32

The Next Step

Agents Harris and Hessman made it to the roof by way of more traditional methods than a fire escape climb and a jump from an adjoining building. Agent Harris showed Agent Hessman where she had seen the sniper, and Hessman bent down to examine the area. He found bullet casings, strips of cloth, and some blood splatter. “Powder burns along the wall and on the cloth, and the blood splatter . . . It looks like you got him, all right. By the time you made it up here, he was able to give himself some quick first aid before escaping.”

“I could tell he was wounded,” she admitted, “but that didn’t stop him from running. I know my shot flipped the rifle out of his hands, but that’s it.”

“From the only angle you would have had from the ground, you could have gotten him in the hand or arm. Alternatively, you hit the gun itself and the impact caused the damage, which means that he could also have a sprained wrist.” He pocketed the cloth and fingered the shell casings. “In this primitive age,” he continued, “there’s nothing to easily trace where others like these might be.”

“Not to mention that was a modern sniper rifle he used,” she pointed out. “We know exactly where it came from and that no one else in this period possesses one, but that doesn’t do a thing to help us.”

“Agreed.” He passed the shell casings to Agent Harris, who pocketed them. He shook his head. “Besides, it’s a bomb we need to trace now. Or at least the people holding it. Any ideas?”

“I’m just the muscle,” she replied. “You’ll want to bring this up to the rest of the team. I can tell you that if it’s plastique, and assuming that one body wasn’t the only guy with a sample of the stuff, then it’s on their persons right now. If this was back in our time, we could break out a bomb sniffer to try to trace its location, but even that would be highly problematic in a city of millions.”

“Agreed. Let’s get back down.”

After the long walk down the stairwell, as they rejoined Dr. Weiss and Captain Beck outside the building’s lobby, they caught sight of Claire pulling away from Professor Stein to wander off in the general direction of city hall.

“He told her everything,” the captain said to the other two. “Including that she’s only got a few months to live.”

Agent Hessman sighed. “It had to be done,” he said. “But on the matter of more practical considerations, Sam, do you think that‍—‍”

“Should be no disruptions to our timeline,” Dr. Weiss replied. “No one will believe such a fantastic story, and she’ll be dead soon anyway. It sounds harsh, but . . .”

“I know,” Agent Hessman said, “but all these people we’ve encountered are dead already, from our point of view.”

Ben rejoined them, nodding to Agent Hessman as he neared. “Find anything?”

“Nothing useful,” Agent Hessman replied. “How’s your girlfriend?”

“Feeling a little lost,” Ben said. “She says she just needs some time to take it all. And she’s not my girlfriend.”

“Are you sure she knows that?” Dr. Weiss asked with a grin.

“It doesn’t matter anyway,” Ben replied. “Mission aside, I’ll have to leave her behind anyway. I’m not going to do anything that might interfere with history, even if it means‍—I mean, there’s nothing between us.”

“Uh-huh,” Agent Hessman said evenly. “Ben, I’m the detective, remember? Sam?”

“She’s had the hots for him since Steeplechase,” Dr. Weiss replied.

“Earlier than that, I’d think,” Captain Beck added.

“The BRT ride,” Agent Harris stated. “She switched seats to be next to you.”

“She was simply,” Ben began, “expressing a reporter’s normal curiosity about‍—‍”

“Interested,” Agent Harris stated flatly.

“Now cut that out, all of you,” Ben protested.

“Okay, enough of that,” Agent Hessman told them. “Back to business. Our problem is to trace where the Japanese team may be placing a bomb. City hall is out; after the ruckus, local security will be all over that place. Even a team from the future wouldn’t be able to get in.”

“That doesn’t mean that either team is going to stop, though,” Captain Beck said.

“Agreed,” Agent Hessman stated. “So where does that leave us? Where else might they try to plant a bomb?”

“Maybe we don’t have to find where the other teams took off to,” Ernst now suggested. “We know that Major Greber’s own personal mission is to stop both my team and the Japanese team. Find him, and we find the others.”

“An excellent suggestion, Ernst,” Agent Hessman agreed. “So where would our rogue friend go hunting?”

They discussed the matter for several minutes, each person floating an idea about where the teams might be, or at least where Major Greber might be looking for them. The problem was that the city of New York, even in 1919, presented too many possibilities. They were still deep in discussion when a far more spritely Claire Hill came walking confidently back to join them.

“Well, come on,” she cut in. “We’ve got a bombing to stop.”

“Miss Hill?” Agent Hessman wasn’t sure whether to question her statement or her abrupt change in attitude first. “I’m afraid that we‍—‍”

“A good reporter uses whatever is at her disposal to get her story,” she quoted. “A woman reporter particularly so.”

“Claire,” Ben began, “I’m not sure that I—”

She grinned. “And if that includes using the fact that you’re dying of pneumonia as a sob story to get a line on the best story of the century, then so be it.”

“Miss Hill,” Agent Hessman said with rapidly growing interest, “I’ve the strangest feeling that I’m going to want to hug you. What’d you find out?”

“Oh, not much,” she said, shrugging. “Just that city hall isn’t where the actual meeting is supposed to take place, just where the dignitaries are assembling before moving off to the real location. They’ll be traveling by convoy‍—police, military vehicles, the works‍—to where President Wilson is going to speak with them.”

“And where would that be?” Captain Beck asked.

“That part’s super secret,” she replied. “I couldn’t get it, but I can tell you that the route crosses the Brooklyn Bridge.”

She finished with a victorious smirk, to which Agent Hessman replied, with an agreeing nod, “Which would be a perfect place for a bomb. The site of such a high-level meeting would have far too much security for any sort of covert team to get through, but planting something beneath a bridge along the way would be the perfect solution.”

“It appears,” Ernst interjected with a grin, “that your recruitment of the local talent worked out a lot better than it did for my team and the street gang.”

“A modern-day bomb is not something anyone from this era will be able to see or detect,” Agent Harris added. “Speaking as an expert, they could mold that plastique to look like part of the girders or something. Nothing about it would stand out like a few sticks of dynamite would. They’ll drive right over.”

“Then no more bridge, no more dignitaries, no more world as we know it,” Professor Stein said. “It would be catastrophic.”

“Then we need to get there now,” Agent Hessman stated. “Miss Hill, what is the fastest way there?”

“Really?” she said, her head slightly tilted. “Have any of you people been to New York in any time period? The pedestrian walkway’s literally around the corner and down the block. If we jog real fast, we might be able to get there in a few minutes.”

“Then lead the way,” Agent Hessman told her. “Sue, stay extra alert.”

Claire took a step back, then came back to grab hold of Ben’s hand to pull him along with her as she led the way quickly down the street.

Dr. Weiss couldn’t help but smirk at Ben’s expense.