Memoria (44 page)

The next moment, a blond man scrambled out of the hatch
and pu
lled out a girl
. Grabbing her neck, he took cover under her
,
turned to the chopper and raised a gun.

The
squad
leader
removed his hand from the sniper's shoulder. The two men readied
to descend onto the roof. The helicopter shook and swayed, preventing the s
nipe
r from taking aim
for fear of
hitting the girl.

"Abort!" Jessup shouted.

The
strong
hand returned
to the sniper's shoulder.

The
blond
man scurried to the edge of the platform when
the
other
man emerged from the hatch.
Now
Jessup
could see
who he was. He'd seen him two days ago, in the interrogation room just before the attack on the police station.
Yesterday afternoon he'd had a chance to intercept him by the camp perimeter.
Finally, he'd caught up with Frank Shelby.

Jessup could see he could barely
walk,
clutch
ing
at the firefighters' axe
and trying to catch up with the
blond
man
who couldn't hear his steps
above
the
helicopter's
roar.

"
Action stations!" Jessup waved to the fighters
ready at
their lines
.

The
squad
leader raised a clenched fist.

The
blond
must have sensed the
approaching
threat. He started to turn,
re
lax
ing his grasp. The girl bit his arm
. He cried out; she fought
herself
free and pushed him away.

Frank Shelby took a swing
-

"
Go, go, go!"
Jessup shouted.

The squad leader unc
lench
ed his fist.
The soldiers slid down the line
s.

Frank lowered the axe. The man fell on his back. A barely audible gunshot
resounded
.

The sniper's rifle snapped. Frank Shelby fell, too.

"Hold your fire!" Jessup yelled. "Hold your fire!"

The squad leader squeezed the sniper's shoulder.

"L
and," Jessup
ordered the pilot and grabbed the radio calling Lieutenant Salem who was in charge of taking over the building.

By the
time the helicopter landed, one of the fighters stood over the
burly man who lay face down on the concrete. The other was helping the girl. The squad leader had
his rifle trained on
Frank
who sat squeezing his
bleeding
shoulder.

His service
revolver in his
hand, Jessup ran to them, followed by the sniper. The
blond
man lay still
. His hair
bris
tled on
the
temple
s
.

Jessup remembered the masked attac
kers on 161st
by the subway entrance.
Ju
dging by his height and build, the blond
could have easil
y been in charge of the men who'd hunted Shelby. Once again his
recognition skills had served Jessup
well
.

"The girl and the veteran," Frank nodded at the burly man by the platform edge, "they
helped me. We're not guilty.
Claney
and
Dickens
are the ones to blame
...
" he stopped and pointed at the
blond man
.

"Search the roof," Jessup ordered.
"Keep
all exits under your control and c
ontact our guys
inside." He turned to Shelby. "I need to know about the transmitter."

Frank shook his head.

"
Dickens
couldn't turn the equipment on. I
stopped him transmitting
...
" his gaze shifted to the girl who'd crossed the platform
once the fighters had left it.

She hauled the large man over on
to his back, placed her hands on
his disfigured face and spoke, but the
rotating helicopter blades
beat
the air drowning out her words.

"Please help," Shelby held out his hand
.

Jessup squeezed it
, pulled it toward himself and
caught a glimpse of
a movement out of the corner of his eye.

"
Watch out!" Frank lunged forward.

The
blond man sat up raising a
gun.
His shirt was torn on his chest
reveali
ng
a
Kevlar vest split
by
the axe blow.

A shot rang out.

Shelby froze for a second. He looked back. Jessup lowered his gun. He stepped to
ward
the man
, who was now lying on his back, and kicked
the
gun aside.

"
His name is
Dickens
, then?" he nodded at the dead man
—
now dead for real. The pale eyes stared into the starry sky. Blood seeped from the bullet hole in his forehead.

"Yes. He and his men tried to run me down on
Claney
's orders. I'll give you the details
...
"

"Later." Jessup holstered his gun.

"Do you have
Claney
?"

"No. He's flown the coop." Jessup looked at Shelby
. "Any idea where he could be heading? We've blocked off the roads and the airport."

"He said he'd go to the airfield."

"The airfield?" Jessup frowned. Airfield, he thought. Airfield
...
but of course!
The flyboys. Their base is the only remaining
strip from which he could take off unhindered.

