Jack looked at Ross. “Guess we didn’t need to hurry down here.”
The rain continued to fall on Jack and Ross as they stood outside the entrance. Water dripped off of their noses and chins. Their wet hair stuck to their heads and blades of grass clung to Jack’s legs from his fall.
“Can we come in out of the rain?” Ross asked.
The guard stepped over a half step and made room for Jack and Ross to enter. “Sure, just be careful of the wires and equipment.” He motioned to the box and black cables that ran along the ground into the tunnel to maintain contact with the teams inside.
“Thanks. We’re drenched.” Ross stepped forward and squeezed past the guard.
Jack stood in the rain, not moving inside to the protection from the weather.
“Come on in, Jack. It’s not raining in here.”
Jack stepped forward enough to get a little protection and turned around to look back outside the cave. “I’m fine here. It’ll be crowded in there and they’ll be bringing the prisoner out soon.”
Ross tried again. “Come on, Jack. He said it would be ten minutes. No reason to keep getting wet.”
“I’m fine, Junior,” Jack replied back over his shoulder.
“Jack, you claustrophobic?”
Jack didn’t reply.
“I’m fine where I’m at, Junior.” Jack turned and looked into the cave. “We didn’t introduce ourselves,” he said to the guard. “I’m Jack and he’s Ross. Agents Miller and Fruen.”
“I’m Alex,” the guard answered with a nod of his head. He turned back towards Ross. “Officer Butler.” Then he returned his gaze to Jack and whispered, “I don’t like the tunnels either. That’s why I’m guarding the entrance.”
Lightning flashed across the sky, followed almost immediately by claps of thunder. Jack jumped and looked back into the cave. The rain refreshed its intensity, pouring out of the sky, splashing on the saturated grass. Alex took a half step back into the cave to get out of the rain, but kept facing outside.
“Jack, come on!” Ross yelled from inside the entrance. His voice was muffled, echoing off of the concrete walls, and was almost drowned out by the rain splashing on the ground. “Get in here before you get hit by lightning.”
“Alex, how much longer?” Jack asked, ignoring Ross.
“They’ll be out soon.”
Chapter 50
Jack walked down the slope towards the river. If he was going to get wet, he wanted to move around. He couldn’t just stand and wait. When he reached River Road, he turned around and looked back up the hill at the Federal Reserve. What the hell was going on? The Governor had been robbing banks and killing people. There was an explosion in the tunnels under the Federal Reserve and he was standing here in the rain hoping he wouldn’t be hit by lightning. He looked across the river, barely able to see the other side through the sheets of rain. Nobody could be watching him in this weather from over there. They had to be closer. He looked back up at Alex. Somebody on the inside?
Alex stepped out of the tunnel and waved. “They’re coming. They’ll be here any minute.”
Jack waved back and started up the hill.
The team put the stretcher down inside the tunnel out of the rain. “Call it in, Alex,” the team lead commanded. “We’re all back. We found two dead and one survivor who needs attention.”
“Can he talk?” Jack yelled in from the entrance. “Do we know what happened?”
The lead looked at Jack and then at Ross. “You’re with the FBI?”
Ross nodded.
“These three had some sophisticated digging equipment. They knew what they were doing.”
“They hit a gas main or something?” Ross asked.
“No, somebody else detonated the explosion. It looks like they wanted to collapse the tunnel and kill or trap these guys underground.”
“A diversion,” Jack said.
“Maybe.” The team lead looked down at the man lying on the stretcher. “This guy’s going to make it. Hasn’t said a word once he found out the other guys were dead.”
The man looked up at them from the stretcher, his unfocused eyes darting back and forth between them as they spoke. The whites of his eyes floated across his face black with dirt.
“They knew how to dig, but I don’t know how smart they were. They were digging a long ways from the vault.”
“We were so close,” the man said, struggling to sit up. “Thirty more minutes and we would’ve been at the door into the vault.”
Jack took another step into the tunnel. “Did you say a door into the vault?” He glanced at the team lead who shook his head.
“Sure. I’ll tell you who’s not smart.” The man patted the thigh pocket of his cargo pants. “Where’s my drawing?”
The lead held out a folded piece of paper. “You mean this?”
The man grabbed it from his hand. “Who’s the dummy?” He unfolded the paper and held it out so he and the others could see it. “Shine a light down here.” He moved the paper around until the beam from a flashlight illuminated the paper. “Who’d put a door in a vault you can get to from the outside?” Then he laid his head back down, exhausted.
Jack took another half of a step into the tunnel. “Can I see that?”
The team lead handed Jack the piece of paper. Alex handed him a flashlight. After looking it over, Jack looked at Ross and then the team lead. “Let’s go. Bring him along. I need to compare this to something else. He might not be so smart, but somebody is.”
Jack led Ross and the team carrying the stretcher back into the Federal Reserve building, where their wet shoes and boots squeaked on the tile floor. They paraded into the cafeteria where Jack and Ross had left the drawings they had recovered from the Governor’s condo. “Put him down there next to the table,” Jack directed the two guards carrying the stretcher.
“Junior, come here.” Jack leaned over the drawings on the table and spread flat the sheet that the man had shown them. “Look at this.” He pointed to the sheet and then the blue line drawings of the Federal Reserve that Ross had carried through the rain. “What do you see?”
“His drawing is the same as ours. Links them to the Governor.”
“Come on, Junior. What else?”
Ross looked back and forth between the drawings and sat back. “There’s some kind of door or hatch in the corner, underground. It’s not in the originals.” He looked at Granowski who had joined them. “There’s no hatch in the vault, is there?”
“No,” Granowski laughed and shook his head.
Ross walked over to the prisoner still lying on the stretcher and squatted down next to him.
“Did you hear that, buddy? There’s no hatch underground through the vault. Who’s the dummy?”
The man just stared at Ross and then closed his eyes.
“Come on, man. Talk to us. Somebody took you guys for fools and then tried to kill you. He had you go to all that work for what?”
The man opened his eyes. “No hatch?”
Ross looked into the man’s eyes and shook his head.
“Can I sit up? Maybe have a Coke and a smoke?”
They got the man situated at the table with a plastic bottle of Coke, an empty coffee cup for ashes, and a pack of cigarettes. He guzzled half of the bottle of soda, burped, tapped a cigarette out of the pack, put it to his lips, and asked for a light. After inhaling heavily and blowing a cloud of smoke towards the ceiling, he leaned forward on the table and spoke. “That bastard. There’s no hatch?” He looked at Ross.
