Deadfall: Agent 21 Read Online Free PDF

cutting this very fine.
    It took thirty seconds for the soldering iron to get up to temperature. The time passed horribly slowly. Zak’s hands trembled as he touched the end of the solder to the wire. It immediately formed a little ball of molten metal, which fell to the concrete floor because of Zak’s shaking hands.
    He took a deep breath, steadied himself, then continued soldering. He needed to fit the laser diode into the bulb socket. Fiddly work at the best of times. Almost impossible when you’re working against the clock, your skin is sweaty and your hands are trembling.
    And you know you’ll be dead in four minutes if you don’t get this right.
12.38 HRS
    Two minutes and counting.
    Zak was done. He pointed the torch away from him and switched it on. A pale pink, pencil-thin beam shot from the torch into the plaster wall of the warehouse. Almost immediately, the plaster started smoking. His makeshift laser was working.
    Zak ran back to the door. He stood about three metres away from the aluminium and iron oxide mixture. Then he shone his laser at the powder.
    Ten seconds.
    Nothing happened.
    ‘
Come on
,’ Zak whispered to himself.
    His hand was shaking again. He slowed his breathing down, then adjusted the focus of the beam so it was a little closer to the door.
    Still nothing.
    A sound from the opposite side of the warehouse. Voices. Speaking English this time.
    ‘He’s lying in the third aisle, Señor Martinez.’ Zak recognized the voice of one of his guards.
    And he recognized the next voice that spoke too.
    ‘Show me.’
    Cruz. He was here.
    ‘Come on,’ Zak breathed again. ‘Come
on
!’
    It happened suddenly. The thermite mixture ignited like a massive Roman candle firework. Blinding light. And it was hot.
Very
hot. Zak had to step back three paces and shield his eyes from the intense heat and light. Clouds of acrid smoke billowed up and caught in the back of his throat.
    But it was working. The fire-exit door was buckling as the bottom part melted in the intense heat.
    ‘
Il a disparu!
’ a voice shouted out, with more than a hint of panic.
He’s disappeared!
    ‘Find him,’ Zak heard Cruz shriek. ‘
FIND HIM!
’
    He had only seconds. Zak heard footsteps running down a nearby aisle. He couldn’t wait any longer.
    The burning of the thermite mixture was beginning to subside.
    Zak ran towards it and gave the door a solid kick about halfway up.
    Movement. But the door remained shut.
    Another kick.
    To his left, Zak could see an African boy running towards him, his eyes fierce and the scars on his cheek plainly visible.
    He was ten metres away, and closing in.
    Zak knew he only had one more chance.
    He ran at the door again and kicked it with all his strength.
    It sprang open.
    The boy was five metres away as Zak jumped over what remained of the thermite mixture.
    In less than a second he was outside.
    As he had suspected, the fire door led out directly onto a busy main road. In either direction, there were two lines of traffic – a weird mixture of rickety old trucks with farm animals in the back, andspanking new BMWs. Zak barely stopped to check his path was clear. He ran across the first two lanes to the concrete central reservation. Several horns sounded, and one truck swerved to miss him. But he made the centre of the road safely, where he turned left and started to spring.
    He looked over his shoulder. The boy with the scarred face was standing there, breathless, staring after him.
    Zak continued to run. About fifteen metres away, he saw a white minibus pulled up on the far side of the road, facing towards him, with a line of three people waiting to board.
    Bush taxi.
    He sprinted across the remaining two lanes of traffic, his lungs burning with exertion. The driver was just about to close the door as he reached it, and he gave Zak a strange look as the boy jumped on board and handed over a fistful of South African rands. He shrugged, accepted the money, then pulled out into the