F Wilson: Fatal Error

"Jack!" Vicky cried.

Jack didn't react to her. He had his eyes fixed on Angelo.

"Not another inch unless you want a present," he told him.

Gia knew that tone. She'd heard it only a few times and each of those had ended in terrible mayhem. It was the voice of the other Jack, the one he kept hidden. The Hyde Jack. She knew she'd hesitate to strike at someone's eyes, even someone like Gabe. And that hesitation had given Gabe a chance to duck away. Hesitation was alien to Jack, especially the Hyde Jack. She didn't understand his thought processes in that sort of situation, or even if thought was involved. Jack acted.

She used to be afraid of the Hyde, worrying that he'd take over and not let go. But over the years she'd come to see that he was but a small part of Jack, and if she loved Jack, she'd have to love the Hyde Jack as well. Hyde was part of the package. And strangely enough, with time she realized that the seeming danger Hyde represented attracted her to Jack all the more.

Angelo looked baffled as he tried to make sense of Jack's comment. Gia was baffled as well.

"Present? What the f-?"

"Your buddy's ear." Jack gave it a vicious twist, eliciting a howl from Gabe as he touched his other knee to the floor and further lowered his head. "Another inch closer and I'll make you a present of it."

Angelo backed off a step.

Everybody around the carousel was watching now. But, as before, no one moved to interfere.

Jack turned his attention to Gabe. His voice shook as he spoke.

"What… what did you think you were just doing? What made you think you could do that to her? What-what-what-what-WHAT!" The last word was a barely decipherable roar.

Against all reason, Gia suddenly feared what might happen to the creep. Not for the creep's sake. For Jack's. He looked ready to lose it. And if he did he could end up in terrible trouble.

"Jack? Don't."

He didn't look up.

"Don't what?"

"Whatever it is you feel like doing to him, please don't."

"You can't imagine what I feel like doing to him."

"I won't even try."

She was about to say, For your sake, don't, but realized he might be in a place where that wouldn't matter. She did know something that wouldn't fail to reach him.

"Vicky's watching."

He glanced over at Vicky and her worried expression. He paused, then lowered his head toward Gabe's ear and said something. Gia couldn't make out the words, but she was pretty sure they weren't sweet nothings.

Finally he released Gabe and stepped back. The creep jumped up and covered his ear with a hand.

"You all right, Gabe?" Angelo said.

Instead of answering, Gabe pointed a finger at Jack.

"You're fucking dead! Angelo here is my witness, motherfucker. You are so fucking-!"

The word ended in a cry of pain and Gia realized that somehow Jack had gotten hold of his finger and bent it back at an impossible angle-impossible without breaking or dislocating it.

Again… without the slightest hint of hesitation.

Cradling his damaged hand in his good one, Gabe bent and hobbled away.

"You're dead!" he screamed. "DEAD!"

Jack watched them go, then turned and walked toward her-with a limp. What had happened? But as he approached, he smiled and Gia saw Hyde fade away.

"I want to go home," Vicky whined from her mother's lap.

So did Jack. And he knew Gia did too. But even if he could fit them on the back of the bike-and he couldn't-passage to the city was impossible unless he went back the way he came in. And that was out of the question. Riding the Triboro walkway into Astoria hadn't been bad, but he'd had to leave the highway and travel local streets to get here. Twice along the way guys tried to jump him, but he managed to scoot out of trouble by inches. He'd almost lost control of the bike once, coming that close to going over. And that had been solo. Taking the same route back with one passenger, let alone two, was out of the question.

Gia closed her phone with a frustrated snap.

"Still dead. How long is this going to last?"

Jack shrugged. "Could be a long time." He took her hand. "Sorry about this."

"This is hardly your fault."

"Your being here is. If I'd kept my mouth shut, you wouldn't have changed your flight. Right now you'd be in Iowa, sound asleep in your folks' place."

She squeezed his hand. "You hardly twisted my arm. I wanted to get home." She stared at his hood. "Are you going to keep that up all night?"

"Yeah. This is an airport. Cameras everywhere."

"But you're just sitting."

"I wasn't just sitting when I had my little run-in with your admirers."

"I'm sorry you had to wind up in the baggage area. I had it all planned to meet you out front so you wouldn't have to-"

"It's okay."

Whatever pain he might have felt revisiting the site of his father's murder had vanished in a blast of rage when he spotted that animal dry-humping Gia. It had taken every nanoparticle of restraint he possessed to keep from tearing off his ear and shoving it down his throat. He could feel the memory of it pulling his lips back from his teeth…

Shaking it off, he scanned the mobbed Central Terminal and sensed impending disaster. The place was a pressure cooker building toward an explosion. People with canceled flights could not go back home because the Grand Central Parkway outside and all the roads around it were at a standstill. Taxis and buses and limos filled the ramps to and from the terminals with nowhere to go.

At least the traffic was keeping new departing passengers from reaching the airport, but planes were still landing. And the debarking passengers had nowhere to go but the terminal and the baggage claim area.

As soon as they'd retrieved Gia's bag, Jack had found two seats at a table in the food court and installed Vicky and her there. They were lucky. Not an open seat left in the entire airport now. Then he'd hit the food stands, stocking up on whatever was ready for immediate consumption: bottles of water, bags of nuts, candy bars, big soft pretzels, hot dogs, and a couple of slices of pizza. Gia had passed on a dog, opting for pizza instead, while he and Vicky enjoyed theirs. They squirreled away the nuts and pretzels for later.

Good thing too. The concessions and restaurants, even though they were operating on a cash-only basis, soon ran out of food and drink. Bare display cases in the Italian specialty shop, empty ovens at the pizza place. Beer and liquor still remained in a good supply at a big, open bar at the center of the food court. That seemed a good thing right now, but what happened when they ran out?

More people kept pressing in from the arrival gates, but at a slower rate. With airports all over the country shutting down departures as well, fewer planes were in the air. All those passengers were on the ground, but they couldn't go home. How many more bodies could the terminals accommodate before someone blew a fuse and the place went nuts? Mass hysteria here could leave a lot of people dead, crushed in the panic.

"Should we stay?" Gia said with a worried look, obviously getting the same powder-keg vibe.

"Well, at least we're warm. It's pretty damn cold outside, and I don't see frostbite as a viable option. The hotels are full, so-"

"You're sure of that?"

"More than one source said so."

After picking up the food, he'd made his way to the drop-off area-somewhat difficult then, a major challenge now-and spoken to the skycaps. They said guys had walked to the hotels for a room and returned saying they were all sold out and people were camping in the lobbies.

He'd considered making the trip himself to verify it but hadn't wanted to leave his ladies alone that long. He couldn't see any reason for the skycaps to make that up.