Beauty and the Beast (20 page)

That crime syndicate is involved in extortion, money laundering, drugs, racketeering, illegal gambling, and almost every other type of organized crime imaginable. We know it. We just can’t prove it yet.”

Vincent spoke up. “I should go with you to Gabriel’s mansion.”

Diana and Joe exclaimed simultaneously. “No!” Then Joe went on, “Vincent, you have your little son to think about. He doesn’t need for both of his parents to end up dead, like yours did. Let Diana and I take care of this problem in our world. When we get the journals, we will bring them here to you. Meanwhile, this notebook would be safer here in your hands.” Joe handed it back to

Vincent, who pocketed it again. “I don’t want Adrian to know that it still exists. I assume, Chuck, that you can help us come up with away to get into the tunnels under Gabriel’s mansion without Adrian’s thugs catching on?” Chuck smiled. “Sure, Joe, 111 come up with a plan before next Saturday. I’m going to go ahead and take off now and head over to that antique car show. Ill take you back to your apartment as soon as you get there with Jamie.”

Joe shook Chuck’s hand and chuckled. “Thank you for all of your help, Chuck. It really has been interesting!” They all got up from the table, and Joe said to Diana, “I guess we had better rely on old-fashioned note-passing, because as powerful as Adrian is, he probably has an illegal tap on our phone lines. I’m going to see what I can do about running covert surveillance on Steve Palmer. Maybe he can lead us to some of Adrian’s other corrupt agents in the legal force.”

Diana nodded her head. “I’m quite sure he does have our phone lines tapped. Ill be sure you receive a message with the details of next Saturday’s adventure.”

As Diana with Vincent and Joe with Jamie started to leave, everyone in the kitchen chamber gathered around Joe with expressions of gratitude. The men shook his hand, and the women hugged him. Little blond five-year-old Darla with her big blue eyes tugged on his pant leg. Joe looked down, smiled, and picked her up. Darla gave him a kiss on the cheek, and he hugged her. Angela

smiled at Joe as she took the child from him. Joe was visibly moved by this show of affection for him. He almost didn’t want to leave this peaceful place.

Jamie finally interceded, though, and took Joe’s hand to lead him to the car show. Vincent also left with Diana to take her back to the bed-and-breakfast. The others either stayed behind in the kitchen chamber to help William start preparing the evening meal or went out to their other responsibilities. They all felt a profound sense of relief that they now had Joe as an ally in facing the threat from Adrian. Everyone was confident that he and Diana could handle that threat and help keep their world safe.

As Joe followed Jamie down the tunnel, he heard something and paused. Jamie turned around and looked at him. “What is it?” She asked.

There was beautiful orchestral music echoing through the tunnel along with the sweet sound of children singing. Joe whispered, “That is heavenly! What is it?”

Jamie smiled at him. “That is our children’s choir and orchestra practicing for an upcoming recital.”

As they continued down the tunnel, Joe thought to himself, “This world is worth any price to preserve it! I must help Diana protect it, even if it costs me my career.

If it does, at least I have someplace to go. I wouldn’t mind camping out in William’s kitchen!”

Chapter VI Assembling the Troops

On Wednesday, Bennie delivered a plate lunch from William to Joe in his office. When Joe took the plate out, he found a note in the bottom of the bag from Diana. It read, “Figure out away to leave work early tomorrow. Chuck will pick you up at 3:00 in the afternoon outside your apartment building. Wear blue jeans, dark tennis shoes, a large coat, and a baseball cap. Diana.”

The next afternoon, when he climbed into Chuck’s cab, Joe said, “This isn’t Saturday yet. Am I in for some additional enlightening, or is there some more sinister reason I’m dressed like this?”

Chuck replied, “Nothing sinister, but we are going to be playing a little shell game with the bad guys. Diana

will have to fill you in on the enlightening part, though.” Joe smiled, “That’s OK, Chuck. I’m getting used to it. What do I need to know to play this shell game?”

