Jeffery Deaver - The Coffin Dancer

Where was the Dancer now? Was he inside already? Was he just about to shoot Percey Clay or Brit Hale?

Or Amelia Sachs?

“Thom! Mel!”

I did not understand…

Why wasn’t I thinking better?

“Command mode,” he said breathlessly, trying to master the panic.

The command mode message box popped up. The cursor arrow sat at the top of the screen and, a continent away, at the bottom, was the communications program icon.

“Cursor down,” he gasped.

Nothing happened.

“Cursor down,” he called, louder.

The message came back: I did not understand what you just said. Please try again.

“Oh, goddamn…”

I did not understand…

Softer, forcing himself to speak in a normal tone, he said, “Cursor down.”

The glowing white arrow began its leisurely trip down the screen.

We’ve still got time, he told himself. And it wasn’t as though the people in the safe house were unprotected or unarmed.

“Cursor left,” he gasped.

I did not understand…

“Oh, come on!”

I did not understand …

“Cursor up… cursor left.”

The cursor moved like a snail over the screen until it came to the icon.

Calm, calm…

“Cursor stop. Double click.”

Dutifully, an icon of a walkie-talkie popped up on the screen.

He pictured the faceless Dancer moving up behind Percey Clay with a knife or garrote.

In as calm a voice as he could muster he ordered the cursor to the set-frequency box.

It seated itself perfectly.

“Four,” Rhyme said, pronouncing the word so very carefully.

A 4 popped up into the box. Then he said, “Eight.”

The letter A appeared in the second box.

Lord in heaven!

“Delete left.”

I did not understand…

No, no!

He thought he heard footsteps. “Hello?” he cried. “Is someone there? Thom? Mel?”

No answer except from his friend the computer, which placidly offered its contrarian response once again.

“Eight,” he said slowly.

The number appeared. His next attempt, “Three,” popped into the box without a problem.

“Point.”

The word point appeared.

Goddamn!

“Delete left.” Then, “Decimal.”

The period popped up.

“Four.”

One space left. Remember, It’s zero not oh. Sweat streaming down his face, he added the final number of the Secure Ops frequency without a glitch.

The radio clicked on.

Yes!

But before he could transmit, static clattered harshly and, with a frozen heart, he heard a man’s frantic voice crying, “Ten-thirteen, need assistance, federal protection location six.”

The safe house.

He recognized the voice as Roland Bell’s. “Two down and… Oh, Jesus, he’s still here. He’s got us, he’s hit us! We need -”

There were two gunshots. Then another. A dozen. A huge firefight. It sounded like Macy’s fireworks on the Fourth of July.

“We need -”

The transmission ended.

“Percey!” Rhyme cried. “Percey…”

On the screen came the message in simple type: I did not understand what you just said. Please try again.

Anightmare.

Stephen Kall, in ski mask and wearing the bulky fireman’s coat, lay pinned down in the corridor of the safe house, behind the body of one of the two U.S. marshals he’d just killed.

Another shot, closer, digging a piece out of the floor near his head. Fired by the detective with the thinning brown hair – the one he’d seen in the window of the safe house that morning. He crouched in a doorway, presenting a fair target, but Stephen couldn’t get a clean shot at him. The detective held automatic pistols in both his hands and was an excellent shot.

Stephen crawled forward another yard, toward one of the open doorways.

Panicked, cringey, coated with worms…

He fired again and the brown-haired detective ducked back into the room, called something on his radio, but came right back, firing coolly.

Wearing the fireman’s long, black coat – the same as thirty or forty other men and women in front of the safe house – Stephen had blown open the alley door with a cutting charge and run inside, expecting to find the interior a fiery shambles and the Wife and Friend – as well as half the other people inside – blown to pieces or badly wounded. But Lincoln the Worm had fooled him again. He’d figured out that the phone was booby-trapped. The only thing they hadn’t expected was that he’d hit the safe house again; they believed he was going for a transport hit. Still, when he burst inside he was met by the frantic fire from the two marshals. But they’d been stunned by the cutting charge and he’d managed to kill them.

Then the brown-haired detective charged around the corner firing both-handed, skimming two off Stephen’s vest, while Stephen himself danced one round off the detective’s and they fell backward simultaneously. More shooting, more near misses. The cop was almost as good a shot as he was.

A minute at the most. He had no more time than that.

He felt so wormy he wanted to cry… He’d thought his plan out as best he could. He couldn’t get any smarter than he’d been and Lincoln the Worm had still out-thought him. Was this him? The balding detective with the two guns?

Another volley from Stephen’s gun. And… damn… the brown-haired detective dove right into it, kept coming forward. Every other cop in the world would’ve run for cover. But not him. He struggled another two feet forward, then three. Stephen reloaded, fired again, crawling about the same distance toward the door of his target’s room.

You disappear into the ground, boy. You can make yourself invisible, you want to.

I want to, sir. I want to be invisible…

Another yard, almost to the doorway.

“This’s Roland Bell again!” the cop shouted into his microphone. “We need backup immediately!”

Bell . Stephen noted the name. So he’s not Lincoln the Worm.

The cop reloaded and continued to fire. A dozen shots, two dozen… Stephen could only admire his technique. This Bell would keep track of how many shots he’d fired from each gun and alternate reloading so he was never without a loaded weapon.

The cop parked a slug in the wall an inch from Stephen’s face, and Stephen returned a shot that landed just as close.

Crawling forward another two feet.

Bell glanced up and saw that Stephen had finally made it to the doorway of the darkened bedroom. Their eyes locked and, mock soldier though he was, Stephen Kall had seen enough combat to know that the string of rationality within this cop had snapped and he’d become the most dangerous thing there was – a skillful soldier with no regard for his own safety. Bell rose to his feet and started forward, firing from both guns.

That’s why they used.45s in the Pacific Theater, boy. Big slugs to stop those crazy little Japs. When they came at you they didn’t care about getting killed; they just didn’t want to get stopped.

Stephen lowered his head, tossed the one-second-delay flash bang at Bell, and closed his eyes. The grenade detonated with an astonishingly loud explosion. He heard the cop cry out and saw him stumble to his knees, hands over his face.

Stephen had guessed that because of the guards and Bell’s furious effort to stop him, either the Wife or the Friend was in this room. Stephen had also guessed that whoever it was would be hiding in the closet or under the bed.

He was wrong.

As he glanced into the doorway he saw the figure come charging at him, holding a lamp as a weapon and uttering a wail of fear and anger.