Lee CHILD - Better off Dead

The guy held up his hands in surrender. “OK. You win. I’m done.”

He took a step toward me. His legs were unsteady. His breathing was ragged. He took another slow step. Then a fast one. He curled his fingers into fists. And launched a punch straight at my face with his right. I deflected it and danced away to the side. Which was just what he wanted. He was already swinging his left. I saw it late. Twisted and ducked and caught the brunt on my shoulder. It felt like I’d been hit by a train. I saw him lining up another shot with his right. I planted my foot. Twisted back in the opposite direction. Raised my arm. And drove my elbow into the side of his head. It was the kind of contact that would have split most guys’ skulls. His mouth opened. His arms slumped down to his sides. I reversed direction again and smashed my fist into his other temple. He staggered to the side. His legs were turning to jelly. For real this time. It was my opportunity. I had no intention of wasting it. There was no one to intervene. I jabbed him in the face three times in quick succession with my left. He reeled back. I switched to my right and drove a huge reverse punch into his gut. He doubled over. I stood him up straight again with a knee to the face. He staggered back farther. I followed in and crashed the heel of my right hand into his chin. The back of his head cannoned into the wall. His eyes rolled up. His knees buckled. He flopped down into kneeling position. He balanced like that for a moment, and before he could fall the rest of the way I kicked him in the side of the head with my left foot. He spun around and down and wound up with his chest on the floor. His arms out to the sides. And his face jammed into a gap near the base of the climbing bars. I was pretty sure he was down and out. But I never take that kind of thing for granted. I stepped in close. And stamped on the base of his skull. I felt his spine snap. I was sure about that.

Dendoncker was standing still, staring at the body. His face was pale and completely expressionless. Fenton was covering him with the Uzi. I moved in close and felt his jacket pocket. He had a tiny revolver. Another NAA-22S. I took it and slipped it into my waistband.

“I offered Mansour the chance to walk out of here,” I said. “Now I’m going to offer you the same. With one condition.”

“Which is?”

“You tell me the truth.”

Dendoncker wet his lips with his tongue. “What do you want to know?”

“How did you get hold of a transponder with Nader Khalil’s fingerprint on it?”

“I didn’t. Michael and Khalil, they tricked me. They were working together, but I didn’t know. I bought Michael’s story about a protest with smoke. I had no idea there was anything more going on.”

Fenton raised the Uzi. “Shall I shoot him?”

Dendoncker lifted his arms like they could shield him from her bullets. I grabbed his wrist and dragged him around to the other side of the climbing bars. I forced him onto his knees. Held the back of his head. And pushed his face to within an inch of Mansour’s.

I said, “Think carefully. Is this how you want to go?”

“I bought the fingerprint.” Dendoncker squirmed away from the body. “It took years. And lots of money. But finally I found someone who was ready to betray Khalil.”

I let Dendoncker stand up. “How did you get your hands on it?”

“I used one of the women who worked for my catering company. I sent her to Beirut with the money. She brought the fingerprint back. It was fixed in sticky tape. Lifted from a drinking glass. It was easy to transfer it onto the transponder.”

“When was this?”

“A few weeks ago.” Dendoncker pointed at Fenton. “It’s why I hired her. I actually had to send two women. One stayed behind in Beirut. She was part of the price.”

“Did she know in advance? The one who stayed.”

“Of course not. Neither did the one who returned. She thought there’d been an accident.”

“What happened to the other women? You had six on your crew, from what I heard. Five, excluding Fenton.”

“One was plotting with Michael. She ran away. Two are coming with me. The other two are going to…retire.”

I caught movement out of the corner of my eye. It was Fenton. Heading for the exit. As planned.

I said, “You used the fingerprint to frame Khalil. He was never actually involved.”

Dendoncker nodded.

“He was trying to kill you. There was some kind of feud going on.”

Dendoncker nodded again.

“Which is why you always checked the bodies of anyone who came after you. You’re not just paranoid.”

“He sent others to kill me many times. I hoped one day he’d try in person. And fail. Then I would be free.”

“What was the feud about?”

Dendoncker wet his lips. “Khalil’s father blamed me for his other son’s death. Khalil carried it on when his father died.”

“Khalil’s brother was killed. He was driving a truck bomb.”

“His father and I, we were rivals. I was young. Ambitious. Looking for a shortcut to the top of our group. He stood in my way. I thought if he lost his son it would break his spirit. He would fade away. I could fill the void.” Dendoncker shrugged. “I was wrong. It only made him stronger. Harder.”

“You made his son drive the bomb?”

“Not made. Led him to the decision.”

“Not a distinction his father was impressed by, I guess.”

Dendoncker shook his head.

“So you saw the opportunity to get Khalil off your back. That’s what this is all about?”

“Correct. It was the only way I could buy my freedom.”

“The way I see it, you planned on three steps. First you had Michael make you a bomb. A dud. It was left where it would be found. It had a GPS chip so you could confirm it wound up at TEDAC. It also had a transponder. You knew the components would be studied. The details recorded. The pieces stored.”

Dendoncker nodded.

“Step two involved the city destroyer. It was supposed to arrive at TEDAC and get triggered by the transponder from Michael’s bomb.”

I felt my phone buzz in my pocket. That told me Fenton had found what she was looking for in Dendoncker’s SUV.

Dendoncker nodded again.

“One question. How do you get your hands on a city destroyer?”

Dendoncker shrugged. “Same way you get anything. Money.”

“So the city destroyer detonates. Takes TEDAC with it. Then step three. The smoke bomb is found. It has the same technology inside it. Plus Khalil’s fingerprint.”

“That’s the way it was supposed to happen.”

“But the first transponder didn’t trigger the city destroyer.”

“No. It should have done. I have no idea why it failed.”

I smiled. I was tempted to tell him that the transponder didn’t fail. That it didn’t have the chance to. Because Fenton had destroyed it weeks ago. But I resisted. I needed to keep him focused. He had some big questions coming up. So instead I said, “Then why try to stop the smoke bomb? Why not make sure it went to TEDAC so its transponder could finish the job?”

“The smoke bomb had the same transponder. It would have triggered the truck bomb. That’s true. But I didn’t want to risk wasting the fingerprint.”

“Wasting it?”

“Right. It was damn expensive. Two million dollars and a fair employee. It might have survived. But a blast that size? It could easily have been destroyed. And think of the scene. A hundred thousand pieces of evidence are already there. The fingerprint could have survived then got mixed up with the rest. And got lost.”

“OK. Tell me what you did after the demonstration I watched. What you added to the smoke bomb before you put it in the truck for me to drive.”