The Silk Code by Deborah Swift

Author:Deborah Swift [Swift, Deborah]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-03-06T17:00:00+00:00

Chapter 22

Tom sprang back through the living-room door and slammed it behind him. He expected to hear shots as he hurtled down the stairs. Behind him he heard more doors slam and shouts of confusion.

‘Get him!’ Marita shrieked.

Tom pelted down the stairs and careered out of the front door into the dense nothingness of the blackout. Dark shapes of buildings blurred as he lurched away around the corner and down another lightless street into a cobbled alley. He slithered on the uneven surface and, arms flailing, crashed into a metal dustbin. The lid clattered to the ground.

The gun had set his nerves razor-sharp. The very sight of it had a visceral effect.

He dived into the shadows of another bin and an asbestos-topped coal bunker. At the end of the alley, he saw the dark figure of Kohout and then a blinding light.

Thinking to hear a shot at any moment, he ducked, but no, it was a flashlight.

It raked slowly over the narrow walls of the alley and the top of the coal bunker. Tom crouched lower. No fool would risk a conversation with an armed man, especially not with a fascist fanatic.

Kohout ventured further down the alley towards him, swinging the light left and right. Tom found a coal shovel next to the bunker and gently picked it up. The handle was coarse and heavy in his palm.

‘Anything?’ Oliver Johnson’s silhouette appeared at the end of the alley.

Kohout turned, and his flashlight beam swooped away to make Johnson cover his eyes. ‘I thought he went down here,’ Kohout said.

The flashlight swung back, and Kohout crept nearer, his gun outstretched in his hand ready to shoot. Tom’s mouth was dry, his back muscles painfully taut as he squeezed down to keep out of sight.

Kohout came closer. Just a few more steps.

Tom lurched to upright and brought the shovel down with all his weight. It caught Kohout on the side of the head, and he toppled as if the strings on his knees had been cut. At the same time, the gun went off with a crack that would surely bring everyone onto the street.

Tom dropped the shovel and ran, skidding down the alley, skirting a parked car. Behind him, the clatter of more running feet. But he heard nothing except the blood pounding in his head. At the end of the alley, he emerged panting.

Walk calmly, he told himself. Don’t draw attention. It was all he could do not to run. He was hatless. It made him feel naked and vulnerable. Damn. His hat was still at Jack King’s apartment.

Just as he was about to enter the Tube station, the siren went. From nowhere, the road was full of rushing people, all stumbling towards the Underground. He was overtaken by women carrying babies, by men being pushed along by their wives. He followed the throng down into the belly of the tunnel, where hanging electric lights made everyone’s features skeletally stark and grim.

There’d be no trains, he realised.

Only then did he begin to process what had just happened.

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.