A Gideon Crew Collection by Douglas Preston

Author:Douglas Preston [PRESTON, DOUGLAS / CHILD, LINCOLN]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction / Thrillers / General
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Published: 2016-04-05T00:00:00+00:00

40

GIDEON STARED AT her in disbelief. Surely he must have misheard or misunderstood something. “Alida, what are you doing?”

She turned to him, poised and collected. “I’ve been waiting for my opportunity. I told you I couldn’t wait to turn you in. Remember?”

For the moment he was too shocked to feel any anger.

“You almost had me believing you back there,” she said. “But when I saw those emails—”

“They were planted!”

“Yeah. And all those FBI agents, all those choppers, everyone shooting at you—I suppose that’s all just a mistake, too. It’s just too much to believe, Gideon. I’m not that gullible.”

Gideon heard footsteps pounding down the corridor. He quickly drew the six-gun, fired it once into the air. Then he grabbed Chu’s arm, turned his arm behind his back, and put the gun to his head. “Out,” he barked. “Into the hall.”

With a gasp of fear Chu scrambled to obey.

“The gun’s a fake!” Alida cried, chasing after them.

“Trust me, it’s real!” Gideon said. “Don’t make me kill him!”

Gideon pushed Chu ahead of him, at a jog. The high-security checkpoint to the inner labs was just down the hall. They rounded the corner and came to the checkpoint, with two metal detectors and several guards—all of whom had their own weapons drawn.

“He’s a dead man if you stop me!” Gideon shouted, shoving Chu through the metal detector, which went off with a shrill alarm.

“It’s a stage gun, you idiots!” Alida yelled.

“You want me to prove it’s real? If you follow, I shoot!” He continued on, thrusting Chu down the hall to the emergency stairs. He slammed open the door with his shoulder and dragged Chu down the stairs with him. The only person to follow was Alida.

“Bitch!” Gideon said as Alida threw herself on his back and tried to grab his gun. He knocked her aside but she came back at him again, punching him, again trying to rip the gun out of his hand.

“Stop it!” yelled Chu.

Gideon twisted away, pushing Chu through the doors at the bottom of the stairs and into the particle accelerator control room. Two operators stood there, at the large semicircle of monitors and instrumentation, staring in shock.

Gideon again heard the pounding of feet in the corridor outside.

“On the floor! Everyone!” He fired the gun into the ceiling.

The operators dove to the floor. Funny, Gideon thought grimly, how the makers of some of the world’s most fearful weapons were in reality a bunch of rabbits.

Seconds later half a dozen security officers burst in, weapons drawn. They were not Los Alamos security—they were all wearing NEST uniforms.

“Drop the gun!” one shouted as they all leveled their weapons at him.

Gideon pulled Chu around as a shield, the gun pressed to the man’s head. Chu issued an inarticulate croak.

“He’s got a fake gun, damn it!” Alida cried.

The lead security officer swiveled around, leveling his gun at Alida. “You!” he yelled. “On the floor! Now!”

“Me? What the—”

With a jerk of his head, the officer signaled to two others, who immediately tackled her, slamming her to the ground.

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