“I’m getting too old for this,” Dev said as sirens could be heard in the distance. “Clean up is going to be a mess.”
“At least you boys got what you came for,” Mr. Gates said.
Driver nodded with a grin. They had gotten information, and blown up at the same time. He was going to have to talk to Bosere about his range of contacts and their habit of drawing danger. Of course, Bosere had probably expected this too happen. That was another Dev decided to bring up. The use of he and Michaels as constant bait was starting to get a little old.
“So, what’s the clean up story?” Agent Michaels asked.
“Club goers who passed out drunk and have no idea what happened,” Dev answered.
“They’ll ask you to blow in a breathalyzer and will know you aren’t drunk,” Regg said calmly.
“Fine, we leave it up to Bosere. He owes us anyway.”
“In the meantime,” Carmine interrupted, “I would suggest we get out from underneath here.”
“Why?” Dev asked with a slow drawl. “You don’t like sitting in an unstable, ten-story building?”
“Actually,” Carmine said as he stood up and dusted off his shorts, “I actually have a problem with the fact that it’s on fire.”
Agent Driver blinked for a moment before finally looking in the direction that Carmine was pointing. The fire itself was actually not any raging problem. It looked more like a smoldering mess in the stairwell thirty feet away. Still, any kind of fire in a building that had just been blown up was not too good. The only relief Dev had felt about the explosives had been that they were rigged to take out the front of the building, not the people inside.
“All right,” Dev said as he stood up. “Let’s make like a chicken and get to the other side.”
“You just made that up,” Regg observed.
“Pretty clever, isn’t it?”
“Do you really want an answer?”
“Probably not if you’re saying that.”
With a laugh, Dev helped Mr. Gates stand up. The older man seemed a little sore and Agent Driver immediately assisted him across the debris. In some cases, the ceiling beams had crashed through to the building’s basement and just walking across felt very precarious. It probably would not have looked too good if they had actually lost their contact.
“So why were you jogging at four in the morning?” Regg’s voice drifted behind Dev.
“Couldn’t sleep,” Carmine answered. “I actually started at three.”
“You got up at three in the morning?”
“Well,” Carmine retorted. “What were you doing at three in the morning?”
“Classified,” Agent Michaels said calmly.
Driver chuckled to himself as he neared what was left of the front door frame. He rather missed working with the Freelance Agency for the past few assignments. Lately Bosere had been giving them what would be considered ‘real’ assignments rather than the crazy stuff that Dev had done with Owens all through his rookie years. When he finally got a chance to relax, Dev decided to try to figure out what exactly Bosere was up to.
CRACK!
The sound was more frightening to Agent Driver than the idea that the building could collapse. Watching a building fall apart from a safe distance was one thing, but hearing it while still inside was definitely more disconcerting. Ignoring the possibility of panicking, Dev concentrated on getting Mr. Gates safely over the last three steps before the debris ridden sidewalk.
A force suddenly ran hard into his back and Agent Driver and Mr. Gates went sprawling out into the street. As he rolled and pulled Mr. Gates up and to safety, Dev heard part of the building collapse behind him. He whirled around as police cars pulled up, searching for a sign that Regg and Carmine had avoided the disaster. All he could see was a pile of rubble and a spreading fire.
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