Deadfall: Agent 21 Read Online Free PDF Page B

traffic.
    Zak was still standing up as the bush taxi drove back past the warehouse he’d just escaped. But the African boy with the scarred face was no longer there. Someone else had taken his place.
    Cruz looked older than when Zak had last seen him. His dark hair had been cropped short and hehad filled out a little so he looked less gangly. But his eyes had lost none of their deadness. They were narrow and expressionless as he watched the bush taxi zoom past.
    Then Zak noticed something else. Cruz’s right hand was hanging by his side. It was holding a handgun.
    And the African boy with the scarred face hadn’t disappeared after all. He was lying at Cruz’s feet.
    Was he dead? Had he been shot?
    Zak couldn’t tell. The bush taxi had moved on and his enemy was out of sight.
    He collapsed into a seat, sweat draining from his body, and ignored the strange looks of the other passengers in the vehicle as he tucked his laser torch into his jacket and allowed the taxi to transport him – if not to safety, then away from the immediate threat.
13.00 HRS
    ‘How long will this take?’ Raf said.
    No answer. Malcolm just continued to type what looked like gobbledegook into the computer.
    ‘Seriously, Gabs,’ Raf said. ‘We’re wasting our time. If none of Michael’s people could do this, there’s no way this kid can even—’
    He stopped.
    The screen had suddenly divided into sixteen segments. Each segment showed a different black-and-white image.
    And each image showed, quite clearly, a different area of the Fun World shop floor.
    ‘How did you—?’ Raf breathed.
    Gabs interrupted him: ‘We need to see footage from 11.10 a.m. this morning. Can you do that?’
    Again, Malcolm started tapping the keyboard, his hands a blur. The images flickered, to be replaced by almost identical pictures, only with customers in different positions. Every two seconds, the images changed as the footage moved forwards in time.
    Gabs found she was holding her breath.
    ‘There!’ she said suddenly, pointing to the bottom left segment of the screen. ‘That’s him.’
    Malcolm enlarged the small image. There was no mistaking Zak, with his newly bleached hair.
    ‘Third floor,’ Malcolm said.
    Almost in response to his words, the black and white Zak looked directly into the camera. Then the picture jumped to a moment a few seconds later. One of the shop assistants was leading him across the room. The scars on his cheeks were perfectly visible.
    ‘Junior,’ Gabs hissed.
    ‘Let’s get back to the shop,’ Raf said, his voiceurgent, his face grim. ‘I think I would like a word with our friend with the funny face after all.’
    ‘Wait,’ said Gabs. She kept her eyes on the screen as the camera footage showed a second boy approaching Zak and grabbing his other arm. They disappeared into the mock castle where Raf and Gabs had been just a little while before. ‘I want to see him come out,’ she said.
    She held her breath as they waited for someone to emerge from the castle. Nobody did. Not for a good twenty seconds.
    She almost wished she hadn’t waited. When Zak emerged, he had an arm slung over each of two scar-faced shop assistants. His face was beaten and bloodied and Gabs wasn’t sure whether he was even alive. Her knees buckled. Thankfully Raf was there to hold her up.
    ‘Watch,’ he instructed.
    They kept their eyes on the footage. The boys dragged Zak over to the fire exit. One of them put his hand to the back of Zak’s head and yanked it down brutally. Zak’s legs fell from underneath him and his face slammed on the metal lever. Zak had his back to the camera, so they couldn’t see any blood flow out of his nose. But looking at her fingertips, which were still stained red, Gabs knew that was what had happened.
    ‘They’re going to kill him,’ she whispered.
    ‘Actually, they’re not,’ said a new voice in the room.
    Gabs, Raf and Malcolm spun round.
    There, standing in the doorway of the side entrance, was Zak. His