Ingrams & Assoc 4: Beneath the Surface Ch. 01

I handed the phone to April, and said, "He wants you."

April took the phone and said, "Hello Dermot... Yes, fine for now...No, I think they are onto us. We were followed...Yes, we have it. Well, Megan does. I think she's blown though...Yeah, she's here too...No, we aren't harmed. But they are coming. I came here, it was the safest and most out of the way place I could think of...No, it's pretty safe I think. It's in the sewer system...No, part of it... No, it's not smelly. Really, that's what you think to ask?... I don't know...No, he's the guy who runs the place...Yes, I think he's trust worthy. He's helped me before... Well, yeah, it's not like we have a lot of choices here...Ok. Hang on..."

She handed the phone back to me saying, "My boss wants to talk to you again."

I took the phone and said, "Hello?"

"Hi again. Ok, so my name is Dermot, and you are...?"

"I'm Thomas. Not Tom, Thomas."

"Ok Thomas. I need your help. These ladies are very capable, but even they are not likely to deal by themselves with the people that have been sent out after them. Now, Megan is in possession of something we very much need, to prove a case against some very bad people - that's going on here. This is not normally what we do, as an agency. We've been put in a situation we don't want to be in, and as such, we need help. And hopefully, you can help us. Am I correct in assuming you are in the Boston Sewer system?"

"Waaaaait a second there Dermot. Back up a little. I still don't know that you guys are the good guys? Convince me?"

"Yes, I get that. Let me think for a wee minute...Ok, so do you, perchance, have access to a computer right now?"

"Yep"

"Ok, so I'm going to post a picture right now, at a specific web address. Can you pull that up for me?"

He gave me the address, and I put it in. Almost instantly, a picture popped up.

"Ok, so that's April, along with the current Chief Justice. You can corroborate by that googling him. If you scroll down, there's another picture. That's Megan with head of Apple, Tim Cook. Now these pictures will be removed in a second, because we don't allow pictures of our field agents on the Internet. I'm just letting you see who you are currently sheltering. I'm only asking you to help hide them and let them get away with their skins intact?"

I thought. Did I really want to get involved?

Right then the door chime pinged. I switched the laptop image to the front door, and saw three large gentlemen, in dark suits with long coats, all clean-shaven and squared jawed. One was on his phone. The other two were looking at the door very intently.

All three of us stared at the image on the screen.

I was suddenly aware of Dermot's voice again. "Thomas, are you there?"

"Yeah, I think your bad guys found them. Us."

"Crap. Can you get out? Is there another way out? We can't get any ...assistance there in any time soon. It would take at least half an hour. Is there a back way out? Or some place you can barricade, or a place where they can't find you?"

I thought for a second and then said, "Well, this is the sewer system. Can you have some guys meet us elsewhere in Boston?"

"Name the place, we can be there within 30 minutes."

"Ok then, the corner of Main Street and Church, in Watertown. 30 minutes. Don't be late."

"We'll be there. Thanks. Good luck."

I hung up, and looked at the women. They were wearing heels, which would be a problem.

"Ok, take the heels off, you need to get into hazmat suits. We are going into the sewers."

The doorbell rang again. I looked at the screen - the guy on the phone had put it away and was looking around. One of the other guys pulled a crowbar from his jacket - that must have been fun to carry around.

They were obviously going to force entry, which just gave me more impetus.

"Ok ladies, chop chop. There is a room outside that has the hazmat suits in. You'll need boots, and the ones I have are too large, so it's lots of socks for you, so you'll fit."

I hustled them out into the storage room, and dragged out three hazmat suits - thankfully they do come in three sizes - well, four, if you count the specially made one for me - and they fit. Both women struggled into the suits quickly, and then started putting on socks so the boots fit.

We all heard the wrenching noise in the distance, where the front door must have been jimmied. It made us work faster.

My suit fit easily, since I was practiced at putting it on, so I went to get the other things we would need -air masks and air tanks. Not like you see Scuba divers or fire fighters wearing . More like a small tank you wear on a belt and a set of goggles with a nose covering.

