Milwaukee Deep
Chapter 50

Time remaining…25:16:09…

“Okay, so that’s Whitehall Street and Court Street signed off, is that correct, Lieutenant?” asked Agent Cheapston over the radio.

“Affirmative; my men have already cleared out and are heading further down the line towards Prospect Avenue,” replied Lieutenant Weinberg.

“Copy that, Lieutenant. Keep me posted.”

At that moment Tom Harding entered the control room.

“Tom, over here,” Cheapers called out as he stood in the middle of the room with his headset on.

Harding made his way past the group of agents busy on the radio directing and assisting the ground crew with their search. He looked up at the large screen that covered the better part of the back wall.

“Give me status, Cheapers, where are we at?”

“We’ve got most of the ground crew travelling at the moment; however, we’ve started the physical search as of fifteen minutes ago. So far seven trains have been searched and signed off, with most of the search about to kick off now.”

“Are we experiencing any issues regarding the rollout of the search team?” asked Harding

“I can’t answer that just yet, we’re still waiting. Most of the search party has left Yankee Stadium and is now heading into the search areas. Here, have at look at this,” Cheapers pulled a map of the rail system up on the screen, “What we’ve done is break up the search into three main areas – anything below Grand Central Station all the way down to Coney Island and Brighton Beach and across to South Ferry is Area One – this is the most concentrated of the search areas where most of our resources will be focused. Area Two covers Franklin Avenue, Brooklyn all the way across to Howard Beach, JKF Airport and up to and including Jamaica and 179th Street. The rest, Area Three, reaches all the way from Inwood, 207th Street to Pelham Bay Park across to Flushing-Main Street.”

“And we’ve obviously found nothing as yet?” asked Harding.

“No not yet, but again, we’ve just started.”

“And what about the video surveillance for all the stations?”

“We’ve got a team looking at all the footage right now, but from what they tell me it’s going to be difficult – to be honest the footage is not as clear as expected, especially when trying to pin point a face in the crowd.”

“Is it possible to enhance it?” asked Harding

“They’re looking into it, but I’m not certain.”

“Okay good work, Cheapers. I’ll check up with them soon, in the meantime I can help with the sign off process - if we get swamped we’ll pull in another helper.”

“Thanks.”

Harding turned to the rest of the crew working frantically in the Transit Control Room.

“Listen up people. We’ve got just under twenty-four hours before this thing detonates, so let’s focus. We need to make sure each and every one of you walk through with the ground crew and verify sign off before they move onto the next subway car. I want to make damn sure we do not miss any train for whatever reason, and remember, keep up constant contact with the command leads – I want to make certain they’re resourced correctly and have enough personnel on their designated search party – don’t forget it’s a four person team per subway car. Okay, people, let’s get to work.”

Robert Matner sat alone in his cell waiting for the inevitable. His friend Harry had been taken away a few days ago – it felt like weeks now. Every one of them, each colleague, friend, cell mate, all of them had been taken. Matner was now the last.

He was weary. Weary from the loneliness, from the cold - from waiting.

The pain in his leg had subdued, but the feeling of hurt within was growing with every breath.

He knew what was coming. He knew what they were planning to do to him. For the last ten days, each one of them who had gone had not come back.

“Give me strength,” he whispered, “Forgive me for all I’ve done. Please, Lord, let them kill me quick.”