Jack sat on the bumper and closed his eyes. His chest was still tight, like a belt cinched around it keeping him from breathing. He concentrated on taking shallower breaths and tried to slow his breathing. He cupped his hands over his mouth, remembering that people who were hyperventilating sometimes breathed into a paper sack.
Jimmy was banging around in the truck. Above the sound of the rain hammering the top of the truck, it sounded like Jimmy was opening drawers, poking around through tools. Jack caught movement out of the corner of his eye and tensed. His right hand instinctively reached for his gun, which was at his waist under the coveralls.
One of the Federal Reserve guards dressed in black, a hood protecting his head from the rain, and a short machine gun slung across his shoulder and hanging below his chest, approached Jack. “Are you Agent Miller?”
“Yeah,” Jack answered without getting up, working at slowing his heart again.
“Granowski sent me over.” He handed Jack a couple of bundles. “The other agent, the guy with his arm in a sling, thought you needed these.”
“Thanks. No other developments?”
“I haven’t heard anything,” the guard answered and walked away through the rain.
Jack looked at Mike standing at the manhole smoking a cigarette in the rain. The guy was used to waiting; Jack wasn’t. He turned around and yelled over his shoulder. “Jimmy, let’s go!”
Two nylon belts landed on the ground and Jimmy jumped out of the truck. “So, you’re ready to go through with this?”
“Yeah,” was all Jack said.
Jimmy held out a closed right fist and a bottle of water in his left hand. “Take this?”
“What is it?”
“Something to help you relax, take the edge off. I can’t afford to have you freak out down there.”
Jack just looked at him.
“It’s not illegal.”
“What is it?” Jack asked.
“It’s Xanax. As long as you aren’t pregnant, plan to become pregnant, you’ll be fine. It’ll calm you down.”
Jack laughed and held out his left hand, palm up.
“Take one now and save on for later, just in case.” Jimmy dropped the pills into his hand and handed him the bottle of water. He waited for Jack to take the one, then he handed him one of the nylon belts. “Now put this on. The tag goes in back.”
Jack handed Jimmy one of the Kevlar vests the guard had brought him. “And this if for you.”
“Is this what I think it is?” Jimmy asked.
“It is if you think it’s a bullet-proof vest. I told you, this guy’s dangerous.”
Chapter 53
Rain splashed by the round, black hole. The drops that fell over it continued to fall down it into the ground. Jack leaned over and looked down into the manhole. Raindrops reflected light from his headlamp and looked like streaks of light zooming down into the darkness below. It gave him a slight case of vertigo and he leaned back and focused on the truck to regain his feeling of balance. He hoped the pills were going to help.
Mike put a hand on Jack’s shoulder. “You’ll be fine. Just listen to Jimmy. He’ll tell you what to do.”
Jack swallowed. His tongue felt swollen and his mouth was dry. “Let’s go. I gotta’ go catch this guy.”
Jimmy took a first step down the ladder into the manhole. “Jack, there’s a ladder bolted to the wall. Don’t come down until I’m at the bottom.” He started climbing down and disappeared into the ground.
Jack looked at Mike. “How deep is it?”
Mike looked down into the hole. “At this point, it’s probably thirty feet or so. You’re attached to a cable on the way down so you’ll be fine.” He looked at Jack. “But once you’re down in the sewer you never know how far underground you are. It’s all the same. You’ll be able to walk through most of the sewers. Might have to crouch once in a while. They’re old brick sewers that have been there a long time.” He peeked back down. “You’re up.” Mike raised the safety cable and clipped it onto the metal loop at Jack’s back.
Jack stepped slowly over to the manhole. He was starting to sweat. He told himself it was from all of the gear he was wearing. He grabbed on to the round, metal barricade and turned around. Then he stepped down into the manhole and tried to feel the metal rung of the ladder with his foot. The rubber boot was a little big and he poked around with his toe to find the rung.
“A couple more inches, Jack. Once you get on the ladder, you’ll be fine.”
Jack lowered himself a little further and felt his foot rest on the metal bar. He looked at Mike. “I’ll be fine,” he said to Mike as well as to himself.
“Yep, just listen to Jimmy. Good luck.”
Jack put his weight on the foot on the ladder and lifted his other foot off of the ground. He lowered himself until that foot found the next rung. He repeated the process and started climbing down the ladder. He stopped when his head was still above the ground and took a deep breath.
“You’ll be fine, Jack.”
“Yeah,” Jack whispered. He looked around at the ground. Water splashed his face when the rain hit the puddles. The staccato sound continued as the rain hit his hard hat. He looked down into the manhole again. Thirty feet, he could do it. He took a deep breath to try to loosen the tightness that squeezed his chest.
“Jack, Jimmy’s waiting.” Mike walked over and crouched next to the hole. “You can do this, Jack.” The red ember on the end of his cigarette glowed as he sucked in. He flipped the glowing butt down into the darkness and exhaled a cloud of smoke. “You gotta’ go down to get this guy.”
“Yeah.” Jack looked down and then at Mike. “Gotta’ go,” he said and climbed down into the ground.
The ladder felt cool and rough under his gloves. From the light of his hard hat, Jack could see the dark walls. They were damp with bits of dirt and broken mortar hanging between the bricks. Jack tried to control his breathing, keeping it steady, concentrating on inhaling and exhaling in rhythm to his climb down. Sounds from above disappeared as he went lower into the ground. They were replaced with a muffled sound as well as dripping and the sound of his boots and gloves scraping the rungs with his descent.
“You’re doing fine. Almost down!” Jimmy yelled up to him.
Jack stopped and looked down between his body and the ladder. His hands were tired from holding so tightly onto the rungs. Jimmy was standing off to the side in water that was about mid-shin deep. Jack saw his feet were still above Jimmy’s head so he figured he had about ten or twelve feet to go. He took a calming breath, flexed the fingers on one hand, then the other, and continued his climb down.
When he reached the bottom, he carefully stepped into the water with one foot and then the other before he let go of the ladder.
“How you doing?” Jimmy asked.
“Fine, I think. Better than I thought I’d be doing. Those pills seemed to help.” Jack looked around where they were standing.
“Well, you made it. Now that you’re here, the rest should be easy. Just a couple of quick tips and we’ll be off.” Jimmy unclipped the cable and shined his headlamp at Jack’s feet. “Most of the sewer is like this. It’s a storm sewer so it’s not too nasty. Watch your step. Put a hand on the wall to steady yourself if you feel like it. We’ll head downstream towards the river. There’s more water than usual since we’ve had all of this rain.” Jimmy took a step downstream and shined his headlamp into the dark ahead of them. “Everything runs in straight lines down here. We’ll go down here about forty yards and then turn left and go upstream into a sewer from the north to the point we were talking about.”
“I’m ready. We better try and stay quiet,” Jack said. “If anything appears strange or out of place to you, let me know. We need to figure if he was down here, where he went, and if he’s still here.” Jack tapped his hand to his vest to make sure his gun was still there. “Let’s go.”
“What do you mean, there’s a delay?” The Governor stood over the controller. A headset was attached and he was speaking with Vadim over a phone line to coordinate the timing of his entry of codes to reroute the Fedwire
