Chapter 16 Section fifteen

It took Decker eight minutes to get to the penultimate address on the list.All the way he had been wondering what he would do if there were no signs that Brian had been there.Should I wait there, or go to another address? What happened next solved the problem.Even though it was a few blocks away, Decker heard the shriek of sirens in the darkness.He saw a blood-red flame rising from the hazy sky of a building under the rain and fog.His stomach tightened with fear.He steered the Fiat down the street he was going to, and stopped until the brightly lit and rumbling fire trucks and other emergency vehicles slammed on the brakes.Flames lick the windows of an apartment complex, billowing with black smoke.Firefighters directed water hoses at the raging flames, while ambulance crews tended to the survivors, wrapping them in blankets and giving them oxygen.

Terrified, Decker jumped out of the Fiat and squeezed as close to the fire as he could to make sure the burning building was exactly what he was looking for.He then hurried through the growing crowd of onlookers, ran back to his car, turned around and sped off into the rain. His heart was pounding.He thought, what happened?Did Brian set fire to the apartment building in retaliation, trying to trap the terrorists in the fire?But even a man as angry as Brian would surely have imagined that this would hurt other residents besides the terrorists—even if the terrorists were really hurt, even if they were really stupid, they would Still staying where they told Brian.

There's only one place I need to go, Decker thought, the place where I left his father.He drove anxiously through the rainy night.The Fiat skidded suddenly, but he controlled it again.Near the City University he turned again into a narrow street, then another.He felt as if he had fallen into a narrow encirclement.Only half a block from where he had left McKittrick's father, a tall, stocky figure suddenly appeared in the glare of his headlights.Decker slammed on the brake pedal, swung the steering wheel sideways, and almost ran into the man.The man was drenched from head to toe, looking up at the sky full of thunder and lightning and dark clouds, shaking his fists and roaring.

This person is Brian.Decker's windows were closed, and he didn't hear Brian yelling until he jumped out of the Fiat, dashed through puddles, and grabbed Brian. "Liar! Bastard!" Decker left the headlights on.In the light, he could see the rain dripping down Brian's cheeks. "coward!" Lights came on in some of the windows. "You've got to get off the street with me," Decker said. "Come and fight with me!" Brian screamed inexplicably into the darkness. There were lights in some of the windows again. "Come and fight with me!"

The icy rain soaked Decker's hair and poured down his neck. "The police are coming for you. You can't stay here. I have to get you out of here." He tugged Brian toward the car. Brian struggled.Lights came on in more windows. "For God's sake, come with me," Decker said. "Did you see your father? I left him here." "Mongrel!" "Brian, listen to me, have you seen your father?" Brian broke free from Decker's hands and shook his fist at the sky again. "You are scared!" "What's going on down there?" a man asked loudly in Italian from an upstairs apartment.

Decker grabs Brian. "If you're making such a fuss, your father will know you're here. He should join us by now. Listen, I've got to know if you've seen him." A premonition seized Decker, and he felt cold all at once. "Oh my God, no. Brian, what happened to your father?" Brian didn't respond.Decker slapped him twice and shook his head so hard that raindrops splashed all over his face. Brian looked terrified, his distraught expression reflected in the headlights of the Fiat. "Tell me where your father is!" Brian stumbled and ran into the distance.

Decker followed apprehensively.He could see where Brian was taking him—the address Brian's father was planning to watch.Even though it was a dark, rainy night, Decker could still see that the door was open. Decker struggled to restrain his excessively rapid breathing and drew the pistol from under the leather jacket.When Brian entered, Decker made him bend down, and he hunched and trotted after him.Decker's eyes had fully adjusted to the darkness, and he could see that he was in a courtyard.He noticed a wooden cargo box on the right, and quickly pushed Brian to hide behind it.Kneeling on the wet cobblestones, he rested his arms on the cargo box to shoot.He carefully inspected the blurred objects in the courtyard, and looked up one by one at the almost unrecognizable balcony railings on the left, right and directly in front.