While the sewer system is designed with some ventilation, it still smells awful, and there are places where methane (sewer gasses) builds up. It's not usually at toxic levels, and the system is designed for it to vent out, but it's an old system and there are some places where new tunnels meet old tunnels and methane does collect at the junctions where mismatched tunnels sizes meet. So we take air, just in case.

I also grabbed light bars. These are special neon based lights designed to not produce any spark. Again, methane is not usually concentrated enough to explode but it doesn't do to tempt the gods. It's also why all the equipment you carry is either plastic, leather or metal covered in plastic or leather, so it can't spark if you hit it against a wall or drop it.

We could start hearing footsteps down the stairs towards where we were - we were out of time.

I turned and looked at the two women - both were suited up, and I handed them each a light and the mask and air bottle.

"Put them on as we go, ok?"

They nodded - somewhat frightened eyes staring back at me, although April's also had an amount of calculation and trust in them.

"Ok, where we go."

I opened a flat manhole in the ground, and instantly the smell wafted upwards, and both women wrinkled their noses.

Megan was about to say something but I stared her, and shook my head while holding a finger up to my mouth. They'd be able to hear us now, and we needed to go silently. Tunnels echo. Noise amplifies. They'd figure out where we were before long anyway, but there was no point in helping them along.

I motioned for them to go down the hole; there was a ladder into the actual tunnels. They went quickly and efficiently, folding their masks over their heads and attaching the air bottles to their belts as they went.

I watched them both go down, and then followed them. The footsteps on the stairs were getting louder. I think I managed the get the manhole cover closed about twenty seconds before the three men arrived. Thankfully it was well oiled, and also there was a rubber edge around where the manhole sat - more for stopping the fumes coming up than for sound deadening, but it was good for that too. So there was no clanging of the cover as I closed it.

I sat under it at the top of the ladder, listening for a moment and was satisfied that they hadn't heard us go down. They'd find it soon enough; there was nowhere else we could have gone. But we needed as much time as we could get a good lead on them. I knew the tunnels well, so I knew which way to go. That would help, of course. I just wanted to be far enough ahead and round enough corners that they wouldn't see out lights ahead of them.

April and Megan were looking at me anxiously as I came down the ladder. Both had their lights in hand, but neither had fired them up. I did mine by touch and they followed suit.

"Ok, go this way. There's a grate about twenty feet in the other direction, so this is the only way to go. I'll lead. Right now we can use the side walkway, but those are only on the newer tunnels. The old ones are more like a hole in the ground, and we'll be slushing through some pretty nasty stuff," I said, as quietly as I could.

I walked ahead and they followed, keeping close.

We walked for about three or four hundred feet, turning three corners, when I heard a small echo. I knew what it meant. The tunnels echo for miles, and locating where the sound came from would be totally impossible - but the fact we'd heard it at all meant they'd have found the manhole and had opened it. They were coming.

I wondered if they'd found the hazmat suits, or if they were ruining their nice black suits. Probably the latter. People imagine the sewage system to be something it's not - inch deep water with a slightly nasty smell. It's not. It's way nastier than that. Shit, refuse, the kind of stuff you want to put down a toilet, over spills, dead animals, everything finds it's way down here, in far greater quantities than you would think. Well, they'd find out soon enough how dank and dark and plain nasty it really was. They'd never get the smell out of their clothes, in fact.

I stopped, a thought occurring to me, Megan bumped into me.

"What?" she said.

"Ok, level with me. How 'bad' are these guys?"

Megan glanced at April before replying.

"In what sense?"

"Are they killers? Will they hurt us if they catch us? To what degree? Are we talking about a beating here, or are we in fear of our lives?"

Megan looked at April again, and bit her lip. April nodded at her.

"Honestly? We'd survive for a bit. I don't know how long, but at least until they got what they want. After that, all bets are off. You... well, you would be collateral damage. If it isn't shooting you or beating you to death, it wont be far off. They are pissed off and being sent out and this," she gestured around her, "won't be putting them in any better of a mood. We aren't making it easier and they won't be happy about that."

