China Strike by Matt Rees

Author:Matt Rees
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: FIC031000 Fiction / Thrillers / General
Publisher: Crooked Lane Books

CHAPTER 16

Verrazzano reached the Audi amid a sudden burst of heavy rain over the Rhine. The downpour pitted the great river like the skin of the Krokodil. For an instant, he gazed at the wide water and thought that he could no more stop its motion toward the North Sea than he could end the assassin’s killing spree. Then he shook his head and unlocked the convertible. Restaurants lined the embankment up to the Hohenzollern Bridge, where the trains rumbled out of the main station across to the giant conference hall on the eastern bank. The rain had cleared the sidewalk and the steps up to the cathedral. He slipped into the driver’s seat and pressed the ignition button.

The storm drummed on the soft top. He put the car in reverse and turned in his seat to look out the rear window. The right back seat dropped forward. A Glock 19 came out of the space where the seat had been. Then the Krokodil eased his torso out of the trunk and held the weapon on Verrazzano. “The scalp,” he croaked. “Hand it over.”

Verrazzano frowned. The Krokodil didn’t have Turbo’s scalp? So who did? “I’m not the guy running around two continents leaving dead people with bad haircuts.”

The Krokodil kept the Glock steady and aimed at the ICE agent. The orange streetlamps came on despite the early hour, lighting up the rain on the side window to speckle shadow over the Krokodil’s face. He eased through from the trunk. The car filled with a ripe scent. The Krokodil grunted as he unfolded one leg across the back seat. His eyes glinted with the concentration of a chess master. Verrazzano held still.

“Wyatt promised you something?” Verrazzano said. “What’s he going to do? Buy you a warehouse full of that drug that’s eating you alive?”

“You can’t make me angry enough to make a mistake,” the Krokodil growled. “There’s no room in me for no more than I already got.” He brought his other leg through from the trunk.

“He’s going to cure you. Is that it?” Verrazzano shook his head. “Don’t believe anything he says.”

“The hell do you know?” The Krokodil sat upright behind Verrazzano. “Just drive.”

“How’d you start shooting up? To shut everything away. All the horror. Right? You were in Iraq, Afghanistan. That’s where Wyatt found you.”

The Krokodil jerked his Glock into Verrazzano’s neck.

“You’re not going to kill me,” Verrazzano said. “You’re going to keep me alive because you think I know where Turbo’s scalp is. Anyhow you couldn’t kill me if you tried.”

The breath came hot and filthy over Verrazzano’s shoulder, clouded with anger and hate. “You want to bet?”

“Wyatt screwed me over too. He told me I was working for the government. Special Ops. Special targets. Big policy stuff. Secret orders from the Oval Office itself. What’d he tell you?”

“To go kill a bunch of Chinamen.”

“I guess he refined his methods since he worked with me. Wyatt stands to make a lot of money, right? What’d he promise you?

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