transmissions and cover their tracks. The time on his watch showed that that should happen in six minutes.
“We’ve been monitoring communications and traffic. They haven’t said anything about the explosion or an attempt at the vault, but they’re communicating that they want to send some test messages and that Fedwire coming back online will be delayed.”
“I guess we should have anticipated this might happen,” the Governor said.
“It is nothing,” Vadim answered. “Just some time. We’ll keep monitoring and we’ll execute the plan when they come back up. You can wait?”
“I’m fine here. We don’t know how long?
“No.”
“If I’m not online, I’ll check back in every quarter hour, every fifteen minutes of the hour,” the Governor said.
“Ten four,” Vadim answered.
The Governor shook his head. Ten four? Vadim must have been watching some American TV or movies. He looked at his watch, an hour delay. He thought that after the explosion and the probable discovery of the bodies that the Fed would have believed that the attempt was over and regular operations would resume.
They were just being careful, weren’t they? Could they know about him underground? The Governor thought about it. There was no way. That’s what he believed, but there was no way to check. His team was dead, all except Vadim, snuggled safe away in some hotel room in downtown Minneapolis. The Governor turned and placed his back against the wall and then slid down into a sitting position on the ground. He might as well get comfortable. He looked at his watch and then turned off his headlamp to conserve the batteries and hide in the dark.
“This is it.” Jimmy stopped and Jack took a few more steps and joined him at his side. Their headlamps lit the sewer walls and ceiling. Water, about a foot deep, ran past them as it made its way to the
Mississippi River. The walls were approximately eight feet across and the ceiling was eight feet high plus or minus. “You still doing OK?”
“Yeah,” was all Jack said. His answer sounded muffled and seemed to disappear down the sewer along with the storm water. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Jimmy look at him. He turned and met his stare. “I’m fine.” Jack turned forward again, and took a deep breath to calm his nerves.
Ahead of them were three openings. Water ran in from two of the others and the forth carried all of the water farther along towards the river. “This is it.” Jimmy walked ahead and stood at the junction. “He didn’t come up the tunnel we were in, so he’s probably either up here,” Jimmy pointed at the first tunnel on the left. “Or down this one.” He shined his light down the sewer where all of the water was flowing.
“Why not that one?” Jack asked, nodding at the last one, which was straight ahead of him.
“It’s short and drains River Road. There’s nothing there.”
“What should I be looking for?” Jack looked around the tunnel at the walls, the ceiling and the water, anxious to find a sign of where the Governor went.
“Look for something new, out of place. Dirt rubbed off of the walls, a fresh scratch.” He shined his light down at the water. “Look to see if there’s a fresh disturbance on the bottom. If he walked through here, we should see something.”
Jack followed his flashlight beam around the interior and focused on the walls, the area where the walls met the water, and then looked down into the water at his feet. The water was clear. He could see the toes of his boot below the surface. Cigarette butts and plastic straws floated by in the water, the current carrying them away from him and down into the tunnel ahead of them. His focus on finding a clue distracted him from his surroundings. He pulled up the sleeve of his coveralls and looked at his watch. “We’ve been down here a while. Find anything?”
“Nope.”
“Where do you think we should go?”
Jimmy nodded to his left. “This way. Downstream.” He adjusted his helmet and the belt around his waist. “More options down this way. Side tunnels, utility tunnels. Let’s look around as we go to see if we see anything that might give us a clue. I vote we go this way.”
“Well, you’re the expert. Lead the way. I’ll be right behind you,” Jack said.
“Is it always this clear?” Jack asked. The water he was walking through was so clear his headlamp cut through it and illuminated the bottom so he could easily pick out rocks and sand at the bottom.
Jimmy continued to wade through the water ahead of him. “It’s usually pretty clear. It’s just storm water and we’ve had so much rain lately that it washed the muck through already. The only stuff you’ll see down here is garbage that washed off the streets and down the sewers. Plastic straws, cigarette butts, stuff like that.”
“Have you seen anything that makes it look like somebody else has been down here recently?” Jack asked.
“Not yet. But I’m looking.”
Jack wondered if they were wasting their time. But if they weren’t down here, what would they be doing? They didn’t have any other leads to follow.
Ahead, a small circular sewer pipe, about a head high, stuck out of the wall and a stream of water poured out of it into the water in which they were walking. Jimmy ducked under the water, letting it arc over his head. Jack followed him, moving to the left and bending over as he walked under the fountain. He felt the cool spray hit his neck. He told himself it was just rainwater.
They passed another larger sewer and continued walking downstream. “We don’t want to check that one out?” Jack asked.
Jimmy stopped and looked back. “Nothing there. It’s just a short feeder. Collects run-off from a bunch of shorter sewer lines, like that one we walked under, and feeds it in here.”
Jack fell back in line behind Jimmy and they continued on. The pressure on his booted feet changed. Jack looked down and then swung his headlamp to Jimmy’s back and looked at his legs. “Jimmy?”
“Yeah,” Jimmy called back over his shoulder.
“Is the water getting deeper?”
“Yeah, and a little faster. Can you feel it pushing your feet forward when you walk?”
Jack didn’t answer. He looked at the back of Jimmy’s legs where the water was now almost up to his knees. With each step he took, the water pushed the free foot ahead.
“Watch your step,” Jimmy yelled back. “You don’t want to fall here. It’s deep enough that it will start to wash you downstream. It can be tough to find footing to stop yourself.”
“Thanks for the tip,” Jack said only loud enough for himself to hear.
Chapter 54
Jack looked ahead to see what was in front of them. His light illuminated Jimmy’s back and more wet, dirty, brick walls and things hanging from the ceiling. The water pushed harder on his feet, making him take bigger steps than he had before. Farther up the tunnel, he illuminated a ladder running up the left wall leading to a hole about eight feet up.
“What’s that?”
Jimmy stopped and Jack bumped into him. “Watch it.”
“Sorry. What’s that ladder?” Jack shined his light on the wall about fifty feet in front of them.
“It leads up to a tunnel with electrical conduit and stuff like that in it.”
“We have to check it out. Electrical, communications, it’s a great place for him to be.”
Jimmy took a step downstream towards the ladder when a horn sounded from behind them. Jimmy stopped in his tracks and Jack bumped into him again.
“Did you hear something?”
“Quiet,” Jimmy said. Two more blasts sounded and carried down the tunnel. “That’s Mike. Get to that ladder. There’s a water surge coming.”
“What do you mean?” Jack asked.
