Part 24 (1/2)

”You gotta be a cop, right?”

”How many cops would blow your head off for this car?” said the dude. ”Now get out or I will will kill you. And leave the keys.” kill you. And leave the keys.”

Keeping his eyes to the dirty pavement, Leroy stepped out of the car, gingerly avoiding the body on the ground.

”Listen, man,” Leroy said, ”you don't know who you're messin' with...”

The gun b.u.t.t struck him on the chin. Leroy flew backward, bounced off the Explorer's door, and sank to the ground beside the other crack dealer.

Tony Almeida stepped over them and climbed behind the wheel. He honked the car's horn twice, paused, and honked again.

Hearing the signal, Judith Foy appeared a moment later.

”Two at a time. And you make it look easy,” she said, stepping over the unconscious punks.

Tony glanced away. ”Yeah.”

The woman climbed into the pa.s.senger seat, buckled her shoulder strap. Tires squealing, the Explorer pulled away from the curb and raced down Crampton Street.

2:06:13 A.M. EDT.

Eighth Floor, BeresfieId Apartments Central Park West New York, New York Slipping a .38 from its holster, Montel Tanner pushed through the broken door. His bodyguards followed, clutching .45s that looked tiny in their huge fists. They immediately heard the sound of something sc.r.a.ping across the floor.

Tanner reached the living room first - and stopped in his tracks.

He saw the wrecked chamber, the broken gla.s.s, Erno Tobias tied to a heavy leather chair. The Albino was obviously dead, but the chair was moving, moving, sliding across the blood-slick floor and through the shattered sliding door. sliding across the blood-slick floor and through the shattered sliding door.

Tanner blinked in shock. ”What the f...”

The chair sc.r.a.ped across the balcony's flagstones, then jammed to a stop against the balcony railing, the pale corpse falling limply over the chair arm. That's when Tanner saw the nylon rope tied to the chair, the other end dangling over the edge of the balcony.

”He's climbing down the side of the building!” Tanner shouted. ”Get him.”

Tanner's bodyguards blundered forward, jumping through the shattered frame of the sliding door, while Tanner himself stayed in the living room and hit speed dial on his cell phone.

As the first bodyguard peered over the balcony's iron railing, Tanner heard a pop and saw the top of the man's head explode. The big bodyguard fell backward, pitching to the flagstone floor. Tanner clutched the cell to his ear.

”Pick it up, d.a.m.n it.”

”Yo,” his driver answered at last.

”There's a guy climbing down the side of the building. I want him - alive.” alive.”

Tanner moved to the railing, carefully looked down. Tobias's murderer was already past the Caddies parked in the street. He'd crossed all four lanes of Central Park West and was now hopping over a stone fence. A split-second later, he melted into the shadows, escaping into the wooded expanse of Manhattan's largest park.

Too late, Tanner's men tumbled out of the Caddies below.

”He's gone into the park!” Tanner shouted into the phone. ”Go after him!”

The men drew their weapons and followed Tanner's orders.

2:14:26 A.M. EDT.

Central Park, near Columbus Circle Jack Bauer was outnumbered and outgunned, but that didn't bother him. During his training as a lieutenant in the Combat Applications Group - a.k.a. Delta Force - he'd learned night combat tactics from instructors of the Seventy-fifth Army Ranger Battalion, an outfit whose credo was ”We own the night.”

Now, Jack moved from shadow to shadow, hearing Sergeant Ryder's voice in his head. Evade. Encircle. Move in. Take 'em down. Evade. Encircle. Move in. Take 'em down.

Behind him, a deserted road ran through this section of Central Park. Jack could hear Montel Tanner's men blundering along it.

Untrained and undisciplined, they made every mistake in the book. They called out to one another instead of using hand gestures. They cl.u.s.tered under lampposts instead of sticking to the shadows. Two men carried flashlights - making them easy targets in the darkness.

Crouching between the hollow of two gnarly frees, Jack counted seven pursuers, all armed. One man had long dreadlocks streaming down his back. Another had a jewel-studded eye patch over his left eye and carried an Uzi. For a long time, Jack just watched them while they checked behind the wall he'd hopped, and the frees that cl.u.s.tered there.

Finally, the men fanned out, moving in a loose formation deeper into the park. Within a few minutes, they moved right past Jack's hiding place without spotting him.

Jack smiled.

As the men continued on, a straggler hung back, gripping his .45 nervously in sweating hands. When he finally pa.s.sed Jack's position, Bauer rose up behind him.

One hand covering his victim's mouth, Jack slid the bayonet between his ribs and deep into the man's heart. The man bucked in Jack's arms, groaned under his hand. Then his eyes rolled up in his head and he went limp. Silently, Jack lowered the corpse to the gra.s.s, then bolted for the shadows under the next line of frees.

”Hey, over there!” someone called.

For a split second, Jack thought he'd been spotted. Then he heard the boom of a .45. In the muzzle flash Jack saw a bearded man, his toothless mouth gaping in surprise.

One gunman with a flashlight moved in, played his beam on the corpse.

”d.a.m.n it, Tyrell, you shot some b.u.m!”

The shooter kicked the corpse. ”How was I s'posed to know he was some lame-a.s.s homeless dude?”

”The smell, bro.” bro.”

The men snickered.

Eye Patch silenced them. ”Tanner wants this guy. Keep looking,” he growled, gesturing with his Uzi.

They crossed West Drive, a curved, four-lane road that was closed to traffic at this late hour. Then the group moved into a shallow valley. Here, beyond a path lined with wrought-iron benches, a baseball field was a gray patch in the moonless night. Jack continued to stalk them.

”Where's Jackson?” Eye Patch demanded when they reached the edge of the ball field.

The others shrugged. ”Maybe he got lost in the dark,” Dreadlocks said.

”Maybe,” the leader replied.