Logan tapped his cell phone. “GPS says we’re eighteen minutes away from the station.”

Cowboy banged on the glass that separated them from Vasile’s driver. “Go fucking faster.” The car sped up considerably.

“What’s the plan?” asked Cowboy.

Matteo held up his hand, his cell phone to his ear. “Talia, it’s Matteo. Ten Komanda is going to blow up South Street Station during the vigil tonight. I’m on my way there with HERO Force. I need you to get word to the police that we’ll be there with weapons, so they don’t think we’re the terrorists. And I can’t get Grace on the phone. Let her know what’s going on and I’ll call when I can.” He hung up the phone and met Cowboy’s stare. “Voice mail.”

“You love this woman?”

He saw Logan and Hawk staring from his peripheral vision. “Yeah.”

“Really love her?” asked Hawk.

Matteo turned to face him. “I’m going to marry her.”

“I think you already did,” said Cowboy.

“For real, this time.”

“This map doesn’t make any sense,” said Austin. “According to this, three subway lines converge at South Street Station, but only one set of tracks is shown.”

“Maybe it’s an old map. I looked it up online and they made some changes to it fifteen or sixteen years ago.” said Logan. “Let me see.”

“All right, kids,” said Hawk. “We’ve got your standard issue AK-47s, we’ve got some spiffy new nine mils, we’ve got some CS gas and masks if we need ’em and some military-issue pepper spray coming at you.” He started passing weapons to the men.

“Let me see if I’ve got this right,” said Matteo. “They’re going to have explosives and we’ve got pepper spray?”

“And righteousness,” said Hawk. “Don’t forget righteousness.”

Matteo shook his head. “I don’t think that’s going to cut it. The crowd is their greatest weapon—the threat of casualties. We need a way to get the crowd to disperse so their explosives can’t hurt anyone. How are guns going to help us do that?”

Hawk snapped his fingers. “Great minds think alike.” He reached into a big canvas duffel bag and withdrew a bullhorn. “I figure I tell them what’s about to go down, and they won’t be able to run away fast enough.”

“If that doesn’t work, we can just start shooting. That should make ’em run,” said Austin.

“Some will run, some will get down on the ground. Not what we’re going for,” said Cowboy.

Matteo’s mind was whirling. “Tell me they won’t bring Nico here. Tell me they’re two separate plans that have nothing to do with each other.”

The men just looked at him.

“Fuck.” Matteo shook his head. “The crowd isn’t their biggest weapon. Grace’s baby is.”

Logan turned the map upside down. “Austin’s right. This map is fucked up.”

The car pulled into the parking lot of the subway station, which was already full. Hundreds of people filled the adjacent park.

“The station itself is directly underneath that park,” said Logan. “With entrances to the subway on either corner. The vigil is about to start in the grand gazebo, right smack in the middle of the park, and dead center over ground zero. As for the tracks, I just don’t know.”

“Objective number one is to clear that park of people,” said Matteo. “Then we find the boy.”

“Hopefully Talia got your message in time to let the local beat know we’re the good guys,” said Hawk.

“One way to find out.” Matteo hopped out of the car and headed for a mounted policeman, then jogged back. “We’re good. They’ve been told.”

The men got out of the vehicle, immediately drawing attention with their camouflage uniforms and large black guns. Hawk pulled out the bullhorn. “Attention, ladies and gentlemen. We have a public safety situation at hand and we need clear the park immediately. The candlelight vigil will need to be rescheduled.”

Everyone was looking at Hawk, but no one moved to leave. Hawk looked to Cowboy, who shrugged, the put the bullhorn back to his mouth. “Terrorists are going to blow up the subway station! Get out of here, now!”

The people ran.

“That definitely worked better,” said Cowboy.

Matteo led the way. “Let’s get down to the station.” He checked his watch. We have less than eight minutes until the vigil was supposed to start.” They split up, one man going down each set of stairs so they covered all the entrances. Foul, hot air blew up from the station as Matteo made his way down.

He could hear Hawk on his bullhorn spreading panic and sending tons of people up the stairway past Matteo. By the time he got all the way to the bottom, the only people there were the HERO Force men themselves.

The station was empty.

Matteo spun in a circle. All that was down here were some bathrooms, an empty ticket booth and the tracks themselves, the tunnels leading away from the platforms. “Three subway lines. Four tunnels here that branch into six tunnels away from the station,” he said.

“And only four of us,” said Logan.

“Where do these tunnels go?” asked Matteo. “What’s most likely?”

Logan pointed to one set of tracks. “It’s a crapshoot, Red. I can’t tell.”

“Fuck.” Matteo shook his head. “So, we’ve got an eighty-three percent chance of picking the right line, and a hundred percent chance of having one of us against a handful of them.”

“That’s right,” said Logan.

“Are the trains running?” asked Hawk.

“Who the fuck knows.” Matteo moved to Logan. “Did you bring the map?”

Logan pulled it out of his pocket and handed it to Matteo, who spread it out on the ground. He lined up the drawing of the subway platform with the single line in the map, then stood up and pointed. “I say we go that way. Two go left and two go right.”

“What if they’re on the other line?” asked Logan.

“They’re not. This map means something to them. It doesn’t need to mean anything to us. They had it for a reason. We take this track.” He folded up the map and tucked it in his own pocket. “Doc, you’re with me. Hawk, Austin, and Cowboy, you go that way.”

They started walking down the middle of the tracks in the opposite direction from the other men, flashlights blazing.

“Watch out for the third rail,” said Logan. “If a train comes, we need to get up on that walkway on your side.”

“Got it.”

“There still won’t be a lot of room, but if we flatten our bodies—”

“Logan, shut up.”

They walked in silence for a hundred yards, the beating of Matteo’s heart in his ears the only sound he could hear. He stopped walking and turned to Logan. “We’ve got this all wrong. Think this through with me. They’re not going to walk along the tracks like we are. They’re going to blow up the station. They’ve already been here.”

“Most likely, yes. They would have set the charges hours, days, or even weeks before now.”

“So why even be here?”

“Because they can’t leave a baby in the middle of the park alone. If they’re really going to try to kill Nico, they want the world to see it.”

“Without the world seeing them.” Matteo shined his flashlight along the sides of the tunnel. “What’s so special about this tunnel that would allow them to do that?”

Logan jerked his head back. “I know what it is. This tunnel was built before the other two, before the technology to burrow so far underground without destabilizing the earth was perfected.” He moved to the wall, shining his own light on it. “This tunnel isn’t a tunnel at all. This was built on ground level and covered over with steel and concrete.”

“What does it mean, Logan? What are they going to do?”

The other man turned toward him, his lips parted and his eyes far away. “If I were a madman who wanted everyone to see what I was about to do? I’d blow up the park with enough of a bang to clear the roof off the tracks. Send the park flying.”

“Leaving only the tracks below.”

“They’d be ruined. Any train that tried to ride those tracks would derail.” Logan shook his head. “It would take a hell of a lot of explosives to send the park flying. More than you could hide in a subway station.”

“Then how would they get them here?” asked Matteo.

A hot breeze blew down the tunnel toward them, followed by the squeal of metal on metal and the gleam of a train’s headlight. Logan hopped up on the maintenance walkway and Matteo followed him, flattening himself against the wall. The train passed by like a moving picture, loud and rumbling.

They hopped back down onto the tracks and looked at each other with complete understanding.

“Run!” they both yelled.