CHAPTER 14
Even from where Stella and I stood a short distance away at the foot of the docks, and even with the water running over his pale, blue-lipped face and limp limbs as they dragged him out of the river with a rope, I could still make out the handsome features of the limo driver, a.k.a. Special Agent Jarvis. “That’s him alright.”
Half a dozen cops hovered around the body as they laid it down on the fish-scale-covered docks. Another half dozen were milling about a crane that had been brought in, watching the winch that had been lowered into the water with the help of several frogmen in diving suits.
As the sun began to sink in the sky, the cops on the dock covered the body with a sheet while Stella let out a sorrowful sigh. “Well, I guess Mrs. Hart can kiss the good times goodbye. No more toga parties for that guy.”
“Stella, there’s no evidence Mrs. Hart and Agent Jarvis were having an affair.”
“Are you kidding? She was banging him for sure. Who wouldn’t? Hell, I’d slide his bread into my pop-up toaster anytime. ”
“Stella, he’s dead.”
“I can see that, you big palooka. I’m not saying I’d do him now . Let the record show I do not have sex with dead guys. Except for that one time Chunky Chuck slipped off to the pearly gates without me even knowing. It wasn’t until I was helping myself to a little tip from his wallet that I realized he wasn’t just sleeping with his eyes open again. Hey, at least he died with a smile on his face.”
Suddenly another round of shouts rose up from the docks.
The winch on the crane strained a moment, then from the depths of the river a black mass emerged. At first it was impossible to tell what it was, and frankly, now that Jarvis’s body had been retrieved, I wasn’t expecting the cops to drag anything else out of the river.
Then it dawned on me—why weren’t the other Feds buzzing about at the crime scene, pulling their badges out and ordering the cops around?
“Oh, Jesus,” I whispered, watching as waterfalls gushed from the window seals and door jams of the flooded black car being craned out of the river.
And there inside, their dead, bloated faces becoming visible as the water cascaded away, were the other FBI agents we had met outside the platform at Grand Central Station.
“Well, it’s official,” Stella said. “ Everyone’s orgy days are over now.”
I leaned down and took Stella by the arm. “We need to get outta here. We need to warn Harry. I get the distinct feeling there’s a hit list… and I’m betting we’re on it.”
Stella didn’t have to be told twice to hightail it outta there.
We made it to a deserted corner a block from the docks, when suddenly none other than Harry’s limo pulled to a halt in front of us.
Lois sat in the driver’s seat while Lucy sat in the front passenger seat… or maybe it was the other way around. Through th e open passenger window, I could see that the concerned look on their faces meant this was no time for figuring out who was who.
“Lois? Lucy? What’s wrong? Is Harry okay?”
That’s when I saw Lois wasn’t just holding the steering wheel—she was bound to it, ropes tied tight around her wrists.
I yanked open the passenger door to see Lucy with her hands tied behind her back.
“Run!” the twins warned us. “Run as fast as you can!”
I did the opposite, quickly reaching for Lucy. But before I could pull her from the car, a voice with a thick German accent said, “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”
Stella and I both turned to see the one-eyed Nazi, Hans Hammer, stepping out of the rear door of the Lincoln. “It’s time we all went for a little ride,” he said, a pistol in one hand, waving it from us to the open door, gesturing in no uncertain terms that he wanted us in the car.
“Where’s Harry?” I demanded.
From inside the rear of the limo I heard Harry shout, “Buck! Don’t get in! Run!”
Hammer cocked his pistol. “I wouldn’t take his advice if I were you, not unless you want a bullet in the back. Now, get in the car. Jetzt! ”
“Buck! Don’t do it!” Harry shouted from within.
The fact that he wasn’t getting out of the limo made me suspect he was tied up too.
Out of the corner of my mouth I uttered to Stella, “You run. I’ll make a grab for the gun and save Harry.”
“No way, toots. I ain’t leavin’ you to take on this stupid sap alone. Besides, while you’re busy saving Harry, who do you think’s gonna save those luscious Logan twins?”
