Chapter Twenty-eight.

Aaron forced his way through the thick crowd. He didn't yell, but he did speak firmly. When people didn't move aside, he pushed them out of his way with his superior strength. He wasn't about to let his enemy escape.

His target was a young man with black skin. The sunset symbol was shaved into his short hair on the back of his head. His white Mooseland T-shirt fit tightly across his broad shoulders. He was fairly short but looked as st.u.r.dy as an oak tree.

They broke away from the crowd, and the chase continued through the city streets. Aaron was in great shape, but he was carrying a heavy load of weapons and other gear, and his long coat kept wrapping around his legs. He was equipped for battle not a footrace.

He couldn't shoot the man in the back without a witness seeing it. A steady stream of pedestrians flowed towards Wrigley Field, and many of them were staring curiously at Aaron. He had no choice but to just keep running.

The enemy turned a corner. When Aaron came around the same corner a moment later, the man was gone. Aaron looked in all directions but saw no sign of him. d.a.m.n!

The bomb he had planted earlier exploded. He glanced back to see an orange fireball rising into the sky.

He spotted a fresh footprint in the nearby gra.s.s. Muddy tracks went up a staircase to the second floor of a two-story building. Walking very quietly, he followed the tracks up to a door. The doorjamb was broken.

Aaron had no intention of walking into the building and probably straight into an ambush. He had to force the enemy to come out instead. He took two canisters from under his coat. One contained tear gas, and the other produced clouds of choking smoke. He triggered both and threw them through a window. He sprinted down the stairs, ran around to the back yard, and hid behind a bush.

After making sure there were no witnesses, he pulled out a HK USP Tactical with a suppressor, and he chambered a round. The gun fired .45 caliber bullets with explosive tips. Even a hit in a leg would create such a horrible wound that the victim might die of shock. The ammunition also had the advantage of being safe to use in an urban environment. If he hit a wall, the bullets would shatter instead of penetrating and possibly hitting a civilian.

Aaron waited. The choking smoke and tear gas would force the enemy to come out the back eventually.

Aaron wondered how Ethel and Marina were doing. There was no doubt Ethel would get her man. Her formidable mix of skills, experience, and supernatural speed made her almost unstoppable. Once she selected a target, that person was doomed.

Aaron didn't have as much confidence in Marina. She was psychologically unstable, and when he wasn't around to calm her down, her bad habits came out. Just killing people wasn't enough fun for her. She liked to turn the final act into a brutal spectacle for her own amus.e.m.e.nt. One day she would go too far and die with that crazy, scary grin on her face. He had hoped their mutual love would heal her, but it had only made the ugly episodes less frequent. She still refused to discuss the root cause of her insane anger.

Aaron heard a loud coughing followed by staggered footsteps. The sound came from the front of the house. He went out the other way! Obviously, the enemy had realized there might be an ambush waiting in the back yard.

Aaron put his gun away and sprinted back to the street. The Eternal was running but not as fast as before. Maybe the tear gas was affecting him. Aaron felt confident he would catch him this time.

The man glanced back, and the panic in his eyes indicated he had reached the same conclusion. He turned towards a white and blue Chicago bus dropping off pa.s.sengers on the side of the street. Aaron pushed himself to run even faster.

The enemy climbed into the bus and threw the driver out the open door. He tried to drive away but the street was packed with slow moving cars, so he steered the bus onto the sidewalk. Pedestrians screamed and scattered. The bus didn't go far before it became wedged between a tree and a fence, and finally, Aaron caught up to it.

He went up the stairs with his hands clenched in fists. He was very eager to finish this job. The Lord's anger burned brightly within him.

The enemy had already moved to the middle of the bus. Terrified pa.s.sengers pushed each other to get away from him, but the doors were closed. He had a knife pressed against the throat of a teenage girl. The chase had turned into a hostage situation.

"n.o.body moves," the man yelled, "or I'll kill her! Everybody stay on the bus! Make a human wall around me! Protect me or she dies!"

The knife was covered with dark paste. Poison, Aaron thought. Even a scratch would probably kill the girl.

Aaron took a deep breath. "Calm down. What's your name?"

The Eternal squeezed his knife so tightly his hand shook. "Lucifer."

"Your parents gave you that name?"

"Harbinger did."

Aaron nodded. "Well, Lucifer, you don't need hostages. Let them go. We can settle this by ourselves."

"No." Lucifer shook his head.

"I just want to talk."

"I'm not stupid! You'll kill me the first chance you get. I was at the Farm." Lucifer grimaced.

Aaron couldn't shoot the guy under these circ.u.mstances, and he couldn't walk away, so that left negotiation as his only option. He hated that option.

"The police will be here in a minute," Aaron said. "You want to deal with them instead?"

"Yeah. They won't kill me."

Smart man. "What are you worried about? You're a tough guy, a trained a.s.sa.s.sin. You can handle me."

"Take off your coat," Lucifer said. "What are you hiding?"

Aaron wasn't about to reveal his a.s.sortment of guns, knives, and explosives in front of civilians. He looked out the window and saw a female cop running towards the bus. Sirens wailed in the distance. A complicated situation was about to become almost intractable.

He could only deal with one problem at a time. He walked out of the bus to meet the policewoman. She had short dark hair and a mole on her cheek.

"Stop!" he said. "Stay off the bus!"

The cop stopped running. "Why? What's going on?"

