“Dammit, Kylie, listen to me. I’m fine. He didn’t hit an artery. I’m not going to bleed to death. I can wait till the fire department shows up. They can cut the floor out from under me and take me to the hospital. After that, all I want is the best foot surgeon in New York and maybe a week on the beach in Turks and Caicos. You have more important things to do than hold my hand.”
“Do you have any clue where Benoit was going next?” she said.
“I’ve got more than a clue. He has a shitload of explosives, and he’s headed for Shelley Trager’s yacht.”
Kylie was blindsided. She’d convinced herself that Shelley’s little sunset cruise was a low-priority target. “Why Shelley?” she said.
“Not just Shelley. Shelley and me. Benoit calls himself The Chameleon, and he thinks we stole his persona and used it for my TV show.”
“That’s insane,” she said.
“I think we’ve pretty much established that the guy is a psycho,” Spence said. “He knows Shelley is screening the pilot on his yacht tonight. Benoit is planning to get on board, wait till they’re somewhere out on the open water, and then blow it up.”
“Did you convince Shelley to bring any security on board?” Kylie said.
“You know how stubborn he is. He finally signed on two rent-a-cops just to humor me. I doubt if they’re any better than a couple of school crossing guards.”
“We have to warn him,” Kylie said. “Maybe we should radio the captain.”
“You do that,” Spence said. “I met him. His name is Kirk Campion. He’s a retired merchant marine, used to be chief mate on one of the Maersk container ships. And guess what—he pitched a movie to me about a yacht getting hijacked by a bunch of Somali pirates, and the captain and the crew take them on. You call him and tell him the madman everyone in New York is looking for is on his boat, and guess what he’ll do?”
“Spence is right,” I said. “The last thing we need is some civilian cowboy trying to save the day. You and I need to get on that boat. Spence, where’s the dock, and when does the boat leave?”
“South Street Seaport. Pier 17. What time is it?”
“A little after six.”
“By now they’ve shoved off, and Gabriel Benoit is somewhere belowdecks wiring it with enough explosives to blow it to Weehawken.”
“How does he expect to get off?” Kylie said.
“Beats me,” Spence said, “but after the way he escaped from half of NYPD at Radio City, I bet he won’t have a hard time figuring out how to—”
There was a pounding on the apartment door.
“Police,” the voice on the other side said. “Open up.”
I opened the door. There were at least ten people in the hallway. All of them in uniform, except one: Captain Cates.
Chapter 83
“CAPTAIN,” I SAID, “I know I should have taken your call, but—”
“We’ll have plenty of time for repercussions later, Detective,” she said. “Right now, I want the short version of what went down.”
I gave it to her in under sixty seconds. Kylie stood by my side and didn’t say a word.
“And you’re sure Benoit is on the yacht?” Cates said.
“As sure as we can be, but he’s fooled us before. I wouldn’t pull any of the units you have covering the other events.”
“Okay,” she said, “what do we need to catch this son of a bitch?”
“A boarding vessel,” I said. “Kylie knows the layout of the yacht, and we can both spot Benoit. Just get the two of us on board.”
“Three of you,” Cates said. “This time you’re not going anywhere without a bomb tech.”
“Fair enough, Captain.”
“You see any C4, you point it out to the tech. You got lucky once, but you will not—repeat, not—attempt to disable any explosives. Your only job is to disable Benoit. Understood?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Get moving. I’ll call you with the details.”
I was about to bolt when Cates held up her hand. She stared at me, stone-faced. “And Jordan…make sure your phone is on.”
Chapter 84
WITHIN MINUTES, KYLIE and I were back in the PPV doing ninety on West Street barreling toward South Street Seaport.
There may only be seventy-five cops attached to NYPD Red, but there are another thirty-five thousand brothers and sisters in blue who’ve got our backs—and our fronts. By the time we entered the South Street Viaduct, which tunnels under Battery Park, we had two motorcycle cops from Highway Patrol clearing our path.
“Hot damn!” Kylie yelled. “We’re getting a police escort.”
Captain Cates had the full power of the New York City Police Department at her fingertips, and when we emerged from the tunnel, it was clear that she hadn’t hesitated to use it.
The road in front of us was clear. No, it was empty. FDR Drive, which is often preceded by the words “heavy backups” on the 1010 WINS traffic reports, didn’t have a single car on it—northbound or southbound.
One look at the service road, and I could see that there was plenty of traffic just waiting to clog it up, but there were squad cars with flashing lights at every entrance ramp holding them back.
Cates called, and I put her on speaker.
“We got lucky. We’ve got our bomb techs spread out across the city, and Jeff Ordway was on standby half a mile from the Seaport. Sergeant Ordway is one of our best. Jim Rothlein from Harbor Patrol will meet the three of you at Pier 17. He’s in an unmarked boat with a plainclothes crew so you can get close to the yacht without looking like cops. I’ve also scrambled Scuba and SWAT, but I’m keeping them out of sight. Benoit can’t know there’s an armada bearing down on him. This has to run like Special Ops.”
“How about the captain of the yacht?” I asked. “According to Spence, this guy Campion’s lifelong dream is to take down a pirate on the high seas. I don’t want him to go all Steven Seagal on us.”
