Escape From New York by Mike McQuay Read Free Book Online Page B

deathshead smile. All of his teeth had been filed down to tiny, razor sharp points. He spoke slowly, dragging the words up painfully through the slime pit of his lungs. “If you touch me,” he said, “he dies. If you’re not in the air in thirty seconds, he dies. If you come back in, he dies.”
    Hauk just stared at him, trying to read behind the lifeless, sunken eyes. Couldn’t.
    “I have something for you,” Romero said, and held out his hand. Hauk reached out, never taking his eyes off Romero’s. The man, chuckling softly, dropped something lightly in his palm.
    Hauk looked down to see a small, rolled up cloth.
    Blood had soaked through it. He looked once at Romero’s grinning teeth and unwound the wrapping. It contained a finger, severed at the third joint. There was a ring on the finger. And on the ring—the Presidential seal.
    Hauk raised his eyes once more to Romero.
    “Twenty seconds,” the man said.
    “I’m ready to talk.”
    “Nineteen. Eighteen.”
    “What do you want?”
    Romero just grinned—a mask, a grinning demon in human disguise.
    “Seventeen. Sixteen.”
    Hauk realized that the man had no idea what he wanted. He started backing away, never taking his eyes from Romero. He waved his hand above his head.
    “Let’s go. Let’s go!”
    There were shouts, confusion. They didn’t want to go. The tension was built and demanded release. Somewhere in the smoke, a gun went off.
    Hauk was screaming now, trying to control them with his fury. “Hold your fire, goddamnit! Hold it!”
    “Fifteen. Fourteen.”
    Hauk turned his back on Romero and ran into the midst of his people. He started grabbing them, turning them back toward the distant copters.
    “We’re getting out of here,” he screamed. “Let’s go! Now!”
    They started turning, reluctantly.
    “Move, damnit! Run!”
    Finally they turned and committed, putting the stoppers back on their lust for a little while, Hauk made sure they were all leaving, then turned back to Romero. He was gone.
    He ran quickly to the command copter and ordered the pilot into the sky as soon as he got in. His insides were jangling, raw, exposed nerves.
    They had him. The lunatics had the President, and god only knew what they had in mind.
    It began, finally, to rain.

VII
    LIBERTY ISLAND
EXECUTIVE CONFERENCE SUITE
    8:53 P.M.
    Hauk walked alone down the unlit hallway. Office doors were open down the hall’s length, some of them spilling globs of harsh neon light out into the corridor like tiny drifts of white, powdered snow. It had been a long time since Hauk had seen snow that was any color except dingy gray brown.
    The Secretary of State was waiting for him in conference. He had been traveling in a follow-up plane that came behind the President’s, to avoid any accidents that could claim too many important lives. He was going to ask what they were going to do about the President.
    Hauk had a very specific feeling about that. He felt that they should simply get themselves another President. He wasn’t going to say that to the Secretary, though. He was too much of a soldier for that
    He arrived at the conference door and hesitated for a second before going in. He looked like a wreck. His face and clothes were dirty and sooty from the smoke. His eyes burned and his mouth was dry and overridden with a taste of plastic. He had lost his coat out on the landing field.
    The Secretary was a man used to taking orders, not giving them. He would want Hauk to take as much responsibility for whatever was going to happen as he could. Hauk didn’t like that, but he didn’t see any way around it.
    He opened the door. It was bright in the room, garish. The Secretary had turned on every light in the place, almost as if he were afraid of dealing with the dark corners. All the windows were shut tight to keep out any trace of the gas that wasn’t coming down with the light rain outside. It was stuffy in the room due to the lack of circulating air. With no ventilation,