“Enough chit-chat!” barked Hammer. “You Americans! Always with the chit-chat! I said get in the car… now!”
He pointed the gun at my feet.
He fired a bullet that shaved off the side of my shoe and ricocheted into the cornerstone of a nearby building. I flinched, my feet dancing, something that made the German cackle with glee.
“Laugh it up, chucklehead,” Stella snapped. “You won’t think it’s funny when Buck and I kick your ass into next week.”
Hammer only grinned back. “Oh my, how I shall enjoy silencing you forever. Now, let’s take that ride together.”
Stella tied the rope behind my back as the German ordered, “Tighter!”
We were in the rear of the limo with Harry, his hands bound behind his back and the Nazi pointing his gun between the three of us.
The car was cruising through the streets of the city, the window separating us from the twins open so that Hammer could bark his orders at them as well. “Avoid the traffic. Easy on the corners. Take the quietest route possible to the far end of the river, as far from the police as possible. And don’t try anything foolish, otherwise everybody dies.”
As Stella finished tying my hands, I glanced at Harry beside me. “Are you okay? Are you hurt?”
“No, but I sure as hell wouldn’t mind breaking a knuckle or two on this guy’s face.” He glared at Hammer who simply laughed back at him.
“You’re telling me. I owe this guy a shiner or two myself. So, what happened?”
“I’m not sure. It all happened so fast. I finished lunch with my parents when suddenly the limo pulled up and this asshole stepped out waving his gun. He’d already tied up Lois and Lucy in front, then he worked on my ropes. Of course, when my father finds out about this, there’ll be hell to pay.” He turned his head to the German. “You do realize any contract Herr Garbutt has signed with Hart Industries won’t be worth the paper it’s written on, not once my father finds out his investors are capable of kidnapping.”
“Oh, Master Hart,” smirked Hammer. “We are capable of so much more than kidnapping.”
“He’s right,” I said grimly to Harry while keeping my gaze leveled at the German. “The Feds are dead. Whatever plot they uncovered, it cost them their lives.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I caught sight of Stella—the only one of us not yet bound—suddenly lunge toward the German.
Swiftly he pointed his gun at her and she pulled herself back.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” the German informed her calmly. “Otherwise you’ll regret it.”
“I got news for you, ya schlub. I pretty much regret everything, no matter what I do. That’s just the kinda gal I am. So quit tellin’ me what to do.”
“Oh, but if I kill you now, you’re going to miss the rest of today’s excitement.”
I eyed him suspiciously. “What kind of excitement?”
Hammer gave a sly smile. “The kind that goes… kaboom! ”
“You’ve got a bomb?” Harry breathed. “You’re going to set off a bomb?”
“No,” came the simple answer. “We’re going to set off two. And that’s just beginning.”
“Why?” I demanded. “Why the fuck would you want to march into our city and start blowing things up?”
“To teach you a lesson, Mr. Baxter.”
“Me? What’s any of this got to do with me?”
“Our question precisely. Your meddling is proving quite problematic. Now it’s time for those you care about to suffer.”
Panic set in. “Those I care about? Who? Tell me who?”
“Firstly, your friend from the Far East. She seems very good at unraveling clues and leading you down all the rabbit holes where you don’t belong. But we all know what happens to naughty bunnies. In the end, the wolf gets them.”
“Madame Chang,” I gasped. “Don’t you dare fucking hurt Madame Chang.”
The German laughed. “Mr. Baxter, we’re not going to simply hurt her. We’re going to blow her barge to kingdom come.”
“Stop the car!” I screamed at both the German and the Logan twins in front.
“Keep driving!” Hammer ordered.
“No! I need to stop that bomb. I need to save Madame Chang.”
“Then who’s going to save the targets of the second bomb? And to think, you’ve only just met your parents. What a shame to let them die now.”
“No!” I roared, struggling in vain against the ropes.
