Tess Gerritsen - Last to Die

At once Claire scrambled away and dropped down behind the desk, trembling. Why is this happening? Why have they turned against us?

“Since that didn’t work,” the woman said. “Maybe you really don’t know where he is. So we go to plan B.” She grabbed Teddy’s arm and dragged him toward the roof walk.

Her partner said, “This is fucked up. These are just kids.”

“It needs to be done.”

“We came for Icarus.”

“Our target is whoever I say it is.” She yanked off Teddy’s communications headset and dragged him out the door, onto the exposed roof walk. “Now we dangle some bait,” she said, and swung him over the railing.

Teddy screamed, frantically scrambling for a toehold on the steep slate roof. All that kept him from plummeting to his death was the woman, gripping his arm.

She spoke into the boy’s headset. “No, this isn’t Teddy talking to you. Guess who I’ve got hanging off the roof? Such a sweet boy, too. All I have to do is let go, and he’ll be nothing but a stain on the ground.”

“The kid’s not part of this,” her partner protested.

The woman ignored him and kept talking into Teddy’s com unit. “I know you’re on this frequency. And you know what’s happening. You also know how to stop it. I never liked children anyway, so it’s no big deal to me. And he’s getting heavy.”

“This is way over the line,” the man said, moving toward her. “Pull the kid back.”

“Stand down,” she ordered him. And she barked into Teddy’s microphone: “Thirty seconds! That’s all you’ve got! Show yourself or I let go!”

“Justine,” the man said. “Pull the kid back. Now .”

“Jesus Christ.” The woman yanked Teddy back over the railing and set him down. Then she aimed at her partner and fired.

The force of the bullet sent him flying backward. He collapsed against the desk and slid off, his head thudding to the floor right next to where Claire was cowering. She stared down at the hole above his left eye. Saw blood streaming out, soaking into Dr. Welliver’s rose-colored rug.

She killed him. She killed her own man .

Justine bent down, scooped up her dead colleague’s weapon, and tucked it into her waistband. Then she tossed aside Teddy’s headset and spoke into her own com unit. “Where the fuck are you? The target’s on his way up to the turret. I need you here now .”

Footsteps were moving up the stairs.

Instantly the woman hauled Teddy to his feet and held him in front of her, a human shield against the man who now stepped through the doorway. The same man whom Claire had earlier thought was the enemy. But nothing made sense anymore, because Claire had thought this woman was their rescuer. And she’d thought this man who’d tied her up, with his black-smeared face and camouflage clothes, had come to kill them. Which one is my friend?

The man advanced slowly, his weapon trained on the woman. But Teddy stood in the line of fire, pale-faced and trembling in the woman’s grip.

“Let him go, Justine. This is between you and me,” he said.

“I knew I could make you finally surface.”

“These kids have nothing to do with it.”

“They’re my trump card, and here you are. Still looking fit, I see. Although I liked your old face better.” She pressed the barrel of her gun harder against Teddy’s temple. “Now you know what to do, Nick.”

“You’ll kill him anyway.”

“But there’s always the chance I won’t. As opposed to a sure thing, which you’d have to watch.” She fired and Teddy screamed, blood trickling from his bullet-torn ear. “Next time,” she said, “it will be his chin. So drop it.”

Teddy sobbed, “I’m sorry, Dad. I’m so sorry.”

Dad?

The man dropped his gun and now stood unarmed before her. “Do you really think I’d walk into this without a fail-safe, Justine? Kill me, and it all blows up in your face.”

Claire stared at the man, searching for any resemblance to the Nicholas Clock she’d seen in the photo with her father. He had the same broad shoulders, the same blond hair, but this man’s nose and chin were different. Plastic surgery. Hadn’t Justine said it? I liked your old face better .

“You’re supposed to be dead,” Claire murmured.

“I thought for certain you’d show yourself after Ithaca,” said Justine. “That you’d make some move to save Olivia’s boy. But in the end, I guess it all came down to saving just your own flesh and blood.”

Claire understood suddenly that this woman had ordered the murders of Bob and Barbara. She’d killed Will’s aunt and uncle, all to make Nicholas Clock come back from the dead. Now this woman would send him back to the dead. She’d send them all.

Do something .

Claire looked down at the man Justine had just shot. The woman had taken his gun, but he’d also had a knife. Claire remembered it dangling from his belt as she’d followed him up the stairs. Justine wasn’t watching her; her complete focus was on Clock.

Claire leaned over the dead man’s belt. Tunneled her hand under his body, feeling for the knife.

“If you kill me,” said Clock, “I guarantee you’ll go down. Every major news agency will find a video file in their in-box. All the evidence I’ve been collecting against you these past few years, Justine. Everything that Erskine and Olivia and I managed to pull together. The Company will shut you in a black hole so deep you’ll forget what the sky looks like.”

Justine kept her grip on Teddy, the gun at his jaw, but uncertainty made her hesitate. By killing him, was she about to set off a disastrous chain of events?

Claire gripped the knife handle. Tried to pull it from the belt, but the dead man’s weight pinned it against the floor.

Nicholas Clock said quietly, reasonably: “You don’t have to do this. Let me take my boy. Let us both disappear.”

“And I’ll spend the rest of my life wondering when you’ll pop up and start talking.”

“The truth will certainly come out if I’m dead,” said Clock. “How you helped Icarus escape from prison. How you raided his accounts. The only unanswered question is, Where did you dump his body after you tortured him for his access codes?”

“You have no proof.”

“I have enough to make it come crashing down on you. We finally put it together, the three of us. You killed your own people, Justine, all for the money. You know what happens next.”

From the stairwell came the sound of running footsteps.

Do it now. It’s your last chance .

Claire yanked the knife free and lunged. Aimed for the closest target she could reach: the back of Justine’s thigh. The blade sliced straight through fabric and sank deep into flesh, almost to the hilt.

Justine shrieked and staggered sideways, releasing Teddy. In an instant, Nicholas Clock was diving for the floor. For his fallen weapon.

Justine fired first. Three pops. Blood misted the wall behind Clock, bright red spray exploding from a gunshot that sent him sprawling. He collapsed on his back, awareness already fading from his eyes.

“Dad!” Teddy screamed. “Dad!”

Face white with pain and fury, Justine turned to Claire, the girl who’d dared to fight back. The girl who’d twice cheated Death, only to meet Him now, here. Claire watched the silencer lift to her head. Saw Justine’s arms straighten as she steadied the weapon to fire. It was the last image Claire saw before she closed her eyes.

The explosion rocked her back against the desk. Not a mere pop this time, it was a thunderclap that made her ears ring. She waited for the pain. For something to hurt, but all she registered was her own frantic breathing.