The transit authority officer wasn’t too happy having to guide Cade and Janek to the junction with the main tunnel. As he led them along the access tunnel, he made constant references to the dangers of the place. His grumbling seemed endless.
Janek finally got tired of the man’s whining. He moved up beside their guide and caught his attention.
‘What?’ the man asked irritably.
‘You want to make me happy?’
‘Huh?’
‘Just show us the damn way and quit giving us a hard time. Okay? If you have to grumble, mime it.’
The man began to protest, then thought better of it when he took a good look at Janek’s height. He hunched his shoulders and stomped forward.
‘T.J., are we going to find anything down here?’ Janek asked.
‘Right now I don’t even know what we’re supposed to be looking for,’ Cade admitted. ‘All we have are rumors of Darksiders missing and Kate wandering around down here.’
‘I don’t think it was one of her better ideas.’
‘You and me both, partner.’
Minutes later the officer halted. He beckoned Cade and Janek forward, indicating the way ahead with his flashlight.
‘About thirty yards on you’ll hit the down-ramp that merges with the main tunnel. We’ve spotted Darksiders around the area for years.’
‘You sure this is where the girl went in?’ Cade asked, referring to Kate.
‘Hell, sure. I won’t forget her in a hurry. You know, all that red hair and the body inside that jumpsuit. I can feel my dick wakin’ up just thinking about her.’
Janek’s right hand snaked out to grasp Cade’s arm as he began to move forward. Only the shadowed gloom of the tunnel hid Cade’s angry expression. The cyborg held his partner immobile until the transit cop had walked ahead of them and was out of earshot.
‘Easy, T.J.,’ Janek whispered.
Just then, their guide decided that he’d taken them far enough and that his part of the job was over. He turned back, ready to make his way out again.
‘Glad I’m not the one going in there,’ he stated. The easy grin on his lips failed to soften the hard gleam in his eyes. ‘But, hell, it’s what they pay you guys for, isn’t it?’
He began to retrace his footsteps back along the access tunnel, leaving Cade and Janek on their own.
Cade led the way forward, down the ramp to where the access tunnel joined with the abandoned subway tunnel. This section of the system had been closed ten years earlier, making way for the improved rapid-transit system that now ran through its own new tunnels. Every few minutes the subdued sound of the trains could be heard through the walls of the old tunnel. Scattered litter was strewn across the ramp. There was more filth on the floor of the main tunnel. Most of it was the accumulated trash that marked years of human presence and dwelling.
From rotting food to old TV sets, broken furniture and automobile tires. The walls and curving top of the tunnel were streaked with black soot from the countless fires that had been lit over the years to provide the means for cooking or simply for warmth.
There was an all-pervading smell lingering in the air. A cloying, disturbing odor, it was a mix of spoiling food and human waste, of damp and fetid air. It spoke of decay and death, and the impermanence of man and his society.
‘How the hell are you supposed to get used to this stench?’ Cade grumbled.
‘Does it bother you, T.J.?’
‘Damn right it does,’ Cade said. ‘You’re lucky you can’t smell it.’
‘I can smell it, only I react in a different way,’ Janek smiled indulgently. ‘If you think about it, T.J., I’m pretty well superior to you in a number of ways. I don’t get sick. I don’t need to eat or drink. Drugs don’t interest me, and I haven’t got your desperate need for sex.’
‘And you figure that makes you superior?’
‘Don’t you?’
‘You’ve just made me realize my entire existence is a total waste,’ Cade said.
‘I didn’t mean to upset you, Thomas.’
‘Don’t worry about it. I’ll try to bear the mental scars.’
They progressed along the tunnel, scattering debris as they walked and disturbing the rats that infested the area.
‘Don’t you like them?’ Janek asked, watching his partner’s reaction to the rodents.
Cade took a wild kick at a particularly large rat that stood its ground as he approached. The rat squealed angrily, darting at Cade, who stumbled back.
With unerring accuracy Janek turned and lashed out with his foot. The toe of his boot lifted the rat and flung it yards back along the tunnel. It thudded to the ground and scurried off into the darkness.
As he rejoined Cade, Janek raised his head, peering into the darkness that lay ahead of them.
‘Someone there,’ he said to Cade.
‘More than one. Could be six, maybe seven people.’
Janek’s vision was equipped with the ability to magnify distant objects. He was also able to utilize any source of light to enhance his night-vision capability.
Cade eased his .357 from its holster, dropping his hand to his side, the concealed weapon hidden from sight but already accessible. He continued moving forward, aware of Janek to his left. He concentrated on his own approach, safe in the knowledge that the cyborg would be on instant response if trouble showed.
The group of figures slipped from the gloom, forming into recognizable shapes.
Janek had been right. Cade counted six of them. They were clad in the raggedy dress that seemed part of the Darksider mystique. An odd mix of current fashions curiously blended with garments that had a distinctly medieval look to them. Leather and wool mixtures that were direct opposites to synthetic fibers, yet seemed to mate with them.
