breach our defenses.'
'If that happens, then I have a contingency plan.'
'Good. I can't tell you what a relief that is, sir. May I ask what it is?'
'No. As of now, that information is given out on a
need-to-know basis, and quite frankly, you don't need to know.'
'Begging your pardon, Mr. Ramsey, but how am I supposed to protect us if I don't know?'
'Trust me, Bates. If and when the time comes, you'll be the first to know.'
'So how do we gain access to this tunnel?' Bates asked Pigpen.