Chuck filled Joe in. “I’m going to drop you off at Catherine’s old apartment building. Just as we figured, the usual tail is following us right now. When you get out, just step up on the curb, and then project your voice loudly to tell me to wait for you. Go into Catherine’s building, and take the elevator on the right. Cullen will be there waiting for you.”

Joe queried, “Cullen?”

Chuck asked, “Did you see the rocking chair in Vincent’s room?”

Joe smiled. “How could I miss it? That is some work of art!”

Chuck continued, “Well, Cullen is the artist who created it. He’s about your height. He’s going to trade coats with you, and he will need to wear your baseball cap, because he doesn’t have one. He’s not quite as muscular as you are, but Diana figured that the large coat would cover up that difference. Then, he and I are going to make several stops around the city, dragging our tail behind us. At the last one, hell take the cap off, so that Adrian’s goon squad in the tailing car can see that they’ve been following the wrong man, and they won’t have a clue where they lost you.”

Joe chuckled. “That’s brilliant! Now, what am I supposed to do in Catherine’s building?”

Chuck explained. “You go down to the basement, and Diana will take you into the tunnels. That is one of our access points, which Catherine used to use to get to Father’s world. Meanwhile, as we speak, Mouse and Kanin are working on an access point in the basement of your apartment building. They will be done with it by the time Diana is finished showing you something you need to know about. Then shell take you back to your own building through the tunnels.”

Joe laughed. “That should leave those scoundrels scratching their heads!”

Chuck grinned into the rearview mirror. “That’s the idea! They should be thoroughly confused. Hopefully, Adrian won’t be at all pleased with their report.”

When Joe got out of the cab, he walked up onto the sidewalk, turned around, and yelled over the traffic for Chuck to wait for him. Then he went into Catherine’s apartment building. The unhappy memory of the last time he had come to this building, to answer the call that Catherine had been found murdered in her apartment, washed over him, and he winced. He went through the lobby to the elevator on the right and pushed the button. When the door opened, he stepped in and saw a tall man in a patchwork coat, wearing blue jeans and dark tennis shoes, standing in the back corner.

Joe stepped in, hit the basement button, and let the elevator door close before he spoke. “Cullen?”

Cullen was obviously relieved, and answered. “Yes,

Joe. We didn’t get to meet the other day, because I was obsessing over finishing a cradle for one of our couples expecting a new baby.”

Joe shook Cullen’s hand, and asked, “Is that the couple that Kanin was working on a new chamber for?” Cullen replied as he and Joe were exchanging coats. “Yes, we all get very excited over new babies in our world.” Joe took his baseball cap off and gave it to Cullen, who put in on. Then Joe said, “Well, your world is a wonderful place to raise children in. That rocking chair you created in Vincent’s room is an inspiring piece of art! You are very talented.”

Cullen smiled, “Thank you, Joe. It was just fun for

„ _ » me.

Joe looked at the two of them in the mirror on the wall of the elevator. “It looks like we’re ready for the shell game to begin!”

Cullen laughed. “Yes, I guess it’s time for me to go confuse Adrian’s goons! You are going to really like it where Diana is taking you, Joe.”

The elevator had landed in the basement, and when the door opened, Diana was standing there waiting for him. Joe stepped off, and they both said good-bye to Cullen as the door closed, and he went back up to the lobby.

Joe turned to Diana. “Everyone is being really mysterious about where you are taking me, Diana. Are you going to tell me now, or is it going to be a surprise

again?”

Diana smiled at him. “It’s going to be a surprise, but I know that you are really going to like it, Joe. Come on, Father is waiting in the tunnel for us.”

She took him to a small door at the back of the basement, where they climbed out onto a short ladder leading down to the tunnel floor. Father was at the bottom waiting for them.

“Hello, Father,” Joe said. “I understand I’m in for a surprise.”

Father smiled at him. “Yes, Joe, one I know you will be very happy about.”

Diana and Father began leading Joe through the tunnels to Peter’s home. Along the way, they chatted about Father’s world.

