Steve Berry - The Paris Vendetta

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The only thing rarer than the vintage editions Cotton Malone sells in his Copenhagen bookshop is the time he actually gets to spend there. Retirement has been anything but relaxing for the onetime U.S. government operative, who's been drawn into one perilous adventure after another, crisscrossing the globe from the Sinai Desert to Antarctica, while racing to uncover some of the most precious secrets in recorded history.
Back home in Denmark, Malone's barely had a chance to rest and regroup after his last high-risk mission when trouble comes knocking again. Actually, it breaks and enters-in the form of an American Secret Service agent with a pair of would-be assassins on his heels. Malone has his doubts about the anxious young man, but narrowly surviving a ferocious firefight convinces Malone to follow his unexpected new ally into the night-and into another all-too-close encounter with certain danger.
Their first stop is the secluded country estate of Malone's good friend Henrik Thorvaldsen. The wily Danish tycoon's eyes and ears around the world have uncovered the insidious plans of the Paris Club, a cabal of multimillionaires out to manipulate the global economy. Only by matching wits with a murderous terrorist-for-hire, foiling a catastrophic attack, and plunging into a desperate hunt for the legendary lost treasure of Napoleon Bonaparte can Malone hope to avert international financial anarchy. But Thorvaldsen's objective is much more personal: to avenge at any cost the murder of his beloved son by the larcenous aristocrat at the heart of the conspiracy. Through the storied streets and cathedrals of Paris, a breathless game of duplicity and death will be played, all to claim a prize of untold value-or to suffer consequences of unthinkable magnitude.

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Still, though, he could not move. His arms lay extended on either side of his bleeding chest. His legs were as if they did not exist. His hands and fingers were frozen. Nothing functioned. Hot pain gushed up behind his eyes.

“Henrik.”

It was Lisette .

“You can’t help.”

“I have to help them.”

картинка 190

SAM WATCHED AS MEAGAN AND LYON ROLLED ACROSS THE floor, struggling.

“You son of a bitch,” he heard Meagan yell.

He needed to join the fray. Help her. Do something. But fear kept him frozen. He felt puny, peevish, cowardly. He was afraid. Then he straightened up from his conflicting thoughts and forced his legs to move.

Lyon vaulted Meagan off him. She thudded into the thick base on one of the tombs.

Sam searched the darkness and spotted Thorvaldsen’s gun. Ten feet away from his friend, who still had not moved.

He rushed forward and grabbed the weapon.

картинка 191

MALONE UNBUCKLED HIS HARNESS JUST AS THE CHOPPER’S wheels kissed the pavement. Stephanie did the same. He reached for the door handle and wrenched the panel open.

Beretta in hand, he leaped out.

Cold rain stung his cheeks.

картинка 192

SAM LIFTED THE WEAPON, HIS BLOODY FINGER FINDING THE trigger. He was deep in the shadows, beyond where Henrik and Ashby lay. He turned just as Lyon jammed a fist into Meagan’s face, knocking her head against the base of one of the tombs, her body settling at a contorted angle on the floor.

Lyon searched for his gun.

The thump of rotors outside had subsided, which meant the chopper had found the plaza. Lyon must have realized that fact, too, as he grabbed his gun, stood, and darted toward freedom.

Sam fought the pain in his left shoulder, stepped from the dimness and raised his weapon. “That’s it.”

Lyon halted but did not turn around. “The third voice.”

“Don’t move.” He kept his gun trained on Lyon’s head.

“I imagine you’ll pull the trigger if I so much as twitch?” Lyon asked.

He was impressed at how Lyon clearly sensed the gun.

“You found the old man’s weapon.”

“That head of yours makes a wonderful target.”

“You sound young. Are you an American agent?”

“Shut up,” he made clear.

“How about I drop my weapon?”

The gun remained in the man’s right hand, barrel pointed to the floor.

“Let it fall.”

Lyon released his grip and the gun clanged away.

“That better?” Lyon asked, his back still to him.

Actually, it was.

“You’ve never shot a man before, have you?” Lyon asked.

“Shut the hell up,” Sam said.