He
swung his arm
,
ordering the pilot to prepare for take-off. More special-forces men appeared on the roof,
among
them
a civilian. Short and
thickset, with sharp features, he ran up to Jessup. He glanced at the dead man, then at Shelby
.

"Salem! Speak up," Jessup shouted.

"We've
suppressed their resistance, now we're mopping up in the building."

"Very
good
.
Take care of the witnesses and whip up some help for the wounded," Jessup pointed at the girl and the big man.
"Get Archer on the
line
and tell him to go to the airdrome. I'm going straight there."

"I'll
come
with you," he heard.

Salem stared at Frank who'd dared to interrupt them.

"You're wounded," Jessup sized him up, surprised.

"That's nothing," Frank winced. "You and I, we've got something to talk about."

"All right," the captain nodded and waved to the
drop team
leader. "Take off in one minute!"

He gave Salem a few last-minute instructions and ran to the helicopter. Frank followed.
The team was already piling on board.

They didn't have a chance to talk in flight.
First Frank had his wounds dressed, then Jessup had to
keep the Feds posted on the radio. Soon the chopper started to
snake
over th
e river. A long chain of
lights came up from the right marking
the landing strip
where
a charter jet was
just
taxiing
onto the runway.

"We've arrived!" the captain shouted. "
The Feds are at their gates. But they have
access
problems
. We'll have to break through from the air."

The drop team leader nodded.
His fighters started checking their weapons and equipment.

"We'll hover over the strip to prevent the plane from taking off," Jessup said. "
The group will then
rap
pel
down and take over the jet. We need
Claney
alive."

"Yes, sir," the fighter said.

"Shelby," Jessup turned to Frank, "we're staying in the chopper."

Frank paused. "I'll go with them."

"No,
you won't," Jessup snapped turning away from him.

Frank glanced at the
team preparing for the descent. He
shuddered, raised his collar and put his hand into his pocket. His
fingers
found
a sharp
object.
He pulled it out and stared, dis
believing, at the syringe
he'd picked up in
Bow's lab.

Maggie
had already told him a little about the capsules and the way they were programmed
in the elevator on their way to the tower roof
.
She'd seemed to have another one of her revelations like when she'd switched off the
biocurrent machine
in the lab.
Her personality correction
procedure hadn't been finalized. They'd only managed to download the data into her brain
so that she could share it at the press conference
flawlessly, confessing to the crime she hadn't committed.

Frank looked at Jessup's back and put the syringe away. No points for guessing what it contained. The opaque greenish
solution
held the mnemocapsule
, and the liquid itself h
ad to be the chemical mind lock he kept hearing about. The transmitter's signal had to activate both, provided the vaccinated subject had his electronic bracelet on. That's why Bow and his techs had been scared shitless at the sight of the needle.

One question remained unanswered for Frank: how had
Dickens
managed to get
Barney
under
his
control? Without the transmitter signal and without
Barney
's bracelet
...

"Get ready!" the captain shouted
distracting Frank from his ponderings.

The chopper
banked
to one side hovering over the
runway. The team slid the doors open,
hung
their backs
to the wind and dropped the ropes
.

"Go! Go!" Jessup ordered
.

The men rapped
down and disappeared under the helicopter. Frank stared at the long shape that
was rapidly looming up to
ward
them.
Headlights
shone
on the jet's wings, blinding him. The plane put its nose down. Clouds of smoke
billowed from
around
its undercarriage.

"Put he
r down!" the captain ordered
the pilot.

Sluggishly
, the chopper descended. The
plane
swerved, ending up on the grass
. Its wing tips flapping, the plane shuddered over the uneven ground. The drop team ran to
ward
it.

By the time Frank and Jessup left the chopper, the aircraft had come to a stop.
A hatch opened in
the fuselage letting out a bald
headed man with a gun. Shots
resounded. Bullets
ripped holes in the jet's skin around the door. The man
convulsed and fell out onto the grass.

"Shit!" the captain
cursed as he ran.

"This isn't
Claney
!" Frank shouted behind him. He'd already
recognized the corpse
.

He felt a total wreck. He could barely move, the bullet
wound in his shoulder
hurt like hell, his ribs ached so much that he had difficulty breathing.
He couldn't catch up with the captain.