The Ascendant: A Thriller by Drew Chapman Read Free Book Online Page B

headphones. He tried to yell, but the effect was the same, worse even, because his throat was rasping and filled with dust and smoke. He wanted to retch.
    Alexis tapped her own ears, then shook her head sideways, indicating no, she couldn’t hear either.
    “Come with me,” she said, or at least Garrett assumed she had said that, because he could see her lips moving. The two of them rose, unsteadily, to their feet. Alexis held on to Garrett’s hand and led him quickly down the street, past the lobby to his building. The plate-glass windows were shattered, laid about in tiny fragments across the marble floor. Garrett recognized the building’s security guard wandering from his desk. He looked dazed, lost.
    Alexis dragged Garrett around the corner. There, on William Street, parked in front of a fire hydrant, was a gray SUV. The back door was open, and a stocky, crew-cut man in a black suit was holding it open and signaling for them both to get in. Garrett had a moment’s hesitation, but it was overridden by his dizziness and confusion. He and Alexis dove into the backseat, the door closed behind them, the SUV swerved out into the street, and Garrett had the instantaneous and very powerful thought that his life, in that one brief flash, had changed forever.

10
NEW YORK CITY, MARCH 25, 12:47 PM
    T he SUV sped through the narrow streets of lower Manhattan, heading south. Police cruisers flew past them in the opposite direction, blasting down one-way streets the wrong way and jumping onto the curb. Garrett fought to slow down his breathing. He closed his eyes as he was jostled in the backseat, trying to focus on his hearing. He could begin to make out passing street sounds, and then the groan of the SUV engine. This calmed Garrett—at least he wasn’t permanently deaf.
    He looked over at Alexis. Her face was covered in dust. She had traces of blood on her cheek and chin. She wore a brown suede jacket, which was now scraped and torn around the shoulders. Her mouth was moving—she seemed to be muttering to herself, and Garrett suspected that she too was testing her hearing.
    “Can you hear?” he asked.
    She nodded. “A little. You?”
    “It’s coming back,” he said.
    “Are you hurt?”
    Garrett rolled his right shoulder. It was stiff, but not too bad. Nothing worse than he’d experienced playing high school football. “I’m okay. You?”
    “I’m fine.”
    “What happened?”
    “Car bomb.”
    “Who did it?”
    “Don’t know.”
    The SUV pulled under the East River Drive and onto the side street that bordered the water. They stopped at the edge of a dock that jutted out into the river. The whole drive had taken less than five minutes.
    Alexis opened the door. “Come on. Let’s go.”
    Garrett scanned the dock, the street around it. “This is the helipad.”
    “Yes. We need to go. You need to see a doctor.”
    “There are doctors in New York. Quite a few.”
    “Someone just tried to blow you up. Do you really want to stay here?”
    The stocky man who had held the door open was standing next to Alexis now, and Garrett could see a black pistol showing under the vents of his suit jacket.
    “How do you know it was meant for me?”
    “If it wasn’t meant for you, why did you run? You knew they were after you, so you ran.”
    “You were watching me?”
    “We had you under surveillance.”
    “Why?”
    “This is not the time. You’re in danger.”
    Garrett shook his head, settling his body back into the seat. “I’m not moving until you tell me what the fuck is going on.”
    Alexis wiped the dust and blood from her face. She took a deep breath. “There are people who would like to talk to you. They’ve been watching you. And they’re impressed. If you come with me now, I will introduce them to you. And they will explain everything.”
    Garrett stared at her. Alexis nodded over her shoulder. “That helicopter is waiting to take us to Washington.”

11
IN TRANSIT—DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, MARCH 25,