Undertow (The UnderCity Chronicles) (35 page)

Lindsay threw her gun aboard and scrambled to follow as Crabbe madly poled towards the shelter of the deep chasm. She had lifted her torso free of the reeking effluent as the Mole surfaced directly behind her.

Its clawed hands seized her hair, pulling her back with a screech of rage, and from the corner of her eye, Lindsay caught the shadows of a dozen more of the creatures as they charged through the cavern entrance and plunged into the waters in a rabid effort to reclaim their lost prize.

Crabbe saw them too, and poled even more furiously even as the beast tugged at Lindsay. She kicked and struggled, muscles straining, until suddenly the light from the gun shone directly in her eyes. There was a deafening crack of gunfire as Jack put the last bullet squarely into the Mole’s forehead. It let go, and with the sudden release of its weight, Lindsay rolled on board to land directly on top of Jack. He gave a tortured groan but held her still.

Despite his compact body, Crabbe’s strength was superhuman as he pushed the boat to the narrow side passage. The Moles proved weak swimmers, and were left behind, splashing uselessly in the chill waters. Lindsay heard their inhuman howls of frustration, and, righting herself, caught one last glimpse of their ragged forms paddling the water like huge sewer rats.

“They haven’t given up,” Jack wheezed, lowering the gun as the hellish cavern disappeared into the gloom. “Those things will never give up.”

Lindsay turned to him, almost throwing herself into his arms before remembering his injuries. She was freezing, filthy, beaten and half-scared to death, yet more elated than she’d ever been in her life. She took Seline’s hand and gripped it hard.

“Neither will we, Jack.”

* * *

Lindsay was endlessly grateful to her own foresight in having left a backpack of clean, dry clothes in the boat. All three of them were soaked through and didn’t worry overmuch about modesty as they struggled into their change of clothes. They couldn’t do much about their wet jackets though and Seline didn’t have one, so they all huddled under Crabbe’s ratty winter coat as he struggled to return them to Riverside Park.

In the uncertain light Crabbe’s face gleamed with sweat, and his breath sounded like an asthmatic in a marathon. “Just a few more minutes. We’re almost there. Up the rope. Hop and a skip along the drain. And up to the top. A trip to the hospital. Then my nine grand, right?”

Lindsay smiled through her chattering teeth. “That and a bonus.”

Turning to Jack, Lindsay found him frighteningly pale, but his amber eyes shone with concentration.

She set her hand on his thigh. “Jack?”

“I’m trying to figure out how MacMurphy knew we’d be coming this way. Even we didn't know about this passage till a couple of days ago.”

Lindsay shook her head. “She couldn’t have. Otherwise the Moles would have ambushed us as soon as we were inside.”

“Then, how was it they were waiting for us as we left? They weren’t guarding that passage for fun. They deliberately let us in.”

“She said she wanted to bag you herself,” Seline piped up through chattering teeth. “Said you were going to help them find other colonies. She knew that you were coming to rescue me.”

“How?” Jack asked.

“She didn’t say.”

“It doesn’t matter now, anyway,” Lindsay said. “Once we’re up, we’ll be free of them. We’ll tell the authorities about what’s going on, and we’ll get the Moles chased out of this city forever.”

Jack grimaced. “Who’s going to believe us, Lindsay?”

She didn’t know who. She didn’t even know where to begin. “Hey, we survived a Mole attack. New York bureaucracy can’t be much worse.”

Crabbe reached his makeshift dock, stepped onto the bank of the underground river and secured the boat in place. “I’ll go first,” he said, eyeing Jack. “As soon as I’m there, I’ll pull you up, okay?”

He turned to the rough, icy wall and swore. The rope they’d come down on was gone. Crabbe trailed the beam of his flashlight upward until it focused on an athletic female at the top, an aged revolver in her hand.

“I’m surprised you made it back, Jack,” Gali said, the corner of her mouth tugged upward in an ironic smile. “Well, actually, not
that
surprised. That’s why I decided to wait and make sure of things.”

Of course, Lindsay realized, her gut tightening. Gali hadn’t been washing her surgical tools. She’d eavesdropped on the conversation with Tocat.

Jack’s eyes narrowed on her. “Why, Gali?”

“Because I love you,” she replied, her hard voice cracking with emotion. “I’ve loved you ever since I first saw you, when you came down to Agharta with Reggie’s gang. That’s why I saved you. That’s why I took care of you.”

“So you thought telling the APs about our rescue would put you in my good books?” His voice was weak but hard.

Something in his quiet, intractable tone floated up to Gali. Her brittle calm broke. “I’ll never be in your good books, Jack. To you I’ll always be garbage—not even fit to walk on the same ground as your fucking topsiders! Didn’t you know I would have done anything for you? I would have given my life for yours. Wasn’t that enough? Instead you take up with a Nazi bitch who’ll never understand you!”

“What do you want, Gali?” Jack asked. “You want me to die?”

Gali set her jaw. “I’m a healer, Jack. I won’t hurt anyone unless they force my hand, but I’m not going to lose you. Not like this. Not to someone like her.”

“So what do you want?” he repeated, anger strengthening his pain-slurred voice.

“I want you to go back where you belong, Jack.” She wiped at her eyes. “Go back to the Moles.”

“They’ll kill me, Gali.”

“No, they won’t.” Hysteria wobbled her voice. “MacMurphy promised me they wouldn’t. She said I could have you once you’d helped them, and don’t you see how perfect that’ll be? You and me, Jack, we’ll be together, safe in Agharta while the world burns. You’ll finally be where you belong, and I’ll love you more than anyone else ever could. More than my own life.”

Jack stared up at her. “Swear to me you’ll let everyone else go.”

“No, Jack!” Lindsay cried. He didn’t spare her a glance.

