Chapter 9

On appearing in the basement of the Hawthorne, we found it nearly stifling after being out in the cold for so long, and quickly transferred through the steel door into the short tunnel leading to the main Essex St. tunnel to await the arrival of those with the Heroin. We found the temperature in the tunnels much more to our liking since it was warmer there than outside and there was no wind in the tunnels, just a slight draft.

It required quite some time for those we were waiting for to cover the distance from the Sail Loft to the hotel, which I had estimated to be around two thousand feet or so. The reason for this tardiness soon became apparent as they approached. While all three of them had lights to see by, the man named Joe from the meeting the previous night, was in the lead with a large, stiff, push broom to sweep the trash and other debris out of the way of the two following him with the pallets on pallet jacks. Even with all of the trash pushed aside, the unevenness of the floor, which wouldn’t be noticed much when walking on it, was a hindrance to the pallet jacks with their small wheels and rollers. We had heard them long before we had seen them, as any noise bounced around in the tunnel and could be heard for a long way. We had even heard Joe caution them to be quieter. There was a lot of quiet cursing, plus they were all sweating, as they moved past us in the main tunnel. Of course, I had cast the invisibility spell as they neared us.

We allowed them to move about a hundred feet ahead of us before we followed quietly behind them, as they had cleared the floor of the tunnel so well. It was around thirteen hundred feet or so from the Hawthorne’s tunnel to the entrance under the East India Marine Hall. The three of them toiled less on this stretch of the tunnel as apparently it was in better shape than the part leading from the wharf. We would still need to investigate that part of the tunnel complex, but tomorrow, as we had plenty of time until the delivery.

The three of them eventually came to the entrance of the Hall and waited while Joe opened the locked door. They had a little trouble getting the pallet jacks across the entrance, as it was a bit higher than the floor of the tunnel, but they eventually succeeded with a lot more cussing and sweating. Jill and I had moved up a bit closer while they were thus engaged. Joe closed the door once they had everything inside, and we moved up to it.

“I need to cast the invisibility spell again so I can go in and see what they are doing. You wait out here but move further up the tunnel, since they aren’t likely to go that way when they come out,” I told Jill who wasn’t happy.

“Why do I need to wait out here?”

“Because I can only maintain the invisibility spell for so long on myself and transfer at the same time. Please don’t argue, I need to get in there and see what they are doing,” I told her. She moved off, and I cast the spells.

On appearing inside the Hall basement, I found the three of them had opened one of the enclosed storage rooms and moved the two pallets of drugs inside before removing the pallet jacks, which they placed in an area with other equipment, and then closing and locking the room before leaving the building. I transferred back to the tunnel still under the invisibility spell.

“You two go back up the tunnel to the Hodges House and leave from there,” Joe told the pair who had come with him. They set out back up the tunnel toward the Hawthorne Hotel and the Hodges House beyond it. Joe opened the door to the Bowker Block and went in locking the door after himself just as he had the Hall door. Jill appeared beside me, as I canceled the invisibility spell.

“What do we do now?” she demanded in an upset whisper.

“We get ahead of those two and capture them,” I told her.

“Where do we put them?”

“A good question, but let’s capture them first, and then we’ll look around for a place to keep them,” I told her but did have a place in mind. I transferred us to the short tunnel leading from the Hawthorne Hotel, and we waited for the men to approach it. As they passed the tunnel entrance, I hit them with a freeze spell, stopping them in their tracks.

“Where do we look?” Jill asked following that.

“I was considering the basement of the Gardner Pingree House. I have a marker at the entrance. Shall we transfer there and check it out?” I inquired.

“All right, let’s go,” she agreed, and we left the two prisoners frozen there in the tunnel while we investigated the new location.

On appearing in the tunnel on the north side of Essex St. where the Gardner house was, I transferred us through the blocked off entrance, and we appeared in the basement of the house. It certainly didn’t appear that anyone had been down here in a long time from the spider webs and cobwebs present. There also wasn’t much down here but some dead bugs and old furniture. I smiled on seeing this.

“This will do just fine,” I told Jill. “Wait here and I’ll move the prisoners here,” I added before disappearing and then reappearing a minute later with our two prisoners.

“What else are we going to do today?” she asked, before adding, “I’m getting hungry.”

“I want to check out the tunnel at least as far as the Hodges House yet today,” I told her, before transferring us back to the tunnel on the south side of Essex St. at the entrance to the tunnel to the Hawthorne Hotel.

It was about seven hundred feet or so to where we came to the marker that I had previously placed on the Hodges House. The Essex St. tunnel was joined there by another one that appeared to lead generally south toward where I could sense the marker that I had left at the Custom House that day.

“Yes, this appears to be the way to the Custom House and the Wharf. We can check it out later. I’ll leave another marker down here,” I told Jill, before looking at the Essex St. tunnel that continued past where we were. We followed it for several hundred feet more before coming to another tunnel that appeared to head generally north up what I believed would parallel Washington Square East and the historic houses there which we had read about in the tunnel book.

“I don’t believe we need to worry about those other houses or this tunnel. We’ll check out the tunnel to the Custom House and the Sail Loft tomorrow, after questioning the prisoners,” I told Jill.

“Good, I need a hot shower and dinner. We can eat at the hotel even if it is rather expensive. I’m not going out to look for a restaurant tonight,” she told me.

