Falls the Shadow (Daniel O'Mahony) by Falls The Shadow (by Daniel O'Mahoney) (html)

Author:Falls The Shadow (by Daniel O'Mahoney) (html)
Language: eng
Format: epub

12

Notes from Underground

Time stopped inside Ace’s skull. There was the taste, the stench, the warmth of mud against her face, frozen in a single moment. Her pain froze, Sandra’s weight on her back froze. Both seemed cold, almost abstract. Ace lay half‐buried in the conservatory wondering only why she wasn’t dead.

Hands seized her shoulders roughly, pulling her upwards again. She shook weakly, a hopeless effort to free herself. There didn’t seem any point in fighting, her body was riddled with weariness, aching with the sheer effort she’d gone through that day. She hated her weakness. Not much point, she’d be dead in a few moments. So close to the final end, she found herself harbouring a much more resigned attitude to life.

She turned her head, staring hopelessly into the face of death.

Jane Page smiled back at her.

‘Oh, you are still with it then?’ Page grinned, face like a scored potato. ‘I was beginning to think I was the only one left.’

Energy kicked back into Ace’s body. She pulled away from Page.

‘Where’s Sandra?’ she asked coolly, trying not to match the assassin’s stare. Page indicated a slumped shape lying in a damaged patch of fronds.

‘Vicious little harpy isn’t she?’ Page said. ‘You’ve not thanked me.’

‘Is she dead?’ Ace growled.

‘No.’ Page shook her head with dismissive sincerity. ‘I was tempted.’

‘Thanks.’ It took an effort, but Ace managed to say it.

Page nodded, her features losing their sour sense of humour and becoming grim cold. She pulled something from the folds of her coat and pitched it in Ace’s direction. Ace caught it in her cupped palms. It was metal. Familiar.

It was a pistol. An unfamiliar design. Ace guessed that it was an automatic repeater backed up by more than a fair force and capacity. Loaded with… explosive bullets. Big league for a small firearm. A very heavy, very comfortable piece of weaponry. High kill‐power. Very nice.

In the right hands.

‘This,’ she said flatly, ‘does a lot of damage.’

‘I like damage.’ Page’s voice was coarse. ‘It’s an artform.’

Ace stepped forward and pressed the gun under Page’s chin, forcing the woman’s head upwards. Page made no attempt to move. Her face and eyes seemed to bloat, not with fear but with arrogance.

‘That was a mistake,’ Ace said.

‘Possibly.’ Page’s voice was loose and easy, still seeming to sneer at her. ‘You know how to use one of those? Which ends goes “bang”?’

‘That’s obvious. I’ve seen more action than you ever have.’

‘Killed anyone?’ Page was almost casual about it. There was a coolness in her manner which Ace found admirable. And callous.

‘One or two.’

‘I believe you,’ Page said, her voice growing slightly more emotive. ‘We’re very similar, you and I. What I can see in your eyes…’

‘Shut up!’ Ace spat. ‘I only kill people who deserve it. I can name one now.’

‘Only one? I can name two.’

Ace studied Page’s face with new intensity. She kept the gun cradled in her hands, but no longer quite ready to kill.

‘You’re bloody good.’ Page smiled, fixing Ace with a sharp stare, her voice becoming slow.

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