Death Run Read Online Free PDF Page A

Instead she clenched her mouth tight shut, and sent back:
    DUNNO
    A pause, then:
    SO WHATS NEAR IT?
    Jade stared at the phone. She tried to think howshe had got here, which turns and side streets she had taken from the junction with the main road, but she just couldn’t picture it. All she could think of was the light reflecting off the water glimpsed between the buildings outside.
    ER – A CANAL
    She could only guess how Dad would react to that. She sent another text; it wasn’t much, but it was the best she could do:
    SIDE STREET BETWEEN MAIN ROAD AND HOTEL. BIG BLACK CAR OUTSIDE.
    There was something happening on the stage below. The four men were stepping back as others arrived. Two people – both in masks. The skull-man and the man in the grey, beak-faced mask stepped up on to the stage.
    The skull-man pulled off his mask and Jade was startled to see that underneath his face looked very much the same – white teeth between bloodless lips, and skin stretched tight and thin over a pale, bald head. The man’s cheekbones jutted out prominently.
    â€œWhat have we here?” he asked in a voice that also sounded stretched and thin. “This is not JohnChance,” he said angrily, turning to the grey-masked man. “Doctor Plague?!” he demanded.
    Doctor Plague turned slowly towards Rich. There was a rumble of sound from behind the mask – exaggerated and distorted by the beaked shape of the mask. But the sound was unmistakable.
    Doctor Plague was laughing.

Chapter 3
    The sound of laughter echoed inside Doctor Plague’s mask. “This is the ever-resourceful young Rich.”
    His voice was a rumble amplified by the mask’s beak-like shape – but still Jade could tell that his accent was different from the other man’s. There was something oddly familiar about his voice, in fact. But the man’s next words made Jade’s heart skip a beat. He stepped in front of Rich and said, “How nice to see you again, my friend.”
    Jade leaned forward. The man was facing her. She struggled to make out any features behind the mask. But there was nothing. Until the man reached up and took off the mask to reveal the distinctive weathered face behind. He had dark, thinning hair and a thin, neatly-trimmed moustache.
    â€œRalph!” Rich’s exclamation masked the sound of Jade’s gasp of surprise.
    Like Rich, she knew the man – knew him as Ralph, though she also knew that was not his real name. They had met in the former Soviet state of Krejikistan when he had helped Jade and Rich rescue their Dad from a madman. What was a powerful Eastern European gangster doing in Venice?
    â€œAfter our mutual friend Mr Vishinsky was no longer ‘available’,” Ralph was saying, “most of his assets fell into my hands. I have a lot for thank you for.”
    â€œIs that why you brought me here?” Rich asked defiantly. “Well, thanks accepted. No problem. So you’ve become public enemy number one in Krejikistan or whatever. And grown a neat moustache to prove it. Can I go now?”
    Ralph laughed and wagged his finger like a teacher warning a small child. “I am afraid there is a little more to it than that.”
    â€œI was afraid there might be.” Rich looked up at Ralph, his face set. “Are you going to kill me?”
    Ralph looked offended. “Oh, please. We are all friends here. You, me, your family. And talking of family…” He spread his hands to include the men insuits. “My Italian colleagues too. We just want to talk to your father about some work he did in Mont Passat.”
    Rich shook his head. “He didn’t do any work in Mont Passat. We were only there for a day. Not even that.”
    â€œOh, Rich, Rich, Rich.” Ralph shook his head in amusement. “Now we both know that just isn’t true.”
    Jade didn’t hear Rich’s answer. She needed to get closer so she could rescue