Schism (26 page)

“So we’ll have to bike through the Holland Tunnel?”

“Yep.”

“And you just thought to mention this to me now?”

“Well, I was afraid that if I told you we would have to bike under a river to get to the city, you wouldn’t come,” he said with an unapologetic smile.

She merely smirked and shook her head. “So once we get into Manhattan, where are we going?”

“To see an old friend. Hopefully he’s still living in the same place.”

“You trust him?”

“I trust him more than most people.”

“You don’t sound certain.”

“Well, he hates Sean almost as much as I do, so I’m willing to take the risk.”

They pulled off I-78 before reaching the tunnel and searched for a place to park. Lights were on throughout the neighborhood and people were scattered everywhere, some huddled in clusters on street corners and others wandering about. Ben parked on a quieter street in the area. After turning off the ignition, he reached behind his seat and grabbed the backpack containing food and supplies, as well as his loaded pistol and a baseball cap. He put the cap on and pulled the brim down low over his eyes. In the dark, he was practically unrecognizable. Though he did not have the same level of concern about Andy being recognized, he also made her wear a baseball cap. Better to obscure her appearance now and avoid being identified later, he had told her.

Andy holstered her pistol to her right hip with a belt. The air had cooled a bit so she put her sweatshirt on, which easily concealed the weapon.

Miraculously, there was light inside the two-lane tunnel, though only every third or fourth light was actually turned on. It made for a long, dim ride through the one-and-a-half miles of tunnel that stretched under the Hudson. The air became increasingly stale as they reached the halfway point, and Andy could only imagine the smell created by hundreds of decaying bodies trapped inside. A few people passed by in the opposite direction, some on foot and some on bikes. Ben stuck to the outside of the right lane and kept his gaze downward to avoid even a microsecond of eye contact. Andy stayed behind him until they emerged on the other side several minutes later.

“What day is it?” he called out to her as she pulled up beside him.

“Uh, Tuesday, I think.”

“You aren’t sure?”

“No, I’m not sure. The Date and Time app on my iPhone stopped working six years ago. Sorry.”

“Very funny.”

“Why does it matter what day of the week it is?”

“Because on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays there are random checkpoints throughout Manhattan to check everyone’s ID going through.”

“IDs? But we don’t have any IDs,” she said panicked.

“I know. That’s what we’re taking care of tonight. But we need to get to Chinatown.”

“Is that far?”

“No, but there’s usually a minefield of checkpoints between here and there. So to be safe we’ll head south and circle along the edge of the island. You up for that?”

“How far are we talking?”

“A few miles.”

“Fine. I’ll follow you.”

They rode south along the Hudson side of Manhattan, skirting beside the water on West Street until it ended at Battery Park. The Statue of Liberty was visible in the distance. Shrouded in the darkness, the Lady’s silhouette could be seen in the moonlight passing through the clouds high above. Whatever array of lights that once illuminated the statue had not been turned back on.

They pedaled on, farther east, stair-stepping through the crowded Financial District that was now bustling with a very different kind of commerce: drugs and prostitution. As Ben made a sudden right turn onto Wall Street, Andy nearly fell off her bike while distracted by the half-naked girls wandering about and looking to trade their skin for either food or drugs. She caught her balance in time to avoid a large pothole.

After travelling north a few blocks, they turned west and headed back inland. Upon reaching Chinatown, the swell of people roaming the pavement forced them to dismount. Ben ducked into an alley to hide their bikes.

“You really know your way around this town,” Andy commented as she wrapped a chain around her front wheel and the frame.

“Yeah, I surprised myself,” he replied as he strapped his bike to hers with a second chain.

She followed him back onto the street. The crowds of people were loud and a dizzying mélange of music blared from the storefront windows of defunct Asian food markets and noodle houses.

As they maneuvered through the crowd, Ben drew close to Andy. “Don’t tell anyone your name. You’ll understand why soon,” he said loud enough for her to hear above all the noise.

She nodded once.

“Just pick another name for now,” he went on. “It doesn’t matter what, but nothing that sounds like Andy or Andrea. And a last name too, okay?”

“Got it.”

Half a block later, they made their way to the nondescript front door of a narrow residential building. The door was sandwiched between what used to be two restaurants on the bottom floor within the same building. Ben opened the door without any resistance. After passing through a tiny entryway, they climbed four flights of stairs and headed down the narrowest of hallways. The air was nearly as stifling as inside the Holland Tunnel. They passed three apartments on each side, and then Ben paused at the fourth. He stepped off to the side to avoid standing directly in front of the door and gestured for Andy to move off to the other side. When he retrieved his pistol from his backpack, she placed her right hand on the grip of her own.

Ben gave Andy a quick glance and then knocked on the door. Half a minute passed without any sign of life on the other side, so he knocked again, louder. This time they could hear the sound of footsteps approaching. Following the rattle of at least three different locks being undone, the door partially opened, concealing Ben on the other side.

“Who the fuck are you?”

Andy blinked back at the person standing in front of her. “Excuse me?” she blurted.

He was about Ben’s age and height but had a slighter build. His head was shaved and his face was fairly ordinary, neither overwhelmingly attractive nor unattractive. The most remarkable thing about his appearance was three uniform scars running diagonally across the side of his neck as though someone had tried slitting his throat with a wide-tined fork.

“Excuse you? You’re the one standing outside my door.” His voice was gruff and the accent was unmistakably Boston.

“Still haven’t learned any manners, have you, Danny?” Ben stepped into view and gave the stranger a friendly smirk.

