Horns wailed, and brakes squealed. Restak rolled over the hood of one car, and an SUV in the next lane swerved to avoid him, crashing at high speed into a truck in the left lane. The accident triggered a chain reaction as vehicles banged into each other with screeches of metal, and one car flew onto its side as the driver overcorrected.
Bourne stopped short at the parkway, unable to cross. The lanes in front of him were littered with crashes. Ahead of him, Restak jumped the barrier into the northbound lanes and then did a running leap to a wrought-iron fence and threw his body into the East River Park. Not slowing down, he took off toward the water.
Jason ran up a ramp to the pedestrian overpass. When he made it to the park, he didn’t see Restak. He cursed and took off toward the river, but he made it all the way to the wide jogging path by the water and didn’t see the Medusa operative anywhere. He stopped to catch his breath and slapped the railing over the East River in frustration.
Runners came and went in both directions in the waning light of dusk. Not far away, the Williamsburg Bridge arched across the water. He walked another hundred yards north, looking for someone hiding in the trees, but the Medusa operative had vanished.
Peter Restak was gone.
*
IT was dark by the time Jason and Abbey made it back to the safe house. They stopped at a diner for dinner, but neither one of them said anything to the other. They rode the elevator in silence, too. It was only when they got to the apartment door that Abbey said what was on both of their minds.
“What now? What do we do?”
Jason shrugged. “I’m not sure. I don’t have a plan yet.”
“Can you talk to your friend Scott again?”
“No, he made it clear that his help was a one-time thing. I’m on my own.”
“You mean we.”
“No. I don’t. You need to go back to Canada. I have no more leads, and the only thing you’re going to do by staying with me is put yourself at greater risk. You helped me, Abbey. You helped me a lot. But there’s nothing more for you to do now.”
She brushed her bangs from her eyes. “Is that what you really want? For me to go?”
He said the one thing he shouldn’t say. The one thing that made no sense. “It’s not what I want. No. But it’s the way it has to be.”
Abbey shook her head. “I don’t care. I’m staying.”
Jason used the key to open the apartment door. He left the lights off. The curtains at the window looking out over Gramercy Park were open, letting in the glow of the city. He realized he was tired. Bone-tired. Days of pain had caught up to him. His body was a mess of bruises. He could feel a throbbing where he’d been shot, and his headache was back. His shoulder felt numb where the woman in the Guy Fawkes mask had struck him with the lead pipe. He wanted to sleep for days, but he knew he couldn’t.
In another hour, they’d leave the city. They’d drive all night.
To go where? He didn’t know.
“I’m going to take a shower,” Jason said, hearing the weariness in his own voice. “Keep the lights off. We need to go soon.”
He went to the bedroom and pushed the door partly closed and stripped off his clothes. In the shower, he scraped off the dirt and then stood under the rainfall showerhead with his eyes closed. The hot water revived him, and some of his muscles relaxed. He felt better when he returned to the bedroom and dressed in fresh clothes. Through the crack of the door, he saw only darkness in the other room.
“You can shower, too, if you want,” Jason called to Abbey.
She didn’t answer.
“Abbey?”
He still heard only silence from the living room.
Jason went to the bed and took his gun in his hand. He pointed it straight ahead as he crept to the door. He listened carefully and heard a low disturbance on the other side. Someone crying softly. Breath coming in ragged bursts.
“Abbey?” he called one more time. “I’m coming out.”
Bourne slowly opened the door into the semidarkness of the living room, leading with the gun.
“Jason!” Abbey said, her voice choked with tears.
He could see her near the front door, bathed in the bright city glow through the window. Her eyes pleaded with him. She