Chapter 27: Captured!

Test car 4900 skittered over the rails, its 68 seats empty—except for 6.  These were filled with members of the auto gang, drunk early in the evening, singing some rock song as they skittered along the tracks.  The driver put his hand on the controls, trying to bring the thing to a stop at the Broadway and 1^st Station, but almost missing the platform.  Little did he notice, as he pulled in, the sullen figure standing on it waiting for them.

His cohorts did, though.  “Hey, it’s Garrett!” one of them yelled.  “Three cheers for Garrett!  Hip, hip, hooray!  Hip, hip, hooray!  Hip, hip, hooray!”

If Garrett was amused, he did a good job not showing it.  “Anyone heard from Mugs?” he barked, staring down at the figures who had gotten out (most of whom were shorter than his six-foot-two frame).  “Did he report?”

“He ain’t called since this afternoon,” one of the crooks belched.  “I think he was going to the city for something.”

“He should have called us long ago,” Garrett commented, as another man stepped out on the platform.  “What do you think, Vince?”

The outlaw who’d tussled with the Andersons shrugged his shoulders.  “Sounds like he might have gotten captured.”

“A shame,” said Garrett, his deep-set dark eyes glinting fiercely in his chubby, sour face.  “He was a good worker.  However, no matter.  Men like him are easily replaced.  Glad he never got a look at me.”  He addressed the other workers, who were joking with each other as they awaited his instructions.

“Alright!” he barked.  “Listen up!  Jerry’s getting back with the truck at eleven tonight.  He wants to deliver six cars to Ralph’s Auto Imports in Del City.  These’ll all be foreign makes.  I know we had four ready, but do you think we can have another two ready by tonight?”

The man who’d been driving the subway saluted.  “Got a BMW and a Mercedes almost ready to go.”

“Good—make that the priority,” said Garrett.  “Then, you boys get the rest of the night off.”

Cheering, the men piled back into their subway car.  “Hip, hip, hooray!  Hip, hip, hooray!  Hip, hip, hooray!” they shouted again.

Garrett watched sullenly as they rode off.  “Look at ‘em, Vince.  They look like schoolkids.  Ordinary, dumb schoolkids.  The type that’ll never do anything great in life.”

“Their only aspiration is their next buck,” said Vince.  “Give it to them, and they’ll be happy.”

“True, and they are quite convenient to me for that reason.  But me?  Me?  I’ve developed the world’s most foolproof car theft system!  Steal cars from all over the state.  Hack the police’s computers so we’ll know to avoid their decoys.  Ship our catches in with those color-changing moving vans, so no one will be able to follow.  Completely redesign the cars, so no one will recognize them.  Have them delivered to car dealerships who don’t know where the stuff is coming from.  Who could ask for a better plan than that?”

“It hasn’t been perfect, lately,” Vince wryly commented.  “Those kids are giving us trouble—”

“Not much trouble, though,” said Garrett.  “We’ve lost a couple car dealerships—so what?  Every navy’s lost some ships on the way to victory—that’s how to win a war!  One day, Vince, they won’t make a car in the U.S. that doesn’t come through this place at some point.  We’ll start raiding Texas, then Kansas, then Arkansas!  I’ll dominate the world car market!  They won’t sell a car without my permission!”

Vince looked skeptical.  “Bob was good riddance, and so was the other dealership, but no navy’s ever achieved world domination—”

“If I was a member, they would’ve,” said Garrett.  “I don’t like to brag, Vince, but I’m the smartest man in the world.  Who else would have come all the way to Anadarko and spent five years making sure I had undisputed claim to the property we’re standing in?  No one!  The great part about it is, almost no one knows it’s even here!  No one will ever stumble across our scheme—no one, no one, no one!”

The subway coach rattled back into the station, and the driver hopped out again.  This time, he didn’t look nearly so pleased.

“Hey, boss,” he said.  “We caught these two girls wandering around in the tunnel.  What do you want me to do with them?”

In the dim, orange lights that burned overhead, Nancy and Ashley appeared quite pale.  They stared in horror at Vince, who they recognized, but it was Garrett who had the more interesting expression.  He gaped at the girls, not believing that his secret hideout had been discovered.

“Hey, boss!” said Vince.  “It’s a couple of those kids!  Mugsy told me the boy had sisters.  This must be them—”

“So!!!” shouted Garrett.  “You try to come in here and mess with my plans?  Shame on you!  You shall soon feel the wrath of Paul Garrett!  No one messes with him and gets away with it!”

