19

Subway Tunnel Chase

Agent Harris sprinted past Lieutenant Phelps only to be stalled by the passing crowd and a motor vehicle with an angry-sounding horn and an even angrier-sounding driver whose speech demonstrated a certain number of racial expletives. The others ran after them, but such a good-sized group of people trying to run through a crowded New York street was more of a guaranteed way of eliciting angry responses than of making any real progress.

Claire, however, saw the direction Eiji was running as the small man skillfully wove his way through the crowd. She tugged on Professor Stein’s sleeve. “There’s a subway entrance in that direction. He might be headed there.”

“Lou,” Professor Stein then relayed, pointing a hand in the indicated direction, “subway!”

To one man who took particular objection to a black woman and her “anarchist friends” trying to barge their way past him, Lieutenant Phelps took the direct approach. He bodily picked the man up and deposited him out of the way of the others as they ran past. “Behave yourself,” he warned.

Before the man could snap himself out of his apoplectic shock, the large lieutenant was gone.

They raced across the street, weaving around horse-drawn taxis and Model Ts, and a policeman cautioning them with a sharp whistle, nearly colliding with another horse, then barging straight through a pack of pedestrians on the other side, in a race to the flight of stairs leading down to the subway below, where they saw their quarry leap down.

Agent Harris was in the lead but hampered now by others objecting to her presence, and Lieutenant Phelps could only manhandle so many out of the way, especially when it came to the ladies. Captain Beck and Agent Hessman ended up apologizing their way through.

They came to the bottom of the stairs in time to see Eiji leap over the turnstile, surprising the ticket man, and run for the train landing beyond.

“Stop him before he gets on a train,” Agent Hessman called out as they wove through the crowd.

Agent Harris was the first to the turnstile, shoving her way past other customers, leaping over the gate and past the ticket man. “They’re not going to hate me any more in this period than they already do,” she muttered under her breath.

After her, the lieutenant barged his way past, but then came Claire with a quick smile for the man as she cut in front of some people. “Sorry, really important. But don’t worry, the guy at the end is paying for us all.” She pointed vaguely behind them, with a quick smile and wave for some undefined person far to their rear, then hurried on past.

After her followed Professor Stein. “Uh, the guy at the back,” he said hurriedly.

Next came Agent Hessman, who had caught on to the game by now. “Guy at the back’s paying.”

Then Dr. Weiss hurried past with “Man at the back. Tweed coat. Can’t miss him.”

And finally Captain Beck. “Uh, man at the back’s paying for me as well.” He gestured in the general direction behind him and hurried past.

This left an actual customer stepping up to pay for himself and his girlfriend as the ticket man held out a hand waiting for a lot more money.

The landing was crowded with people waiting for the next train, but not crowded enough for a slender Japanese man no taller than five foot four to make his way quickly to the edge of the landing. But he wasn’t about to wait for a train. When the team saw him leap down into the tunnel, a quick-thinking Claire called out with hand pointed, “Look! A Japanese anarchist with a bomb!”

Seeing the man leaping down into the tunnel seemed to be all the confirmation anyone needed. The crowd went from milling about to stampeding back toward the stairs, leaving Lieutenant Phelps to act as a water break against the oncoming tide of panicked humanity. But at least the way was clearing for them, enough that once they were past the initial wave of screaming subway riders, they broke into a dead run across the landing, and into the tunnel for Agent Harris.

One after another they leaped down, Eiji far ahead of them, running as fast as he could along one side of the tunnel. When it came to Professor Stein’s turn to leap down, however, he was not without his objections. “We’re chasing him through there? What if a train comes?”

“See what happens when you miss out on a war?” Claire countered. “You’re afraid of one little train.” She gave him a light shove to start him off, then followed immediately after.

With Agent Harris at the lead and Captain Beck bringing up the rear, they were a long line of people running down the tunnel, keeping as far over to one side as they could. The tunnel was dark, but from ahead they could make out the silhouette of their target when he became backlit by a single bright circular light, quickly nearing.