As the Darksiders drew closer, Cade picked out individual faces, noting that they all had the same dead white complexions. Years of existing below ground, away from the sun and air, had turned their skins pale, giving them an almost ghoulish appearance.
The leader of the Darksiders brought his group to a stop. He was a tall, round-shouldered man, his stringy, graying hair falling in tails around his pinched features. Dark eyes looked Cade over with unconcealed hostility.
‘What do you want down here?’ he demanded. His voice had a hollow ring to it. ‘You don’t belong.’
‘And you don’t own this place,’ Cade reminded him. ‘So let’s get off that track right away.’
‘Maybe you should count how many there are of us.’
Cade sighed. Another hard case.
‘Don’t play games unless you know the rules,’ he said, and eased the auto pistol so it could be seen. ‘My name’s Cade. This is Janek, my partner. We’re from the Justice Department. Only reason we’re down here is to look into rumors of Darksiders going missing. There any truth in that?’
‘We don’t need your fuckin’ help,’ a voice yelled from the back of the group. ‘Nobody gives a damn about us normally. Why all the fuss now?’
‘Because if a crime’s been committed, it’s my job to deal with it. Darksiders or bankers, makes no difference to me. I treat everyone the same.’
The Darksider leader stepped forward, his face taut with anger. ‘I don’t believe you,’ he said.
‘And just who are you, mister? Somebody special or just a loose mouth?’
‘They call me Rolf. I speak for these people.’
‘Well, I don’t give a damn what you believe, Rolf,’ Cade told him. ‘If there’s something going on, I need to know about it. I only learned about this two days ago, and since then people have been trying to kill me every time I bring the subject up. When that happens, it gets personal.’
Cade noticed other figures edging out of the shadows, expanding the crowd, which now included women and children.
‘I didn’t come down here to admire the view or to hassle you people. Believe me, I’d rather be up top. So tell me what’s going down.’
Rolf refused to give in. He remained silent, staring with his empty eyes at Cade and Janek.
‘Damn you, Rolf!’
The shout came from somewhere in the crowd of Darksiders. It was the determined voice of a young woman. She pushed her way through the crowd, a slim, pale figure, then elbowed her way past Rolf.
‘He won’t help you. He never does,’ she said spiritedly. ‘If he’d lost someone, it might be different. But he doesn’t have anyone to lose, so he makes us all suffer by refusing help.’
‘What do we call you?’ Cade asked.
‘I’m Lisa.’
‘Have you lost someone, Lisa?’ Janek asked.
She nodded.
‘My man. They took him three weeks ago. During one of their raids. They took over a hundred that night. We don’t know what’s happened to them, but I believe they’re all dead. I don’t believe we’ll see any of them again. I said the same to that journalist after she agreed to come down and help us.’
Lisa turned on the man named Rolf, and the anger pitched her voice higher.
‘She came to help, but he turned against her. Made things difficult.’
‘She was an outsider,’ Rolf snapped back. ‘What good are outsiders? She wanted us to resist.’
‘At least it’s doing something,’ Lisa said. ‘You let them come and do nothing. We’ve lost too many people to allow it to go on. Maybe it’s time we asked why you let them take our people.’
‘Yes,’ someone yelled. ‘Make him tell.’
‘Maybe he’s in with them,’ another suggested.
‘Speak up, Rolf, we’ve a right to know what’s going on.’
‘Looks like the ball’s in your court, Rolf,’ Cade said.
Rolf flicked his hand, and two of the men close by him began to open their coats.
Oh hell! Cade thought as he caught the soft glint of metal. The mothers are armed!
That was unusual for the Darksiders, who didn’t believe in weapons of violence. Their very retreat beneath the ground was partly due to their desire to stay away from the mad struggle overhead in the city, a struggle that some of them were not equipped to handle, while others refused to take part in the daily scramble.
Rolf, it appeared, lived by a different set of rules.
There was no time to warn anyone to get out of the way. The action had started, and there was no way to stop it going through its deadly cycle.
Cade dropped to one knee, swinging up the .357 in a single movement, tracking in on the guy closest to him. He saw the ugly snout of a sawed-off shotgun — an ideal combat weapon in the close confines of the tunnel — and reacted instinctively. The auto pistol crackled with fire, Cade triggering fast and accurately.
His bullets ripped into his target’s chest, picking him up and driving him backward before dumping him in a bloody, squirming heap on the floor of the tunnel.
Beside him Janek had tracked in on his adversary, his weapon up and firing before the guy could clear his own scattergun from his clothing. Janek’s bullets drove deep into his torso, gouging slivers of wood from the shotgun’s stock as they peppered his body. He twisted around, screaming, blood erupting from his tattered clothing, and crashed face-first into the curving tunnel side.
