4

Jack had to take a circular route to reach the pickup area, a reluctant mini-tour of the airport. La Guardia was small as major airports went, and appeared to be the victim of some weird temporal dislocation. The dingy, Quonset hut-style hangars looked to be of 1930s vintage, while the green-glassed terminal itself was strictly fifties in design. The massive, six-story, bare concrete parking garage could have been built yesterday.

As he nosed his Crown Vic along the pickup lane outside the Central Terminal, he saw people running—not toward the doors, like late travelers, but from them. Screaming people, faces masks of terror, fleeing for their lives.

Jack’s heart double-clutched. They were pouring from the baggage area… fleeing the far section… the section where he’d left Dad.

No… it can’t…

He gunned the engine and sped toward the far section, narrowly missing a panicked man and a screaming woman. He jerked to a halt when he saw the shattered doors and broken glass glittering on the sidewalk, the bullet holes in the still-intact panes.

Oh, Christ… oh no-no-no!

He jumped out and dashed across the sidewalk, almost slipping on the shards of glass, and skidded to a halt inside the baggage area.

Blood… blood everywhere… lakes of red on the floor… even the carousel was red… a man’s feet and legs hung out of the baggage chute… the bloody rag-doll body of a baby girl sprawled among the endlessly circling luggage.

No other movement, no crying, no screams or wails of the wounded. Just silence. Not one of the victims so much as stirred.

Jack stood frozen and stared, numb, paralyzed…

Dad…?

Where was his father? He’d left him standing right over there by the—

There! Shit! A body, a gray-haired man in a green and white coat.

No-no-no-no!

As Jack forced himself forward a voice shouted from somewhere to his left.

“Freeze!”

Jack heard the word but it didn’t register. Stiff and slow, he kept moving, a living zombie.

“Freeze, goddammit, or I’ll drop you where you stand!”

Jack kept moving, forcing himself forward a few more steps until he reached the corpse. He dropped to his knees in a pool of still-warm blood, grabbed one of the shoulders, and rolled him over.

The face—his lips were pulled back in a horrific, agonized grimace, but his glazed eyes left no doubt about it.

Dad.

Dead.

Jack felt as if his chest might explode. He let out a sound that was equal parts moan and sob.

He shook his father. It couldn’t be. They’d been talking just a few minutes ago. He couldn’t be dead!

“Dad! Dad, it’s me, Jack! Can you hear me?”

The voice said, “Are you fuckin’ deaf? I told you to freeze!”

Jack looked up into the muzzle of a pistol held by a mustached security guard.

“This… this is my father.”

“I don’t give a fuck, I told you to—”

“That will be enough!”

An older man had come up behind the guard. He looked to be about fifty and wore a blue NYPD uniform with sergeant stripes. His nameplate read DRISCOLL.

The guard backed off a step. “I found this guy wandering around. He could be—”

Sergeant Driscoll’s voice dripped scorn. “He wasn’t wandering around. I saw him come in. He was looking for someone.” His eyes dropped to Jack’s father’s inert form. “And he found him.”

“But—”

“But nothing.” He shoved the guard away. “Get over by the door in case anyone else tries to wander in.”

The guard moved off.

Driscoll muttered, “Asshole,” then squatted beside Jack. “Look, I’m sorry about your dad, but you’ve got to go outside.”

“What happened?” His own voice sounded far away. “I left him here just a few minutes ago… we were talking about going to the Empire State Build—”

“I’m really sorry, but you’re going to have to wait outside. This whole area is a crime scene and you’re contaminating it, so you’ve got to leave.”

“But—”

He pointed to the floor beneath Jack. “Look at what you’re kneeling in. If we’re gonna catch these guys, we need every scrap of evidence we can get.” He slipped a hand into Jack’s armpit and lifted. “Come on. If you want to help us catch the fucks who did this to your dad, wait outside.”

The cop’s touch lit a flicker of rage that flashed through the dead, dumb grayness that filled Jack, but he quickly doused it. Lashing out at this man who was trying to do the decent thing would solve nothing. He could walk away or be carried away; either way, he’d be leaving his dad behind. And if he was carried away, they’d find his ankle holster and the unregistered AMT .380 it held.

So he let the cop help him to his feet and shuffled toward the shattered doorway where the security guard stood.

He watched Jack’s approach.

“Hey, sorry about back there. Case like this, you don’t know who’s friend or foe.”

Jack nodded without making eye contact.

Outside—chaos. EMS trucks screeching to a halt, shuttles trying to get out of the way, limos inching out from the curb, hundreds of people milling about, some weeping, some hysterical, some in slack-faced shock.

He saw a harried-looking cop standing by the Vic, shouting, “One last time: Who owns this?”

Jack hesitated, unsure of what he might be getting himself into, then decided that stepping forward would be less complicated, especially since his fingerprints were all over the car and it was registered in someone else’s name—someone unaware of that.

Jack waved and hurried toward the cop. “Me! It’s mine!”

“Then move it! You’re blocking the—hey, you hurt?”

“What?”

He pointed to Jack’s legs. “You’re bleeding.”

Jack looked down and saw the wet red splotches on his knees. For a few seconds, he didn’t understand. Then—

“No…” His voice caught. “No, that’s my father’s.”

“Jesus. He all right?”

Jack wanted to tell him what a stupid fucking question that was but bit it back. He simply shook his head.

“Listen, I’m sorry.” The cop pointed to the Vic. “But ya still gotta move it. Just drive it into the garage. Then you can come back and wait with the rest.”

“Wait for what?” Dad was dead.

The cop shrugged. “I dunno. News about survivors, I guess. Not like you gotta choice. Airport’s locked down. Nobody out, nobody in.”

Jack said nothing as he slipped behind the wheel and pulled away.