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Eventually the helicopter came to pick him up
IN TRANSIT: APRIL 12, T+12:22
Seen from the roof of Bellevue the sky over New York City was a deep blue-black Up this high Chapel could even see a few stars, though ht that seemed to rise from the city like mist On the western horizon a last streak of pink ht, out past that sunset there are three ets Iht the scent of blood And he had just throay the best weapon he had to find and fight theel?"
There was no response
"Angel," he said, "I&039;m sorry if I was rude"
She didn&039;t reply
"Sir?" the pilot asked, leaning across the crew seats of the chopper and shouting over the noise of the engine "We need to get airborne"
Chapel nodded and climbed into his seat A helmet waited for him there-he picked it up and started to pull it on when he realized he would have to take the hands-free unit out of his ear for it to fit
His h the helicopter&039;s radio if she felt like talking He put the hands-free unit in his pocket and pulled the hel the microphone, he asked the pilot, "What are your orders?"
"Sir, I&039;m to take you to Newark Airport; that&039;s just the other side of the Hudson River There you will find a civilian jet waiting for you to take you wherever you want to go I&039;m supposed to ask you where that is, sir They need to file a flight plan before you arrive or you won&039;t be able to take off"
Where indeed? The next naraphical order, were in Atlanta and Chicago He had to pick one and hope that he wasn&039;t haring off after another distraction If he chose the wrong one, if he wasted ti an innocent person to death He pulled the cruers on his knee The target in Chicago was named Eleanor Pechowski; the one in Atlanta was a Jereht have told hiet for the chi to hi he&039;d heard Teddy Roosevelt had said In a crisis, the best thing you can do is the right thing The second best was the wrong thing The worst thing you could do was nothing
He had to make a decision He had to just pick one
"Atlanta," he told the pilot "I&039; to Atlanta next"
So he could start this whole crazy chase over froht as well settle in, sir This&039;ll take a little while," the pilot told him
Chapel nodded and looked out hisThey were already lifting off the hospital roof The helicopter made a wide arc around a skyscraper and headed west, toward the sunset At least he wasday and he felt like closing his eyes,they taught hiht be, whenever he got the chance He closed his eyes and tried to cal mind Tried not to think about dead doctors andelse
Before he could nod off, though, he felt his phone ju who could be calling hi hiel
It was neither of the a 718 area code He vaguely remembered that was the code for Brooklyn
He only knew one person in Brooklyn "Julia?" he said, answering the call "Did you think of so that I needed to-"
"Chapel!" Julia said She was shouting, but he could barely hear her over the noise of the helicopter Only a feords got through "Chapel, you-to come-man here-police-says he&039;s police-don&039;t knoho else to-think he&039;s-kill me!"
The phone beeped three times and the words CALL FAILED appeared on the screen Chapel wasn&039;t used to this phone-it worked differently froed to call up the recent call menu and tried to call her back The phone beeped three ti hiain
Three beeps
Chapel could only think one thing A second chimera was in New York-and it had decided to pick up where the first one left off It was going to kill Julia
"Change of plans," he told the pilot "Take us to Brooklyn-as fast as you can!"