“I swear I will as long as they don’t try anything,” Gali said. “And you have to go back with me. We’ll go in the boat to The Pits and I’ll take care of you till you’re well again. Just like before.”

“Then, throw down the rope, Gali.”

Lindsay turned Jack’s face to her. “No, Jack! No way. You can’t go back with her. It’s insane!”

Jack smiled slightly, his face so pale as to be ghostlike.

“I love you, Linds,” he said quietly.

Lindsay stared into his eyes, unable to say a word. Behind her, the rope uncoiled to the ground, and Gali slid down it to join them on the bank.

“You go first,” she ordered Crabbe. “Don’t go anywhere. We need you to pull up these two topsiders.”

Crabbe nodded, not wasting a second before scrambling up the rope like a monkey. As soon as he reached the top, Gali gestured with her pistol at Seline.

When Seline hesitated, Lindsay waved her on. “Go. Go now.”

Shivering, Seline clung to the rope, and Crabbe heaved her up to the ledge.

“You’re next, bitch.” Gali leveled her pistol at Lindsay. “You got your girl back, so you should be happy. That’s all you were fucking him for anyway, wasn’t it?”

Lindsay fixed the woman with an icy stare, even though she couldn’t be sure that from that distance Gali could see her. “You don’t know anything about me, Gali, and you don’t know a damn thing about love, either.”

Though it was reckless, Lindsay turned away from Gali and pressed her lips to Jack’s, molding her body to his. “I love you, too, Jack,” she said. “But you’re not getting away with this.”

“Get away from him!” Gali screamed, her gun trained squarely at Lindsay’s back, then she was knocked off her feet by an avalanche of Schenley's whiskey crates thrown from above. Lindsay didn’t miss her chance. She jumped Gali, wrestling for the gun in a full-blown cat-fight. Though Gali was strong, Lindsay had the twin edges of desperation and surprise. Beating the woman down with all her might, she wrenched away the gun and tossed it into the oily waters.

Hauling Gali to her feet, Lindsay slammed her hard against the icy wall. “You bitch!” she hissed. “I’m going to do worse than kill you. I’m going to leave you down here in the dark. Down in these sewers like the fucking rat you are.” She felt Jack’s shaky hand on her shoulder, and slowly she released Gali, allowing him to face the woman.

Through dark eyes, Gali looked up at him, lips trembling. “Please Jack…you’re one of us…can’t you see that? Up there, you’re nothing. Down here, you’ll have everything…I need you...”

Jack regarded her, his face softening from grim anger to simple pity. “Go home, Gali.”

Lindsay watched Gali slump against the cavern wall. She would be forever grateful to the healer for saving Jack’s life, for her part in restoring him to a life of light and connection, to her. Yet the same woman had sought to pull him back down into her own dark and tortured world.

Jack took Lindsay’s hand, even as she reached for it with her own. They turned and walked away.

The last thing they heard as they were lifted away, back into the noise and light, into a place of hope and warmth, were the sobs of a lost soul.

Three months later

Another fluorescent light was on the blink in Captain Monroe’s cramped office, and Lindsay was giving it the evil eye when Agent Jill Lever finally arrived. Jack and the captain straightened in their chairs, and even Lindsay caught herself striking an alert pose.

“Sorry I’m late,” the plain-suited woman said in a tone that showed her apology was only a formality, and shut the door behind her. “The meeting at the mayor’s office went late, resulting in decisions being made.”

Nobody replied. This was their third meeting with the CIA agent, and they’d gotten used to her telling them purely what she’d been authorized to share. Asking additional questions was always fruitless.

Not bothering to sit, she turned her martial expression to Captain Monroe. “The military have verified that the Manhattan deep-earth nuclear shelter was indeed breached, and have also confirmed some of Dr. Cole’s extraordinary reports regarding the…individuals responsible. Tunnels in the area are being sealed to prevent further trespassing.

“Both the Agency and the mayor’s office request that everyone involved in Seline Sterling’s rescue keep the matter from the press until further notice. The last thing we want is to provoke a panic, or encourage curiosity-seekers to enter the tunnels. I trust we'll have your full cooperation.”

“Your trust is well-placed,” Jack said dryly.

Lever kept her hard gray eyes on Monroe. “You, Captain, will receive a substantial increase to your budget in the face of this new danger to the public, but none of your officers are to be briefed on the specific nature of the threat until we’ve had an opportunity to study it further.”

Jack sat back in his chair, folding his arms over his chest. “And who’s going to conduct this ‘study’ of yours?” Lindsay expected him to get the cold shoulder. That didn’t happen.

“We were hoping you would, Dr. Cole. We’re interested in hiring you as a consultant, and I’ve been authorized to negotiate the terms.”

Lindsay suppressed a gasp of pleasure; Jack looked unimpressed. “I’ll think about it and let you know.”

Lever nodded quickly as if his answer was par for her course, and placed a business card on the corner of Monroe’s desk. “You’d be a tremendous asset to our investigation, Dr. Cole, though you should know that there’ll be a great deal of travel involved. Your study will not be limited to New York.”

Jack frowned. "What do you mean?"

"I'm afraid I'll only be able to discuss those details if you come on board." She gave a tight smile to Lindsay and Monroe, and without so much as a goodbye, left the office.

Lindsay waited discreetly for a few seconds after the door shut, then turned to Jack. “Not much on charm, is she?”

Between Lindsay and Janice, they had made it their personal mission to bring the matter to the attention of the authorities, namely the FBI. As Jack had expected, the Bureau had balked at the idea of monsters running around beneath New York. Not a day later, however, the case was taken over by the CIA. To Lever’s credit, she had not only heard them out, but conducted a complete investigation, which made him believe that this wasn't the first time or place the Agency had come across the Moles.