In the seconds given to him by his dying accomplices, Rolf managed to pull out his own handgun. It was a large laser-sighted Beretta .44, one of the newer versions of the weapon. He turned, waving the gun as he tried to lose himself in the crowd. They scattered before him, panic lending strength to their limbs.
Rolf reached out and grabbed a teenage girl by the loose front of her tunic. He swung her around to cover his front, his arm pulled tight against the girl’s throat. The Darksider jammed the muzzle of his weapon against the side of the trembling girl’s head. Despite the glittering fear in her eyes, she managed to remain silent, offering no resistance.
‘You want this bitch dead?’ Rolf yelled. ‘Then try and stop me. I’ll kill her.’
Janek waved Cade back, moving to the side of the tunnel where he merged with the deep shadows, out of Rolf’s sight.
Cade remained where he was, the auto pistol sagging in his fist. He let Janek make the play, accepting that the cyborg’s superior skills were the only ones capable of putting an end to Rolfs dangerous game.
Rolf had cleared the fringes of the crowd and was fast vanishing in the darkness farther down the tunnel. He kept the muzzle of his pistol pressed to his hostage’s skull.
‘Nobody follows me,’ he warned. ‘First one I see move, I’ll blow her brains all over the goddamn tun -’
He never completed the word. There was a single shot, coming from the darkness off to his right. The bullet cored through his skull, burning deep into his brain before blowing his head wide open.
As Rolf arced backward, he lost his grip on the girl, who immediately dropped to her knees. The Darksider’s gun hand jerked up in the air, finger pulling back on the trigger. His bullet whacked into the tunnel roof, splintering tiles. Rolf’s body hit the floor, kicking and jerking away his final moments in silent agony.
Cade moved to stand over the Darksider. Rolf's gun lay on the ground close by the twitching fingers of his right hand.
Cade kicked the weapon clear, then crouched beside Rolf. He ignored the bloody wreckage of the man’s head as he made a thorough search of Rolf’s clothing. There was a thin wallet tucked inside the man’s wide belt. Flicking through it, Cade found more than three thousand dollars in cash and a credit chip. There were a couple of vid-phone cards. They were preprogrammed cards, with the number already coded in, so the caller didn’t need to know the number he was calling. Once in the vid-phone slot, the card fed the number sequence to the machine and placed the charge for the call to the owner of the number.
‘Run a check on these when we get back to the office,’ Cade said as Janek appeared at his side. ‘And the credit chip.’
‘What was Rolf doing with a credit chip?’ asked the young woman who had forced the game to its abrupt conclusion.
‘Darksiders don’t have credit chips. Or guns.’
‘I’d say, Lisa, that Rolf was probably working with the people who’ve been kidnapping Darksiders,’ Janek observed.
‘Bastard!’ Lisa said angrily. ‘He sold out. He gave our people to those hijackers.’
She turned to face the Darksiders who were crowding around. ‘Rolf sold us out,’ she repeated. ‘Betrayed us to for money.’
Cade stood up. ‘We’re only guessing at the moment,’ he advised her.
‘Guessing? What’s there to guess?’ a man yelled. ‘You check that credit chip. That would have been Rolf s ticket out of the tunnels. Made on our backs.’
Cade felt inclined to agree with him.
The way things were stacking up, he and Janek had stumbled on to some well-organized hijacking operation. Only this time, instead of high-tech goods or computers, the merchandise was human.
The hijackers were rounding up Darksiders.
The question was why?
What were they doing with the tunnel dwellers?
‘You mentioned the reporter who came down here,’ Cade said. ‘Kate Bannion?’
Lisa nodded. ‘I met her up top when I was buying supplies from a friendly store owner. We talked, and she told me who he was. I asked for her help. I was worried about Harry and all our Darksider friends. I didn’t know where to turn. So we arranged for her to come down here and do some investigating.’
‘And she did?’
‘Yes. I met her as we’d arranged. She spent a day with us.’
Lisa’s face clouded over, memories darkening her thoughts.
‘What happened?’ Cade asked, suspecting the worst.
‘There was another raid. The hijackers were scouring the tunnels. I tried to lead her to safety, but we got separated. By the time I came back to search for her, it was too late. She’d disappeared.’
‘Any idea what happened to her?’ Cade asked, sensing Janek listening closely.
‘I guess the hijackers took her. Finding out about Rolf makes me think he probably told the hijackers about her being with us.’
Janek watched his partner’s face as he digested the words. The cyborg didn’t need to ask Cade how he was feeling.
There was only one answer to that. It was not a reply Janek favored.
He knew his partner only too well, and he knew the way Cade would view Lisa’s revelation.
Their present assignment had already plunged them into a tangle of deceit and violence. The fact that Kate Bannion was missing, obviously involved with the hijackers, brought a new perspective to the case.
What had been a tough case now became very personal. And when Cade took things personally, it became unsafe to walk the streets.