"So,.. It's a life or death situation then? Do they have guns? I assume so?"

"I'm sure, yes. Why?"

I grinned, and realized she couldn't see it under the mask.

"Well, I...have an idea. Look, here's what I need you to do. Keep going forward. There's a junction about three hundred yards from here. It's a T-junction, so you have to pick a direction. Go left. Keep going another two hundred yards and go right. Then just go straight until the tunnel widens out, and when you get to where it does, look up. There should be rungs in the wall that'll take you up. It's not far, about 30 feet, and there's a manhole cover at the top. There's a lever there that'll push it up and rotate it so it uncovers the hole and you can climb out. That's where I said we'd meet your people."

"What about you?" asked April.

"I'm gonna lead them away from you. I'll catch up - don't worry, I know these tunnels well and they don't. But don't wait for me either. If you get to the wall ladder, go up it and get the hell out. One other thing. There could be some... fire, coming your way. There shouldn't be, but if there is, duck into the water. In fact, put your masks on now, and keep an eye behind you. If you see flames, drop into the water. It'll protect you, and breath through the mask. It's not really designed to be submerged, but it should be ok for the few moments you'll be under. Let the flames pass by - they'll be gone real quick, but - and this is important - when you come back up, do NOT take off the masks. There'll be no oxygen in the air since the flames will have burnt it all. That's why the flames won't last long - not enough oxygen in the air to burn. Ok? Right. Go..."

I could see they still had questions, but they'd have to work it out for themselves. This Dermot character said they were capable; well, now they'd have to prove it.

We all slushed our way to the T Junction, and then I pointed to the way they needed to go. April went straight for it, but Megan stuck around for a moment, grabbed my arm and just looked into my eyes, before taking off after April.

I knew that I had to get these guys good and mad at me. I made sure my rubber gloves where firmly attached and then rooted around in the muck I was standing in, groping around for anything solid to pick up. I found something - a busted motorcycle helmet. It was solid and could also hold some muck in it as well, which was a bonus.

I heard motion and noise and some voices, and shut off my light, squinting until I acquired some night vision. I could see lights in the distance, waving around. They'd obviously found some of the hand lights. I turned my light back on, and balanced it on the edge of the walkway and the tunnel itself. They'd see it and presumably would follow it. I didn't need the light - I knew the tunnels and where I needed to go, and it wasn't that far anyway, if my plan worked. It was a big if. It was risky, but I did have a backup plan. I knew of three small cubbyholes nearby that I could squeeze myself into that they'd never even see.

I drew myself into one side tunnel off the T Junction, the opposite side from where the ladies had gone - I checked and they'd already turned a corner, so their lights weren't visible any more - and concealed myself, waiting for the 'bad guys' to arrive.

And they were coming, slowly. I heard them wading through the sludge, rather than using the side walkway - we were in the newer tunnels, which had a side walkway that was slightly elevated, so when the tunnels were not overflowing there was somewhere dry to walk. So much the better for me, since I was using the walkway and it would mean I could move much faster then them.

As they neared the junction, I could hear them swearing bloody murder out on all of us. I leaned around the corner and shouted, "Hey motherfuckers. You are real assholes, you know that?" and then I threw the busted helmet in their direction, as hard as I could.

As I hoped, it arced in the air, spraying shit from within the concave part of the helmet all over them. And then it had the added effect of hitting the third guy square in the chest, knocking him back and, hopefully, over.

There was more swearing and then suddenly light and deafening echoing noise, as one of them fired a weapon at me. He had zero chance of hitting me - he couldn't aim since there wasn't enough light and I was already around a corner anyway. But it had the effect I wanted - pissing them off and drawing them in the direction I wanted them to go. And now I knew they were armed, which I expected but needed to confirm.

Now I had to make sure they followed me to where I needed them to be. The gun shot had the added effect of both scaring the bejesus (I'd have said shit, but considering where I was, that might be redundant) out of me. Lets face it, clever plans are all very well to think up, but another ting entirely to put into practice. While my plan seemed to be working so far, they had fired a gun at me. A gun! With bullets! In the dark! I was a reclusive sewer engineer and I was getting shot at and was bragging to myself that my plan was working. Was I nuts?!?

