The Titanic Plan by Michael Bockman, Ron Freeman Read Free Book Online Page A

Avenue toward the blaze, clanging their bells to clear the street as they went. Archie, who was strolling on the sidewalk, did not notice the racket. Nor did he notice John Jacob Astor IV, whom he passed outside the Waldorf-Astoria while Astor was walking his Airedale, Kitty. He wasn’t aware of the brawl that spilled out from Hennesy’s bar near 51st Street. Nor did he pay any mind to the ukulele player busking a brassy version of My Gal Sal near the Plaza Hotel . Archie was thinking about one thing and one thing only: Belle da Costa Greene. He couldn’t get her out of his mind. Not that he wanted to. He saw nothing else, heard nothing else, felt nothing else. He had no idea where he was and it didn’t matter. He was intoxicated like never before, drunk on something far more powerful than his cherished Kentucky bourbon. In his mind he heard her voice again, which was sweet and effervescent. He felt the touch of her fingers again, re-experienced their softness and electric heat. He recalled her flawless golden skin, the deep crimson of her lips, and those eyes, those mysterious green eyes. He heard her say, “You’ll give me a call, Captain, yes?” He heard her say it again and again. “You’ll give me a call, Captain, yes?”
    He crossed the street to the edge of Central Park. Birds sang, hansom cabs crisscrossed the dirt thoroughfares and lovers strolled hand in hand. An even better place to get lost in this feeling of… what in the world is this feeling? Archie didn’t answer himself as his fevered mind wandered back to Belle. He was so lost in his reverie he didn’t notice a man jump out of a slow moving automobile and come up behind him. Nor did he sense the man’s presence until he felt something steely jab into his back.
    “ Don’t say nothin’. Just do what I tell ya.” The voice was a low, rough, New York growl. Archie was confused, lost between his dream of Belle and the suddenness of the intrusion.
    “ There’s an automobile by the curb. You’re gonna get in it with me.”
    “ What is this?” Archie asked, not able to see the face of the man behind him.
    “ Shut up, and get in the automobile.”
    “ Is this a robbery? Do you want money?”
    “ Com’on, Captain, don’t ya know what an order is?”
    The man was addressing Archie by his rank. It was obviously no robbery.
    “ I work for the President of…”
    “ Get in the damn car. Now!!” The man pushed Archie into the idling automobile. The driver, who wore an odd chauffeur’s cap pulled low to his eyes, stepped on the gas. The car sped off.
    “ What’s going on? What do you want?”
    “ Just sit back and enjoy the scenery, Captain,” the harsh voice uttered. “Ain’t New York lovely?”
    Archie peered out. It was only a few blocks from where he was strolling, but the world was far different here: darker in every respect. Dilapidated tenements loomed close to the street, which was pocked with potholes and strewn with garbage. The few pedestrians on the sidewalk were Negro men in shabby clothes. Archie grew uneasy watching small knots of dusky men crowded on the street corners, suspiciously eyeing him going by.
    “ San Juan Hill, that’s what they call it here,” his kidnapper said. “Just like what ol’ Teddy Roosevelt charged up with his gang o’ Rough Riders. San Juan Hill. The perfect place for a good fight. Quite a neighborhood, huh, Captain? Wait’ll ya see what’s next?”
    “ What’s next” was a few blocks south. It was even more squalid than the Negro section, with a stench of rotting rubbish and open sewage that paralyzed the senses. Rather than being barren of people, these filthy streets teemed with life. Above, on balconies, inexhaustible women squawked to each other while hanging laundry over the rusting iron railings. Along the sidewalk large, rough men loitered in groups, their oily caps cocked on their heads. Archie saw a dead horse rotting near a curb. A group of scruffy children leapt back and forth