there was suddenly a wall right in front of them. Rad flinched, throwing himself to one side instinctively, and the green light faded as the car continued to turn. There was a soft, deep thud as the car hit something and came to a stop.
Rad pulled himself upright.
They were inside the airship – it had opened a cargo door. The white spotlights illuminating the street were now out beyond the bay doors. Ahead, Rad could see the rubble of the collapsed building.
The car had collided with a collection of wooden crates and sacks of something softer, destroying several boxes and spilling the contents of the sacks. The air was filled with a harsh scraping – the sound, Rad realized, of the car’s stuck engine. Jennifer killed it, and the floor of the cargo bay tipped. The car slid against the wall, and the view of the road outside vanished as the airship lifted off and the cargo bay doors began to close.
Lights were thrown on outside. Rad looked around, and saw Jennifer and Kane were as surprised as he was that they been suddenly, unexpectedly, rescued from a dead end.
“Mr Bradley, a pleasure, as always,” came a voice, metallic and echoing, coming from all around them. The voice over the ship’s PA filled the cargo bay.
Rad felt Kane looking at him.
“Is that…?”
Rad nodded. Then he opened his door and swung a foot out. He leaned forward and looked at the cargo bay’s high ceiling. The place vibrated as the ship’s propeller engines carried them up and out to safety.
“Captain Carson, you sonovabitch.”
The PA squawked as the voice laughed.
“My dear detective, such a way with words,” said Carson. “Now, come up to the main deck, all of you. Follow the stairs. I’ll open the doors.”
Rad cracked a grin and slapped the top of Jennifer’s seat. “About time I started to count these blessings we all seem to have. Come on.”
He swung himself out of the car, Kane right behind him. Rad pointed to the narrow metal staircase ahead of them, leading to a walkway that ran around the hold halfway between the floor and ceiling. On the walkway at the back of the hold was the bulkhead door.
Kane took a step forward, but Rad turned back to the car. Jennifer hadn’t moved from the driver’s seat.
Rad peered in to the car’s interior. “You coming?”
She nodded, and Rad helped her out. But as she walked forward he kept his hand on the small of her back.
They had a lot of talking to do, all of them.
Especially Special Agent Jennifer Jones.
THIRTY-SIX
Carson led the way from the Nimrod, unbuckling himself as soon as the craft had touched down in the dark tunnel. He had hardly spoken except to bark the order to follow as he hobbled off the flight deck, wooden leg and wooden stick banging on the floor. Rad was right behind, grateful that his old friend was still alive but wondering what the hell had happened to him out beyond the fog. Along with the wooden leg and Santa Claus beard, Captain Carson was older by a decade.
Despite Carson’s disability, Rad and the others had to jog to keep up with the old man. They walked out of the tunnel into a huge chamber, a concourse of elegant marble, the blue ceiling immensely high and studded with lights like the night sky.
“What is this place?” asked Rad as they crossed from one side of the chamber to the other.
Finally Carson broke his silence. “It is called Grand Central. It has been here always, although never used. It is a train station.”
Carson led them up an inclined passageway and then down a set of wide, shallow stairs. Rad jogged alongside him. “There are no trains in the Empire State.”
Rad saw Carson grin under his beard. “Precisely,” he said. “The City Commissioners were never interested in this place. A veritable fortress, right in the heart of the city! I always thought it would be useful one day, so I had one of the tunnels converted to an airship dock. Splendid, isn’t it?”
“That’s one word for it, sure,” said Rad.
“Oh, Mr Bradley, you haven’t changed, haven’t changed a bit.” Carson clapped, his face lit in a grin Rad remembered well. “And, Kane, my dear fellow,” he said, turning to the younger man, “it is a sheer delight to discover you did not perish as we all thought. The Fissure is a strange and wonderful thing.”