The Days Before_A Prequel to the Five Roads to Texas series by Brian Parker & Phalanx Press

Author:Brian Parker & Phalanx Press [Parker, Brian & Press, Phalanx]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Phalanx Press
Published: 2019-08-14T16:00:00+00:00

Grady padded silently down the hallway to his apartment. He glanced at the door. It was pulled tight, so he continued on to the elevator. Nobody waited there to jump him as he’d feared. He peered down the hall until it turned a corner and he couldn’t see anymore. Besides the guy at the stairwell door, he was fairly certain that there were no more lookouts.

He held the unconscious Korean’s knife along the inside of his forearm with the cutting side of the blade facing outward. If any of his neighbors were to look into the hallway, they wouldn’t notice that he had a weapon. He cursed himself again for not carrying a sidearm, but he’d never needed to have one. Before tonight he’d thought the risk of getting caught in DC with a weapon—registered or not—was too great.

He’d have to rectify that mistake in the future.

As he neared his apartment, Grady wondered if old Tim, the security guard in the lobby, was correct that there were three of the intruders. The man’s shoddy memory was the only intel he had on these guys, besides his own discovery that they most likely were Korean Special Forces. Were there more of them?

He considered calling Pete Thompson for backup, but quickly discarded the idea. It would take too long for any of the Havoc guys to make it all the way out to Petworth, and time was of the essence. These guys were here to get intel on the op and if he didn’t stop them before that happened, the mission could be further compromised.

Grady turned the corner and rapidly crossed the last ten feet to his door. He ducked low, avoiding the peephole in case they observed the hallway through that. With the door shut tightly, his idea of theatrically kicking it open to catch the men off guard was shot. He reached out slowly, trying the handle.

Locked.

He shook his head in frustration. Of course it was locked. His keys jingled slightly as they came out of his pocket. It wasn’t much, but an attentive lookout would have heard the sound. The key slid silently in the lock and he turned it, simultaneously twisting the handle. He surged upward, pushing hard against the door with his shoulder. And then came to a sudden, jarring halt as the security chain reached the end of its length with a loud thud that echoed down the hallway.

Inside his apartment, excited voices spoke quickly in a language that he didn’t recognize. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that it was Korean.

Grady took a few steps back and slammed his shoulder into the door. The sound of cracking wood rewarded his effort. He repeated the process four more times, the chain’s anchoring screws finally tearing free from the doorjamb on the fifth hit.

The door flew inward on its hinges and Grady rushed inside. The living room was empty. His mind registered that his laptop screen glowed on the kitchen table, and beyond that, the window to the fire escape was open.

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.