Klempner
Although I can hear chaos from down the stairs, up here now, it’s quiet. There’s no-one in the dance room.
In the pool room, the only sound is the crunching of glass under my boots. I carry on to Finchby’s office.
All empty?
It seems so.
The time?
Time to go.
Except… as I’m about to turn and leave a girl, I see her; barely a teenager, some variety of Asian, Indian perhaps. Streaming tears, she skitters out from behind the desk, making for the kitchen.
I follow her and she cringes back into the corner. I offer my hand. “I’m not going to hurt you. You have to leave.”
She babbles at me in I’ve-no-idea-what language, then abruptly, her face swings up to mine and fingers outstretched, leaps up at me, clawing at my face. Reflexively, I jerk back, and she bolts past me and out, back the way I came.
Fuck!
I dash after her, but in the few seconds, she’s gone, vanished.
Where did she go?
Out?
Or somewhere deeper inside?
I check my watch… Three minutes…
Christ!
I have to find her… If she’s on the stairwell, perhaps I’ll hear her. I turn for the bar, heading for the stairs up and down, and there…
Fuck.
Baxter.
I reach for my Glock… And it’s not there.
Damn… When did I put it down?
Baxter flashes brows. And the knife in his hand. “Going somewhere?”
“I was planning on leaving.” I slip the knife from my belt. “Your friend Finchby has already left the building. I believe the money may be with him.”
“I’m not going to weep over Finchby. And I didn't do it for the cash. Well… mainly not for the cash. And I have my half anyway.”
We circle, eyeball to eyeball.
Make the first move?
Wait for him?
I move slowly, watching for the twitch of the hand. The nudge of the shoulder. The tell that he's going to stop talking and...
He slashes out… moves fast…
But it’s a feint and we both know it, calculated to draw a reaction from me.
Testing me…
My speed…
My reactions…
Younger than me...
How much by?
Ten years?
His knife...
inches. Well
Well used…
Left-handed…
gives him an
right-handers. I've
out. Hard. Fast. Teeth bared. Pupils
follows through, but I grab him by the arm. We grapple.
I
Sweat. Sour.
scent
Not excitement.
Fear.
breaks away, dancing back from me and suddenly I'm overreaching… off-balance… and I pull back recovering
grins, then grunts as I lash for his neck but as he
forward, reaching
my right hand and he twists away, still grinning manically,
The other knife...
Ambidextrous?
I’m not. Just well-practised. As he swerves away from my right hand, my left hand
rib
Got you, you bastard…
it’s her. The
nowhere, pelting for the exit, apparently blind to me and Baxter, she charges between
my foot
Drinks slops?
Blood?
In slow motion...
arms
I go down...
on top
…
as his blade slices across
The rasp of
The metallic tang
Whose?
Mine…
enjoying his moment,
he reaches into his jacket,
My Glock?
aiming for my
use
got the balls
I swing round wildly, one
There are none.
I’m staring straight up the barrel of my
Is this it?
this is how I
have died over the years, I’m
for something I didn’t actually
Live by the sword…
at these moments. The
don’t think
of the gun looms close and huge. The rest of the world vanishes
My throat tightens…
The voice is sultry, smooth, and drips honey and contempt in equal measure… “A hero with a gun and a knife against
know
to its owner.
skirt just clears the crotch and the zip-front leather vest
white shoulders and frames a face made up with emerald eyes painted Goth-dark and fuck-me
“Mitch?”
admit it.
So does Baxter.
been full of women offering their all. But nothing compares to Mitch in all her
seen her dressed like this, not even in her
a pose. And with an eye on Baxter that dares him
zipper tag dangles, an open silver loop. She hooks a finger into the loop and tooth
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