"Brian, show me where he is," Decker whispered. At first he wasn't sure if Brian heard him, but then he saw Brian shift his position and realized that Brian was pointing to him.Now that his vision was more attuned to the dark, he could see a white mass in the far right corner. "Stay here and don't move," he told Brian, and rushed behind another cargo box.Gun in hand, he looked around nervously, then rushed forward again.This time, he hid behind an object that seemed to be an ancient well.His clothes were soaked and clung to his body, binding his muscles tightly.He was so close that he could tell that the whitish mass was hair—Jason McKittrick's hair.The old man was half lying with his back against a wall, his arms hanging at his sides, his chin resting on his chest.

Decker looked around again, then sprinted through the rain to McKittrick's side, leaning over to feel his pulse.Even though it was dark, he could still see a darker spot on the right chest of the old man's gray suit. It wasn't rain, it was blood.He felt McKittrick's wrists, neck, and chest, trying to find his pulse. He finally touched it, and let out a sigh of relief. Suddenly, he turned around and aimed the gun at a figure that was rapidly approaching him. This person is Brian.He crawled across the yard and lay down beside his father, pressing his face against the old man's head. "I did not mean it."

"Help me," Decker said, "we've got to get him to the car." "I didn't know who he was at the time." "what are you talking about?" "I did not expect." "what?" "I thought he was one of them," Brian choked out. "Did you shoot it?" Decker grabbed Brian and found a revolver in his jacket pocket. "He suddenly came out of the darkness and I couldn't help but shoot." "My God." "I had to shoot." "God bless--" "I didn't mean to kill him."

