“I know. I can’t believe she got herself into trouble already,” he said, shaking his head. “I swear. Every time she turns around, she somehow manages to find some.”
“Sounds like you know her pretty well.”
“I do,” he said. “We’ve been friends since kindergarten.”
At that, Diesel burst out laughing. “Seriously?” He looked at Shane, thinking he was exaggerating, but Shane was serious.
He nodded. “I’m not kidding. Man, that woman could get herself and anybody nearby in trouble so fast that you didn’t know what hit you.”
“How is she at getting out of trouble?”
“She’s got some uncanny luck,” he said. “I mean that too. How else does she manage to get somebody like me for something like this?”
“Well, this case might not be a very good example.”
“Okay, fine,” he said, “but it wouldn’t matter. Something or someone else would have come to her rescue.”
“Interesting,” Diesel said. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard you mention her.”
“That’s because we don’t come in contact that often,” he said, “but she’s one of those long-term friends you can pick up a phone and call out of the blue, no matter how many years have gone by.”
“Those are the special ones.”
“Exactly,” he said. “So I’m still figuring out the background. Did you get any news from Gavin on it?”
“The kidnappers aren’t talking. It sounds like maybe they’ve got some beef with you, and either they snagged her after finding out who she was or gave her the job down there in the hopes that you would visit, but, when you didn’t appear fast enough, they orchestrated this scenario to get you here.”
“Jesus. Who have I pissed off lately? Well,” he said, laughing bitterly, “who haven’t I?”
“Right,” Diesel said. “No shortage of people on the wrong side of our world.”
“What about Hawaii? Do you think it had anything to do with that?” he asked Diesel. “How much do you know about that case?”
“I only know the quick version,” he said, “but Gavin doesn’t seem to think it’s connected.”
“Well, I’ll go with his gut on that for now,” he said.
“What kind of work does Shelly do?”
“Project management,” he said. Then he chuckled. “Shelly is really good at ordering people around.”
Diesel shook his head. “I’m glad you say that with a smile on your face, but I can’t tell if you’re teasing or not.”
“No, she’s very good at telling people what to do and where to go,” he said, “but maybe she’s tempered that for her work. I don’t know. She was always a fairly reckless kid growing up, and we got along famously. I’d push. She’d shove, and we’d end up on the ground, wrestling and pulling each other’s hair. She never wanted to be treated like a girl, and, at the same time, she’s the most feminine-looking angel you ever saw.”
“She sounds like a tough little nut.”
“Yes, she was, right up until her mother died from breast cancer,” he said quickly. “After that, she became a different person. As if all that fighting and bickering may have been to prove herself to her mother or something. I don’t know,” he said. “Her father died when she was about five, somewhere around the time that I met her. She was a really sad little kid back then. I befriended her, not sure exactly why, but something about her caused my heart to ache. We’ve been buddies ever since.”
“But only buddies?”
“Yep, only buddies,” he said. “I’ve called her up a number of times to commemorate when I’ve broken up from relationships, and she’s done the same. We’ve often killed a case of beer or crushed some Häagen-Dazs in memory of the relationships that no longer were.”
“I’m surprised you guys didn’t get together,” Diesel said.
“We discussed it once,” he said, “and, in all honesty, we decided we needed our friendship more.” He grinned at Diesel. “So that goes to tell you how well we communicate.”
“That’s amazing,” he murmured. He wove through traffic, taking the vehicle from one end of town to the other.
“So what the hell is going on with this communication company? What do they know about me?”
“I don’t know. Check in with Gavin to see if they’ve got any updates. My understanding was that the kidnappers said they would talk to you and only you.”
“They didn’t say what they wanted, huh?”
“Nope. Everybody’s in the dark about that.”
“Great,” he said. “These deals are always the craziest, no idea which way to go or where to run.”
“Exactly, which is why they think you’re arriving in six hours on a different flight.”
“Nice. So we’ve got a six-hour window then.” Shane rubbed his hands together. “Are we well equipped?”
“Anything you want, you better speak up,” Diesel said, “because six hours won’t give us that much time. But, generally with Gavin, whatever we need, we’ll get.”
“I hope so,” Shane said, “because I don’t want to go into something like this without hefty firepower.”
“No, I agree with you there. Especially not knowing just what we’re up against.”
“Yeah, and that’ll be a little hard to figure out.”
“Absolutely. Give Gavin a shout, and see what he knows.”
Shane pulled out his phone and quickly sent off a text to Gavin. “Do we have a hotel yet?”
“Yeah, we’re heading there right now,” Diesel said. “It’s a small three-star hotel around the corner from the communication office.”
“Perfect. Any tunnels under there?”
“Yeah,” he said, “but just the underground city tunnels. The ones that feed in and out to access the sewer lines and subways.”
“Great,” he said. “We’ll need some extra protective gear then.”
“Absolutely. Make a list of everything you want, including the firepower.”
Almost in delight, Shane pulled out a notepad and wrote down what he thought he would need. When he was done, he read it aloud to Diesel. “I’m not even sure we can carry all this stuff.”
“Well, not only carry it but we may have to squeeze into some pretty narrow places,” he said. “I don’t know what it’s like down there in sewer city.”
“It’s tight,” Shane said. “I’ve been in a couple, but not New York’s though.”
“We’ve got the maps already. So we’ll just make a quick stop at the hotel to check in, drop off our stuff, then pick up what we need and move out.”
“Good. Hopefully Shelly and I will be sitting over a steak later tonight.”
“Well, that would be ideal. I’m not sure if I, uh, if I’m welcome to join you or not,” he said, “but a steak sounds like a pretty decent way to end the day.”