Chapter 33

Chapter 33—Reginald has a better idea

1:23 a.m., Monday, December 26

Reginald had followed closely behind Jack as he left Penn Station. Just as Jack reached the street, his friend walked up beside him. “Where do we go from here?” He asked Jack.
“Not sure yet,” Jack said. “That arrogant bastard said to go back to the hotel and wait for another call.  He has one more thing for me to do before he will release Kate.”
“Then that wasn’t Kate in the coffee shop?” Reginald asked. All he had seen was Jack rushing past him on his way out of Penn Station.
“No,” Jack answered. “It was a look-alike. And the bastard used her to send me a message. He shot her right there as she sat across the table from him. Dead.”
“Thank God it wasn’t Kate,” Reginald said, visibly relieved. …  “But do you believe him? … That he has something else for you to do?”
“Oh, I believe he has more hoops for me to jump through,” Jack said. “But I don’t trust him. The problem is that I don’t have a lot of options, I have to play along, at least for now.” Jack waited just a moment, then continued. “Reg, we have to keep moving. There’s a dead girl back there. We’ve got to get outta here.”
“Right, but are you sure you want to go back to the hotel?” Reginald asked, glancing west in the direction of Jack’s hotel. “That’s got to be a crime scene by now.”
Jack did not respond right away, as he led the way east up 34th Street.
 “We do need to get your stuff out of there—and soon,” Reginald said. “I am pretty sure that fellow bled out inside, and that it will take a while to determine why, but by morning they will be poking around there in a major way. Good chance it’s already been determined a murder. They might suspect a mugging, but that will change.”
“Hang around here for twenty or thirty minutes,” Jack said. “I’ll gather up my stuff. Then we’ll catch a cab and get out of here.”
“I have a better idea,” Reginald said. “Give me your card and the remote for the lock, and I will grab your stuff.”
“… Yeah, that works,” Jack said. After he thought for a moment, he continued. “What can you tell me about these guys? Do you think Kate is still alive? Or are they just jerking me around?”
“I think she is alive, Jack,” Reginald said. “And we’ve got to act on that basis. But I think you need to get a proof of life before we proceed.”
“That’s what I think, too,” Jack replied, a little relieved to hear those words come out of his friend’s mouth.
“I really wonder what they’re up to now,” Reginald said. “I should think that they would be content. They got what they wanted. I can’t see how Kate’s value to them would exceed that. She had what they wanted, and we got it to them. I thought that they would be quite happy never to see either you or her again.”
“Exactly how I saw it,” Jack said. “Unfortunately, I now have some unfinished business with them—no matter how this turns out.”
“Are you sure you don’t just want to see this go away?” Reginald asked. “After all, once we get Kate back, what’s to be gained by going after them?”
“Have to, Reg. It’s the principle of the thing, now.”
“Principle has nothing to do with this. Jack, these are agents of a foreign government. They’re acting on orders. They don’t know you, and they don’t know your daughter. They were simply told to get their hands on the message, and to get it deciphered. That’s it.”
“Yeah, well, that’s apparently not all they’re after,” Jack responded. “Now they want something more. And I’m going to give them something more. But probably not what they’d hoped for.”
The two men walked north up Seventh Avenue a couple blocks, until Jack spotted an available taxi. “I’m gonna catch this cab. Nothing’s open around here. I’ll have him pull up in front of Penn Station in forty minutes.” Jack reached into his jacket pocket, took out the remote for the lock, and his room card. Handing them to Reginald, he asked, “Will that give you enough time? The northwest corner, by the drug store? What do you think?”
“That works,” Reginald said. He then headed west on 36th Street, heading toward the hotel, as Jack disappeared in the taxi.
When Reginald reached Eighth Avenue, he crossed over to the west side, in order to avoid the area where he had killed the agent earlier. And, just as he had suspected, the area was cordoned off by the police.
Reginald then continued on down Eighth. However, when he was still over a block north of the hotel, a man suddenly walked up behind him. “Reg,” the man said, catching Reginald by surprise.