Cut and Run 4 - Divide and Conquer

your back,” he said, looking up to meet Ty‟s eyes evenly.
    Ty stared back at him, feeling a shiver run up his spine as he
    looked into Zane‟s dark eyes. It was frustrating sometimes, how one
    look in Zane‟s eyes made Ty want to throw everything else out the
    window. But mostly it was fun.
    The shift of his weight to stalk around the bar and steal a kiss was
    interrupted when the police-band radio he kept in a little-used corner of
    the kitchen crackled to life, the voice sounding marginally panicked as
    it asked for backup and the bomb squad.
    “10-79!”
    Ty straightened as he looked at the radio. The signal was weak
    enough that it only picked up on calls from his neighborhood, alerting
    him to anything in the vicinity he might be able to help with. It rarely
    came to life.
    Zane set the knife down and picked up a towel, drying his hands
    as he turned to listen, a frown on his face.
    “10-79,” the radio spat again through the static. “501 East Pratt
    Street.”
    Another voice answered, also sounding panicky and out of breath.
    These people weren‟t making official police calls; they had to be off-
    duty.
    Divide & Conquer | 37

    “Jesus, that‟s the aquarium,” Ty told Zane.
    Ty stood and pushed away from the counter as Zane turned off
    the burners. “What is it? Ten, twelve blocks?” Zane asked as he strode
    to the couch, plucked up his shoulder holster, shrugged into it in a
    quick and long-practiced move, and slid his gun into place.
    Ty nodded as he jogged toward the coat rack by the door and the
    small table drawer where he kept his sidearms. He hurried to put the
    shoulder holster on, getting the straps tangled as he did so and not
    caring. Zane grabbed his keys and leather jacket.
    “We‟ll get there faster on foot in this kind of traffic,” Ty told him
    as he yanked at the front door.
    “I‟ll drive between cars and on sidewalks if I have to,” Zane
    answered.
    Ty stood at the front door, momentarily indecisive. He would
    gladly ride on the back of Zane‟s deathtrap Valkyrie if he really
    thought it‟d get them through the Friday night traffic gauntlet of Fell‟s
    Point to the Inner Harbor faster than he could hoof it. Maybe.
    “You ride. I‟ll run,” he told Zane, completely sincere in his belief
    that he could get there quicker.
    “Meet you there,” Zane said as he headed for the bike parked in
    front of the row house.
    Ty slapped his hand down on the badge that lay on the table,
    sliding the chain it hung from over his head as he pulled the door
    closed and hopped from the top step of his stoop to the sidewalk. He
    sprinted toward Fleet Street as Zane started the bike with a quick jump
    and revved the engine. He knocked back the kickstand and got the
    Valkyrie moving as he shoved his helmet on without buckling it.
    Ty watched him weave into the heavy traffic and followed in
    Zane‟s path for half a block, but then he did what only a man on foot
    could do and parkoured his ass over someone‟s fence and into the
    alleyway between two buildings. It wasn‟t just a matter of getting to the
    aquarium in time to help now—it was a matter of pride. He‟d beat that
    damn motorcycle even if it killed him to do it.

    38 | Madeleine Urban & Abigail Roux

    Chapter Three

    “THIS is a WBAL TV 11 News Special Saturday Report. I‟m Andrea
    Gregg.”
    “A false bomb threat last night had off-duty police officers and
    volunteer workers scrambling to evacuate a group of children from the
    Baltimore Aquarium. The aquarium was open late for Sea Life Safari,
    an educational evening program for kids in kindergarten through
    second grade. The program was sold out with forty children in
    attendance.”
    The visual cut to a grim-faced older man with graying hair
    wearing a blue polo embroidered with the aquarium‟s logo. The titles
    labeled him as a Facility Proctor . “We were having a great time,” he
    said. “The kids were really enjoying it. We were spread out all over the
    aquarium in little groups, to give them more one-on-one attention, but it
    made it harder to get them all out without panicking them. We didn‟t
    want to panic them.”
    “How did you hear about the bomb threat?” the reporter‟s voice
    asked.
    “A security guard came up and told me we needed to get the kids
    out quickly and quietly. He didn‟t tell me why, just that we had to go
    now . Now, you have to understand, these are little kids, and they‟re all
    spread out through the room, and we just had two