Running for their lives, Nancy and Ashley had barely made it to a sloping tunnel that ran down to the east-west line.  This tunnel had tracks, but the switch wasn’t set for it—Nancy and Ashley knew the train would miss them.  By that time, the headlight had shown Nancy that the switch wasn’t set for it, which meant the girls would be safe there.  They’d just clambered out and started back up the tracks when the subway car had started back.  This time, they had nowhere to hide.  The driver had seen them and stopped, but the men had immediately hopped out and trained their guns at the girls.  Both had gone down without a fight.

“I told you what you should’ve done,” complained Vince.  “Put up a few dead bodies, and no one else will dare—”

“No!” said Garrett.  “We will not have a murder charge.  I do not need to murder to perform my plans to the utmost.  I am Paul Garrett the great, Paul Garrett the awesome, Paul Garrett the brilliant!  I can overcome the law—and I certainly shall, without giving these girls a chance to talk the police.”

“No crook’s invincible,” Nancy tried weakly to bargain.  “You’d better give yourself up Garrett.  It’ll go easier on you that way.”

The man laughed uproariously, his voice echoing against the smoke-scarred walls of the empty cement station platform.  “Ha, ha, ha!  You ask me to give myself up—when you two are my prisoners!  Not on your life!  I must win—and you must lose!  That’s the way this game works!”

“There will be others, Garrett,” Nancy said.  “We found your hiding place easily enough.  We tracked you to the 1^st Street station and Broadway station, didn’t we—”

“You are in no position to bargain!” snarled Garrett.  “Not you, or your friend, or those two other girls—”

“Stephanie?” Ashley gasped.  “What’ve you done with her?”

Vince studied the girl.  “You know something, boss, I’ll bet that’s her sister!  She looks kind of like her, in the face.”

Garrett grinned evilly.  “She’s fine, for now—as is her friend—but they’re never coming out of here again.  Nor are you, for that matter.”

“Garrett, that’s ridiculous,” Vince said.  “We can’t keep them prisoners indefinitely.  One’s bound to get out sometime, and then they’ll talk.  I say we just finish them off—”

“For the last time, Vince, we are not going to—”  Garrett stopped and thought.  “Say, wait a minute!” he said, an evil grin spreading across his face.  “That might work—that just might—yes, I think I’ve got it!”

“What?” Vince asked.

“I have it—I have it—yes, it’s the bestest, most beautifulest plan in all the world, and the best part is, there’s no way the law can touch us—you want to see your sister again, don’t you?” he asked Ashley, his voice taking on that fake kindness tone that suggests evil far more than it implies sympathy.

The Dale girl wisely kept her mouth shut.

“Well, you will—along with your friend.  Tie ‘em up fellers, and send car 5005 here at once.”

“5005—oh, I see!”  Vince grinned wickedly.  “That’ll be a pleasure,” he said, walking over to an old-fashioned computer at one side of the station platform.  “I think I know what you’ve got up your sleeve, boss.”

As Nancy and Ashley were bound, Garrett explained his scheme.  “You were wondering where your friends were—well, I’ll tell you.  Directly below us, there’s a track that runs east-to-west.  On the eastern side, it ends in a wall.  Your friends are tied up against that wall, unable to escape.

“Meanwhile, subway car 5005 was Boeing’s—er, problem child.  It was a new design they were trying to develop—lightweight, flexible, and capable of going at faster speeds than its predecessors.  All these things it achieved, but it had one problem—collision safety.  No matter what Boeing did to it, they couldn’t get it to pass a collision test.  Four attempts failed, and they built it a fifth time before they finally abandoned the project.  You see where I’m going with this?”

Ashley didn’t, but Nancy cringed.  Garrett grinned at her.

“Yes, yes, I can see it in your face.  I’ll tell you the rest of it, just so there’s no misunderstanding.  The east-west track has a loop at the west end, so a car can run down it, turn around, then speed head-on into the east wall for the crash tests.  You two will be seated in the front of the car, so you’ll get to see your friends—one last time—before the car slams into the wall, you four are killed instantly, and any investigators chalk off the incident as an accident!  Not that there will ever be any investigators, because then, no one besides us will know this place exists.  What do you think?  Brilliant plan, huh?”

Ashley stared coldly at Garrett.  “You want me to scream, but I won’t,” she said, in a cool, even voice.  “I’ll simply remind you that you’ll never get away with this.  God knows what’s happening—”

“There is no God!” spat out Garrett.  “No greater power than the ablest human being—and I seem to be filling that category right now.  Don’t worry, missy.  You’ll scream once that wall comes running up at you, and you see your sister’s face frozen with fear.  Load ‘em in, men!” he yelled, as another coach with a Boeing scheme came rolling up.  “This one runs on remote control, so even if you get untied, there’s nothing you can do to stop it.  Good luck trying, though.  Hah, hah-hah, hah-hah-hah-hah!”

His laugh was still echoing through the tunnel as the subway coach pulled out of the station—destined for the end of the line.