“Train!” Agent Harris shouted. “Flatten to the wall!”

They all did as advised, including Eiji ahead of them, putting their backs to the wall and pulling themselves as close against it as they could. Lieutenant Phelps had a slight problem doing so due to his bulk. As it was, the wall of the train shot past within an inch of his chest as the train’s horn filled the tunnel with a deafening roar. Speeding cars raced by, filling the team with panicked adrenaline, save perhaps for Agent Harris, whose mind was on how best to resume the chase once the train passed.

The train was nearly past when, in those few seconds, Professor Stein realized his hand was on Claire’s leg, while she found her arm flattened across his stomach. Neither dared to change the arrangement until the train had passed.

“Clear!” they all heard Agent Harris call out.

Professor Stein immediately jerked his hand away and began nervously stammering out an apology.

“Later,” Claire snapped.

The chase continued down the tunnel, Agent Harris pouring on the speed until she was within a hand’s breadth of the other. She was nearly there when Eiji turned his run into a spinning leap up, one foot swinging around directly for her head. Instinctively she brought up an arm to block, barely in time to deflect the worst of the blow but not without being thrown into the wall. She had no sooner hit than she pushed off with one foot to come at the man in a diving tackle for his waist.

She grabbed him round the knees, tumbling both of them to the center of the tunnel just as another blast from a train horn came echoing at them.

In the brief instant it took Agent Harris to note another bright light at the other end of the second set of tracks in this tunnel, Eiji snapped his legs apart with a sharp cry and rolled away. Agent Harris launched to her feet only to be jerked back by a strong hand to her shoulder. Lieutenant Phelps jerked her back an instant before the train coming down the opposing tracks raced by her nose. Eiji had made it to the other side of the track and was for a moment lost to view.

The others came running down the tunnel, catching up to the pair just as the train finished its passage. Once clear, they saw a set of running feet well down the tunnel, headed for a landing on the other side.

“That mouse is not getting away,” Agent Harris vowed. She led the charge down the tunnel, leaping onto the landing in a single bound. Lieutenant Phelps stopped to help each of the others up, beginning with Claire. By the time the last of them was on the platform, the lieutenant now bringing up the rear, Agent Harris was well up the stairs to the surface in chase. She reached another wide walkway bordering a busy street and glanced around. She saw many people coming and going, cars and buses, and a multitude of visual obstacles, but her eyes were sharp and well trained. Just as the others came charging up the steps behind her, she spotted him. “There, in that alley across the street over there,” she indicated.

“Get him before he gets away,” Agent Hessman ordered. “Whatever it takes.”

“I’ll lead,” Lieutenant Phelps said, pushing past her. “A black woman chasing someone in‍—‍”

“Okay, I get it,” she snapped. “Just go.”

With the lieutenant now in the lead, they bulldozed through the crowd, everyone else riding his wake. A passing bus and two taxis slowed them down, but they came as quickly as they could to the alley, where a lack of foot traffic allowed Agent Harris to break into a run past the lieutenant. She did not, however, have to run long. When she stopped abruptly before a large mound on the ground, Professor Stein held Claire back before remembering that she was probably better around bodies than he was.

Agent Hessman jogged up to join Agent Harris, while Lieutenant Phelps stayed at the rear to guard against anyone else coming into the alley. The rest gathered round to see what had stopped her, and though they already had their suspicions, there was still something to surprise them.

“Two bodies,” Agent Hessman noted. “Who’s the other one?”

Agent Harris bent down to turn over the first one. It was indeed Eiji, a hole in his forehead being all the autopsy that was needed. When she turned over the body next to him, she gave a startled look of recognition.

“The German? Lou, this is the same guy we tried to chase down before.”

“And that brings up a very good question,” Agent Hessman said. “Who would want to kill both teams?”

Two men with matching holes in their heads, one Japanese and the other German. A puzzle indeed.