Slaughter

“I meant the second baby,” he said.

“There was a second one?”

He smiled again.

Two in one day, she thought. Not such a tough guy. She drew a deep breath and stood up. “Wa

“Like you do,” he said.

They walked back toward the fallen buildings. The volunteers, cops, and firefighters were swarming over the debris now, searching for survivors or more of the dead. At least half a dozen dogs and their handlers were roaming the wreckage.

“Let’s pace ourselves this time,” Qui

Pearl was so tired she simply grunted her agreement.

Qui

“The Gremlin, you think?” she asked.

“Probably. The little bastard might very well be part of the crowd, standing at the edges, watching and enjoying. And learning.”

“Infuriating,” Pearl said.

Qui

Pearl looked up at him.

Qui

46

Qui

Qui

One of them was a cop, covered with grit and what looked like dried blood.

Qui

He simply stared at Qui

Seeing that the man was in deep shock, Qui

“Gas!” Qui

A few people heard him, then stood still and listened to see what he was yelling about.

When they finally figured it out, they began walking away from the collapsed buildings.

The smell of the gas was stronger now. And constant. More and more people left the scene of the bombing. Some began to jog. Any second another, even worse, explosion might occur.

Almost everyone, rubber-necker or rescuer, was moving away. Several NYPD cops were yelling as Qui

“Every time an engine starts, there’s a spark,” Qui

“Thanks for that information,” she said.

The word spread quickly, and the word was gas. Everyone outside a vehicle was ru

The screaming began.

Close behind them, the morning burst into flames.

Blocks away and upwind, the Gremlin sat at a rooftop restaurant window table and watched what was happening. He had a throwaway cell phone and was describing the scene to Mi

The Gremlin knew he’d been on the phone long enough for GPS to pose a threat. He said good-bye to Mi

She said, “No, please! Tell me why you did this! Why in God’s name did you do this? Please!”

He turned off the phone, then under cover of the tablecloth, used his butter knife to pry it apart. The cheap plastic case snapped open easily. With powerful hands, he broke the pieces into smaller pieces. He put the broken phone in his sport-coat pocket. When he got a chance he would fold a newspaper around the phone and drop it into a trash receptacle. Why not today’s paper? He’d used the tablecloth so his fingerprints weren’t on flat surfaces of the broken phone. All the dishes and flatware he’d used had already been picked up and transported from his table to the kitchen. He wasn’t leaving any accidental clues.

Diners without window seats were drifting across the restaurant now to stand at the wide windows and gawk at the dark smoke rising from the city. He hoped Mi

He cautioned himself. Overconfidence could lead to minor missteps while he was focusing on avoiding major mistakes.

Though everything had gone as pla

And in a few days he should be able to view up close the wreckage his bombs had created.

There should be enough of the buildings left standing that they would provide almost an X-ray view. People’s homes, people’s lives, how people lived, how they died, all would be naked for observation and calculation. The guts of the bombed buildings, their lines of water, gas, electricity, would be visible. Secrets would be exposed.

How things worked.

This was very much like reverse engineering. Everything was a learning experience.

He decided to skip a second espresso and let someone else watch the city deal with its wounds.

That was what someone who cared might do.

Later he stopped at a park. There seemed to be no one else around, so he stood for a while and tossed the pieces of the shattered cell phone one by one into a lake, pretending he was feeding the ducks. Though there were no ducks.

Next time, he told himself, bring some bread crumbs.

Or some ducks, if any of them are dumb enough to eat plastic.

He laughed at his own humor.

There was, if one looked in the right places, some amusement in life.

47

Qui

“See a fly?” Qui

“I see a goddamned hurricane!” Renz said. “It looks like a gigantic Mi

Qui

“She’s about to blow up One Police Plaza—with me in it.”

“You’re making a strategic mistake, Harley.”

“Which is?”

“Instead if concentrating on apprehending the Gremlin, you’re concentrating on covering your ass.”

Renz propped his fists on his hips and walked in a tight circle. “I oughta fire you.”