"I'm a federal agent with the Office of Domestic Counterterrorism. There is a terrorist on that bus. He's extremely dangerous and he has hostages."

"Oh." She looked at the bus with an anxious expression. "I'd better call for backup. I need to talk to my supervisor."

"Do that. In the meantime I'll negotiate with the terrorist. When your supervisor gets here, I'll brief him."

She started talking on her radio.

Aaron got back on the bus. Lucifer had gathered all the pa.s.sengers into a tight cl.u.s.ter. He was in the center of the cl.u.s.ter, well protected on all sides by human bodies. He had two hostages now: the teenage girl and a small boy. He held a knife in both hands, and his arms were wrapped around their necks.

"What's your plan?" Aaron said. "Do you even have a plan?"

"I plan to live," Lucifer said.

"I thought the Eternals wanted to die."

"We were supposed to be the last ones to go, not the first. That's what Harbinger told us."

"Ah, in that case you could change sides and work for me and my team. Then we wouldn't have to kill you at all. That's your best chance at survival."

Aaron's phone rang. The display showed Ethel's number, so he answered it. "Please make this quick," he said quietly. "I'm in the middle of a hostage situation."

"Marina and I are done," Ethel said. "Do you need a.s.sistance?"

"Not urgently, ma'am. You should destroy the poisoned beer before anybody else drinks it."

"We'll find you later."

"I may be in police custody."

"We'll still find you," she said. "Bye."

Aaron closed his phone. "Sorry about that," he said. "Where were we?"

"You were about to lie to me about how safe I'll be if I go with you," Lucifer said.

"Do you think the police can protect you? Do you know what happened to the carnival?"

"Some kind of huge bomb." Lucifer frowned. "Everybody was killed."

"Actually, it was a Tomahawk cruise missile. And I have another fact for you: Harbinger is dead."

"No."

"It's the truth," Aaron said. "The person who killed him doesn't miss. She won't miss you, either, even if you're in witness protection. In fact that will just make it easier for her to find you. So, if you truly want to live, you need to answer a question. Which team do you want to play for? You may not trust us, but you've seen what happens when you fight us."

Lucifer didn't respond. The pa.s.sengers were restless but remained in position. Their frightened eyes pleaded for rescue.

A fleet of police cars was gathering on the street. The police had already established a perimeter made of cars and men, isolating the bus. Aaron admired their efficiency. It was time to have another conversation with Chicago's finest.

He walked off the bus, and all the cops immediately looked at him. He went straight over to the one who was giving orders to the rest.

"Hi." Aaron put out his hand. "I'm Special Agent Joseph Drake, Federal Office of Domestic Counterterrorism."

"I'm Captain Robinson." The captain shook his hand. "Tell me about the terrorist."

He was a tall, black man with a round face. His uniform was perfectly tailored for his lean physique.

"His plan was to plant a bomb under Wrigley Field and blow it up during the singing of the national anthem. I intercepted him before he entered the stadium, and I chased him onto the bus."

"Can I see some identification?"

"Sorry," Aaron said, "no. I'm undercover."

Robinson gave him an odd look. "What are you hiding under that coat?"

"Weapons. Standard issue stuff. When you're dealing with terrorists, you have to be prepared."

"Let me see."

Aaron had no choice. He opened his long, gray coat.

"Holy s.h.i.t." Robinson's eyes widened. "That's not standard issue stuff. Federal agents don't carry silencers and blocks of C-4."

"I'm more like a military operator." Aaron closed his coat. "There are people in Washington who will vouch for me, but we can call them later. Right now innocent lives are at risk. There are children on that bus. What are we going to do about it?"

"You'll do nothing about it. My best hostage negotiator is coming, and he'll run the show."

"But this is my case."

"You will remove your weapons and store them safely. Then you will wait in the back of a squad car until we need you, if we need you."

"Really?" Aaron said.

"Yes," Robinson said. "I have two headaches here: the terrorist and you. I can do something about you."

Aaron didn't want to be pushed aside. Very bad things usually happened when outsiders interfered with a Spears mission. G.o.d wanted His dirty laundry washed by His people alone. The captain didn't know it, but he was putting his men in grave danger.

"This terrorist is the subject of a federal investigation," Aaron said. "He's my responsibility. I won't stand down."

"Then I'll arrest you. For all I know, you're a terrorist too."

"That's crazy."

"Prove I'm wrong. Show me some paperwork. Oh, wait, you don't have any." Robinson shrugged.

"Let me make a phone call," Aaron said. "I'll get this straightened out."

"You can make your call when you're sitting in the car." Robinson nodded to his men. "Get him out of here."

Aaron had no choice but to comply. If he fought the police, the situation could only get worse.

Two burly cops escorted Aaron to one of the squad cars. He had to put all of his gear into the trunk, and they patted him down to make sure he wasn't hiding anything. They missed a few small, well concealed items, but his main weapons were gone. He felt naked without his guns and body armor. The only thing he was permitted to keep was his phone.

Aaron sat on the back seat of the car. The doors wouldn't open from the inside, and sheets of metal and clear plastic prevented him from reaching the front.

As soon as he was alone, he called Ethel.

"h.e.l.lo?" she said.

"I could use some advice, ma'am," he said. "The enemy has hostages on a city bus. The police are holding me in a car. I think I'm losing control of the situation."

"Hmm. Can the enemy escape?"

"I don't think so. The police have the bus surrounded, and they're not taking any chances."