FORTY-FOUR

I WOKE UP ALL OVER AGAIN, BUT I DIDN’T OPEN MY EYES immediately. I felt like the clock in my head was back on track, and I wanted to let it calibrate and settle in undisturbed. Right then it was showing six o’clock in the evening. Which meant I had been out about another eight hours.

I was very hungry and very thirsty. My arm hurt the same way my leg had. A hot little bruise, right up there at the top. I could feel that I still had no shoes. But my wrists and my ankles weren’t fastened to the rails of the cot. Which was a relief. I stretched

lazily and rubbed a palm across my face. More stubble. I was heading for a regular beard.

I opened my eyes. Looked around. Discovered two things. One: Theresa Lee was in the cage to my right. Two: Jacob Mark was in the cage to my left.

Both of them were cops.

Neither one of them had shoes on.

That was when I started to worry.

If I was right and it was six o’clock in the evening, then Theresa Lee had been hauled in from home. And Jacob Mark had been brought in from work. They were both looking at me. Lee was standing behind her bars, about five feet away. She was wearing blue jeans and a white shirt. She had bare feet. Jake was sitting on his cot. He was wearing a police officer’s uniform, minus the belt and the gun and the radio and the shoes. I sat up on my cot and swung my feet to the floor and ran my hands through my hair. Then I stood up and stepped over to the sink and drank from the faucet. New York City, for sure. I recognized the taste of the water. I looked at Theresa Lee and asked her, ‘Do you know exactly where we are?’

She said, ‘Don’t you?’

I shook my head.

She said, ‘We have to assume this place is wired for sound.’

‘I’m sure it is. But they already know where we are. So we won’t be giving them anything they don’t already have.’

‘I don’t think we should say anything.’

‘We can discuss geographic facts. I don’t think the Patriot Act prohibits street addresses, at least not yet.’

Lee said nothing.

I said, ‘What?’

She looked uneasy.

I said, ‘You think I’m playing games with you?’

She didn’t answer.

I said, ‘You think I’m here to trap you into saying something on tape?’

‘I don’t know. I don’t know anything about you.’

‘What’s on your mind?’

‘Those clubs on Bleecker are nearer Sixth Avenue than Broadway. You had the A train right there. Or the B or the C or the D. So why were you on the 6 train at all?’

‘Law of nature,’ I said. We’re hardwired in our brains. Middle of the night, full dark, all mammals head east instinctively.’

‘Really?

‘No, I just made that up. I had nowhere to go. I came out of a bar and turned left and walked. I can’t explain it any better than that.’

Lee said nothing.

I said, ‘What else?’

Lee said, You have no bags. I never saw a homeless person with nothing. Most of them haul more stuff around than I own. They use shopping carts.’

‘I’m different,’ I said. ‘And I’m not a homeless person. Not like them.’

She said nothing.

I asked her, ‘Were you blindfolded when they brought you here?’

She looked at me for a long moment and then she shook her head and sighed. She said, ‘We’re in a closed firehouse in Greenwich Village. On West 3rd. Street level and above is disused. We’re in the basement.’

‘Do you know exactly who these guys are?’

She didn’t speak. Just glanced up at the camera. I said, ‘Same principle. They know who they are. At least I hope they do. Doesn’t hurt for them to know that we know, too.’

‘You think?’

‘That’s the point. They can’t stop us thinking. Do you know they are?’

‘They didn’t show ID. Not today, and not that first night either, when they came to talk to you at the precinct.’

‘But?’

‘Not showing ID can be the same thing as showing it, if you’re the only bunch that never does. We’ve heard some stories.’

‘So who are they?’

‘They work directly for the Secretary of Defense.’

‘That figures,’ I said. ‘The Secretary of Defense is usually the dumbest guy in the government.’

Lee glanced up at the camera again, as if I had insulted it. As if I had caused it to be insulted. I said, ‘Don’t worry. These guys look ex-military to me, in which case they already know how dumb the Secretary of Defense is. But even so, Defense is a Cabinet position, which means ultimately these guys an’ working for the White House.’

Lee paused a beat and asked, ‘Do you know what they want?’

‘Some of it.’

‘Don’t tell us.’

‘I won’t,’ I said.

‘But is it big enough for the White House?’

‘Potentially, I guess.’

‘Shit.’

‘When did they come for you?’

‘This afternoon. Two o’clock. I was still asleep.’

‘Did they have the NYPD with them?’

Lee nodded, and a little hurt showed in her eyes. I asked, ‘Did you know the patrolmen?’

She shook her head. ‘Hotshot counterterrorism guys. They write their own rules and keep themselves separate. They ride around in special cars all day long. Fake taxis, sometimes. One in the front, two in the back. Did you know that? Big circles, up on Tenth, down on Second. Like the B-52s used to patrol the skies.’

‘What time is it now? About six after six?’

She looked at her watch, and looked surprised.

‘Dead on,’ she said.

I turned the other way.

‘Jake?’ I said. ‘What about you?’

‘They came for me first. I’ve been here since noon. Watching you sleep.’

‘Any word from Peter?’

‘Nothing.’

‘I’m sorry.’

‘You snore, you know that?’

‘I was full of gorilla tranquillizer. From a dart gun.’

‘You’re kidding.’

I showed him the bloodstain on my pants, and then the one on my shoulder.

‘That’s insane,’ he said.

‘Were you at work?’

He nodded. ‘The dispatcher called my car back to base, and they were waiting for me.’

‘Your department knows where you are?’

‘Not specifically,’ he said. ‘But they know who took me away.’

‘That’s something,’ I said.

‘Not really,’ he said. ‘The department won’t do anything for me. Guys like these come for you, suddenly you’re tainted, presumed guilty of something. People were already inching away from me.’

Lee said, ‘Like when Internal Affairs comes calling.’

I asked her, ‘Why isn’t Docherty here?’

‘He knows less than me. In fact he went out of his way to know less than me. Didn’t you notice that? He’s an old hand.’

‘He’s your partner.’

‘Today he is. By next week he’ll have forgotten he ever had a partner. You know how these things work.’

Jake said, ‘There are only three cells here. Maybe Docherty is where else.’

I asked, ‘Have these guys talked to you yet?’

Both of them shook their heads.

I asked, ‘Are you worried?’

Both of them nodded. Lee asked, ‘Are you?’

‘I’m sleeping well,’ I said. ‘But I think that’s mostly because of the tranquillizers.’

At six thirty they brought us food. Deli sandwiches, in plastic clamshell packs that were turned sideways and pushed through the bars. Plus bottles of water. I drank my water first and refilled the bottle from the tap. My sandwich was salami and cheese.

Finest meal I ever ate

At seven o’clock they took Jacob Mark away for questioning. No restraints. No chains. Theresa Lee and I sat on our cots, about eight feet apart, separated by bars. We didn’t talk much. Lee seemed depressed. At one point she said, ‘I lost some good friends when the towers came down. Not just cops. Firefighters, people that I had worked with. People that I had known for years.’ She said it as if she thought those truths should insulate her from the craziness that came afterwards. I didn’t answer her, Mostly I sat quiet and re-ran conversations in my head. All kinds of people had been talking at me. For hours. John Sansom, Lila Hoth, the guys in the next room. I was running through what they had all said, the same way a cabinet maker runs his palm over a length of planed wood, looking for the rough spots. There were a few. There were strange half-comments, odd nuances, little off-key implications. I didn’t know what any of them meant. Not then. But knowing that they were there was useful in itself.