“Rothlein radioed him on the NYPD frequency and told him to prepare to be boarded. As far as Campion knows, you’re just doing some routine follow-up on the shooting at the funeral home, and you couldn’t wait for the boat to dock tonight—nothing that would set off his cowboy genes.”
“MacDonald says there’s a swimming platform at the stern,” I said. “Can you arrange for us to board there?”
“Rothlein thinks it’s too visible,” Cates said. “There’s a cargo hold door on the starboard side. It’s harder to see from the top deck. Once you get close, the yacht will slow down, but not enough for Benoit to get suspicious. A couple of crewmen will open the cargo door and extend a ramp. The three of you will have to jump while both boats are moving at a pretty good clip.”
Making a sideways leap from a moving boat onto a narrow ramp was not nearly as easy as jumping forward onto a low-hanging double-wide swim platform would have been, but Cates was right. This had to run like Special Ops.
“Getting on board won’t be a problem,” I said.
“Once you’re on board, get Ordway to the engine room. Benoit is smart—he’ll know that’s where he can do the most damage. Odds are he plans to jump ship and set his bombs off by remote. Your job is to keep him from getting off that boat, because I guarantee you that as soon as he’s a hundred yards away, he’ll blow it up and laugh while it burns. I’ve got fireboats and EMS units tailing you, and I’ve got choppers and a chase team, but I’ve only got the two of you to keep him from pushing that button.”
“We can handle it, Captain,” I said.
“I’m counting on you, Jordan. Me and a hundred other people,” she said. “Put MacDonald on the horn.”
I held the cell phone close to Kylie. “Right here, Captain.”
“I’ve got a message from your husband. FDNY cut him out of the floor, he’s on his way to NYU Medical, and he loves you.”
“Tell him I love him, too,” Kylie said.
“I have a better idea,” Cates said. “Make sure you get your ass back here in one pi
ece and tell him yourself.”
Chapter 85
EXT. HUDSON RIVER—NEW YORK CITY—DUSK
Helicopter shot of SHELLEY TRAGER’s yacht as it sails quietly up the river. And there in the background, we see her, standing tall and proud as the sun sets—THE STATUE OF LIBERTY.
MUSIC UP: We hear THE RAT-A-TAT-TAT OF SNARE DRUMS, followed by HORNS, and then the track is filled with the unmistakable sound of the Greatest Musical Genius of All Time—THE LATE, GREAT RAY CHARLES, singing the best fucking version of AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL ever recorded.
RAY CHARLES (SOUND TRACK)
O beautiful, for heroes proved,
In liberating strife,
Who more than self, their country loved,
And mercy more than life.
The camera drifts in on the yacht, and we see a ramp slowly being lowered from the stern like a giant tailgate. As we move in closer, we see The Chameleon as he prepares to get off the moving ship.
RAY CHARLES
America, America,
May God thy gold refine,
Till all success be nobleness
And every gain divine.
The camera is in tight now as The Chameleon unties one of two Zodiac Bayrunners, a fifteen-foot pontoon boat Trager uses when he anchors offshore.
RAY CHARLES
O beautiful, for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
The Chameleon slides one Zodiac off the ramp and into the water. He jumps in and starts it.
RAY CHARLES
For purple mountain majesties,
Above the fruited plain.
The Zodiac slowly edges away from the yacht.
RAY CHARLES
America, America,
God shed his grace on thee.
Long shot as we see the Zodiac separating even farther from the doomed yacht.
RAY CHARLES
He crowned thy good,
In brotherhood,
From sea to shining sea.
Cut to a close-up of Lady Liberty as she looks down approvingly on the scene below.
RAY CHARLES
You know, I wish I had
somebody to help me sing this.
The CHORUS joins in, and now the music and the emotion build.
CHORUS
America, America,
RAY CHARLES
America, I love you, America
CHORUS
God shed his grace on thee.
Cut to a close-up of The Chameleon as he removes his CELL PHONE from his pocket.
RAY CHARLES
God shed his grace on thee.
Cut to a wide shot. Slowly the Zodiac slips out of the picture.
RAY CHARLES
He crowned thy good,
With brotherhood,
Cut to a close-up as The Chameleon dials his phone.
RAY CHARLES
From sea to shining sea.
Cut to a wide shot. The Statue of Liberty, a powerful beacon of freedom, is dominating the frame. The yacht, a symbol of greed, money, and injustice, looks insignificant in her presence.
CHORUS (MAJESTIC FINISH)
…shining sea.
The sound track is filled with the thunder of timpani and the crash of cymbals as the music reaches a crescendo, and the yacht EXPLODES into a fiery hell.
“So…what do you think, Charles?” Gabriel asked, still kneeling at Connor’s side.
“I knew you could get off the ship with one of the Zodiacs,” Connor said. “I just didn’t know you knew.”
Gabriel stood up and took a small bow. “Research. But I meant what do you think of the whole thing with the Statue of Liberty and ‘America the Beautiful’ playing counterpoint against a guy who’s blowing up a hundred people?”