Joe asked, “When is the children’s choir recital? I heard them practicing as Jamie was taking me to the antique car show last Saturday. They are really good!” Father replied, “They are good! We are very proud of them. They will be performing in my Council chamber this coming Saturday evening. If you and Diana get finished at Gabriel’s mansion in time, you are definitely invited to come.”

Diana smiled. “I hope we are! That would be a real treat.”

Joe continued the conversation. “It will sure be a lot simpler to have the access-way under my building that Mouse and Kanin are working on. I’m really happy that

you thought of doing that. Keeping Adrian’s criminal workforce confused up top is hazardous at best. Access from our own apartment buildings will be a whole lot safer.”

Father nodded. “Wherever possible, we have always added access-ways like yours whenever we are blessed with new Helpers up top. It is a much more discreet way for them to get to our world than manholes or storm grates. We were very fortunate with both of your apartment buildings this time. Your building already had sub-basement access to a water main service tunnel adjoining our tunnels. So, Kanin and Mouse just had to use a torch to cut an access door between the service tunnel and our tunnel system. Diana’s building is older. Someone in the past had already installed an access doorway to our tunnels in the basement, but it had been sealed up. All Kanin and Mouse had to do with hers was to reopen that access door.”

Joe went on. “Father, if you don’t mind my asking, there are a number of questions about your world that have come to my mind since my visit there last Saturday.” Father smiled at Joe. “Ask away. Ill answer any question I can.”

Joe started asking his questions. “Since we are already on the subject of Kanin, how did you manage to obtain all of the cutting and drilling equipment and tools that I saw his team working with?”

Father answered with a smile, “Our entire community

has learned how to salvage all kinds of useful things your world throws away. Equipment and tools like Kanin and his team were working with are frequently junked by construction crews above long before their useful life is over. Even equipment that is damaged or non-functional can usually be repaired with some patience by Mouse and his team of electricians and engineers.

“We have access to several freight elevators in our Helpers’ warehouses and storage buildings around Manhattan to transport some of the larger, heavier equipment we have salvaged down into our tunnels. We were only able to accomplish access via freight elevators in the Helpers’ facilities which were directly over our tunnels. In those warehouses and storage buildings, Mouse and Kanin together with their teams extended the elevator shafts down into our tunnels. They set up the floor indicators in the buildings above, so that they don’t show our tunnel levels, but our floor indicators below do. Then they put in tunnel floor buttons on the elevators behind service panels inside the cars, which can only be accessed with keys that we and our Helpers have. We never use those freight elevators except after our Helpers’ business hours, but just to be sure, Mouse installed cameras in the cars with monitors in our tunnels, so we can be sure that no one who shouldn’t know about us is in the elevators when we need to use them. The freight elevator modifications constituted a very complex engineering project, and Mouse was thrilled by the technical challenge.

“When Kanin first started creating new chambers down here around eighteen years ago, he painstakingly did it all with just an hammer and a chisel. It took many months to sculpt each new chamber from the caves he started with, but each was a work of art when he was finished. At that time, there were only a very few community members with the skills and aptitude necessary for him to train to help him. Now, with the power equipment Mouse scavenges and keeps in running order for him, and with a bigger team to assist him, it only takes him a few weeks to craft each new chamber. Of course, with Catherine’s trust fund, we can afford new equipment, but the salvaged equipment is still working perfectly right now, so there isn’t any need to buy any.”

Joe smiled, “He does impressive work! How many community members do you have in your world now?” Father answered, “At present count, we total two-hundred-sixty-three souls. When I first began organizing the tunnel-dwellers into a community, I started a record of our people. I recorded everyone’s name and birthday, and kept a running record of every birth, every death, made entries for those who joined our community from above and why, and for those who felt ready to leave our world and why. We had to make an educated guess about the birth dates of some of the children we rescued from above, because they were too young to even know themselves.

Our records also include the family genealogies and everyone’s medical records.”

Joe was amazed. “Wow! You have carefully accounted for everyone and their needs. These people really are blessed that you took an interest in their welfare. They are obviously healthy, happy, and productive. The tunnels and chambers in your community are very comfortable, even though we are in the dead of winter.