His phone buzzed.
‘Mouser? Henry asked me to call you. We have a lead on your targets.’ One of Henry’s friends, another member of the Night Road, he thought; the voice was dry, Southern.
‘A lead.’
‘On Eric Lindoe and his girl.’
‘They’re in Thailand, according to Henry.’
‘No. They were ticketed on the flight but they were not, repeat not, on the arrival manifest. They didn’t get on the plane. No charges on their cards in Thailand, no records of their passports going through Thai customs. We cracked the relevant databases fifteen minutes ago.’
‘Where are they?’
‘They might still be in Chicago. No one’s looking for them there.’ Oh, yes, please, he thought. ‘Where in Chicago?’
‘They have not used credit cards. They could be staying with a friend. We checked Aubrey’s phone records and several of her calls are placed to a woman named Grace Crosby. I did a cross-check and Grace Crosby’s credit card was charged in Detroit today. So Crosby might have let them stay in her apartment while she’s gone.’
‘Where is this apartment?’
The voice fed him an address in Lincoln Park.
‘I can be there in twenty minutes.’
‘Call me when you get there, I can give you a gift.’
‘What?’
‘I can cut the power to the building. Another friend gave us a tap into the power grid. I can kill the power in the whole neighborhood. We mastered how to do this in preparation for Hellfire. Make the overall situation during the attack worse, you know.’
He thanked his fellow Night Roader and hung up. Wow, work as a team effort. Hope stirred in his chest. This would all be resolved soon. The loose ends tied into neat knots, the money in the right pockets again. Mouser leaned close to Snow. She was fast asleep. He risked the slightest kiss on her forehead. She didn’t stir. He headed for his car, the warmth of her still on his lips.
20
Luke froze in the darkness.
Silence hung between the three of them and then Eric said, ‘This isn’t coincidence. No way. You were followed.’
‘Me? No, I followed you. I wasn’t-’
‘You don’t know what these people are capable of,’ Eric said. ‘You’ve just killed us all. They found us. We had them tricked into believing we’d gone to Thailand.’
‘It’s just a blackout.’ It had to be. ‘The Night Road couldn’t control the power to a city utility.’
‘You’re an idiot. You found these scumbags for Henry and now you’re going to underestimate them? They’ve put major plans into place for a massive attack. Screwing with the power grid is entirely possible for them.’ Terror wrenched his words into a half-scream.
Aubrey said, ‘We have to get out of here.’ Now steel calm coated her voice.
Luke went to the window. ‘They can’t have killed the power to the whole neighborhood.’ But he could only see light in a distant gleam, several streets away. Holy God. His surprise was eclipsed by an immediate sense of danger.
In the hallway, they could hear rumbling, voices calling out to each other, neighbors hailing neighbors.
‘They could be waiting for us in the hallway,’ Luke said.
‘There’s not a fire escape,’ Aubrey said.
‘The ledge is wide enough – maybe-’ Eric started.
‘Are you insane?’ Luke grabbed his arm. ‘We’re not climbing the outside of the building.’
‘You don’t know what we’re up against. These people – they’re brutal.’
‘Let’s go, please.’ Panic now creeping into Aubrey’s voice.
‘Take her with you,’ Eric said. He went into the kitchen, rummaged in a drawer, and produced a flashlight. ‘They want me, they want the money. Take her with you. Let them chase me.’
‘No. You come with us,’ Aubrey said. ‘I’m not leaving you.’ She sounded outraged at the suggestion.
‘I can’t. I’ll stay here, make a deal with the Night Road.’
The money was key to the Night Road’s survival, Luke realized. It had to be, funds for a cataclysm far bigger than the train bombing in Texas. It couldn’t fall into their hands, so Eric had to come with them.
‘Forget it, Eric, we’re sticking together.’ Luke opened the door. Most of the neighbors huddled in the hallway, a few with flashlights. Luke heard laughter, the pop of a beer can opening, people making the convivial best of the blackout, not wanting to sit alone in the dark.
Luke grabbed Aubrey’s arm – she was the only way he could ensure Eric stayed with them. She didn’t pull her arm away as they winded through the hallway.
‘The stairway’s ahead to your left,’ Aubrey said.
His circle of light found the door. He eased the door open. The stairway was pitch-dark.
Luke had to assume the worst. Where will they strike? The stairways and hallways were crowded right now, and Mouser and Snow would want privacy to kill him. The staircase would spit them out into the foyer. He pictured the small lobby in his mind – the staircase on the far left side, the old-style tile flooring, the dimensions of the room. If you wanted to ambush someone – it was close to a front exit. In the confusion Snow and Mouser could be out in the street and gone in seconds.
He stopped and Aubrey ran into his back.
‘Stop at the second floor – we’re not going out into the lobby.’
They went down the stairs and opened the second floor door and the hallway was empty.
‘Is there an exit to the back?’
‘Only through the lobby. Not from the residential floors.’
‘Stop,’ Eric said. Luke pulled the light toward his face and Eric blinked.
‘I’m going to talk to whoever’s after us. I’ll make a deal.’ Eric sounded confident again.
‘They won’t stop to talk.’
‘They will with me. I’m calling the shots, Luke. I’m sorry.’
‘Talk later, move now. Please,’ Aubrey said. Then she gave a gasp and in the disc of the flashlight’s glow Luke saw the pistol in Eric’s hand.
21
Waiting in the lobby for his targets to emerge, Mouser had not foreseen a big problem.
People with flashlights in a darkened building tend to shine the circle of light square in the faces of people nearby. They expect to see neighbors, and maintenance men, and they have a sudden bright suspicion of people they don’t know. Mouser edged back toward a column.
Two older women were standing in the lobby, miffed at the inconvenience of ruined dinners, and one kept pointing a light in his direction.
‘I’m sorry,’ she finally said. ‘Do you live in the building?’
‘No, ma’am, my friend does and she asked me to wait in the lobby.’
‘Who’s your friend?’
‘Grace Crosby.’
The answer seemed to satisfy the woman. ‘Well, they better get the power back on. We got half-cooked pork chops sitting in a skillet.’
