In the early morning quiet, Dan heard no sign of Lori and Billy, or the two other invaders from the night before. He wondered if they were still in the house-maybe the basement? Or the garage? As he ate, he found it difficult to absorb the bizarreness of his situation: his familys lives suddenly at stake; the armed invaders with their freakish masks; the way they watched him and then checked on neighbors at the windows with blinds drawn. As they monitored their phones for messages, Dan noticed Vic checking a duffel bag and the way he kept an eye on the clock over the fridge. If, as they said, they knew everything about his family, then they were aware of their routine. Dan went to work first, and concerns at Loris office or Billys school about their absences would not surface for a few hours yet.
When Dan finished, Vic and Percy took him back to the bedroom to brush his teeth and dress, bringing the bag with them.
On the bed, Dan laid out his navy gabardine trousers, his navy wool blazer, a silk tie and his powder-blue dress shirt. Hed got as far as pulling on his pants before they stopped him again.
Dans heart skipped a beat as he watched Percy reach into the bag for a vest just like the ones theyd strapped to Lori and Billy. They placed it on his chest, the Velcro fasteners crackling as they adjusted it. Dan saw the thin bricks and the wires connecting them to the power source. He could smell the nylon mingling with the scent of vanilla and plastic. They activated the power source and the timing light blinked red. Then they helped Dan tug on his shirt-a snug fit with the vest, but it worked.
Dans heart skipped a beat as he watched Percy reach into the bag for a vest just like the ones theyd strapped to Lori and Billy. They placed it on his chest, the Velcro fasteners crackling as they adjusted it. Dan saw the thin bricks and the wires connecting them to the power source. He could smell the nylon mingling with the scent of vanilla and plastic. They activated the power source and the timing light blinked red. Then they helped Dan tug on his shirt-a snug fit with the vest, but it worked.
Sweat beaded on Dans brow and his fingers trembled as he knotted his tie in front of Loris full-length mirror.
Relax, Dan, and pay attention.
Vic held up Dans glasses, black with rectangle frames.
We did a little work on these, see?
Looking closely, Dan noticed a small metal button no bigger than the head of a pin fixed to the bridge. On the inside of the arms, theyd attached two more small metal buttons.
The one in the front is a camera lens. The ones on the sides are microphone-earphone receiver transmitters. They let us see remotely on our laptop what you see, hear what you hear. And they let us talk to each other. Put them on.
Vic showed Dan the image he was seeing on their laptop.
So dont think about being a hero today. Were watching every move. If you deviate from our instructions, well detonate the vests, all three at once. Do you understand?
He understood.
They helped him pull on his blazer, adjust his hair, slip on his glasses.
Vic checked the time, then handed Dan his briefcase containing an empty, folded duffel bag.
Okay, Dan, lets go to work.
5
Roseoak Park, New York
The house is too quiet.
As they walked Dan through the back and into the garage, his fear mounted.
Are Billy and Lori in the basement?
Shut up! Vic said. Focus on what you need to do.
Dans eyes went around the garage, taking quick inventory. Suddenly the everyday items took on a new and desperate significance, a reflection of their lives before the attack. Billys bicycle, his goal net, his bats and hockey sticks, and up in one corner, his old tricycle.
Stacked on the bench were cardboard boxes of clothes Lori was preparing to donate to the church. Nearby were her clay planters, her gardening tools and her flower-printed gardening gloves. Looped neatly on a hook was the hose and, near it, Dans John Deere mower. He did his best thinking and problem-solving when he mowed the lawn.
Ive got to do something.
Vic nudged him. Dan opened the door to his Ford Taurus and got in alone. As he sat behind the wheel, he glanced at Loris Dodge Dart, parked next to him.
Step it up! Vic said.
Dan inserted the key and started his car. Vic tapped the window with his gun. Dan lowered it and Vic leaned into the drivers door, resting his gun on the frame. For an instant Dan contemplated grabbing it, but he was distracted when he saw that Percy had vanished.
They mustve parked their vehicle nearby.
Remember, Vic said, all you have to do is follow our instructions. Youre doing good so far. Itll be over before you know it, so dont mess this up. Were watching you every step of the way. Now get going.
As Vic stepped away from the car, Dan backed out of the driveway and wheeled down the street. The vest was hot and cumbersome. His skin tingled with each bump and pothole for fear the thing might go off.
On the console he saw the receipts from the recent weekend he and Lori had spent in Boston. His chief worries then had been finding good parking and the price of gas. Dan adjusted his grip on the wheel.
