Deep Storm Read Online Free PDF Page A

man stood still a moment, then shrugged and slipped into the passenger seat.
    Lindengood walked around the front of the car and got in behind the wheel, careful to leave the door wide open. He kept the air hose in his hand, playing with it idly. The man wasn’t going to try anything, not here—besides, he hardly looked the physical type—but on the off chance he did, Lindengood could use the air hose as a blackjack. Yet once again he reminded himself that wouldn’t be necessary: he’d transact his bit of business and then vanish. Wallace didn’t know where he lived, and Lindengood sure as hell wasn’t about to tell him.
    â€œYou’ve been paid, and paid well,” Wallace said in his quiet voice. “Your part of the job is finished.”
    â€œI know that,” Lindengood replied, careful to keep his own voice firm and confident. “It’s just that, now that I know a little more about your, um,
operation,
I’m beginning to think I was underpaid.”
    â€œYou don’t know anything about any operation.”
    â€œI know that it’s far from kosher. Look, I’m the one who found
you,
remember?”
    Wallace didn’t answer. He simply stared back, his expression neutral, almost placid. Outside, the air compressor chuffed, then chimed, as it maintained pressure.
    â€œSee, I was one of the last of the crew to leave Storm King,” Lindengood went on. “It happened a week after we’d finished our little business, and I’d fed you the last of the data. All these government types, all these scientists, began swarming over the place. And I got to thinking. Something huge,
really
huge, was taking place. It was a lot bigger than I’d ever thought. So just the fact you were interested in what I had to sell meant your people must have resources—
and
deep pockets.”
    â€œWhat’s your point?” Wallace said.
    Lindengood licked his lips. “My point is certain officials would be very,
very
eager to learn of your interest in Storm King.”
    â€œAre you threatening us?” Wallace asked. His quiet voice had gone silky.
    â€œI don’t want to use that word. Let’s say I’m trying to redress an imbalance. Clearly my original fee wasn’t nearly enough. Hey, I’m the guy who first discovered the readings, reported the anomaly. Doesn’t that count for anything? And I passed the information on to you: all the readouts, the triangulation data, the telemetry from the deep-sea probe.
Everything
. And I’m the only one who could have done it—I made the connection, saw the data. No one else knows.”
    â€œNo one else,” Wallace repeated.
    â€œWithout me, your people wouldn’t even have known about the project. You wouldn’t have your own—I presume?—assets in place.”
    Wallace took off his glasses, began polishing them on the tank top. “How much were you thinking?”
    â€œI was thinking fifty thousand.”
    â€œAnd then you’ll go away for good. Is that it?”
    Lindengood nodded. “You’ll never hear from me again.”
    Wallace considered this for a moment, still polishing. “It’ll take me a day or two to get the money together. We’ll have to meet again.”
    â€œTwo days is fine,” Lindengood replied. “We can meet here, the same—”
    Quick as a striking snake, Wallace’s right fist shot out, index and middle knuckles extended, hammering Lindengood in the solar plexus. A crippling pain blossomed deep in his gut. Lindengood opened his mouth but no sound emerged. Involuntarily he bent forward, fighting to get his wind back, hands clutching his midriff. Now Wallace’s right hand grabbed Lindengood by the hair and pulled him down onto the seat while brutally twisting his head around. Staring eyes wide with agony, Lindengood saw Wallace look first left, then right—glasses forgotten—checking that