James Patterson - Double Cross

I grabbed a kitchen knife and went after him.

AS I JUMPED OUT into a long, wide alleyway-the delivery entrance-I heard sirens wailing from somewhere in the neighborhood. I hoped to hell they were for us and that somebody would figure out real fast that I was back here with DCAK.

The alley ran behind several buildings, with a dead end to my right and a busy street to my left, about fifty yards off-farther than he could have run by now, anyway.

So where was he hiding? He had to be close. But where?

I threw open the nearest Dumpster, and a repulsive wave of garbage smell came up at me, but no Anthony. No DCAK. I turned my back on the alley just long enough to lean into the trash and make sure he wasn’t there.

Another three Dumpsters lined the wall. Dusty, rusting cars were stacked on the other side. I checked down low. He wasn’t hiding under any of them. Where was he ?

I saw him out of the corner of my eye-and just in time. I narrowly missed getting sliced across the face. He’d been behind one of the Dumpsters, and he had a knife. He seemed confident and scarily under control considering the circumstances, almost like he was playing another role.

I sure wasn’t; knives weren’t my thing. But the kitchen blade was the only weapon I had right now.

He came for me again. The blade whiffed past my face, barely missing flesh. He sliced the blade at me again, and again, and again.

I feinted a short thrust back at him, and he laughed. “I think I’m going to like this,” he said. “I know I am. I trained in hand-to-hand. How about you, Dr. Cross?”

He didn’t bother to taunt or test, just stabbed the knife at me again. I jumped away, and he missed. But not by much. An inch or so.

Anthony’s face was intense, the veins pulsed, but his eyes remained playful. He was toying with me. Was he missing on purpose? Stretching this out ?

“The once great Alex Cross,” he said. “Too bad we don’t have an audience.”

“Oh, but you do. I’m your audience this time, DCAK,” said a voice.

We both turned- and there was Kyle Craig .

KYLE SPOKE, and he sounded exuberant, almost joyful. To see us? To be seen ? “What a sight for sore eyes! The great DCAK-the great Alex Cross. Together at last in a duel to the death. With kitchen knives? I’d pay to see that one. But hey, I don’t have to pay. I’m right here, aren’t I?”

DCAK held his knife up and poised, but he kept sneaking glances at Kyle. “What are you doing here?” he asked.

“Admiring your work, of course,” Kyle said, and seemed sincere enough. “Just like any of your other fans would if they could. They’d be lined up twenty-deep on the street to see this. I’ve been following you. Ever since we met at the Cross house.”

“You think I don’t get your sarcasm,” DCAK snarled.

“Be a waste of breath if you didn’t. Be careful with Dr. Cross, now. Watch him. He’ll slice you up if he can. He’s a cagey one.”

“He can’t,” DCAK stated flatly, “hurt me. He’s out of his league. And so are you.”

“Oh my,” said Kyle. “Now you’ve gone and cut me , so to speak.”

I said nothing to either of them. I was still looking for some kind of an opening. I wasn’t very good with knives, but I was quick on my feet. Maybe that would help me, save me somehow. But now I had Kyle to worry about too. How had he gotten here, and what was his current connection to DCAK? Had it just changed?

“He’s focused on the fight. You’re not,” Kyle coached DCAK from the sidelines. “That’s all I’m trying to point out. Take it for what it’s worth.”

DCAK looked back at me. “All right, then. Let me put Cross down. In your honor.”

In your honor? What was that supposed to mean? Then he thrust his knife again and missed, but this time he meant business. Another fast swipe, and he sliced my arm. Blood streamed onto my shirt and dripped onto the pavement.

“That’s better, DCAK,” Kyle cheered him on, his voice suddenly guttural. “Now go for it! Put him down! Kill the bastard !”

DCAK was starting to breathe harder, through his mouth. Maybe that could be an advantage for me ? I circled to the left, then I changed directions. No logic to it, just instinct.

I was moving the other way when he swiped his knife at me again. He missed! I stabbed at him and nicked his arm. Blood spurted from the wound. Nasty game, knives.

Kyle applauded. He slowly, slowly clapped his hands, but he didn’t speak any more encouragement.

I moved in a circle again, but I went faster this time. Abruptly I reversed directions. Then I came back the other way.

Suddenly DCAK roared in a deep voice and charged at me. I pivoted to the left, and for a second my back was exposed. He was still leaning the other way. Which meant… what ? I continued to pivot-all the way around. Then I set my right leg and drove my knife up and under his arm. The knife found flesh, muscle. It finally sank into his chest.

He moaned almost as loudly as he had roared a second before. “You stupid sonofabitch!” Then he went down and lay there on his back, wide eyes staring at nothing. I spun away from DCAK and looked at Kyle.

I had a knife.

He had a gun.

“He wasn’t much, was he?” Kyle said, and grinned.

HE KEPT ON TALKING, almost as if he were excited to see me. Maybe I was the one he’d been following. “I was so hurt that you didn’t come out to Florence to visit me more, Alex. You have no idea. They put you in a tiny cell and keep you there twenty-three hours every day. It’s inhumane and does no good at all. I’m serious about that.

“Maybe I’ll make a deeply disturbing film, like An Inconvenient Truth , or The Road to Guantánamo . Call it Never See the Sun Again . Play it in all the art houses here in the East. Get the bleeding hearts on my side.”

“You killed a lot of people, Kyle. You committed murders since you’ve been out. How many this time?”

Kyle shrugged, and then he mugged for me. He wasn’t as good an actor as Anthony, just a more subtle killer. “Honestly, I didn’t bother to keep count. There was Mom, of course. Or was that a hallucination that I had?”

“No, you slaughtered your mother.”

“ Slaughtered her, did I? That seems extreme. I don’t actually recall that much about it. Perhaps I was in a rage state. Can you give me some gory details? I want to hear it from you, Dr . Cross.”

“Is that part of this, Kyle? The psychologist connection?”

“Could be. I never thought about it quite like that.”

I stared at Kyle for a moment and didn’t speak. He was so incredibly evil, with no conscience. I wondered how his reflexes were these days. He seemed confident enough with the gun in his hand. And why shouldn’t he be? Why would he have any trouble shooting me now ?

“Kneel on the ground, Alex. Just to be on the safe side. All that training at Quantico is kicking in.”

I stood there, refused to obey him.

Kyle held his gun arm out, perfectly straight and still. “I said- kneel on the ground . There’s still a chance that I won’t kill you. I might want an audience for what I’m going to do next .”

That got my attention. An audience ? “What are you going to do now, Kyle? And what part did you play for DCAK and his partner?”

He smiled and seemed to be formulating an answer. “Interesting questions. If I tell you, is it because you won’t be around to see it or because I want you to be able to anticipate the slaughter , as you call it? Kneel! This is your last warning, Alex.”