My destination was the corner of Drexel way and Shit River Drive. I sometimes gave my own name to tunnels. There was no point in trying to name them for the roads above, since the tunnels crisscrossed and went in all kinds of directions - often where roads were when the city was built, but had long since been changed.

Drexel -named after a guy on my college basketball team who was hell bent on making my life a misery - was part of the older sewage system with narrower tunnels- whereas Shit River Drive was the tunnel we were currently in. Drexel was a feeder, which dumped nasty stuff into the main tunnel, and there was a small pocket there were the older tunnel connected to the newer one, pushing the new tunnel ceiling higher than it otherwise would have been. Because of that, it was one of the few places where the tunnel air filtration system couldn't reach, and thus a place where methane would collect.

That's were I was leading the 'bad guys'. What would happen if they took another shot at me? I had often wondered about trying to get the Mythbusters guys down here, to see if they could get any of the methane pockets to go up. Now I was doing the experiment myself. My college chemistry teacher would be proud of me - if only I had ever met him other than through email.

We found out what would happen soon enough. I made it to the junction, purposely making just enough noise so they could follow me. Then I hid again, in a small alcove just inside Drexel Way. The older tunnels were full of these small alcoves. They were designed to be opened to become smaller feeders into the old system, but almost none of them had ever actually been opened. I rooted around to find something else to throw, and this time found an old sneaker. Then I waited.

I saw the lights come closer, and as soon as I thought they were in the right place, I heaved the sneaker at them, took a deep breath, pulled my mask down tight and dived into the muck.

They reacted exactly as I hoped. Obviously pissed off, they again fired at me. And the methane pocket reacted as chemistry and physics would have expected.

There was a massive and instant fireball above me, in all sorts of interesting yellow and orange colors. I lay just barely below the surface, but could still see the glow through the muck. It hung for about eight or nine seconds, then disappeared. I surfaced and could see the fire carrying further down the tunnel, consuming what little oxygen was left in the air, combined with any methane that was there. It didn't travel far before just burning out; there just wasn't enough methane in the normal air of the tunnels. Only in these very few pockets did enough collect to actually catch ignite, which was my whole purpose in luring them here.

I took a moment and thought about what I'd done. I found I really wasn't that concerned. I'm not a psychopath, and had never hurt another person before. But they'd been firing at me, not the other way around. If they hadn't fired the gun, they'd be light headed and have a hell of a headache an hour from now, but they'd be fine. Their actions precipitated this, not mine. Ok, I'd led them into a dangerous situation but I was ok with that. It was -in my mind -self defense. Their actions made self-defense necessary and their actions made it deadly.

I waded to where their lights bobbed in the water, keeping my mask on.

I came across one body, floating face down. I pulled him over and saw no sign of life. I looked around and found another man with burns all over his face, smashed against the wall. There was a lot of blood on the wall and it was obvious to me that he was dead too.

I found the third guy a little farther down the tunnel. He was still alive, although barely. I might have killed in self-defense, but I wasn't a killer, so I took a deep breath, removed my mask and put it on him. I dragged him along, towards the junction and back toward my office, alternating the mask from his face to mine.

It took me almost fifteen minutes to get him back to the manhole cover, and then another ten to get him up the ladder. I'm tall but not particularly strong, and this guy was at least two hundred pounds. I managed to get him up through the cover, and then went to call the cops. I had decided that my story was going to be that I'd found him and the other two while doing a sweep after hearing a bang, and then let them sort it out. I highly doubted he'd admit he and his pals were chasing me and firing at me.

I did wonder what happened with the April and Megan. They'd obviously taken off without me as I had told them to. Once the paramedics arrived, they took the barely alive guy and the cops went to retrieve the other two. I was told that the guy who survived wasn't looking good, and there was a fair chance of brain damage due to lack of oxygen. If he did recover and talked, well, I'd deal with that if/when the time came. It's not like I had any great connection to Boston or the area. Or to anything. Or to anyone.