The pilot shook his head and looked over at Chapel "Sir, that&039;s not allowed I&039;ve already put in ht plan, and the local authorities are very strict about civilian aircraft deviating fro to die if you don&039;t turn around right now," Chapel told the rabbed the chin strap of his heled his head to the side to make eye contact "Turn around," he said
The pilot was military He knehat a direct order sounded like
BROOKLYN, NEW YORK: APRIL 12, T+12:31
The pilot set them down on the ball field of a public park not too far froet
Chapel jus and headed for the closest exit froh, and the clinic was only two blocks away He prayed he wasn&039;t too late
He&039;d never forgive himself if he failed to save Julia, not after he&039;d already failed her ht for the night An iron shutter had been pulled down over its front door and curtains obscured its s He was about to ha to be let in, when he heard a sudden sharp noise counshot
Or one fired froun
Chapel looked up and saw there were no bars on the s of the second story of the building There was a light fixture just above the doorway that looked sturdy enough to hold his weight He juood hand, then slowly pulled hi around it
As a kid in Florida Chapel had climbed plenty of trees Then in the army he&039;d learned to clie froht on that foot, but he e of the second-storyDesperation gave hith as he pulled hie It was only a few inches wide, but it was enough
He tried theand found it opened freely Chapel juh feetfirst and landed in a dark bedroom full of minimalist furniture Thankfully there was nobody asleep in the bed He hurried to the room&039;s door and started to reach for the knob-then reainst the door instead
For aThen a soft creak, as if someone had stepped on a loose stair riser The chih theand was coate
The sound wasn&039;t repeated Chapel had no idea where the chi et shot He drew his weapon and held it lon by his thigh
Every shred of his training told him he was in a lousy situation There was an armed madman out there beyond the door, and Chapel had no idea of his location or if he was even alone Opening the door would expose hilanced down at the bottom of the door and saw only darkness there-there would be no lights in the hall outside He would be running blind, running right into what could be an ambush or a trap or who knehat Julia could already be dead, and he -worse than that, he was jeopardizing hislike this
He reached down and turned the doorknob
To hell with caution, he told himself And then he shoved the door open and threw hi his arm up to point his pistol first one way, then the other, up and down the hall
He saw no ain-
-when he heard the saave his eyes a ht cah to see that there were two other doors on the hall, and that to his left it ended in a stairwell leading down The doors were all closed He was certain the creaking had co A silhouette A shadow Just a few steps fro ain
The shape held so and narrow-like a silenced pistol
Chapel did what you were never supposed to do in such a situation He i himself forward, he ran toward the top of the stairs and then threw hiht for the center of the shadow&039;sout, a dull roar muffled by the silencer The h for Chapel to see that his target was a rab theto the floor of the stair landing He took the fall with his shoulder and spun around, weapon up and raised and ready to fire
The long barrel of the silencer was already pointed right at his face He&039;d taken his target down, but the chiet his bearings
"Ah, hoeet," the chimera said "You came back for her" The chimera seemed to find this uproariously funny He couldn&039;t see
That hen Chapel realized he wasn&039;t facing a chimera at all
BROOKLYN, NEW YORK: APRIL 12, T+12:39
"I&039; Boy said "Okay? Nobody needs to move, I just want to To Heh heh heh Get a look at you"
"Try anything and I will shoot," Chapel told hi Boy reached up and flicked a light switch Chapel was ready for it, but still the sudden light dazzled hi Boy had plenty of time to shoot him in the second or so it took his eyes to adjust, but the CIA freak didn&039;t take the opportunity
Once Chapel could see, he understood the situation a little better The two of the of the stairs, Chapel in a tight firing crouch, Laughing Boy hunched over just a little Laughing Boy&039;s silenced pistol was still pointed right at Chapel&039;s face
Chapel&039;s sidearhing Boy couldn&039;t stop giggling, perhaps at the absurdity of this situation His whole body shook with un The barrel of his pistol didn&039;t so much as bob up and down
"Where&039;s Julia?" Chapel deed
"Answerthe whole ti that ive orders around here Not e&039;ve both dran on each other"
Chapel gritted his teeth He thought of so that had occurred to him before "Do hing Boy&039;s srin "Oh, clever But no I&039;m not one of them I&039;ot nothing in coh of this Put your weapon away or I&039;ll shoot," Chapel de Boy said He chuckled at the thought "I do what I have to do"
"You&039;re going to tell me that&039;s why you&039;re here? In the interest of national security?" Chapel could hardly believe it
Laughing Boy nodded "She was exposed to the virus I just need to bring her in for a couple tests"
"Sure," Chapel said "That makes sense That&039;s why you came with a silencer on your weapon And why she called ht-you&039;re cleverer than I gave you credit for, aren&039;t you? I was going to put a bullet in her and then burn her body But, you know, it&039;s all details" Laughing Boy chortled so hard his concentration broke for a second