Shadow Men – 51 – Anders and Grant

They made it into Manhattan with no further problems, which, Anders pointed out, didn't mean they were home free by a long shot. "The Colonel's got enough people at his beck and call they'll be watching for us. They undoubtedly were from the second they knew I'd taken you from your place."

Grant frowned. "But how did they find us?"

"I'm sure they tagged us the first time because they spotted Nicky. We lost them but we were already heading south and east. That narrowed it down. So he notified his people of that. Short of bugging the truck, which they didn't, there was no way they could have found the house. But afterward… They're not stupid. Do you know how many small planes have flown over us?"

Grant shrugged. "I didn't really notice."

"I did, and there were a lot, which is normal but any one of them could have belonged to the Colonel. We stopped at that restaurant for lunch, a bad move on my part but I figured we needed to relax. Steele's easy to spot."

"Yeah," Steele agreed, touching one of the healing gashes on the side of his face.

"It's still…" Grant shook his head. "It's still a crap shoot."

"Oh yeah, but one they won for a minute, which is why the run-in with them. We got lucky and came out on top, this time."

"Oh that makes me feel so much better," Grant muttered.

Anders chuckled. "We keep our eyes open and don't do anything foolish and we'll come out on top every time."

Grant nodded while he watched the buildings pass by them. "Are we going somewhere specific?"

"Yep, to the first large parking garage I can find. We'll leave the car there. From then on it's foot or subway."

* * * *

"Where do all these people come from, and where do they store them," Grant grumbled as he dodged around yet another group of pedestrians.

"Store them?" Anders chuckled even as he watched everyone around them, just as Steele did.

"You know what I mean. I guess I'm really small-town. I feel like an ant in a hive… anthill, whatever."

"We're almost out of it." Anders turned down a side street full of what looked like apartment building. He stopped in front of one halfway down. "We're here."

Grant looked up, and up. "Tall."

Steele nodded. "Relatively, yeah. You're sure he can be trusted, Anders?"

For a second Grant thought he meant him, until Anders replied, "Ninety-nine percent," took a key from his pocket and let them into the building.

The lobby was neat but far from gaudy. A bank of elevators stood on the far wall. They crossed to them and Anders pushed the button to bring one down. When the first door opened he stepped in long enough to push the 'Stop' button, waited for the other two elevators to arrive and did the same. "Set that one loose and send it to ten," he told Grant, pointing. "Without you," he added. With a shrug, Grant did as asked while Anders sent the one he stood by to seven. Then they all got onto the third one. A couple of minutes later they stepped off on the twelfth floor.

"You okay to walk up two more flights," Anders asked Steele, obviously seeing as Grant had that the man looked too pale.

"Yeah, I can make it," Steele replied. He did, albeit slowly.

When they got there, Anders led the way down a hall that ran the length of the building to one of the cross halls. He stopped in front of a door marked 1421, dropped his pack and the duffle bag beside it, and then held up one hand as he took out his gun. Steele flattened himself against the wall on one side of the door, now holding his gun loosely in his hand. Grant figured he was supposed to do the same on the other side and did so.

Anders unlocked the door, kicked it open, moved quickly inside and swept his gun over the room. "Okay so far," he announced as he rapidly punched the security code into the alarm box.

Steele was inside an instant later, covering Anders as he checked the other rooms while Grant, unsure what he should be doing, watched from the doorway.

"We're good," Anders announced finally, holstering his gun. He went out to grab the bags, came back and locked the door.

"Now can we get some sleep?" Grant asked. He realized he sounded petulant and apologized.

"No need to," Anders told him. "We're all dead on our feet and grumpy. Follow me and I'll show you the bedrooms."

Grant was surprised but relieved to find out there were three of them, small but at least he didn't have to share with someone. He stripped down quickly, grabbed the toothbrush and paste from his backpack and headed to the bathroom. Too tired to even think of showering he washed his face and vital parts, brushed his teeth and fifteen minutes after entering the apartment he was flopped face-down on the bed, dead to the world.