“Yes, dear, we have had quite a day,” I admitted, before transferring us back to our room at the Hawthorne Hotel for all of the things that she had mentioned.

We had dinner at Nat’s in the hotel. It was very good, and we had ordered the largest entree they had, as ‘the Fish’ was paying for it. That night we slept very well after such a busy day.

Monday, the 25th of January, we were up at a reasonable hour following a very good night’s sleep. We dressed in our warmest clothing following our morning preparations to seek some breakfast at the same location that we had yesterday. The temperature in Salem was still quite cold this morning, and we would need a good hot breakfast for today’s work.

Following breakfast, we moved behind the building where we had eaten on Essex St., and I transferred us back to our room in the hotel where we changed into our black recon clothing and made sure that we had our balaclavas with us so those we interrogated wouldn’t be able to identify us. I transferred us to the basement of the Gardner-Pingree House where our prisoners were.

“Which one shall we start with?” I asked Jill.

“The one on your right,” she answered after a couple of seconds of thought.

“Don your mask first,” I told her, as I donned mine, before changing his freeze spell to a partial one.

“What the... !” he started on becoming aware and looking around. We had a light shining on him.

“What the hell is this? Where Am I?” he demanded.

“You are our prisoner, and I will ask the questions. You be a good boy and answer them or else,” I told him.

“Who the hell are you?” he demanded instead.

“We are the ones who will determine whether you live or die. Now shut up and listen to the questions. Answer each one as I finish it,” I told him.

“What is your name?” I asked first.

“I want a lawyer. I have a right to a lawyer,” he demanded instead.

“You have no rights other than to answer our questions, and we don’t deal with lawyers. We deal with the TRUTH; something most lawyers have little or no acquaintance with. Now answer the question before I demonstrate just how unhappy I am with you,” I told him.

“Fuck you, you cops can’t hold me or deny me my rights,” he said next.

“We are not the police,” I told him, losing patience with him.

“Even the DEA can’t deny me my rights,” he said next in a sure voice. He should have been in the jail that I was taken to when all of this began, I thought to myself.

“We aren’t the DEA either or the CIA. We are a group of private citizens who deal with the TRUTH and dispense our own brand of justice,” I told him to a startled look from him.

“That’s illegal!” he shouted in fear.

“So is distribution of large quantities of drugs, but obviously you need an incentive to talk to us,” I said, and cast the pain spell on him before returning his freeze spell to a full body one.

“While that’s at work on him, we should check out the tunnel to the Sail Loft,” I told Jill who hadn’t said anything while I questioned to the prisoner.

“Okay, let’s go since it will be a while before he is ready to talk,” she agreed, and I transferred us to the tunnel under the Hodges House where I had left a marker last night. Jill had remembered to bring the light.

It was something like nine hundred feet from the Hodges House to the Sail Loft on Derby Wharf. We passed an entrance to the basement of the Bonded Warehouse and the Custom House where I had placed markers yesterday during the tour. The tunnel ended currently under the Sail Loft. There was a trapdoor in the floor of that building and a ladder leading up to it.

“Should we try to get into the building?” Jill asked, as she shined the light up at the trapdoor.

“Let me see if anyone is there first,” I told her and sent my Magic Senses out to check for anyone in the building, but found no one.

“All right, but just a quick look around,” I told her before starting up the ladder and releasing the lock on the trap door. It was fairly easy to push it up then, but I only opened it a few inches to look around to be sure that no one was in the building. No one was, and I opened it all of the way before climbing out. Jill followed me up the ladder, and I helped her out onto the floor of the Sail Loft.

On looking around, we saw that there were some sails stored here, and there was a demonstration area where new sails were laid out and sewn together. Most importantly there was a hoist above the trapdoor, and that is how they had lowered the pallets of Heroin into the tunnel. It appeared that someone had forgotten to remove it.

“I don’t think they use that tunnel a lot. It needs a good bit of maintenance and repair as the floor is quite uneven and a bit damp, I noticed,” I told Jill, as we continued to look around.

“Yes, I noticed a number of places with roots growing through the bricks,” she told me, before asking, “What are you going to do to keep them from using this place again?”

“Let’s close the trapdoor, and then I’ll cast my wards in it and the floor. They should last for at least four years, and no one will be able to get through them either from below or from up here,” I told her before sitting on the floor and casting my wards in the floor and the trapdoor.

“Shall we return to the basement of the Gardner House and see how our prisoner is doing?” I asked.

“Certainly,” she agreed, and I cast the transfer spell.

On appearing in the basement of the Gardner House, I changed the freeze spell on the first prisoner back to a partial one and then canceled the pain spell. He immediately threw up, urinated on himself, and lost control of his bowels. We had a heavy duty cleaning spell ready to deal with that and to clean him up.

“Now are you more ready to talk?” I asked, but all he could do was whisper, “Yes.” Jill produced a bottle of water and gave it to him to wash out his mouth and to drink.

“What is your name?” I asked when he finished that.

“Lew.”

“Are you a regular member of the launch crew?”

“No, I just help out when they have things to be brought in. That turkey, Joe, pays us, but he never said anything about vigilantes,” he told us.

“Joe doesn’t know about us yet, but he’ll learn soon,” I promised him before continuing.