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.

petals on a vase of lilies and wafting honeyed

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

Really?

press my foot down by one of the existing

the table, alongside my breakfast tray. And the balcony is small, with nowhere for an intruder

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

carpet in perfect dark-light stripes… the bed made, and beside the pillows, a pair of bath-towels folded,

do they

and coffee kit, biscuits, a small box of foil-wrapped chocolates, a

length, I flick open first one

with pineapples and palm trees might be an offence to good taste, I don’t feel

Only one place left…

drawn to the door

long second… ear cocked…

screeches of birds, the hiss of

the door

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?

metallic and my heart plays percussion

Calm down…

Breathe…

Think…

What happened?

barely in

Outside then…

Something in the corridor…

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

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