The drug was supposed to make you relive scenes from your past lives. Supposed to-because the only one who had told me they’d experienced it firsthand was the cartel boss El Brujo, admittedly not the most reliable of attestants given how warped his brain had to be after a lifetime’s kaleidoscope of drugs. If it actually worked, I’d been hoping for something more along the lines of finding myself in Renaissance Italy or maybe even a romp as a Templar during the Crusades.
This was… different. It seemed to be taking me much farther back, maybe to some kind of primordial state of existence-or it was just mining the deepest, dormant trenches of my imagination.
I went through my options, hoping the crazy-ass visions would abate for a few minutes. I could point a gun at Deutsch, but there was a sizeable chance Lendowski would simply call my bluff, which would do me no good at all as I had zero intention of seriously harming either of them.
Aim at Lendowski first and Deutsch was liable to attempt to reclaim her gun, which could get very messy indeed.
I needed the vehicle roadworthy, but I quickly realized I had no option but to crash it.
Something was tugging at my ankle. I looked down into the footwell. A mess of disgusting super-sized leech-like creatures-only leech-like because they appeared to be covered in thick fur-were crawling over each other in a mad rush to attach themselves to my legs.
The urge to stamp down on the sickening aberrations was so strong that I actually felt my right leg lift off the floor, before I wrested control back from my reptilian brain and returned my foot firmly to the Explorer’s carpet, from where the leeches had retreated.
This was going to get worse before it was going to get better. Plus we were closing in on the hospital. It wouldn’t be long before we got there.
Screw it.
It was time to make my move.
As Lendowski swung the vehicle left off Park Row into Spruce Street, I balled my right hand and drove it hard into Deutsch’s stomach, simultaneously grabbing her regulation-issue Glock 23 with my left and, in one continuous motion, swinging it full force against Lendowski’s head, knocking him out cold.
He slumped forward. The Explorer bounced up onto the sidewalk between a couple of trees and slammed into the side of the Pace University building.
Deutsch was almost upright again, but I already had her cuffs-which she wore cop-style-off her belt.
“Hands. Now,” I ordered.
“What are you-?”
“Now, Annie.”
Her eyes burned into me. “You’re making a big mistake. Sean, listen to me-”
I cut her off. “I’ve got no choice.”
For a moment, her pride got the better of her. I could see it in her eyes-fight was getting the better of flight-but her expression quickly changed to one of reluctant acceptance as she held out both hands. I clamped one of the cuffs on her right wrist and kept firm hold of the other end.
“Out.”
She exited the vehicle and I followed her out the same side.
“Help me with him.”
I took Lendowski’s handgun out of its holster and tucked it into my trousers, then we dragged him from the driver’s seat and propped him against one of the trees.
From the corner of one eye I glimpsed a wild-eyed ape sitting in the tree, dark blood oozing from its mouth as it chewed on the lump of torn flesh it was holding in one hand.
Although I was still just about able to distinguish between reality and my increasingly disturbing visions, with each passing minute I could feel more of my awareness pulled toward the world of the drug and away from the here and now.
I shook my head violently as I clamped the open end of Deutsch’s cuffs to Lendowski’s left wrist, grabbed his phone, his badge holder and his wallet, then turned to Deutsch. “Your cell.”
She handed it to me as I returned Lendowski’s wallet to him minus the bills. I kept his FBI creds, figuring they might come in handy since I didn’t have mine any more.
“Sean, don’t do this.”
“I don’t have a choice.”
“Of course you do.
“I didn’t kill him, Annie.”
“Then let us find the guy who did. Like Nick said, we’ve got to have each other’s backs.”
“The people I’ve pissed off, maybe they killed Nick. And they’d go through all of you to get to me. I can’t risk that.”
I saw surprise light up her face regarding what I said about Nick’s death as I said it. “It’s our job, Sean.”
“It’s my fight.”
I turned away from her, amazed that she was still willing to engage with me after what I’d just done.
Although there was little chance she’d be able to drag Lendowski more than a few feet, I went back to the Explorer and retrieved the cuffs from the glove compartment where I knew Lendowski kept them.
I cuffed Deutsch’s left wrist to Lendowski’s right so that the two of them encircled the tree, then removed his tie, balled it up and stuffed it into her mouth.
“Sorry about the punch-and about this.”
She shook her head in resignation.
I climbed into the Explorer, hoping it still drove.
There was a crunching, shearing sound as I reversed away from the concrete wall, down off the sidewalk and back onto Spruce, then a wet squeal of tires as I sped away.
25
I guessed I had minutes before the shit hit the fan. I had no idea how long my current state would last, and no clue whether the next phase would be a hundred times worse. My body appeared to be following my commands even though it felt like I was moving in slow motion. If I was indeed moving as slowly as it appeared, I’d be back in custody before dawn.
That was the worst case scenario. What I was hoping for was that I threatened both the FBI and the CIA with such monumental embarrassment that they’d try to keep a lid on my escape, at least till morning, when everyone had been interviewed and a decision had been made about who to blame. I also bargained on Corrigan staying out of the way-at least till it looked like they weren’t going to find me on their own. I had a whole lot to do before then.
I stripped the batteries from both phones and dropped the pieces out of the window as I turned right onto Gold, passing Lower Manhattan hospital, our original destination, then turned right onto Fulton. I could see 1 WTC up ahead, its shimmer brilliant in the darkness.
The Explorer skidded in the snow as I turned into a blind alley. I killed the engine, climbed out and checked the back, looking for anything I could use to cover my vomit-stained clothes. I was grateful for the cold weather as I laid eyes on his winter parka, along with a spare suit he kept in there and a holdall for his gym stuff. I also saw his flashlight in there and grabbed it too.
Parka on, hood up, suit, flashlight and both FBI-issued Glocks stuffed in Lendowski’s holdall, I started to walk back down Fulton Street. I knew there was a twenty-four-hour parking garage about five hundred yards south of Gold Street and I was hoping that I’d be able to hotwire at least one of the cars left there overnight.
I jogged up the ramp of the multi-level building, scanning to the left and right for a car old enough not to be controlled by a computer. As I moved my head, everything started to warp and buckle-like my field of vision was spread across a sheet blowing in the wind. Leeches were squirming under the cars. I heard a pounding sound behind me. I turned to see the feral ape from the tree. It was bouncing something off the bonnet of a Toyota Corolla. I moved closer, edging around the vehicle, and saw my father’s severed head, its blood-matted hair gripped in the ape’s hand. His eyes-still open-looked exactly as they had when I found him sitting at his desk with his brains blown out.
My instinct was to continue on, but somewhere from deep within came the urge to take the head from the ape-to stop it inflicting any more pain. I felt myself moving toward the Corolla as the ape continued to smash the head against the bodywork, its movements growing ever more manic. I was less than five yards out-close enough to see the individual hairs on the ape’s skin-when instinct won. I turned and dragged myself away, heading for the up ramp.