“Wait a minute,” said Harry. “Your parents? You found your parents?”
“Indeed, he did,” Hammer answered for me. “Unfortunately, now he’s about to lose them again… and this time there’ll be no coming back for their poor little Buck.”
“You fucking bastard! I’ll kill you!”
This time it was me who made a move, kicking my leg up with so much speed and force that Hammer didn’t see it coming until my foot connected with his forearm, pushing the gun away.
He fired off a bullet.
The passenger window next to Harry’s head smashed.
Stella screamed.
The car suddenly swerved right and everyone took a tumble to the left.
I threw another kick at Hammer, the steel-tipped toe of my shoe collecting him in the chin, knocking him to the floor of the limo.
I turned to the open window separating us from the driver’s compartment. “Floor it, Lois! ”
“But I’m Lucy.”
“I don’t care who’s who. Get us to Ginger’s Gin Mill! As fast as you can!”
The sudden acceleration tossed us all to the back of the limo, giving Harry the chance to boot an already dazed Hammer in the left cheek.
The German lurched in my direction and raised his weapon.
The car screeched around a corner and mounted the sidewalk.
Hammer practically fell onto my shoe as I threw another kick in his direction, smashing him in the right cheek.
The car barreled left, then veered again.
Hammer tried to steady himself and raised his gun once more, but Stella opened her mouth wide and bit down on his forearm so hard the German screamed and dropped the pistol.
“Stella, the door!” I shouted.
Stella pushed open the door right behind Hammer.
I kicked him again and he fell toward it.
Harry kicked him again, and the German tried to grab onto something, anything, to stop him from falling out.
But his clutching hands fumbled, as Harry and I both planted a foot in the Nazi’s chest, sending him flying out the limo door and thudding onto the sidewalk, tumbling and flipping and crashing into a streetlamp, knocking the light out in a shower of sparks.
As I watched him take the fall, the Wilde City clock tower appeared at the far end of the block we sped by. The hands of the clock had just ticked past six.
“Lucy! Lois! Get us to Ginger’s, now!”
“We’re on it, Buck!” the twins said.
The horn blared and the limo swerved through the streets, almost taking out a cigar stand and narrowly missing Skip selling his newspapers.
Stella was already working on the ropes behind my back, setting me free.
I pulled shut the flapping door then set about untying Harry’s ropes, while Stella wriggled through the window into the driver’s compartment and worked on freeing Lois and Lucy.
“You’ve got parents?” Harry said over his shoulder as I wrestled with his ropes. “When were you going to tell me?”
“I wanted to. Every time I tried, it just never seemed like the right time.”
“You’re supposed to let me in, Buck. I trusted you with my secrets, you’re supposed to trust me with yours, whether it’s the right time or not.”
“I’m sorry. What else do you want me to say?”
“Aren’t you at least going to tell me who they are?”
At that moment, the limo slid to a rocking halt and the twins called out, “We’re here! Ginger’s Gin Mill.”
I pushed open the door and called back to the driver’s compartment. “Stella, get to the Peking Empress. There’s no time to waste. You gotta warn Madame Chang. And be careful.”
“Will do, Buck!”
As I pulled myself toward the door, Harry followed. “I’m coming with you, whether you like it or not.”
I didn’t have time to argue.
I leapt out of the limo with Harry on my heels, the car hightailing it outta there behind us.
When I saw Bugsy’s two cauliflower-eared stooges standing guard on either side of the entrance to Ginger’s Gin Mill, I realized that Bugsy had cleared the joint so he and Mamma could have some privacy.
I bolted for the door, shouting, “There’s a bomb inside. Get them out now!”
The goons were slower off the mark than I expected, and by the time my words sank in, Harry and I were already pushing through the door and rushing into Ginger’s joint.
Bugsy and Mamma were sitting together at a candlelit table in the corner, while Ginger prepared cocktails for them behind the bar.
All three of them looked up in surprise.
