Monarch by Lars Emmerich

Author:Lars Emmerich [Emmerich, Lars]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lars Emmerich

29

It’s clear that I’m not going to win any footraces in my current condition. The bruise on my thigh from the dead guy’s steel-toed boot is starting to tighten up, and there’s the very unfortunate matter of my hip, which feels like it’s been smacked by a solid blow from a ball-peen hammer. It’s functional, but the pain is definitely a problem. I’m in a bad way.

The gaggle of angry Agency men at my heels isn’t likely to let up or lose interest. The odds of their catching me will never be higher than right at this moment. If they let me slip through their fingers, they’re looking at a manhunt lasting months, maybe even years.

The thought is suddenly debilitating. If I survive the night, I will spend the rest of my life hiding from the world’s second-most successful intelligence apparatus. And if I disappoint my new friend Captain Lieutenant Chernov of the Grozny Office of the FSB, which will definitely happen if I have any prayer of disappearing from the CIA, I will have the world’s best intelligence agency on my heels, too.

Do I really want to escape a quick death, only to live the remainder of my days in fear of a slow and painful one? I understand now why criminals commit suicide by police. With each agonizing, stumbling step through the dark alleyway behind the warehouse, that option seems better and better.

And then Catharijne’s pleas for mercy echo in my ears. The pain and agony and suffering and despair in her voice stab me in the heart. The delicate line of her hips and the graceful arc of her neck come to my mind, and while I know her to be strong and hard and capable, she suddenly seems too fine, too fragile, too exquisite to endure her torture for another second. I can’t imagine making the choice to leave her to such an unthinkable fate to save my own skin. I clench my jaw and pick up my halting pace.

Dammit. I’ve been looking but not seeing. My brain registers my surroundings for the first time in a while. How many hiding spots have I overlooked already?

I’m in an industrial section of the city. Around me are factories and storehouses and delivery facilities. And… some sort of petroleum refinery?

Before I know my own reasoning, I find myself scaling the chain-link fence, eyeing the surreal, otherworldly silhouettes of pipes, reactors, smokestacks, and storage tanks in the gloom. Plenty of places to hide. Plenty of thermal energy to hide my body heat from the Agency’s infrared cameras. I angle toward a tangle of pipes and flatten myself against a large metal storage tank. It feels warm against my back, calming my nerves and dampening the adrenaline shakes wracking my limbs. I’m probably safe for the moment, I surmise, and there’s the added benefit that if I am found here, only an idiot would risk shooting a firearm at a tank full of petroleum.

I control my breathing, clear my mind,

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.