"you have not." "I'm telling you I-" "He's not dead!" Brian's shocked expression could hardly be seen in the darkness. "We've got to get him into the car, we've got to get him to the hospital. Grab him by the feet." Just as Decker reached out to lift McKittrick's shoulders, a wild bee seemed to buzz past his ear.A bullet snapped against the wall behind him. Decker ducked down and hid behind a cargo box.The shot came from a suppressed weapon and came from above him.He pointed his gun angrily in that direction.The rain made him blink, and he couldn't see the target in the dark. "They won't let you take him away," Brian said. "them?" "Here they are." Decker's heart tightened.He realized why Brian was yelling in the street just now.He wasn't shouting at Heaven, or God, or Furies. He was yelling at the terrorists. Brian was still sprawled beside his father in the open. "Come here," Decker called to him. "I'm safe." "For God's sake, get behind this crate." "They won't shoot me." "Don't talk crazy." "Before you came here, Renata showed her face to me. She told me that the best way to hurt me is to keep me alive." "what?" "In this way, I will suffer from conscience torture for the rest of my life knowing that I killed my father." "But your shot didn't kill him! He's alive!" "He's still going to die. Renata will never let us get him out of here. She hates me." Brian pulled his revolver from his pocket.In the dark, he seemed to turn the gun on himself. "Brian! No!" But instead of shooting himself, Brian sprang to his feet, swearing and disappearing into the darkness behind the yard. In the pouring rain, Decker was startled to hear the thump of Brian's footsteps.He rushed up a wooden outdoor staircase. "Brian, I warn you!" a woman shouted from above, and it was Renata's hoarse voice. "Don't come over to me!" Brian's footsteps continued uphill. There was a light in the window on the balcony. "I gave you a chance!" Renata yelled. "Go away, or I'll do what I did in the other apartment building again!" "You play me for a fool, you will pay the price!" Renata laughed. "It's you making fun of yourself!" "You will pay for my father's life!" "You killed him yourself!" Brian's footsteps went higher. "Don't be stupid!" Renata yelled. "The explosives are set! I'm going to press the detonator!" Brian's hurried footsteps still thumped on the stairs. A loud thunder drowned out his footsteps.In fact, it was not thunder, but the loud noise of an explosion.Dazzling flashes burst out from the apartment on the fourth-floor balcony at the back of the yard, and the deafening sound made Decker back again and again. The fragments of the explosion fell like a waterfall, and the raging flames lit up the entire yard. Sensing movement to his left, Decker turned hastily.A thin, dark-haired man in his early 20s stood up from behind the dumpster.He was one of four brothers Decker had met in the café the night before. Decker tensed up.They must have surrounded me all the time, but I didn't notice it in the dark! The young man was not prepared for Renata to detonate the explosives.Although he held the gun in his hand, his attention was completely absorbed by the screams from the other side of the yard.His eyes widened in astonishment, and he stared at one of his older brothers, who was struggling to beat the flames in his clothes and hair, which had been ignited by the fireball falling from the burning building.The heavy rain didn't seem to be able to quench the flames on him.He couldn't stop screaming. Decker fired two shots at the first young man, hitting him in the chest and head.As he fell, Decker turned and pointed at the burning brother, taking him down with two shots.The crackling fire that spread from the fourth-floor balcony caused loud bangs that almost completely drowned out the sound of his gunshots. More broken bricks fell.Decker crouched behind the cargo box, carefully observing the place, trying to find more targets.brian.where is brianOut of the corner of Decker's eye, he noticed a moving figure in the far left corner of the yard, not far from the door through which he and Brian had entered. But this person is not Brian.The tall, thin, sexy figure emerging from the shadow of the other staircase was Renata.Holding a suppressed pistol, she charged toward the open gate while firing a steady stream of fire into the courtyard.Originally, her silenced muffled gunshot sounded like a fist hitting a pillow, but now it was completely drowned out in the din of the raging flames. On the wet cobblestones behind the cargo box, Decker jogged forward on his elbows and knees.He climbed to the side of the cargo box just in time to catch a glimpse of Renata approaching the door.He aimed at her through the rain curtain and fired twice.The first bullet hit the wall behind her, the second hit her throat.She clutched her trachea, and blood spurted out.Her throat would be so blocked by the bullet that she would not be able to breathe, and within three minutes she would suffocate. Despite the crackling fire, Decker heard a scream of pain.One of Renata's older brothers appears.He shot down the open stairs while firing into the yard.Reaching where Renata had fallen, he grabbed her and dragged her toward the open door.Meanwhile, he fired again, but this time not at Decker, but at the stairs behind the yard, as if to protect himself from bullets coming from that direction.Decker was about to take aim and shoot him when the other brother jumped out, shot in his direction, and helped drag their sister out of Decker's sight on the street.Decker finished reloading the pistol and hurriedly unloaded the magazine and replaced it with a full one, but by this time the terrorists had all run away. Sweat mingled with rain on Decker's face.He turned back and forth a few times trembling, just