Fool Me Twice by Jeff Lindsay

Fool Me Twice by Jeff Lindsay

Author:Jeff Lindsay [Lindsay, Jeff]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2020-12-02T00:00:00+00:00


24

Étienne did not like this American. To be fair, Étienne did not really like anyone. But Americans in particular rubbed him the wrong way. They all moved through the world with a kind of ignorant arrogance, as if every flower would open for them if they smiled and waved a credit card.

This one was a perfect example. He seemed to have no memory at all of his previous trip in chains, when Étienne had beaten him. No, he came aboard as if he were on holiday, and he wore a stupid blue cap, the kind Americans always wore. It had the crest of some idiot sports team on it. Baseball, almost certainly, a game for cretins. And he was always getting in the way, asking questions, acting like he had a perfect right to do whatever pleased him, always with the same idiot smile. He behaved as if it was a pleasure ride on a hired boat, as if coming here, to Île des Choux, was something he could do whenever he wished.

And this was the man who boasted that he always found a way? He acted like he could not find the way out of a public pissoir. But no, he must put it about that he always found a way. Eh bien—Étienne would show him that this time, there was no way but Étienne’s. Île des Choux was not one of his stupid amusement parks—there was no mouse, no roller coaster. Île des Choux was so far beyond his naïve American experience that he would be dead in less time than it took to spit. He would never be able to survive here—he could not even get on the île alive, without Etienne’s help!

Always a way—feh! Did he think he could come here, and without Étienne? There was no way. And so as they approached the island, Étienne took some pleasure in pointing out all the horrible things that would happen to him if he ever tried to cross Étienne or his employer, Monsieur Boniface.

“Look,” Étienne said. “You think you find a way, ah? Per’aps in a teeny submarine? Look—” He pointed down below the surface of the water, where a series of dim shadows were just barely visible. “For submarines? Electronic mines. Anything come close—” He waved a hand. “Boom.” He smiled happily.

“Really?” the American said, nearly as happy. “Wow, so those are what—mines? Electronic mines? Is that what you said? Hey, they’re not gonna go off, are they? I mean, you know, blow us up?”

Étienne’s smile morphed into a sneer, an expression he had a great deal more practice with. “You are so stupid you think so?” he said. “You should be glad Étienne is not so stupid as you.” He tapped a black electronic box beside the steering wheel. “Thees give a signal so we are not explode. Only Étienne has thees box.”

“Wow,” the American said. “That’s really cool. And that’s for all the other stuff, too, right? I mean—missiles and booby traps and all that?”

Étienne snorted.



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