Blown Circuit by Lars Guignard

Author:Lars Guignard [Guignard, Lars]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Espionage, Fiction, Mystery, Retail, Thriller
Publisher: Fantastic Press
Published: 2013-12-17T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 37

THE BROKEN SLAB gave me enough room to slip inside the chamber. It was cramped in there, no more than four feet high, but it was difficult to determine exactly how far the chamber extended into the darkness. My first priority was to verify the contents of the crates. The wooden lids were secured down with metal bands on pivot points. I inserted the steel rod and levered back the band on the nearest crate.

When I removed the lid I saw wood shavings. Long, curled wood shavings. Moving the shavings aside revealed a hint of the tooled metal components within but, honestly, I was already sold. However the triggers might work, they weren’t wrapped in polystyrene, and that meant that they were vintage. Nobody packed precision components in wood shavings these days.

“Meryem, throw me a match,” I said.

But I didn’t get a match. I got a Klieg light. A blinding xenon wash of 50,000 lumens. Probably enough to light up a parking lot, let alone the hole I was squatting in.

“Hello, Michael,” a familiar voice said.

Kate.

It was not the voice I wanted to hear. I immediately scrabbled back farther into the alcove, my eyes adjusting to the bright light above.

“Don’t make us come in there to get you, Michael.”

“I wouldn’t think of it,” I said.

Actually, I was thinking exactly that. The light revealed the alcove clearly for the first time. It was still a small space, blocked in on three sides, but hidden behind me was a passage leading out. It wasn’t a big opening at the other end of the passage, but there was a good chance it was passable—I knew because I could see a sliver of scrubby grass overlooking the sea.

That was about when I heard Meryem scream. Not a huge scream, more of a whimper really, but it made the mission personal. It reminded me that I wasn’t the only one in the field.

“Michael, please come out before this gets unpleasant,” Kate said.

“Why don’t you come in here?”

“OK, Michael.”

That’s when I heard Meryem again. Only it wasn’t a whimper this time. It was a full-fledged wail. I evaluated my options. Even if I rolled the dice and tried to escape through the end of the tunnel, there was no way I could take the triggers with me. Plus, I’d be abandoning Meryem. So I faced a false choice really. All roads led back to Kate.

I crawled forward and rose into the light, hands above my head. I squinted to see that Faruk held Meryem at knifepoint, the anodized steel blade of his combat knife creasing her neck. Kate, herself, held a gun pointed directly at my head. It was the same Glock 26 she’d brandished at me more than once in the past. A compact, efficient weapon. She smiled and I thought I saw laughter in her eyes in the bright beam of the portable spotlight.

“Thanks for your hard work, Michael,” Kate said. “Now get out of that hole before you turn into a rat.”

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