At the same time, Harry stared at my parents, even more shocked. “Your folks are Bugsy Brown and Mamma Marlow?”
“Not if I don’t get them outta here now! Quick, go get Ginger.”
I raced for the table while Harry grabbed Ginger who dropped the glass she was holding.
“Buck?” asked Bugsy. “What the hell’s going—”
“There’s a bomb. This joint’s about to blow!”
Suddenly the goons were shoving me out of the way, knocking me to the floor as one seized Bugsy and the other yanked Mamma out of her chair.
“Buck!” Mamma shouted frantically as the stooges trampled over me to get my parents out first.
I pulled myself up.
I saw Harry race out of the speakeasy with Ginger.
I saw the goons practically carrying Bugsy and Mamma out the door.
I charged after them…
Reached for the door…
When suddenly—
KABOOM!
A fireball erupted somewhere behind me, lifting me off my feet and sending me smashing through the front window of Ginger’s Gin Mill.
I crashed onto the street outside, flames bursting into the night and shattered glass scattering all around me.
My ears were ringing.
Through my blurred vision I saw that the blast had knocked everyone else off their feet.
Slowly they were picking themselves up, except Harry who pulled himself up quickly, unsteadily, and hurried toward me.
“Buck?” He collapsed to his knees beside me. “Buck, talk to me! Say something! Anything!”
I groaned and grimaced as I pulled myself to my knees. “ Now do you know why I didn’t wanna tell you?”
I turned my head to see Ginger’s Gin Mill crackling with flames. Smaller eruptions could be heard inside, along with more glass shattering as the bottles of liquor exploded behind the bar.
Harry helped me to my feet as Mamma and Bugsy limped toward us. I noticed they were holding hands. I guessed their date was something of a success.
“Buck, are you hurt?” Mamma asked urgently.
“I’m fine. We both are. But we have to go. There’s another bomb down by the docks. Do you have a car?”
“Take mine, kiddo.” Bugsy clicked his fingers at his goons and one of them slapped a set of keys into Bugsy’s palm. “Just try not to get it dirty. It just had a spit and polish.”
He tossed the keys to me and I caught them in my fist. “Thanks, Pops.”
I missed the muddy puddles by inches and swerved Bugsy’s fancy black Anderson convertible to a screeching halt at the pier where the Peking Empress docked. The barge was there, sitting peacefully in the water, its lanterns burning while the mist that always seemed to accompany the vessel drifted in swirls around the hull.
Harry and I piled out of Bugsy’s car and sprinted down the pier.
I bounded up the gangplank, the boards bouncing under my weight, with Harry right behind me.
“Madame Chang!” I shouted. “Wuzhou! Stella!”
Our shoes pounded against the deck as we bolted to the stern…
I pulled open the door leading below deck …
And for the second time in a matter of minutes the world was swallowed by a blinding light.
KABOOM!
This time, instead of being thrown through a plate glass window, I was hurled off the back deck of the boat along with Harry. Arms and legs flailing, we flew high into the night air—the pair of us aglow in the fireball that ascended from the exploding barge—then plunged into the river.
The water was cold and dark, but somewhere Harry’s and my hands found each other.
We pulled one another to the surface, spluttering and gasping for air, as chunks of the boat came splashing down around us:
Burning, broken planks;
Flaming curtains that spiraled into the river like parachutes on fire;
A piece of the stern with the name Peking Empress on it, now charred and splintered.
“Oh my God, please tell me they made it out of there.”
“Please tell me we’ll make it out of here ,” Harry said.
I turned to him and saw that his eyes were anxiously darting left and right as we treaded water. “Harry? What’s wrong?”
“Buck, there’s something else in the river with us. Something big… and moving.”
He was right. There was a swish in the water a short distance behind me.
I swiveled around quickly, then heard a splash just behind Harry.
“What the fuck is that?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “But I think there’s more than one of them. We need to get to shore.”