What the hells happening?
He rolled through their corner of Roseoak, a middle-class community of tree-lined streets with Tudor, ranch and Colonial houses. Flanked by Douglaston, Little Neck and Oakland Gardens and bordered by the Long Island Expressway and Grand Central Parkway, Roseoak Park was a desirable enclave of Queens. With good schools and no crime, it was considered a safe place to live.
A clear radio voice sounded in his ear.
Looking good, Dan.
He checked his mirrors in an effort to spot their vehicle. But there was nothing to see. It was futile.
Stick to the plan and no one gets hurt, Dan.
Dan prayed that Lori and Billy were still safe-or as safe as they could be wrapped with a bomb-and racked his brain for a way out.
Glancing in vain in his rearview mirror, he wondered again who they were-and why theyd chosen him. He crawled through traffic, knowing he had little time to act.
I could drive to the police-go right to the 111th Precinct in Bayside. Tell them everything!
He thought of Lori and Bill, and how Vic had vowed to kill them.
If I go to the police I could save them.
Sweat trickled from his temple, nearing his eye.
OrI could kill us all.
6
Manhattan, New York
Kate Page stood on the southbound platform of the 125th Street subway station.
Waiting for the next train to get her to Midtown and Newslead, the global news service where she was a reporter, she reviewed the messages on her phone again and let out a long breath.
She hadnt even set foot in the newsroom, but her exchange a few minutes ago with Reeka Beck, her editor, had already set the stage for a bad day.
Youre covering the conference of security experts at the Grand Hyatt for us today, Reeka had texted her.
But Chuck told me I was clear to enterprise today.
Change of plan. A lot going on today. Randy Kents wife went into labor, so youre going to the Hyatt this afternoon.
What about Hugh? Hes backup on security?
Its you, today. End of discussion.
The tunnel grumbled with distant vibrations of the approaching train. Its bright headlights shot from darkness as it rattled into the station. With a rush of hot, dank air, the brakes squealed and the train came to a stop. The doors opened. Kate boarded and found a seat under the large MTA subway map and ads for the addictions hotline and STD awareness.
As the train rolled south, Kate resumed panning for a story. For the past few weeks shed been trying to nail down some long-shot leads, one about stolen satellite technology and one on human trafficking. She didnt have much on either of them, and shed wanted to pursue them today, unless something fresh broke. Shed sent out some notes to a few trusted sources to see if anything new was going on, but the messages that trickled back were not promising. Kate looked up from her silent phone, wishing for a good story.
Its Deadsville out there.
She could not escape the fact that times were tough in the news business. More and more newspapers were shedding jobs. Newslead was losing subscribers, and rumors of cutbacks were swirling. But as the train grated and swayed, she did her best to stay positive. Whatever happened, she would survive.
I made it this far.
Kate stared at her translucent reflection in the window as the drab tunnel walls rushed by, pulling her back through her life. She was a thirty-one-year-old single mom with an eight-year-old daughter. Kate had been seven years old when her mother and father died in a hotel fire. After the tragedy, Kate and her little sister, Vanessa, had lived with relatives and then in foster homes. A couple of years later, Kate and Vanessas foster parents had taken them on a vacation to Canada. They were in British Columbia, driving through the Canadian Rockies, when their car spun out, flipped over and crashed into a river.
The images of that moment were seared in Kates mind.
The car sinkingthe windows breakingthe icy watergrabbing Vanessas handpulling her freeto the surfacethe frigid current numbing her bodyfingers looseningVanessa slipping awaydisappearing
Kate was the only one whod survived.
Theyd found the bodies of Kates foster parents, but Vanessas body was never recovered. The search team reasoned that it got wedged in the rocks downriver, but Kate never gave up believing that Vanessa had somehow escaped the rushing water.
She never gave up searching for her.
After the tragedy, Kate had bounced through foster homes, eventually running away for good. She spent her teen years on the street, taking any job she could find to put herself through college, where shed studied journalism. Shed worked in newsrooms across the country. Then, in San Francisco, shed had a baby girl by a man whod lied to her about being married and had written her off when hed found out she was pregnant.
Kate named her daughter Grace and raised her on her own in Ohio where shed worked at a newspaper in Canton, before downsizing cost her that job. But she hung on. She found a short-term reporting position in Dallas, and now here she was: a national correspondent at one of the worlds largest news organizations.