‘Standby standby!’ Aviary said, hurting Sophia’s ear. ‘The eye is in a cab. Shit.’
Sophia looked across the road and saw Aviary flag down a cab of her own. It took her a moment but she was quickly inside and moving. Sophia started running, searching for a cab herself.
‘Don’t follow!’ Sophia said.
‘Follow that cab!’ Aviary said.
Sophia saw the cab move off, heading west along the one-way street. There were no cabs behind. She thought of hijacking someone but the cabs weren’t moving terribly fast. She decided to just sprint it. The street was mostly empty, the buildings on each side were four-story apartments and they looked expensive as all hell, though after the explosion their value might drop somewhat.
The two cabs were just in her vision ahead. On her iPhone she confirmed the operative wasn’t too far along, about to hit Columbus Avenue. On her right she spotted a drycleaners and a hotel entrance. The cabs containing the operative and Aviary had stacked up at the intersection.
‘Waiting in traffic at Columbus Avenue,’ Aviary said. ‘First cab off the rank, I’m tow-barring.’
That told Sophia the operative was the first vehicle in the line. Tow-barring meant Aviary had no cover while stationary — she was right behind the operative.
‘Get out of the cab, Aviary,’ Sophia said. ‘She must have seen you by now. Walk away.’
‘What the fuck?’ Aviary said.
Sophia slowed when she noticed two gray SUVs stack up behind Aviary’s cab. With particular timing they each disgorged four men, all in black fatigues and helmets, all carrying carbines and wearing protective black masks that looked like hockey masks.
Sophia checked the chamber of her Glock and moved toward the back of the SUVs.
The masked men moved past Aviary toward the first cab. One of them smashed the rear cab window while another hurled a grenade inside. Smoke filled the cab. Another grenade went in. This one went bang. They weren’t going for Aviary at alclass="underline" in fact they didn’t even realize she was following the operative.
Sophia took cover in a basement courtyard beside some stairs. Through the wrought-iron fence she watched the operative roll out of the cab. The red-jacketed operative stayed low and tangled one of the masked men’s legs, dropping them. She unfurled, attacked another and was caught by CS spray as the third masked man blocked her in. She collapsed, spluttering and groaning.
The masked men closed on her, cuffed her, then hustled her back into the front SUV. The SUV drove around Aviary’s vehicle, nudging both cabs out of the way and grinding along the parked cars. The second SUV followed suit. They both took a left on Columbus Avenue and disappeared.
It was over.
Sophia checked her phone. No operatives in sight except the one who had just been abducted. Sophia checked behind her for any backup teams or surveillance, then rushed to Aviary’s cab. Aviary was unharmed but in shock.
‘Hey, you with me?’ Sophia said, snapping her fingers in her friend’s face.
There was a moment of pause before Aviary focused on her. ‘What …? Fuck.’
Sophia pulled her out of the cab. ‘Well, that was interesting.’
Aviary breathed heavily in response. ‘Uh, yeah.’
Sophia pointed to her phone, to the blinking dot being whisked down Columbus Avenue. ‘Can you tag this operative?’
Aviary stared blankly at Sophia for a moment and then finally switched on. She looked at Sophia’s iPhone and tapped the dot. A little bubble popped up with the operative’s code number, which Sophia didn’t understand. Aviary pressed the arrow next to it and chose Bookmark. Then she chose Follow. Siri offered turn-by-turn directions.
‘Shut up, Siri,’ Aviary said.
‘Good,’ Sophia said. ‘Get back in.’
‘What? I thought you didn’t want—’
‘You heard me,’ Sophia said, helping the driver out of his cab. ‘Are you alright?’
The driver, hands shaking, nodded. ‘What the goddamn hell just happened?’
‘I’m borrowing your cab,’ Sophia said, jumping into his seat. ‘That’s what’s happened.’
Before he could protest, she closed the door and started the engine. She checked that Aviary was still in the back before taking off down Columbus Avenue, weaving through traffic.
‘We’re still following her?’ Aviary shouted from the back seat. ‘I thought you didn’t want to!’
‘That was before she was abducted by soldiers in black masks.’
‘Oh good, I thought I imagined the masks thing,’ Aviary said. ‘Hey, can we get back to the part where I ask what the hell you’re going to do?’
‘Not before I ask what the hell you were thinking going after an operative.’ Sophia glared at her in the rear-vision mirror. ‘Do you have a death wish?’
‘No,’ Aviary said. ‘I’m sorry. I just, I just got really excited. I thought we could use another ally. You know, because Nasira isn’t here. Your best buddy.’
‘Deprogramming takes time,’ Sophia said. ‘Before they can be an ally. Plus, it’s been a while.’
She moved her legs together enough to stop her iPhone from slipping off the seat. She glanced down at the screen to track the operative.
‘But you can put them in slave mode!’ Aviary said. ‘Place them under your command.’
Sophia watched her in the mirror again. ‘How do you know that?’
Aviary looked down. ‘I read your notes on deprogramming.’
‘Yeah, well, slave mode isn’t recommended for any length of time,’ Sophia said.
‘OK,’ Aviary said. ‘So what now?’
‘Whatever’s in that bag, it has something to do with the detonations. If we’re in for a second round, I need to stop it.’
On her left, the evening sky was thick with black smoke. The devastation had reached quite a distance west of the museum.
‘I’m sure they have people to stop that, right?’ Aviary said.
Sophia looked at her concerned face in the rear view mirror. ‘You mean like operatives?’
‘Yeah.’
Sophia took a left onto Broadway, searching the traffic ahead for sign of the gray SUVs. ‘They’re the ones who tend to start it,’ she said. ‘Remember the operative you just tried to track? Remember why I left the Fifth Column in the first place?’
‘Oh,’ Aviary said, quickly putting her seatbelt on. ‘Right.’
‘I think I see one,’ Sophia said, mostly to herself as she pushed forward.
She changed lanes to move around the traffic, bouncing from chute one to chute two to chute three and back again. Sirens wailed behind her, but they converged on the museum behind them.
‘Don’t you want to be discreet?’ Aviary said. ‘They’ll see us coming.’
‘We don’t have time for that,’ Sophia said. ‘And I’m in a cab. I mean, erratic driving should blend me right in.’ She put her foot down and rammed the cab in front of her.
‘Is that what you mean by erratic?’ Aviary said.
It was the only way through. Sophia pushed in beside the cab, scraping along the door panels and tearing off her side mirror. She ignored the enraged driver and pushed past, forcing herself into the center lane. She was behind the second SUV with one cab for cover.
‘Operative’s not in this one!’ Aviary called from the back seat. She was checking her phone too.
Sophia risked a glance at her phone. It told her the operative in the first SUV was a block ahead of them. ‘Yeah.’
‘What are you going to do? Go past this one?’ Aviary said.
‘Not yet. Just need to take it out of action for a little while,’ Sophia said, moving carefully into the left lane with her indicators on.
Her cab was scratched and dented, but anyone inside the SUV looking through the side mirrors wouldn’t notice much out of place. Sophia crept closer, lining her front up diagonally with the rear of the SUV.