“That’s what I thought. Let’s see if I am right. I’m going to leave. You won’t shoot an unarmed man, with his back to you.”

He was tired of the banter. “Turn around.”

Lyon ignored the command and took a step forward.

Sam fired into the floor just ahead of him. “The next bullet will be to your head.”

“I don’t think so. I saw you before I shot Ashby. You just watched. You stood there and did nothing.”

Lyon stole another step.

Sam fired again.

картинка 193

MALONE HEARD TWO SHOTS FROM INSIDE THE CHURCH.

He and Stephanie darted for an opening in the plywood barrier that wrapped the church’s exterior, this one facing south. They had to find the doors everyone else had used to enter.

The three sets in front were closed tight.

Cold rain continued to slash his brow

картинка 194

THE SECOND BULLET RICOCHETED OFF THE FLOOR

“I told you to stop,” Sam yelled.

Lyon was right. He’d never shot anybody before. He’d been trained in the mechanics, but not in how to be mentally prepared for something so horrific. He yanked his thoughts into some semblance of disciplined ranks.

And readied himself.

Lyon moved again.

Sam advanced two steps and sighted his aim. “I swear to you. I’ll shoot you.” He kept his voice calm, though his heart raced.

Lyon crept ahead. “You can’t shoot me.”

“You don’t know me.”

“Maybe not. But I know fear.”

“Who says I’m afraid?”

“I hear it.”

Meagan stirred with a grunt of pain.

“There are those of us who can end a life without a thought and those, like yourself, who can’t bring themselves to it, unless provoked. And I am not provoking you.”

“You shot Henrik.”

Lyon stopped. “Ah. That’s his name. Henrik. Yes, I did. A friend?”

“Stay still.” He hated the element of a plea that laced his words.

Ten feet separated Lyon from the open doors.

His adversary eased another step forward, his movements as controlled as his voice.

“Not to worry,” Lyon said. “I won’t tell anyone you didn’t fire.”

Five feet to the threshold.

картинка 195

“P APA . C OME TO US,” C AI CALLED OUT THROUGH A TREMULOUS BLUE radiance .

Strange and wonderful thoughts stole upon him. But Thorvaldsen couldn’t be talking to his wife and son. The conversation had to be the rambles of a mind in shock .

“Sam needs me,” he called out .

“You can’t help him, my darling,” Lisette made clear .

A white curtain descended in a muted fall. The last remnants of his strength ebbed away.

He fought to breathe.

“It’s time, Papa. Time for us all to be together.”

картинка 196

SAM WAS BEING ANTAGONIZED, HIS CONSCIENCE CHALLENGED.

Clever, actually, on Lyon’s part. Goad a reaction, knowing that doing so could well prevent anything from happening. Lyon was apparently a student of character. But that didn’t necessarily make him right. And besides, Sam had ruined his career by defying authority.

Lyon kept approaching the door.

Three feet.

Two.

Screw you, Lyon.

He pulled the trigger.

картинка 197

MALONE SAW A BODY CAREER FORWARD, OUT AN OPEN SET OF double doors and thud to the wet pavement with a splash.

He and Stephanie rushed up slick stone steps, and she rolled the body over. The face was that of the man from the boat, the one who’d abducted Ashby. Peter Lyon.

With a hole through his head.

Malone glanced up.

Sam appeared in the doorway, holding a gun, one shoulder bleeding.

“You okay?” Malone asked.

The younger man nodded, but a dire expression crushed all hope from Malone’s heart.

Sam stepped back. He and Stephanie rushed inside. Meagan was staggering to her feet and Stephanie came to her aid. Malone’s eyes focused on a body-Ashby-then another.

Thorvaldsen.

“We need an ambulance,” he called out.

“He’s dead,” Sam quietly said.

A chill ran across Malone’s shoulders and up his neck. He urged his legs into tentative, stumbling movements. His eyes told him that Sam was right.

He approached and knelt beside his friend.

Stickly blood clung to flesh and clothes. He checked for a pulse and found none.

He shook his head in utter sadness.

“We need to at least try to get him to a hospital,” he said again.

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