Die and Stay Dead by Nicholas Kaufmann

Author:Nicholas Kaufmann
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781250036117
Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Twenty-One

By the time we got to Battery Park all the way at the bottom of Manhattan, it had started raining. Fat droplets drummed furiously around us. I pulled up the collar of my trench coat against the cold rain. I wished I had a hat, too, something to keep my head dry. Of course, with both a trench coat and a hat, I would look like I’d stepped out of a 1940s film noir.

The path into the park led us past well-manicured green lawns and rows of park benches. The rain hadn’t kept the tourists away. They huddled under umbrellas and in their dollar-store plastic ponchos, exploring the park and admiring the south Manhattan skyline or New Jersey across the water. Isaac and I wore the orange construction vests. Bethany wore her usual cargo vest. I had mine on under my trench coat this time. I was sure I looked ridiculous and wasn’t fooling anyone, but no one gave us a second look. Part of me wished I’d known about the construction-vest trick back in my thieving days. It would have come in handy anytime I had to go … well, anywhere.

A battered, twenty-five-foot, spherical bronze sculpture towered beside the path. Once, the sphere had adorned the plaza between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center. Now it was a memorial, still bearing the scars of that terrible day in its torn bronze. As the raindrops pinged against it, Isaac regarded the sphere with haunted eyes. He’d been at the Towers that day, I recalled, helping rescue survivors from the rubble. One of those survivors had been a vampire named Philip, who’d pledged him one hundred years of service in gratitude. That moment had marked the birth of Isaac’s little team of artifact thieves and, ultimately, the renewed Five-Pointed Star. Yet even now, twelve years on, I could still see the pain and loss in Isaac’s eyes when he thought of that day. I saw it in the eyes of all New Yorkers.

My thoughts went back to Gabrielle. I couldn’t help it. Her absence felt like a lost limb. Why couldn’t we reach her? Where was she? Was she avoiding us, purposely not answering our calls? I couldn’t help thinking about what she’d said after the Fetch attacked us, how she didn’t think she was cut out for this kind of life anymore. But damn it, didn’t she know how much was at stake?

We reached the far end of the park, where Castle Clinton stood near the water. A castle in name only, it was actually a circular, brownstone fortress that dated back to the War of 1812. We walked into Castle Clinton to find an open-air courtyard. At its center was a ticket booth for boat tours to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. We left the fortress through the opposite side, exiting onto a cement walkway along the river’s edge. Off to our right, in the shadow of the clock tower of the abandoned City Pier A, was the American Merchant Mariners’ Memorial.

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