Deadfall: Agent 21 by Chris Ryan

Author:Chris Ryan [Ryan, Chris]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Juvenile Fiction, General
ISBN: 9781409026686
Google: LSJGAgAAQBAJ
Amazon: B00GO9BOA6
Publisher: Random House
Published: 2014-04-10T04:00:00+00:00

12

DEADFALL

It wasn’t a soft landing, but it was a safe one.

Cruz’s boys caught Zak with strong arms. But as soon as his fall was broken, they dropped him heavily to the ground and Zak felt the air shoot out of his lungs as his abdomen hit the wet earth. Winded, he gasped for breath.

‘Pick him up!’ Cruz yelled through the constant noise of the heavy rainfall. ‘And get the girl back to the hut.’ He had a high-pitched, slightly manic edge to his voice. As though he was excited.

Zak felt a hand grab a clump of his hair and he winced in pain as he was yanked upwards. Once he was on his feet, he saw that his scar-faced assailant had an ugly grin on his face as he twisted the hair tighter and pulled his head back.

Cruz was bang in front of him, his dark eyes glinting, water streaming down his face.

Zak opened his mouth to say something, but Cruz raised a finger to silence him. ‘I want you to hear something,’ he said. His voice almost hissed, like the sound of the rain sizzling against the ground all around them.

They didn’t have to wait long. Five seconds. Maybe ten. Then the sound of two gunshots rang through the air in quick succession. They came from outside the camp.

From the direction where he had left Raf, Gabs and Malcolm.

Cruz’s lip curled into a sneer. ‘Nobody’s coming to rescue you, my friend.’ He bent down, and picked up one of Zak’s makeshift grappling hooks from where it had fallen to the ground. ‘Pathetic,’ he said, before throwing it away and addressing his associates. ‘Get him inside.’

Cruz marched quickly towards the largest of the camp buildings. Zak was dragged by his hair in his wake, his mind a whirlwind. He had left three companions back in the jungle. There had been two shots. The conclusion he had to reach was sickening. At least one of his Guardian Angels was dead.

If not both of them.

Zak felt his knees buckle at the thought. Cruz’s guards laughed, then continued to drag him roughly into the building, where they threw him once more to the floor.

For a moment, Zak didn’t move. He was stunned. Paralysed. He listened to the sound of the rain hammering against the corrugated-iron roof. After thirty seconds he rallied as best he could. Dripping wet, he pushed himself to his knees.

He was in a room about fifteen metres by fifteen. There were no windows, nor any chairs or tables. Wooden crates – perhaps twenty of them – were piled up along one side. At the far end was a bright lamp facing towards Zak. It dazzled him, but as he squinted he could just make out the silhouette of two people behind it. Zak could tell that one of them was Cruz. He was dragging the other person by one arm. As they grew nearer, the features of this second person grew clearer.

It was a woman, about the same height as Cruz, but more solidly built.

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