in case there were other hidden targets, and he saw Brian jump down the last few steps of the open-air stairs behind the courtyard. Brian's hand on the revolver was shaking. "We gotta get out of here," Decker yelled. It was less than a minute before the explosion.People in pajamas and without pajamas rushed to balconies and down open stairs to escape the raging fire. Dodging a flaming falling object, Decker ran to Brian, who was wrapping his arms around his father, trying to pick him up. "I can feel his breath!" Brian said. "Let me lift his leg." As Decker and Brian carried McKittrick across the yard to the open gate, he heard people swarming down the stairs in terror. "Wait," Decker said.He lowered McKittrick's leg and pointed the gun cautiously into the street.He saw a car speeding down the street.The red taillights quickly dimmed, and the car raced through a puddle, rounded a corner, and disappeared. Decker was far away from the din of the fire, and could hear the sharp, rhythmic blare of the approaching siren.Maybe there was a terrorist who stayed behind and hid behind some car, trying to ambush them.But Decker was sure the terrorists would be as alarmed as he was by the sirens. He decided to take a risk. "Let's go!" he said to Brian. Behind them, more and more people gathered.He and Brian lifted McKittrick, walked briskly to the Fiat, and put him in the back seat.While Brian sat in the back guarding his father, Decker jumped behind the wheel and sped away, narrowly missing a crowd of people on the street.Meanwhile, the screeching of the numerous sirens behind the Fiat grew louder.Decker stepped on the gas pedal, glanced nervously in the rearview mirror, and saw the lights of emergency vehicles flashing on the rainy and foggy street behind him. But what lies ahead?Decker thought, gripping the steering wheel with both hands.The street was so narrow that if a fire engine or a police car suddenly turned in and came in their direction, they wouldn't be able to get out.Fiat would be stuck. Ahead appeared a rain-slick street corner.Decker turned the corner and found himself on a wider street.In the darkness, there were no flashing lights approaching in front of them, and the sirens behind them were getting farther and farther away. "Looks like we got away," Decker said. "How's your father?" "He's alive, that's all I can say." Decker tried to ease his breathing. "What does Renata mean by threatening to do what she did in other apartment complexes?" "She told me she had dynamite in some of the buildings. After I went there to find her and her accomplices..." Brian faltered. "She detonated the explosives as soon as you left the place?" "yes." "You broke into the apartment and started a scene where everyone in the building ran out to see what was going on? Are they going to link you to these bombings?" "yes." "Renata trying to make an American responsible for this?" "yes." "Damn it, you let her use you again," Decker said. "But I got my revenge." "revenge?" "You saw what I did, I hit her." "You...?" Decker could hardly believe what he heard, he seemed to feel the road shaking. "You missed her." "I hit her in the throat," Brian said. "you have not." "Are you trying to take credit for this?" Brian demanded. God, Decker thought, he's really crazy. "There's nothing to brag about here, Brian. Even the one you hit doesn't make me think less of myself or value you more. On the contrary, I feel sorry for you. Living in this It's a terrible thing to remember—" "Feeling sorry for me? What the hell are you talking about? Do you think you're better than me? What right do you have to think you're better than anyone else?" "Forget about it, Brian." "Feeling sorry for me? Are you trying to take credit for me?" "Calm down, please," Decker said. "You hate me so much, the next thing you're going to say is that I hurt my father." Decker could hardly feel that anything was real anymore.He felt dizzy. "Say what you want, Brian. There's only one thing I want to do, and that's take him to the hospital." "exactly." Decker heard the rhythmic blare of sirens.A police car was coming towards him with its lights flashing.His palms were sweating on the steering wheel.In a blink of an eye, the police car sped past and drove in the direction they came from. "Brian, give me your revolver." "Are you serious?" "Really. Pass me your revolver." "you must--" "Just this one time, for God's sake, listen to me. There's going to be a police car coming. People are going to report the police that a Fiat drove off. We're likely to be stopped. We have a wounded man in the It's bad enough in the car. But if the cops find us with pistols—" "What do you want my revolver for? Do you think you can use its ballistic properties to prove that I shot my father? Are you afraid I'll dispose of it?" "No, I'm going to get rid of it." Brian raised his head in surprise. "Actually, I don't want to do that." Decker parked the car on the side of the dark street, turned to stare at Brian, and said, "Give me your revolver." Brian squinted at him for a moment, then slowly reached into his jacket pocket and drew a pistol. Decker drew his own pistol, too. It wasn't until Brian handed the revolver by the barrel that Decker breathed a sigh of relief.Before helping Brian lift his father in the yard, he had picked up the old man's pistol.Now, with that gun, his own, and Brian's revolver, he got out of the Fiat and, against the icy rain, looked around the dark street for anyone to peep.Then he walked around to the curb, knelt down, pretended to check the tires for insufficient air, and quietly threw all three guns into the sewer. Immediately, he returned to the car and drove away. "That solves the problem, doesn't it?" Brian asked. "Yes," replied Decker angrily, "and that would solve the problem."