As the plume of fire and smoke continued to rise into the sky, while cinders and burning debris rained down into the river, Harry and I started to swim for the shore… fast.
Suddenly Harry flinched in the water and stopped swimming. “Fuck!”
“Harry?”
“Something just rammed me in the side.”
With a splash, a large reptilian tail thrashed through the water between us.
“Oh, shit!” Harry exclaimed. “What is that? Is that an alligator?”
“There ain’t no gators in this river,” I said, seeing the long-snouted head of a creature rise up in front of me and swim straight toward me.
“What is it then?”
I eyed the sea monster and said, “If I ain’t mistaken, it’s a Komodo dragon.”
I turned to see one headed straight for Harry. “And so is that,” I added.
“Oh God, they’re gonna kill us. Swim, Buck! Swim!”
But I grabbed his arm and stopped him. “No, wait!”
I saw the dragons slowing in the water as they approached us. I squeezed Harry’s arm to still him, only our legs moving through the water now to keep us afloat.
Then, warily—almost gently—the Komodo dragons swam right up to us.
One nuzzled its head under my arm.
The other nuzzled its head under Harry’s.
“I don’t think they want to kill us,” I said, almost wanting to laugh with relief. “I think they want to save us.”
With a swish of their tails, the dragons set us in motion through the water.
“Hold on,” I told Harry.
I tightened my own grip on the slippery, leathery beast beside me, and with an agility so sure and swift, the giant reptiles carried us across the river to a rocky beach on the banks .
That’s when we saw Stella, Lois, Lucy, Wuzhou and Madame Chang, her ethereal white gown billowing in the breeze.
As the dragons slid onto the shore, Harry and I found our feet, sodden and stumbling up the rocky bank.
“Buck! Harry! You’re alive!” shouted Stella, rushing toward me and hugging my knees so tightly she almost tripped me up.
“Is everyone alright?” I asked. “Did everyone get off the Peking Empress safely?”
“Don’t you worry about a thing, toots. Me and the twins got Madame Chang and Wuzhou off without a hitch.”
“Was there anyone else on board?”
“You mean the dozen or so half-baked muffinheads all stickin’ their fingers in the mixin’ bowl, if you catch my drift? We tried to get them to shore safely, but most of them were so stoned they fell off the gangplank into the water. Nothin’ like a cold shower to sober someone up, right?”
As the twins wrapped their arms around Harry, Madame Chang laid her hands on the heads of her Komodo dragons as though she was granting them a blessing. “Thank you, my children. You have done well.”
I looked from her to the dragons. “You sent them to save us?”
“Yup!” answered Stella before Madame Chang could reply. “They were like a pair of Saint Bernards in the snow. Except slimier. And uglier. And don’t even get me started on the stench.”
“Komodo dragons have survived for over three hundred thousand years,” said Madame Chang.
“Well, that sure as hell explains the smell. Having said that, they saved my Buck, so I guess they ain’t half bad.” Stella walked up to one of the dragons and patted it on the head. “Good doggy!”
The dragon responded by almost taking Stella’s hand off. “Yikes!”
She reeled backward as Madame Chang gave a sly chuckle. “You may approve of the dragon… but the dragon must also approve of you.”
“Unfortunately,” I chimed in. “There’s a bunch of Nazis out there who don’t approve of any of us. Tonight’s pyrotechnics were a warning, and a potentially deadly one at that. But whatever they’re plotting, this was just the first act.”
“And the one person who knows more than anything,” said Harry, grabbing my forearm. “Is my mother. Buck, if there’s anyone who’s next on the Nazi’s list, it’s her.”
I looked him in the eye and gave him a nod.
A nod that said he was right.
A nod that said I was there for him.
A nod that promised we would keep his mother safe, no matter what.
I pulled him close.
I planted my lips on his, then said, “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about my parents.”
“And I’m sorry I turn into a different person around my father. He brings out the worst in me. But my mother… she brings out the best.”
I took a deep, determined breath. “Then let’s go save her.”