Danny blinked as recognition sank in. “Holy shit…Ben Kelly! What are you doing here?”

“Keep your voice down!” he hissed back. “You know how thin these walls are!”

Danny recoiled after realizing his error. “Man, sorry, but you scared the hell out of me.” He opened the door wider. “Quick, come in.”

Andy followed Danny inside. Ben shut and locked the door behind them. After passing through a short and narrow hallway, they entered the space that comprised the majority of the tiny apartment. Everything from the paint on the walls to the carpet beneath their feet was in desperate need of a renovation that would never come. Sitting on the couch in the living room were two young men deeply engrossed in a video game.

“Where’s Jim?” Danny asked.

“He’s around.”

“Dez…Liam…turn that off. You’ll never guess who’s here,” Danny called out over the flash and bang of guns firing.

The two men ignored him until one of them finally defeated the other. He pumped his fist in the air repeatedly as the other flung his hand controls halfway across the room in frustration.

“You guys piss me off,” Danny declared as he bent down to pick the hand control off the floor before turning off the television. “It’s a miracle that I haven’t reported you two to the Infantry yet for driving me insane!”

“Dude, I just beat Li in
Halo
for the first time ever! You know how long I’ve been trying to beat him?”

“Dez, I don’t give a shit. We got visitors.”

Danny’s friends turned around and finally realized that two other people were in the apartment.

“Ben?” Dez asked doubtingly.

“No way!” Liam yelled.

Dez scurried around the couch to get a closer look. Liam, blinked in disbelief but moved in closer as well.

“Oh my God, it is you!” Dez cried. “What the hell are you doing here?”

Smiling, Ben stepped forward and gave Dez a firm one-armed hug. “Good to see you, Dez.” He then gave Liam a friendly nod of recognition. “What’s up, Li? You keeping these guys out of trouble?”

The young man cracked a smile. “Barely,” he said as he moved toward Ben with his hand extended. He shook it warmly.

“And who is this fine-looking creature? Where have you been hiding?” Dez said to Andy.

“I’m Katrina,” Andy said and she shook his hand.

Puffing his chest out, Dez shook her hand and took yet another step closer. “I’m Dez. It’s short for Desmond, and I’ll be hurt if you don’t remember it.” Then while still holding her hand, he gave Ben a look, “What’s a beautiful girl like her doing with
you
?”

“All right, take it easy, Romeo. It’s too soon to be giving me grief already.”

Though Andy had to practically pull her hand free from Dez’ grasp, she laughed at his bold yet harmless flirting. “I won’t forget your name, Desmond,” she replied pointedly. Then, turning to the other, she said, “You’re Liam?”

Liam’s face brightened. “Yes, but you can just call me Li.”

“Nice to meet you.”

“You know,” Dez said to Ben, “she could be a Helen.”

Ben cast him a sharp look. “Don’t even start.”

“Is that really a reference to Helen of Troy?” Andy asked.

“That’s the rumor, but I kinda think it’s an ex-girlfriend of his,” said Danny.

“Or his mom,” Dez countered. “That’s another rumor.”

“Man, that’s messed up,” said Danny. “Isn’t there, like, a name for that?”

“Oedipus complex,” Liam piped in.

“No, that’s not it.”

“Yes, it is,” Liam insisted. “Go check the
Wikipedia
files.”

At the mention of
Wikipedia
, Andy’s interest piqued, but before she could say anything, Ben cut in. “As interesting as this is, can we get down to business?”

“Yes…
thank
you, Ben,” Dez said with exaggerated intonation. “Let’s talk about why you and this beautiful girl are here.” He gave Andy a wink.

“We need IDs,” said Ben bluntly.

“That’s it?” Danny replied as though he were expecting more.

“Yeah, that’s it. We need nine of them. If you give me something to write with, I’ll give you all the information you’ll need…names, ages, and physical descriptions. Of course, my name will be different.”

“All right, no problem,” said Danny. “I’ll need two days. Can you come back then?”

“Depends on when the Infantry does their checkpoints. Is it still Monday, Wednesday, and Friday?”

“Yeah, that hasn’t changed.”

“And today’s Tuesday?”

“Yep.”

Ben glanced at Andy, who returned a satisfied smile.

“Then I’ll be back in two days around the same time. That okay?”

“Yep,” Danny said as he grabbed a scrap of paper and a pen from somewhere in the kitchen and handed them to Ben, who took a seat at the small dining room table and began to scribble feverishly. Andy inched closer to him, attempting to read his writing over his shoulder.

A minute or so later, he put the pen down and looked back at her. “Here,” he said, handing her the pen. “I forget how old Julia and Michelle are. Can you look this over to make sure I didn’t make any other mistakes?”

She stared at him awkwardly for a second until realizing what he was really asking for. “Sure,” she said as casually as possible before trading places with him at the table.

On the paper, Ben had written nine fictitious names for their friends, along with their age and a brief physical description that consisted of sex, height, and hair and eye color. The list was nearly complete except for Katrina’s last name. She quickly added one before handing the complete list back to Ben.

“Looks fine,” she said. “Julia’s eleven, not ten, so I changed that.”

It seemed that Carmen was going to be Julia from now on, at least if she ever came into the city.

“Here you go.” Ben gave the paper to Danny.

He looked over the list as everyone else waited. “There are three males on this list, all age twenty and about the same height with brown hair and brown eyes. I assume you’re one of them?”

“Yeah.”

He squinted as he took a hard look at Ben’s face. “But your eyes aren’t brown.”

Ben raised an eyebrow. “Don’t worry about that.”