Positive identification of Ms. Davidson, Uribe reports, was achieved by processing her fingerprint file through the database of the IDF, the Israel Defense Forces. Rabbi Davidson, it turns out, was a segen mishne, a second lieutenant, in the reserve forces of the Israeli army before she was discharged dishonorably, twenty-one months ago, for “offenses against the Jewish religion.”

16

THE SERVICE

THE FIFTEEN-SQUARE-BLOCK AREA south of Sheepshead Bay at the Belt Parkway, bounded by Ocean Parkway to the west, Manhattan Beach/Corbin Place on the east, and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, is known as “Little Russia” (occasionally “Little Odessa.”)

Our party assembles now—three teams from DivSix (the original complement had been four but one has been called away on another assignment) along with fourteen operators of South Brooklyn ESU—under vehicle cover in a vacant lot behind a bakery and a Jewish deli south of Neptune Avenue and west of Brighton First Street.

Time is 2145, nine forty-five in the evening, of Saturday, April 22, 2034.

The gale, which had been classed as a Category 4 hurricane until 1330 this afternoon, has been upgraded first to Cat 5 and then to a Superstorm, named Dani, the fourteenth since Sandy in 2012. Brighton Beach Boulevard is under eight inches of water already, with runoff sluicing in rivers from the elevated subway and storm surge back-flooding furiously out of the street drains.

The Emergency Service Units have been in meetings and prep assemblies since 0800 this morning. Three times the warrant service has been called off. Three times it’s been reinstated. Manning’s latest migraine (I could see his eyes clouding during the early brief at Brooklyn South) seems to have passed; he has gotten a couple hours’ snooze on the couch in the ESU skipper’s office. I haven’t had a wink and neither has anyone else.

Manning has time for one final fracas with Gleason before vanishing into the captain’s office.

MANNING

Frank, you’re telling me this street woman means nothing. Then how come the most famous attorney on the planet is suddenly standing up for her?

Gleason dismisses this. Who cares who’s defending her?

MANNING

Come on, Francis! How many homicide cases have you and I brought to court? Has either of us ever . . . ever had a defendant represented by Ellie Landau? This means something!

Gleason blows it off. “We’ll talk about it tomorrow.”

As for me, I confess the whole Righteous Man scenario has completely fled my brainpan. I’m too overwhelmed by what’s happening right now.

The final ESU brief has wrapped. Manning has reappeared. Our teams have assembled.

We’re out in the storm, behind the deli.