Hero by Mike Lupica Read Free Book Online Page B

brought him back to the same question he’d taken out of the apartment with him and down the steps:
    Ready for what ?
    Maybe Kate still knew him, but right now Zach felt as if he didn’t know himself anymore.
     
    He walked over to Madison, one block east from Fifth. Then down Madison for a while, usually one of his favorite walking streets in the whole city. Zach was surprised at how many people there were on the sidewalks at this time of night, even with Madison Avenue’s shops and stores closed hours ago.
    He crossed over to the east side of the block and walked past the Carlyle Hotel, heard singing from inside as the door opened, then heard applause. Zach Harriman, out in the grown-up world, the after-dark big-city world, knowing he should have felt some excitement about it.
    But he didn’t.
    He was walking faster now, heading north again, getting that feeling again, the one he was getting used to: the same one he’d felt the day his dad died, that he had to be somewhere.
    He just didn’t know where.
    It felt as if he was up at 90th and Madison in a blink. He took a left there and headed back toward Central Park, toward his favorite way in, the grand entrance at 90th and Fifth, the long stairway leading to the reservoir.
    Zach stopped at the base of the stairs. Feeling the urge to walk up them, not knowing why.
    Okay, where you going, dude?
    Still not quite sure.
    He was wearing his old New Balance gray sneakers. If it were daylight, he would go right up those stairs and start running, a mile and a half, probably do that in under ten minutes if he stepped on it. But he wasn’t there now to run laps. Nobody in his right mind ran the res alone at this time of night, unless they were begging to get mugged. Or worse.
    But he was sure now that this was where he’d been headed all along.
    Zach walked up the stairs.
    That was when he saw the guy.
    He was about thirty yards to Zach’s left. As dark as it was, Zach had no idea how he was able to see him. But he did see him, like he was wearing night-vision glasses.
    The guy was crouched in the bushes.
    Waiting for something, too. Or someone.
    Zach didn’t stare. He tried to act like he was invisible. But the guy wasn’t watching him, didn’t seem to know he’d been spotted. His attention was focused at the far turn, the one that took you into a long straightaway where you could really let it out if you’d run the res counterclockwise and the stairs were your finish line.
    There she was. A woman, ponytail bobbing along behind her. Running hard, as if this really was her finish line, maybe thinking she was safe running alone at this time of night because she could outrun anybody.
    The guy in the bushes, keeping low, inched out toward the track, still trying to be invisible.
    Watching the woman eat up the remaining distance between them. A hundred yards maybe.
    Less now.
    One of those bad things in the world about to happen to this woman, Zach was sure of it.
    And he was the only one around to stop it.
    He walked slowly toward the woman. When he got near where the guy was hiding, Zach stopped.
    He turned and looked right at him. The guy was in a knit cap and looked to be only a few years older than Zach. His eyes grew wide. Zach could tell he was holding something in his right hand behind him.
    He wasn’t sure what he was supposed to do, how this was supposed to play out. Wasn’t sure, but wasn’t scared, either.
    It was the other guy who looked scared in that moment, as if Zach had somehow faced him down.
    As if the guy had seen something in him.
    The footsteps of the woman were close now. Then she said, “Excuse me,” because Zach was right in the middle of the track, blocking her way.
    So he moved out of the way, turned and watched her run down the steps and across the drive and go right across Fifth Avenue with the light, into the lights of the city.
    When Zach looked back into the bushes, the guy was gone.

9
    IF Alba or Kate knew he’d left the apartment that