The Heritage Paper

Chapter 77



Veronica viewed the other passengers on the train. She now understood the fear and paranoia those in Germany had of the Gestapo. Danger could be anywhere. The old lady, the young Asian couple, the Wall Street looking straphangers.

The enemy within.

She looked at Maggie, noticing that her head was drooped toward the floor. Usually she held it up so high and proud. Veronica wondered if she regretted opening up to her. It wasn’t her style.

“What’s wrong, Mags? We’re almost there.”

She sniffled. “I let everybody down. Oma gave me the responsibility to stop this whole mess and now the whole world is going to be ruined because of me.”

Nice expectations to put on a twelve-year-old, Ellen.

“Honey, this isn’t your fault. And don’t be scared by all this war talk. Right now it’s just that … talk.”

“You don’t get it, Mom … it doesn’t matter if there’s a war or not. If Sterling convinces everybody that the Jewish people were responsible for 9/11, then people will hate them here like they did in Germany. First they couldn’t go to the same schools, and then they were sent off to concentration camps. Even if they don’t take over the world, it will still be a really mean place to live.”

The train stopped at 110th Street station. Veronica took a deep breath, grabbed Maggie’s hand and led her off the train. The hand felt so small, like they’d gone back in time. Veronica’s wary eyes viewed the train platform. Would Zach be there? Or would the bad guys be waiting for them?

The answer was neither.

Veronica stood with Maggie on the platform as the other riders dispersed in all directions. The station completely emptied out, except for mother and daughter.

Part of Veronica wanted to flee, but would it be safer somewhere else? And if they left, she might miss the chance to reunite with Jamie.

Footsteps echoed in the stairwell. She recognized them—her heart sank. Had Zach set them up?

Before she could even look up, the two guards from the front of the Waldorf ambushed them. It happened so fast, she didn’t know what hit them, and they were holding Veronica and Maggie at gunpoint.

They needed a miracle.

And then one arrived.

It came in the form of a small boy in a tuxedo. Seemingly appearing out of nowhere, Jamie stood at the end of the platform. He had his hands behind his back like when he plays the “pick a hand” game. Oh god, don’t let him have a gun, Veronica thought.

He smiled. “Catch me if you can,” he said and began backpedaling, which wasn’t very effective. The guard who had hold of Maggie took off towards him and easily caught up to the boy.

But there was a method to his madness. He had backed up to a turnstile. And as the guard leaned in to grab him, Jamie showed his hands for the first time. He didn’t have a gun—but handcuffs—Eddie’s handcuffs! With surprising speed, he cuffed the guard’s hand and then clamped the other cuff onto the turnstile.

Maggie was already running toward the guard. She karate-chopped the gun out of his hand and it fell to the platform. But just as Veronica started warming to the idea of having a weapon of their own, Maggie chucked it as hard as she could into the tracks and announced, “I hate guns!”

The other guard held his weapon tightly to Veronica’s neck and ordered, “Come back here or your mother dies.” His words echoed through the empty station.

Veronica had other ideas. “Run—get out of here—don’t worry about me—run!”

They didn’t listen.

So what’s new?

Maggie and Jamie began darting at the guard like planes to King Kong. Jamie was even making an airplane sound. Always pushing his limits, he buzzed Kong’s tower.

In a moment of indecision, the guard played it halfway. He reached for the precious cargo—Jamie—while trying to hold on to his insurance policy—Veronica. It backfired. He missed Jamie, and loosened his grip on Veronica, allowing her to wriggle away.

She fell to the ground and Maggie pounced on her. Veronica was starting to wonder whose team her daughter was on. “Do the pencil roll, Mom. They can’t shoot me.”

Veronica really didn’t want to test her theory, but they had no other choice. They rolled over the grimy platform, away from the guard. Maggie was clinging close to Veronica’s body, as if she was a second set of skin. The guard couldn’t get a good shot without hitting Maggie, so he set his sights on Jamie.

Then Veronica heard more footsteps coming down the stairwell. Reinforcements.

Damn!

They appeared with guns pointed, yelling, “Freeze!”

But their guns were pointed at the Gestapo guy.

They were the good guys!

NYPD!

And Zach was right behind them. He didn’t waste time ushering Veronica and the kids out of the subway station and up onto the street.

“What just happened?” Veronica asked.

“I saw the guards heading down the stairwell into the subway station,” Zach said. “So I found a couple police officers and explained that these goons tried to attack Eddie Peterson’s family to get at Kingston. No more loyal bunch in the world than cops—Eddie was family to them. They didn’t believe me at first, but I showed him his ID—said he gave it to me with instructions to find the nearest officer.”

“Quick thinking,” Veronica said. Obviously word hadn’t spread yet of Eddie’s demise. “So what’s your excuse, wild man?” she asked Jamie.

“My job was to buy time until he could find the police,” he said with a big grin,

“That was a little dangerous, don’t you think?”

“Not really—they can’t shoot me—I’m royal blood,” he replied, nonchalantly.

“I forget sometimes,” Veronica said as they hit 115th Street by foot. “So now what?”

“We find a place to hide until morning,” Zach said.

“And where exactly would that be?”

Zach suddenly took a sharp right and bounced up three small steps to the front door of a three-story, walk-up brownstone.

“You are going to break into a house?” Veronica asked with surprise.

He smiled. “It’s not breaking and entering if you own it.”