Page 95 of Sinner's Salvation

“An alley by the waterfront, we don’t have long before they get the power back on.”

“You didn’t just flip a switch, did you?”

“Of course not,” he said, sounding insulted. “I flipped a lot of switches.”

“Why didn’t you destroy the power box?”

“Because I didn’t want to die,” he replied, still sounding insulted. “Electrocution is not one of my favorite things to do.”

“I don’t know,” Brian said, with more than a hint of giggle in his voice. “I’ve heard it can be quite stimulating.”

Evan and Anna turned to look at him.

“What?” he said, a dopey smile on his face. “I’ve always wanted to say that.”

“Did they drug you?” Evan asked.

“It could be sleep deprivation,” Anna said.

Brian pointed at her with his cup. “Yes, that one.”

Evan pushed the door open, allowing the scent of the river and the sounds of the city into the hallway.

The lights came on.

Alarm bells began to clang.

Evan stepped outside, Anna behind him, but Brian seemed to have some difficulty getting his feet to work together. He wobbled, but didn’t actually go anywhere.

Anna grabbed him by the wrist and yanked him outside. They let the door close and walked away from the building. Traffic was light, so they crossed the street.

“We need to get down into the subway system as fast as possible,” Evan said, as he glanced back at Anna and Brian.

“You kinda stand out,” Brian helpfully said. A second later, he tripped over his feet and would have landed on his face if Anna hadn’t kept him upright.

Evan reached under the back of his bullet resistant vest and pulled out a large piece of paper or was it plastic? He flashed the sign at them.

Take a picture with a soldier $10.

“Are you crazy?” Anna asked. “It’s only going to make you more visible.”

“You’ll see,” he said, with a grin.

Multiple sirens grew louder and louder. She couldn’t see any emergency vehicles, but that would change very quickly. All anyone had to do to consider Evan a suspect in breaking out of Homeland Security’s office with Brian, was look at him.

They came up to a corner, just as a large crowd of people arrived at the corner of the street opposite them. The Chinese tourists.

Several of them were gesturing at her little group, and a half dozen trotted across the street, against the red light, so they could pose next to Evan and take a bunch of selfies.

He helpfully changed his pose as well, showing them some new ideas to make them look badass. At least that’s what she thought he was showing them.

The light changed and the rest of the horde crossed the street, clapping when Evan got down on one knee, propped his gun on his other knee and narrowed his eyes menacingly. The entire group of forty-eight people clumped up in a horseshoe around and behind him.

Once the big picture was taken, they broke up into smaller groups for more pictures as several the police cars and a SWAT team van whizzed by them at breakneck speed.

Huh, he’d been right. No one paid him any attention at all.

A few other tourists requested photos as well and pretty soon, Evan had a pocket bulging with cash.

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