Hot Revenge Box Set 4

Klempner

Damn phone…

What’s wrong with the fucking thing?

I tap in again. Nothing happens.

I’m several floors up, heading back for my hotel room. The signal should be strong up here.

I inspect the screen…

Yes… plenty of signal…

Better contact Dakho… Get him to supply a new one…

A more reliable model this time…

Arriving at my room door…

… A brief shufti along the corridor…

… I’m alone. A quick inspection that my slicked-on hair is still in place…

… It is… a faint dark line against the white paint, which peels away, then drops to the floor as I slide the card into the lock and push the door open…

I toss the useless phone onto my bed then start to shrug off my jacket…

… and in mid-movement, I stall.

My spine prickles and without meaning to, I’m standing stock-still, Glock in hand, staring around the apartment.

What’s wrong?

Working on automatic, my hand follows my eye, weapon aimed, but…

I don’t see anything.

Nothing has moved.

Nothing has changed.

above me, riffling the petals on a vase

still lies in vacuumed stripes, with only my own footprints lightly in

Really?

I press my foot down by one of the existing footprints: a

up on the table, alongside my breakfast tray.

I cross the floor, turn the handle of the bedroom door. With a subdued

the bed made, and beside the pillows, a pair of

do they do

side-table, the usual tea and coffee kit, biscuits, a small box of foil-wrapped chocolates, a

at arm’s length,

while shirts garishly printed with pineapples and palm trees might be an offence to good taste, I don’t

Only one place left…

to the

cocked… gun at the ready… I

to no more than the mixed warbles and screeches of birds, the hiss of cicadas,

the door and it

inside, there’s nothing more alarming than a tidemark around the bath where I’ve washed away the sweat of the day and the

my alarms are

What triggered it?

tastes metallic and my heart

Calm down…

Breathe…

Think…

What happened?

barely

Outside then…

Something in the corridor…

gun-barrel at the ceiling, I dart a look outside. The corridor is still empty; nothing to indicate anyone has