Rick Mofina - Every Second

“No, please.” Kate kept her voice soft. “Don’t do this!”

A bright light flashed and pain shot through her brain as Blaine smashed the gun to the side of her head.

The destination was less than ten blocks away.

Strobic searched the traffic and streets for a solution. It was futile. This was not a Hollywood script. Blaine had the upper hand. He had a bomb, he had the gun. He had Kate. He had control and he was going to kill people.

There was no escaping this without deaths.

“Don’t do this, buddy!” Strobic said.

“Shut up!”

Blaine dug his free hand into his pocket then something clinked as he snapped a metal handcuff to Kate’s wrist before locking the other cuff around his own. Blood webbed down her cheek as she regained her senses with the horror that she was now chained to Blaine.

A few minutes later, Strobic pulled along Forty-Second Street and Sixth Avenue.

“Turn down Forty-Second.”

The street was lined with empty school and charter buses at the edge of Bryant Park. Some five thousand schoolchildren from all five boroughs were on the lawn before the stage for a special Broadway in Bryant Park event. The cast of one of Broadway’s running hits was performing a shortened version for free.

Music and singing boomed, reverberating off the nearby skyscrapers.

“Stop beside a bus!”

Strobic stopped.

“Put your emergency lights on, come back and let us out!”

Strobic froze, his knuckles whitening on the wheel.

“Do it now! Or I’ll kill her and I’ll kill you and detonate this bomb!”

“No!” Strobic refused.

Kate screamed as Blaine fired another round into the floor of the pickup’s bed, prompting Strobic to get out of the cab. As he trotted to the back, he saw two uniformed NYPD officers standing thirty yards away. Strobic waved frantically and whistled.

Unsure they saw him, he opened the cap and tailgate of the Silverado.

Blaine charged out, dragging Kate with him.

Strobic backed away, hands up, yelling: “He’s got a bomb!” Then Strobic dove at Blaine.

Kate screamed as Blaine shot Strobic, sending him to the pavement of Forty-Second Street.

The disturbance caused the two police officers to turn just as Blaine ran with Kate into a park entrance.

Officers Rita Muldowney and Elonzo Lang saw the glint of the handcuff, the gun in Blaine’s hand and his bulging backpack.

“Freeze! Police!”

Blaine cut through the lawn with Kate, running, stomping on the small feet and hands of children sitting on the grass, watching the stage show. Using Kate as his shield, Blaine headed to the center for maximum impact as she struggled against him.

Muldowney was fast, gaining on them, reaching for her weapon.

“Everybody down! Police! Get on your stomach! Now! Now!”

Children screamed and got down as flat as they could while some, thinking it was part of the show, giggled and clapped. Kate saw the officer raising her gun, finger on the trigger, then saw Blaine reaching for the cord.

“Down! Down!” Muldowney was ten yards away.

Kate smacked her hand on Blaine’s, then dropped to her knees as Muldowney fired rapidly, hitting Blaine’s head, chest and shoulders.

Blaine and Kate fell on to two boys from Brooklyn.

Blaine was dead before he could detonate the bomb.

The show was stopped.

The NYPD sealed the area and evacuated the park.

The bomb squad used bolt cutters to free Kate from Blaine’s corpse and defuse the IED.

Later, she was still in shock when they took her to the same hospital where they’d taken Strobic. He’d been shot in the thigh and would recover, a nurse told her.

“That’s good,” Kate said, gazing out her hospital window, listening to the never-ending wail of sirens echoing through the city, trembling as tears rolled down her face. “That’s good.”

As soon as she could manage, Kate called Grace, Vanessa and Nancy from the hospital to let them know that she was “a little shook-up, but okay.”

In the hours after the failed attack, Varner and Tilden arrived and took detailed statements from Kate and Strobic.

By the time Kate’s family got to the hospital, the enormity of what had happened was the nation’s top news story. Grace locked her arms around her mother and never let go during her entire visit.

Later, doctors gave Kate a sedative, kept her overnight for observation and arranged counseling sessions for the posttraumatic stress she would likely experience after the event.

In the days after her release, Kate and Strobic agreed to Reeka’s request to give their account of their ordeal to Newslead. Reeka assigned their best writers to weave their dramatic experiences with the interviews Newslead had obtained with Lori and Billy Fulton-a major Newslead exclusive on the planned attack against New York City by homegrown extremists. Kate was the lead writer on the feature, which was presented in a compelling four-part series that was picked up by subscribers across the country and around the world.

In the wake of the incident, editorials, blogs and news network political talk shows addressed the issues of detecting and preventing attacks by domestic self-radicalized loners, vulnerable to be guided by overseas factions. The New York Times and Britain’s Guardian newspaper investigated Blaine, his mother, Nazihah, and their links to senior extremist leaders in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and Yemen. Within two weeks, the US, using intelligence arising from its investigation of the attack by the Young Lions, launched drone strikes destroying extremist compounds hidden in mountainous border regions.

A month after the events in Bryant Park, the story had faded and Kate was happy things were returning to normal. She had declined most requests for interviews and speaking engagements, with the exception of one.

It came about six weeks after the event.

Kate was at Newslead working at her desk when a news assistant handed her an envelope.

“This just came for you, hand-delivered by some government guy in a suit. He said it was to be considered ‘a priority.’”

Kate opened the envelope to find an elegant card with beautiful calligraphy that began: The President requests the pleasure of the company of Kate Page at a ceremony to be held in honor of the citizens whose extraordinary acts…

Kate was stunned as she scanned the words over and over. It was an invitation under the presidential seal! Her phone rang and soon she’d learned that Grace, Vanessa and Nancy had also received individual invitations. Later she learned that the Fulton family, Stan Strobic and his wife would also attend.

Preparing for the event was exciting as Kate, Grace, Vanessa and Nancy shopped for what to wear and received advance protocol advice from White House staff.

The day at the White House was like a fairy tale.

Dan Fulton was in a wheelchair and still bore the scars of his ordeal, as did Lori and Billy. It was heartwarming to see that Sam, Billy’s dog, was allowed to participate. Word was that the president, having learned Sam’s role in Billy’s recovery, insisted his dog be present.

NYPD officer Rita Muldowney, the officer who had shot Blaine in the park, was also there, along with many of the tour bus passengers. Officials from the FBI, Homeland Security, the Justice Department, the New York State Police, the NYPD and more than a dozen other security agencies also took part.

During the ceremony, the Fultons, Strobic and Kate sat on the riser, listening to the president’s remarks.

“We’re here today because these people behind me, these ordinary American citizens, selflessly placed themselves in harm’s way for the safety of our country. They took unusual risks and steps to protect others. Through their courage and sacrifice, they bravely thwarted a major attack on New York City. They demonstrated unimaginable resilience to disrupt the plans of those who would wish us harm. A great many lives were saved because of them, and on behalf of a grateful nation, I thank you.”