Page 81 of Crosshairs
We didn’t hesitate to fall in behind the FBI assistant special agent in charge.
CHAPTER 102
I’D ALWAYS ASSUMED Robert Lincoln was a little older than me, but you couldn’t tell by the way he moved. He raced through the maze of halls and had to wait for us to catch up when he bolted down a flight of stairs.
We burst out into the same lot where I’d seen Darnell Nash jumping into a Ford Focus. I followed Lincoln to a brand-new Chevy Tahoe. I hopped into the front passenger seat and Rob Trilling slid into the back seat.
As he started the SUV, Lincoln said, “The only reason Nash even has a car in this lot is because he’s handicapped. He’s missing the lower portion of a leg. Besides, I doubt he wanted to walk around Manhattan with a rifle.”
I said, “The one time I talked to him, he told me he’d stepped on an IED.”
Lincoln said, “That’s more than I know about him. Aside frommeeting him on his first day and saying hello in the hallway, I’ve never really interacted with Nash. I can’t tell you if I think he’s good for the shootings or not. But he’s certainly not helping himself.”
I had to grudgingly admit I was impressed at how Lincoln remained calm even as he peeled out of his parking spot, darted through the lot, then spurted out onto the street. Amazingly, he soon managed to get Nash’s Ford Focus within sight.
I could tell by the way Nash was driving that he wasn’t trying to evade us. He didn’t even know we were behind him. That was a testament to Robert Lincoln’s ability and experience. He had to have been some kind of great street agent years ago to be this smooth behind the wheel. Maybe I’d misjudged the guy.
I saw the Focus turn and said, “Did you see him turn right?”
Lincoln kept an even, calm voice as he replied, “I see him. I see him. And I’m going to pull an old Baltimore police trick.” A block before where we’d seen Nash turn, Lincoln took a right down a narrow side street. The move paid off when at the next block Lincoln paused and we saw Nash drive right past us.
Lincoln said, “He may not know anyone’s following him, but he’s being careful. That kind of round-the-block turn is one of the oldest counter-surveillance tricks in the book.” He let one more car pass and fell in behind the Focus again.
Lincoln stayed cool as he said, “Nash just signaled to turn left.” He glanced over his shoulder and slid into the left lane. Then he suddenly jammed on his brakes and muttered, “Dammit. Busted.”
Nash had purposely stopped instead of turning to see if any cars were following him. Not a bad move for a guy who wasn’t a full-time drug dealer. Now we were stuck and he’d clearly seen us.
Darnell Nash punched the gas and squirted around the corner. By the time Lincoln brought the Tahoe around, we could see the Focus making a crazy U-turn and heading toward the East River.
Lincoln leaned down and flipped a switch that activated the hidden blue lights at the top of his windshield. His siren started to blare from under the hood. We made the U-turn as easily as Nash. Confused drivers tried to move out of our way, but we were stuck in heavy traffic.
Once we were moving east, Lincoln called back to Trilling, “There’s a lockbox directly behind your seat. The combination is 2-5-8-1. I assume you know how to operate an AR-15.”
I caught the quick smile slipping across Trilling’s face. Now we were playing a game that he understood.
CHAPTER 103
I ABSOLUTELY HATE high-speed chases. I’m not crazy about the FBI either. Now I found myself in a high-speed chase with an FBI agent.
I don’t like the feeling of being a passenger during a car chase. Despite what people see on police shows, high-speed chases are relatively rare but wildly dangerous. It seems like someone always gets hurt: either the suspect fleeing, the cops chasing, or some innocent bystander.
Darnell Nash took a left turn and then another right. Lincoln got on the radio and started calling for help.
After a few moments, Lincoln said, “He’s headed toward the Battery Tunnel.”
I had to brace myself as Lincoln took a right turn a little sharply. For a moment, I thought we might be tipping over. If itweren’t for the heavy traffic, we would’ve caught the underpowered little Ford easily. I had no idea where Nash was headed.
We came out of the tunnel on the other side of the river with a sprawling construction site to our right. It looked like a giant bomb had hit South Brooklyn. Half of the site was filled with cranes and machines working in a pit far below street level as construction workers laid the foundation for a huge new building.
I heard Trilling ask from the back seat, “Where’d he go?”
Lincoln slowed the Tahoe and cut off its lights and siren. Heavy traffic continued, but I didn’t see any sign of the Ford Focus in the lanes up ahead.
Trilling asked, “What’s that over there?” He pointed between the two front seats. I followed the line of sight from his finger to what I now realized was the Ford Focus. All I could see was a little of the trunk and roof, but it looked like it was parked on the far side of the construction site.
Lincoln said, “He tried to avoid lane closures and cut through the site. Looks like he got stuck.” As Lincoln exited the highway and turned onto a street running alongside the site, he got on his car’s radio and again called for any FBI agent in the area to come over and help.
I looked across the construction landscape and realized there was no way to drive across there easily. But we might make it on foot with fewer delays.