"It's fascinating," Sam interrupted, "but how do people get down here?"
"I'm getting to that. Relax."
"If we want to live, I need to understand how people can get down here, either in front of us or behind us." "City officials, my ass. Who exactly is chasing you?" "No one who gives a damn about Luggers or their dogs." Despite that, Lugger walked faster, and they kept pace. "You were telling me the ways into this station." "Okay. Understand this principle. Manhattan is solid rock. So people like us don't dig in it. The stairs into the sta tion are all cemented in. That part is like what they originally did at City Hall station. In this tunnel where we're walking, the overhead grates and emergency stair exits are sealed. Back at the station there is one more air vent that does go to a grate that is half covered by a building. In the past people have been able to get through the grate, but just recently they have a steel sheet under it. I wondered how you came down because nobody has had that grate open for the past few weeks. There's a tunnel from the building, but they boarded that up."
"We came through the wall of the building. I'm told that they drilled the hole in the concrete when they were looking for something. Maybe a steam pipe or something to do with the subway," Sam theorized.
"Nowadays people get here mostly by running down the live track. At either end of this side track, there's a cement wall. But it doesn't go all the way to the top of the tunnel in this direction. I think it's a dam for water when the side tunnel starts filling from heavy rain. Down the other direction the hole to get out of the abandoned track is really small. I don't fit."
"Is the other surface hole into the station as hard to travel as what we came down?"
"Harder to find because it isn't exposed to the outside. Easier to come down."
"How about ahead of us?"
"All operating subway tunnels have a grate every six hundred feet. The grates open with a bolt lock. You just slide the bolt out of the hole, but you can only do it from underneath. But like I said, this track was abandoned for good. Over time they just paved over the grates above the track or welded them up and put in a steel plate. So there's no getting out ex cept over the top of the wall at the end of this tunnel, and then we'll be on the live track of the 1 and 9."
"Is there a hot rail in here?"
"No way."
"I thought this might be part of the PATH line."
"No, that's through the rock over there a piece and down. PATH runs under the 1 and 9."
Suddenly lights came on, shining in their eyes. Sam used Lugger's big light and shone back. There were seven men and four had metal pipes or chains. Three were fishing out their knives. No guns in evidence.
Sam waved everybody back, handed the light to Lugger, and walked forward alone with an automatic in each hand. He sized them up as a mean, confident crew with less dirt on the clothes than should be the norm down here. They were in various stages of growth on their beards. One was of good size, the others average. He wondered how often they came underground.
Behind them stumbled two girls, both in bad shape. Their heads hung. They had bulky coats wrapped around them, but their legs and feet were bare, probably nude under the coats.
"We just want to pass." Sam paused. "And we're taking the girls."
The leader looked around and grinned while three of the guys pulled guns. "We do the takin' down here. We'll start with the money and then we'll take her."
"You guys have six semiautomatics aimed at you. All you've got is a few relic revolvers, aside from the Beretta."
"Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit!"
Sam shot. Sound exploded through the tunnel. The bullet missed the leader's head by inches. Shock etched their nervous faces, everyone leaning forward at once, ready to start a war.
The leader tried to be nonchalant but put his finger to his ear as if to check its integrity.
"The next bullet goes in the middle of your forehead."
"We're gonna die right here," the leader said.
Sam knew he had a problem. "Last I heard, gang leaders still had balls. I'll fight you. If I win, you let us pass and we take the girls."
"What if I win?"
"Then you've got one less guy to deal with."
"Killing you will be a pleasure. And after that, having her."
Sam handed one gun back and put the other in his pants.
"You still got a gun," the leader said.
"How about you?"
The leader raised his hands and turned.
"Your ankle."
The leader reached down and removed a small revolver.
Sam handed back the second gun.
"You wanna come hit me with a pipe?"
"What are you, one of those kung fu assholes?"
"Nah. No kung fu. I could teach you to pronounce it some other time. But like all good martial-arts practitioners, it is now my duty to ask you not to fight. There is no reason not to let us pass."
The other men looked a little nervous and began to spread out.
"Think about it. If you win, my friends here will have a case of the nerves and they'll start shooting hollow points out of these semiautomatics and you guys will have bullets going in the front of you and blowing holes out your backs the size of grapefruits. And your intestines will probably rupture and spew shit all over your insides and it will take, say, thirty minutes to actually lose consciousness and it'll hurt like hell as you're dying. Then you'll think back to how it was that you could have just let us walk through. Of course you'll be shooting at my guys, but they have Kevlar vests, and you don't, so you'll need a head shot. So if you're lucky, you'll lose the fistfight and just suffer some broken bones."
The bangers took another look at one another.
"You gotta pay to get through. We'll take her and some money."
"Okay. Well, let's fight then, one at a time."
Sam turned to Grady and Michael. "Now, you make sure that whoever wins gets gut shot. Unless, of course, I win. Then you don't have to shoot anybody."
"I more or less specialize in the gut shot," Michael said.
Sam had been moving closer to the lead man, the big fellow, who now had a pipe ready to swing.
"Here I am. Aren't you gonna take a swing? Or can you feel that lead blowing out your backbone?"
Sam kicked in a blur right up into the man's crotch. The man bent over clutching his privates. For the moment he couldn't breathe. Sam yanked the pipe from his hands.
"If you check carefully, you'll see that your nuts are still down mere, although they may have entered your abdominal cavity." Sam swung the pipe up between the man's legs, breaking the bones in his hands. When the man's hands dropped, Sam swung again and hit the testicles a second time, square on. "Never threaten a woman." With the man doubled over, he pinched off carotid arteries from behind the neck until he lost consciousness.
"Right on." It was one of the girls back in the shadows.
A man with a badly scarred face was near the tunnel wall, but he began moving nearer the others. He had a gun pointed at Sam.