"You be careful," she says to me for at least the fourth time while I check my gear.
"I will, Kels, you know that. I have a lot going right for me nowadays."
"You keep telling yourself that, Tabloid. You’ve already got one great offer on the table and if you play your cards right, you might get another one tonight." She leers at me. Damn, that’s cute.
"Is that so?"
"Oh, yeah." She hands me a spare battery. When I grab onto it, she tugs it, and me, closer and whispers, "If you come back in the same condition you leave in, think: perfume, necklace, and a smile."
"And that would be?"
"What I wear to bed tonight."
Oh, I’m coming back in the same damn condition I’m leaving in. Hell, I might not leave with that kind of offer. But, I suppose I need to go save New York City. Ta-da-da-da! Super Harper to the rescue! All I need are tights and a cape – not! Jesus. What a weird world we live in.
Looking up into mist green eyes, I realize there’s something I need to get brave about as well. Just in case nut flake manages to infect us and I don’t make it back. I have to tell her. I need to make Papa proud. "Kels, I … ah …"
"Kingsley!" A male voice distracts me. I swing around to find two of NYPD’s Finest waiting for me.
"Be right there," I call to them, then turn back to Kels. "I’ll be back before you know it," I say, instead of what I should have.
Coward. You can face anthrax but you can’t say three little words.
Kelsey nods. I can see in her face she’s not happy, but she’s doing a good job of hiding it. She absolutely hates being left behind. That’s my Little Roo.
"Kingsley! Let’s go!" They yell again and I leave giving her a final smile.
Dumb, Stanton! Very fucking dumb. You should have said it, you should have told her. If she gets hurt and you haven’t told her, you’ll never forgive yourself.
But she’s not going to get hurt. She going to go get the greatest footage she’s ever shot and come back in one piece. Then she’ll take you back to the hotel and make love to you all night long.
"You ready, Kelsey?" Jimmy looks at me quizzically.
He hands me my mike so I can do some fillers while she’s gone. "Yeah. Let’s go to work, Jims."
The cruiser to the FBI field office was cramped as hell, but the ride over in the back of the sedan to meet Donovan isn’t too bad. He’s already at the staging area. The agent driving me over tells me the latest intel. Apparently, the good professor hired a boat to go to the barge that holds all the fireworks for the display tonight.
Ah, it feels so damn good to be right.
The car comes to a halt and I climb out, gathering all my gear.
"Whoa!" a voice calls.
I turn to find Kyle. "Yeah?"
"Okay, before we do this, put this on." He hands me a bullet proof vest. God, I’m glad Kels can’t see this. I slip it on over my head. "Next, we’re going to send in a NYPD SWAT team in chem suits first. Just in case he has an itchy trigger finger with the anthrax. When we get the all clear, we go in and you can go with us. Got it?"
"Yeah." Not the way I would have chosen, but I guess I have to play by his rules tonight.
"Let’s go ahead and get on the boat."
I shoulder the camera and start shooting, you never know what you’ll get. I find a nice spot near the front of the powerboat that gives me a really good view of the barge. I get some excellent footage of the SWAT team boarding before they’re out of sight.
I feel the engine fire up and our boat starts forward slowly. This is very good stuff, very dramatic. My footage coupled with Kels’ studio work will give us one hell of a story. I can feel my new starting salary growing with each frame shot.
I hear Kyle on his radio and we have the all clear to move in. Damn, that was surprisingly fast. I can’t imagine that nut flake simply surrendered.
I hear Kyle laughing a little and I turn around to see what’s so funny.
He makes his way up to me. "Just keep shooting. You are so gonna love this."
We cross over to the barge in no time and step onto the platform. Several of the SWAT officers are talking to some civilians nearby. I zoom in and become intrigued by what they’re talking about. I wander over so the mike can pick up their conversation and Donovan follows me.
"This putz came over and tried to mess with our rig. He tried to pass himself off as a state firearms inspector, but, it’s goddamn clear he’s not from our state."
That’s an understatement, buddy.
"So then what happened?" one of the cops asks.
"So, Vinnie and me told him to get lost before we shoved one of the firing shells up his ass. I mean, we’re working on a tight schedule here to get ready for this shoot, you know? Jesus, the amount of groundwork we gotta do to make this go off, and with it being the fuckin’ millennium, everyone is expecting something really big, ya know? So, we -"
The cop interrupts. "After you told him to leave, what happened?"
"He pulled out a thermos and threatened us with it." Vinnie and the narrator exchange looks and burst into laughter. "I mean, what is he going to do with it? Scald us? Cream us to death?" More laughter and this time the cops join in.
"And then?"
The fireworks display operator gets serious. "Nobody threatens Eddie DeMarco and gets away with it." He gestures with his chin, which is not insubstantial, "The punk’s over there."
We are led over to an area near some large crates by one of the SWAT officers. They’re still wearing their chem suits which will provide dramatic footage, even though I don’t think they’re necessary anymore. Boys and their toys, I suppose.
"Ms. Kingsley, can you identify this man?" Kyle gestures to the figure at my feet.
As I pan the camera down, I find the good professor bound and gagged with duct taped. Oh, it’s gonna hurt like hell when they rip the duct tape away from that mustache.
"Yes, I can." I nod, making a positive ID.
We’re alone in an editing bay as we wrap our exclusive.
"Tired?" Harper rubs my shoulders while I put the final voiceover track to bed on our story. It’s a damn good story, one of the best we’ve ever done.
"A little."
"Want to go back to the hotel or do you want to go out into the madness? Our segment leads at eleven. We can still see the New Year in."
"Well, I think with the proper persuasion, I could go out for a bit." Actually, I’d kinda like to see the non-end of the world. And know that we were in some small way responsible.
"How does a semi-private seat for the best show of the end of the year sound?"
"Sounds pretty good."
"After that, can I get a private seat for the best show of the New Year?" she whispers, her voice low and piercing through me.
"That can also be arranged."
She leans down and gives my neck a little kiss. "You still planning on just wearing the necklace, perfume and a smile?"
"Un-huh." I smile and nod. I hear her breathing catch, feel her fingers tighten on my shoulders.
"Oh boy."
There are perks to helping the feds capture an insane cowboy bent on killing the New Year’s Eve partygoers. We are now nestled at the top of the Marriott Marquis, on the roof, overlooking Times Square. Also up here are a couple cops, a few feds and part of the staging crew for the festival.
They have confetti cannons rigged and are preparing to pelt the crowd below with almost three tons of the stuff in just a few minutes at the stroke of midnight. There are also a bunch of people getting ready to release globe shaped balloons.