“We need to hurry. Except—”
“Except,” David Clancy said grimly, “if you burst in there, someone will start shooting, and children might die. The robbers are…well, one of them is a total mystery. I thought he was the brains, so to say, but now I think the other was the impetus behind everything going on and brainwashed the kid into doing this.”
“Kid?” Jackson asked. He had help now. He could truly assess the situation.
“Appears to be about seventeen or eighteen. The blonde called him Billy, and I remembered something about a home robbery not long ago where some folks were killed in front of their son. I think that’s the boy. The woman has a rapport going with him.”
“Angela,” Jackson whispered. “She would.”
“You know her, sir?”
“She’s my wife. And an agent, as well. We’re with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. It’s an agency—”
“Sir—”
“Call me Jackson, please.”
“David,” the ghost said politely. “I know about the world today. One thing about wandering the Earth is that you get to see and hear a great deal. I know this is all expedient. And I’d be rushing more, except people will die if you burst in.”
“That’s been my dilemma,” Jackson told him.
“But I know another way,” David said.
Jackson frowned. “There’s a back door. We bank here, which is, of course, why my wife Angela is in there. But the back door is uber-alarmed. It’s a small branch of a major bank, so the security measures—”
“Are meant to save the facility more than the people,” David commented dryly.
Jackson nodded. “So?”
“That’s not the only way in that I know about,” David said and appeared to inhale. “Once upon a time, tunnels extended all down the street—part of the Underground Railroad. When I was a child, I came through them with my mother. We had friends in DC waiting for us. As I mentioned, I signed up when I could.”
Jackson hesitated. He had served himself. Still, he winced as he asked, “And you…?”
“Oh, no, I wasn’t killed in the war. I was nineteen in 1862. I made it into the twentieth century. I saw some of the worst days of human carnage possible, but I also learned that any man can be a good man, and any woman can be mean or kind. I watched generations of my family grow. And that is why I know that a tunnel with an entrance to the bank through a supply closet in the assistant manager’s office remains. One of my grandsons held the job until he passed of natural causes several years back.”
Jackson looked at David and nodded.
All the souls who remained had stories. The captain’s seemed to have a harsh beginning but a good ending.
Unfortunately, they couldn’t get into it now.
“How do we get into the tunnel?” he asked David.
“The sewer.”
“Why doesn’t everyone know about the entrance?” Jackson asked.
“Because you have to know where the old break in the stretch leads to another old break in the stretch. Not that many people like to play in the sewers,” David said dryly.
“Yes, but the workers—”
David shrugged. “I’m sure some know there are holes that lead to holes. But mostly, they’re down there to work—and get the hell out. Where we’re going anyway. You ready?”
“We can come up in the assistant manager’s office?” Jackson asked, wanting the assurance.
“Yes. And no one working there now knows that the shelving unit to the left of the desk slides open. I don’t think anyone has known for the last forty years or so,” David told him.
“I’m ready to get dirty,” Jackson said. “I just need a minute to tell one of my senior agents so he keeps our backup out of sight and controls anyone else.”
“You are armed, right?” David said.
“Oh, yeah. But I’m hoping…”
“Angela, your wife, the blonde in the bank. You’re hoping she can bring about a happy ending?”
“Exactly.”
