The squad leader kept his back to the wall and peered carefully around the opening. His eyes met the Cardinal’s, and both men gave a start; then the squad leader saw a man kneeling at the Cardinal’s feet. Gallagher let out a surprised yell, and the squad leader did the same as he fired twice from the hip.
Gallagher rocked back on his haunches and then fell forward. His smashed face struck the bars, and he rolled sideways, sliding down the Cardinal’s legs.
The Cardinal stared down at Gallagher lying in a heap at his feet, blood rushing from his head over the steps. He looked at the squad leader, who was staring at Gallagher. The squad leader turned and looked up at the top landing, saw no one, and gave a signal. ESD men with bolt cutters swarmed around the gates and severed the chain that tied them together. One of the men snapped the Cardinal’s handcuffs while another one opened the gate lock with a key. So far no one had spoken a word.
The assault squad slid open the gates, and ten men ran up the stairs toward the crypt door.
The Cardinal knelt beside Gallagher’s body, and a medic rushed out of a side corridor and took the Cardinal’s arm. “Are you okay?” The Cardinal nodded. The medic stared down at Gallagher’s face. “This guy don’t look so good, though. Come on, Your Eminence.” He tugged at the Cardinal’s arm as two uniformed policemen lifted the Cardinal, steering him toward the corridor that led back to his residence.
One of the ESD men stood to the side of the crypt door and lobbed a gas canister down into the crypt. The canister popped, and two men wearing gas masks rushed in through the smoke. After a few seconds one of them yelled back, “No one here.”
The squad leader took the field phone and reported, “Captain, sacristy gate and crypt secured. No ESD casualties, one Fenian KIA, Cardinal rescued.” He added impulsively, “Piece of cake.”
Bellini replied, “Tell me that after you get up those stairs. There’s a motherfucker in the choir loft that can circumcise you with two shots and never touch your nuts.”
The squad leader heard the phone click off. “Okay. Hostages under the pews— let’s move.” The squad split into two fire teams and began crawling up the opposite staircases toward the sanctuary.
Maureen and Baxter stayed motionless beneath the clergy pews. Maureen listened to the sounds of striking bullets echoing through the Cathedral. She pressed her face close to Baxter’s and said, “Leary—maybe Megan—is still in the loft. I can’t tell who else is still firing.”
Baxter held her arm tightly. “It doesn’t matter as long as Leary is still there.” He took her wrist and looked at her watch. “It’s 5:36. At 6:00 we run for it.”
She smiled weakly. “Harry, John Hickey is a man who literally would not give you the right time of day. For all we know it’s 6:03 right now. Then again, my watch may be correct, but the bombs may be set for right now. Hickey does not play fair—not with us nor with Brian Flynn.”
“Why am I so bloody naïve?”
She pressed his arm. “That’s all right. People like Hickey, Flynn … me … we’re treacherous…. It’s as natural as breathing….”
Baxter peered under the pews, then said, “Let’s run for it.”
“Where? This whole end of the Cathedral will collapse. The doors are mined. Leary’s in the loft, and Gallagher is at the gate.”
He thought a moment. “Gallagher owes you….”
“I wouldn’t put myself at the mercy of any of them. We couldn’t reach those stairs anyway. I won’t be shot down by scum like Leary or Megan. I’m staying here.”
“Then you’ll be blown up by John Hickey.”
She buried her face in her hands, then looked up. “Over the back of the sanctuary, keeping the altar between us and the choir loft. Into the Lady Chapel—the windows are about fifteen feet from the floor. Climb the chapel altar—one of us boosts the other up. We won’t get that far, of course, but—”
“But we’ll be heading in the right direction.”
She nodded and began moving under the pews.
The Fifth Assault Squad crouched on the two flights of steps behind the high altar. The squad leader peered around the south side of the altar and looked to his left at the bronze floor-plate. He turned to the right, put his face to the floor, and tried to locate the hostages under the clergy pews, but in the bad light and at the angle he was looking he saw no one. He raised his rifle and called softly, “Baxter? Malone?”
They were both about to spring out toward the rear of the sanctuary but dropped to a prone position. Baxter called back, “Yes!”
The squad leader said, “Steps are clear. Cardinal’s safe. Where is Father Murphy?”
Maureen peered across the sanctuary floor to the stairwell thirty feet away. “Somewhere in the towers, I think.” She paused, then said, “Gallagher? The man who—”
The squad leader cut her off. “The bomb under us hasn’t been found yet. You have to get out of there.”
“What time is it?” Baxter asked.
The squad leader looked at his digital watch. “It’s 5:46 and twenty seconds.”
Maureen stared at the face of her watch. Ten minutes slow. “Bastard.” She reset it and called back. “Someone’s got to get the snipers in the loft before we can move.”
The squad leader poked his head around the altar, looked up at the choir loft illuminated by candles and flares, and tried to peer into the blackness beyond. “He’s too far away for us to get him or for him to get you.”
Baxter shouted with anger in his voice, “If that were so, we wouldn’t be here. That man is very good.”
The squad leader said, “We’re sitting on a bomb, and so far as I’m concerned it could go off anytime.”
Maureen called out to the squad leader, “Listen, two people planted the bombs, and they were down in the crawl space less than twenty minutes. They carried two suitcases.”
The squad leader called back, “Okay—I’ll pass that on. But you have to understand, lady, that the Bomb Squad could blow it—you know? So you have to make a break.”
Maureen called back, “We’ll wait.”
“Well, we won’t.” The squad leader looked up at the triforium directly overhead where Bellini was, but saw no one at the openings. He called on the field phone. “Captain, Malone and Baxter are under the pews below you—alive.” He passed on the information about the bombs and added, “They won’t try to cross the sanctuary.” Bellini’s voice came over the line. “I don’t blame them. Okay, in thirty seconds everyone fires into the loft. Tell them to run for it then.”
“Right.” He hung up and relayed the message to Maureen and Baxter.
Maureen called back, “We’ll see—be careful—”
The squad leader turned and shouted to his men on the opposite stairs. “Heavy fire into the loft!” The men moved up the steps and knelt on the floor, firing down the length of the Cathedral. The squad leader moved the remainder of his squad around the altar and opened fire as the two triforia began shooting. The sound of bullets crashing into stone and brass in the loft rolled back through the Cathedral. The squad leader shouted to Malone and Baxter. “Run!”
Suddenly two rifles started firing rapidly from the choir loft with extreme accuracy. The ESD men on both sides of the altar began writhing on the cold sanctuary floor. Both teams pulled back to the staircases, dragging their wounded and leaving a trail of blood on the white marble.
The squad leader swore loudly and peered around the altar. “Okay, okay, stay there!” He glanced quickly up at the choir loft and saw a muzzle flash. The marble in front of him disintegrated and hit him full in the face. He screamed, and someone grabbed his ankles, dragging him back down the stairs.