“I’d like it a lot better if I wasn’t one of the hundred.”
“Charles, you asked me if you could read it. I broke a rule and showed it to you. The least you could do is subtract your personal conflict of interest and give me more of a professional opinion than ‘I don’t want to die.’”
“Okay,” Connor said. “Am I correct in assuming you had something to do with the bomb that killed Brad Schuck at Radio City?”
“I had everything to do with it.”
“I saw the video. Nice. The blast, getting away from the cops—that worked. But your script reads like Amateur Night. The Statue of Liberty is ‘a beacon of freedom’? The yacht is ‘a symbol of greed, money, and injustice’? It’s like you got the big box of clichés and you’re trying to use them all.”
“It’s stage direction,” Gabriel said. “The audience never sees it. It’s only there to help the producer understand what the writer is thinking about.”
“And it reads like you either think the producer is stupid, or you’re so insecure that you have to spell out the message for him, or you can’t decide if it’s a popcorn movie with bombs going off and bodies piling up or an art house film condemning the evils of Hollywood.”
“Wow, you got some balls,” Gabriel said. “I’d have bet anything you’d suck up to me and try to get me to turn you loose.”
“That’s not who you are. You can smell a phony a mile away. The only way to deal with you is to give it to you straight.”
“Thanks. I said this from the get-go. You’re my kind of guy. Another time, another set of circumstances, we’d be best buds. And Lexi—she would’ve just adored you.”
“But you’re still going to kill me.”
“Charles, we’ve gone over this before. I’ve been flexible shooting this film, but this is a critical scene. I can’t undo the script. My hands are tied.”
“Actually, it’s my hands that are tied, but let’s not split hairs.”
Gabriel smiled and tucked the script pages in his pocket. “I will never forget you, Charles Connor.”
“Likewise,” Connor said. “Just answer me one last question.”
“Anything.”
“Your alter ego in the film is The Chameleon. What’s your real name?”
“Gabriel. Gabriel Benoit. Why do you ask?”
“Because one of these days you’re going to go straight to hell, Gabriel. And I want to be able to track you down as soon as you show up and beat the shit out of you for all eternity.”
Chapter 86
A LOT OF sharp-eyed New Yorkers can spot an unmarked police car. That’s because most of our plain brown wrappers look a lot like our blue-and-white units, minus the department logo and the big letters on the doors that scream NYPD.
Unmarked boats are a whole different ballgame. The one that was waiting for us at Pier 17 was the water equivalent of a Ferrari Testarossa. Her name was Kristina, she was from Tenafly, New Jersey, and she was beautiful.
Kylie and I jumped on the sleek, fifty-foot motor yacht, and I swear she was moving before my feet hit the deck.
Jim Rothlein, who is blond, tan, and built like a Transformers robot, grinned when he saw me. “Zach, they didn’t tell me it was you.”
Jim and I had worked together twice before. One was a homicide; the other a suicide. His team had dredged both bodies out of the river. I introduced him to Kylie.
“Since when did you guys get into Water Ops?” Rothlein said as we climbed onto the bridge.
“Today’s our first day. Since when does NYPD have a budget to float this beauty?”
“She’s a loaner from the Port Authority Task Force. She used to belong to some hedge fund guy in Jersey until the market tanked and he decided to supplement his income with a little cocaine trafficking. The PA nailed him on his first run. They seized the boat, and we get to use it until they auction it off next month.”
“Did Cates tell you what’s going on?” I said.
“She told me enough to know you’re stark, raving, out-of-your-gourd nuts,” Rothlein said. “Do you know anything about the boat you’re about to risk your lives on?”
“I’ve been on it three or four times,” Kylie said.
“And how much of that time di
d you spend in the engine room?” Rothlein asked. “Because I doubt if he’s going to be planting a bomb in a champagne bucket on the promenade deck.”
“You’d be surprised the places some people plant bombs,” a voice said. “Hi, I’m Jeff Ordway, and as you can tell by my outfit, I’ll be your bomb tech this evening.”
Ordway was tall, lean, with an ingratiating smile that was contrasted by his dead serious eyes. He was dressed in thick black canvas military fatigues and a tactical vest loaded with more paraphernalia than Batman’s utility belt. As bulky as it was, it was a lot more streamlined than I expected.
“Where’s your Kevlar moon suit?” I asked.
“Captain Cates said your bomber was an amateur,” Ordway said, “so I figured there’s no point wearing an extra hundred pounds of gear on the open water just to disarm a device I could defuse in my sleep.”
“Let me show you guys what you’ll be looking for,” Rothlein piped up. He walked us to a console and turned on a TV monitor. The screen came alive with the image of a vast space filled with high-tech equipment that could have belonged to NASA, but which I assumed was the guts of Shelley Trager’s yacht.
“Where’d you get that?” I said.
“The manufacturer’s website,” Rothlein said. “Every one of these two-hundred-footers is customized, but that’s just the living quarters. The engine room doesn’t change.”
“If our boy is determined to rip it apart six ways to Sunday, I’m thinking these are the most likely places he would plant his explosives,” Ordway said, pointing out half a dozen vulnerable spots.