Dourado by David Wood

Author:David Wood [Wood, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Thriller, Adventure, Mystery, Suspense
ISBN: 9780979573842
Publisher: Gryphonwood Press
Published: 2007-12-28T14:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 16

The knife struck the post dead center, its razor tip piercing the soft wood and burying itself a full three inches into its target. Stefan smiled a wicked grin. He never missed. He retrieved the blade with a deft yank and held it up in the afternoon sun, admiring the way the sunlight played off the razor edge. It was a KA-BAR knife, the style used by United States Marines. The weight and feel of it in his hand was perfect.

He flexed his bicep and drew the knife point across the muscle, drawing a faint trickle of blood. He no longer felt pain, and the cutting reminded him of killing. He loved killing with a knife; it was so… personal.

Sheathing his knife, he returned to his training. Placing his palms on the ground, he flipped into a handstand, put his heels against the post from which he had taken his knife, and began his regimen of inverted pushups. One-hundred repetitions, and then time for his run.

He was on ninety-seven when his phone vibrated. There was no need to check who was calling. He already knew. He ignored the phone while he finished his exercises, then waited for the next call, which he expected would come in short order. He was not disappointed. The phone buzzed again almost immediately, and he answered on the first ring.

“I have been waiting for your call,” he said.

“Stefan, you are needed.”

The voice on the other end sought to carry the weight of command, but Stefan could read vocal inflections, and the man was agitated. It pleased him.

“Angelo has failed, as I told you he would.” They had been foolish to entrust an important mission to that buffoon. Angelo was good for bullying wayward priests and holding the door for his betters. Nothing more.

There was a long pause on the other end of the line. The man on the other end of the line had already lost whatever advantage he thought he had. They needed Stefan, but Stefan did not need them.

“The operation was not a success.”

“Obviously, or you would not be calling me,” Stefan said.

“We… should have entrusted this to you at the outset. We need you now. God needs you.”

That admission was all Stefan would get. It was enough.

“Give me the details of the operation.”

He listened to what the caller told him, asking an occasional direct question. He wrote nothing down. He would remember everything. He was about to hang up the phone when the caller actually surprised him.

“They claim to have found what?” Stefan asked, his head abuzz with surprise. He set his jaw and let the information sink in. “This cannot be. It is heresy. You absolutely should have called me first.”

He snapped the phone closed and laid it in its place atop the antique rolltop desk. Dropping to the oak floor, he sat cross-legged with his hands in his lap. He gradually slowed his breathing, and willed his heart to slow. He instructed his mind to slow as well, the

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