Serpent Kingdoms by Ed Greenwood

Author:Ed Greenwood [Greenwood, Ed]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780786932771
Publisher: Wizards of the Coast
Published: 2004-01-02T00:00:00+00:00

Janssen shaved by torchlight under the decaying roof of an abandoned pagoda. His hands moved in quick, agitated movements, fingertips feeling for imaginary blond bristles. His skin was tender under the blade, which was blunt from overuse. He’d left his spares at the hotel in the city and he’d been holed up here for two days, as arranged. Cope should have been here by now.

The pagoda was ideal for their needs. It was one of many that dotted the countryside, but no one ever visited them. They weren’t a part of people’s lives any more. The cities had sucked too many people away from the countryside, and automated tractors and harvesters didn’t have time for history. Besides, the Chinese had new pagodas now, made of steel and concrete and glass, the thrusting totems of their own unique brand of capitalism. Everything remained as they had left it six months before, other than the remains of a campfire and a few discarded drug patches some local kids must have left behind. The cache was untouched beneath the basement floor.

Janssen went to the window again. Mist clung to the fields like silver foil over a crash victim, muffling the distant sounds of the freeway to the east. His boots scraped amongst the trash on the floor. He lit a cigarette, hiding the glow with his hand.

“Come on, Cope,” he said to himself, and meant it. But at the same time, something whispered in his inner ear: If the partnership was dissolved, if Cope was dead or captured, Janssen was in danger. The action was a no go. He would ask for extraction, bring an end to all of it. If —

Janssen pulled savagely at the cigarette’s filter and banished the fantasy. It did no good to think that way. Cope still had time. He may have been a hired gun masquerading as an idealist; he may have been the last person in the world Janssen would have wanted to share a beer with in another life. He might have inspired ulcers and sleeplessness and a profound need to question the parameters of human morality, but Janssen knew he was dependable when it came to the crunch. In any case, this last was hypocrisy. In Daya Bay and Hong Kong, in other places, they had both done what had to be done. In China, amongst the multitudes, they were alone together. The last forty-eight hours of silence had made him acutely aware of that. Cope still had time.

Bats fluttered unseen outside in the darkness. Janssen grew still as he listened. There was definitely the sound of an engine coming from somewhere across the fields, and it was getting closer. Janssen fumbled for his binos and peered into the night, panning left and right. There! A faint glow in the infrared. Janssen gradually made out the heat of a moped engine, an indistinct form bent forward over the handlebars. He lifted the sniper rifle he had propped by the window and followed the approaching figure through its scope.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.