Дэвид Балдаччи - The Collectors

“You think I’m letting you walk away leaving a bomb locked on my friend’s neck?”

“As soon as we’re away, we’ll deactivate it,” the man said.

“And I’m just supposed to trust you?”

“That’s right.”

“Then you’re not leaving, and if you detonate the bomb, we all die.”

“It’s not a bomb,” the same man said. He held up the black box. “I push the red button, enough toxin to kill an elephant goes right into him. He’ll be dead before I let go of the button. I push the black button, the system is disengaged and you can take the collar off without releasing the poison. Don’t try to take the control from me forcibly. And if a sniper shoots, my reflex will involuntarily push the button.” He let his finger hover over the red button as he smiled at Stone’s obvious dilemma.

“You enjoying this, asshole?” Reuben spat out.

The man kept his gaze on Stone. “We’re assuming you’ve got cops everywhere just waiting to take us once your friend here is safe. So excuse us for taking obvious precautions.”

Stone said, “And what’s to prevent you from triggering it once you’re gone? And don’t give me the trust answer again. It’ll make me upset.”

“My orders were not to kill him unless our escape was blocked. If you let us go, he lives.”

“What exact point do you need to get to before you deactivate the poison?”

“Not very far away at all. In three minutes we’ll be gone. But if we wait too long, I push the red button.”

Stone gazed at Caleb, then at the furious Reuben and back at Caleb. “Caleb, listen to me. We have to trust them.”

“Oh, God, Oliver. Please help me.” Caleb didn’t appear willing to trust anyone.

“I will, Caleb, I will.” In desperation Stone said, “How many loaded darts do you have in that damn thing?”

“What?” The man looked startled.

“How many!”

“Two. One on the left and one on the right.”

Stone turned and gave his knapsack to Reuben and whispered. “If we die, don’t let us die in vain.”

Reuben took the knapsack and nodded, his face pale, but his manner rock-steady.

Stone turned back around and held up his left hand. “Let me slide my hand under the collar so the left dart will hit me instead of my friend.”

The man now looked totally flustered. “But then you’ll both die.”

“That’s right. We’ll both die together !”

Caleb stopped shaking and stared directly at Stone. “Oliver, you can’t do that.”

“Caleb, shut up.” Stone looked at the man. “Tell me where to put my hand.”

“I don’t know if this—”

“Tell me!” Stone shouted.

The man pointed to a spot, and Stone squeezed his hand in the narrow space, his skin now resting against Caleb’s.

“Okay,” Stone said. “When will I know it’s been disarmed?”

“When the red light on the side there turns green,” the man said, pointing to a small crimson glass bubble on the collar. “Then you can undo the clasp and it comes right off. But if you try to force it off before, it automatically engages.”

“Understood.” He glanced at Trent. “Now, take that scum and get the hell out of here.”

Albert Trent pulled away from Reuben’s grasp and marched over to the hooded men. As they started walking away, Trent turned back and grinned. “Adios!”

Stone kept his eyes tight on Caleb’s face. He was also talking to his friend in a low voice, even as onlookers slowed and pointed at what must have seemed a very unusual scene, one man’s hand jammed under a collar on another man’s neck.

“Deep breaths, Caleb. They’re not going to kill us. They’re not going to kill us. Deep breaths.” He checked his watch. Sixty seconds had passed since the men had left with Trent and disappeared into the crowd. “Two more minutes and we’re home free. We’re good, we’re in great shape.” He looked at his watch. “Ninety seconds. We’re almost there. Hang with me. Hang with me, Caleb.”

Caleb was holding Stone’s arm in a death grip, his face flushed, his breath coming in mangled gasps, but he was standing firm and finally said, “I’m okay, Oliver.”

Once, a suspicious Park Police officer started heading their way, but two men in white jumpsuits who’d been cleaning out trash cans intercepted the cop and sent him on his way. They’d already relayed the situation to the snipers, who’d stood down.

Meantime, Milton and Annabelle had crept forward, and Reuben whispered to them what was going on. Tears fell down Milton’s horrified face while Annabelle put a trembling hand to her mouth and watched as the two men clung to each other.

“Thirty seconds, Caleb, we’re almost there.” Stone’s gaze was now directly on the red light on the collar as he counted off the ticks. “Okay, ten seconds and we’re free.”

Stone and Caleb together mouthed the final countdown. But the light didn’t turn to green. Caleb couldn’t see this and said, “Oliver, can you take it off now?”

Even Stone’s nerves began to fail now, yet he never once thought of pulling his hand free. He closed his eyes for a second, awaiting the sting of the needle and the poison right behind it.

“Oliver!” This was Annabelle calling out to him. “Look.”

Stone opened his eyes and stared at the beautiful little drop of green in the bubble.

“Reuben! Help me,” he called out.

Reuben shot forward, and together they unlocked the collar and slipped it off Caleb’s neck. The librarian fell to his knees as the others crowded around him. When he finally looked up, he grabbed Stone’s hand.

He gushed, “That was the bravest thing anyone’s ever done, Oliver. Thank you.”

Stone looked around at the others, and then the truth hit home. It took him barely an instant to react. He shouted, “Get down!” He grabbed the collar and threw it over the hedge, and it landed in the large fountain.

Two ticks later the collar exploded, sending geysers of water and chunks of concrete shooting into the air. The crowds on the Mall panicked and started running. When Stone and the others slowly got to their feet, Caleb said, “My God, Oliver, how did you know?”

“It’s an old tactic, Caleb, to draw us all in and let down our guard. And he told me where the poisoned needles were in the collar because he knew the bomb would kill us, not the poison, if there ever was any poison in it.” Stone took the knapsack from Reuben and pulled from it a small flat object with a small screen on it. On the screen a blob of red was moving fast.

“Now we finish this,” he said.

“They’ve gone into the Smithsonian Metro entrance,” Reuben said, eyeing the small screen Stone was holding as the group raced across the Mall and pushed their way through the panicked crowds and small blocks of police.

“That’s why we picked that exchange spot,” Stone answered.

“But the Metro will be jammed,” Milton said. “How will we find them in there?”

“We took a page from Trent and company. You know the chemical wash they put on the letters in the book to make them glow?”

“Sure, so?” Milton said.

Stone said, “I injected Trent with a chemical provided by Alex Ford that transmits a signal to this receiver. It’s like the man’s glowing for us. Using this, we can pick him out of a crowd of thousands. Alex and his men also have a receiver. We’re going to pin them down.”

“I hope it works,” Caleb said as they forced their way through the swells of people. He rubbed his neck. “I want to see them rot in jail. And no books to read. Ever! That’ll serve them right.”

Suddenly, screams poured out of the station below.

“Come on!” Stone shouted, and they dashed down the escalator.