Talbot Odyssey by Nelson Demille

Author:Nelson Demille
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: United States, Spies, Espionage, Action & Adventure, Fiction
ISBN: 9780751541816
Publisher: Hachette Group
Published: 2008-12-01T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

West turned his face quickly away from the smell.

Eva grabbed his ear and turned him back toward the smelling salts.

West’s eyes opened and he found himself looking down at the floor. Slowly he realized he was lying on the gurney again, facedown, his head hanging over the edge. His calves were strapped, but there was no strap restraining his upper torso. Tentatively, he raised himself to his hands and knees.

He felt a ripping flash of pain across his shoulder blades, and collapsed.

Another strike of the whip fell on his buttocks and he felt the warm blood trickle over his cold skin.

Thorpe’s voice, shaky and tremulous, reached him through his pain. “So, Nicholas . . . so . . . you are much smarter than I thought . . . and braver than I imagined. . . . Why do I always underestimate you?”

West turned his head and saw Thorpe sitting in a chair, his color ashen, and his clothes and hair disheveled. He noticed again that Thorpe’s light trousers were stained with wetness. West wondered how long he had been unconscious, then the pungent smell of cordite registered, and he knew it hadn’t been very long. He also noticed that there were no wires leading from his body, that all the equipment had been pushed well away from the gurney.

Thorpe said, “Eva will practice her specialty for a while.” He stood. “I’ll be back in a few hours with Katherine. It’s been my experience that people who can endure pain and hold out under torture crack very quickly when someone they’re close to is being tortured. You’ll see what I mean.”

West swallowed several times, then found his voice. “Be sure . . . be sure to clean yourself . . . before you go. . . .”

Eva struck with the whip and West howled.

Thorpe smiled, then said to Eva, “I want him alive and conscious when I return.”

Eva replied, “He will be a different man when you return.”

Thorpe moved toward the door.

West called out, “Peter . . . you blew it, Peter . . . you’re an amateur. . . .

You’re not as smart as you think. . . .”

Eva raised the whip, but Thorpe held up a hand and stared at West. There was something in West’s voice that he didn’t like. “What are you talking about?”

“They’ll kill you for letting me die.”

“You’re not going to die. Yet.”

“Yes. I’m going to die. Now.” West suddenly yanked a small tuft of hair from the top of his head and stuffed it in his mouth.

Thorpe lunged across the room and thrust his fingers down West’s throat.

West bit down hard and Thorpe screamed, drawing two bloody fingers out of West’s mouth.

West chewed the hair and let out a long sigh, then his body convulsed for a few seconds. He lay still, his tongue protruding and his eyes wide open. The bitter-almond smell of cyanide drifted from his mouth and nostrils, causing Thorpe to move quickly back. “Oh . . . you son of a bitch! You did it! You bastard .

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