Firewall Read Online Free PDF Page B

over on top of him, keeping the barrel of the pistol into his neck as I moved into the driver's seat and put the key in the ignition. Firing the engine, I threw it into gear.
    The tires pounded the cobblestones as I drove downhill to the main street, the defroster on full.
    I could see the streetlights ahead, with the traffic cutting across from both directions. I got level with the hotel drive. The Nissan was missing. Maybe Sergei had got away. All the other vehicles were still there.
    Christmas lights had fallen off the trees and lay across the pavement, among the scattering of empty brass cases. Bodies were strewn all over the ground. I couldn't tell who was who from this distance, though one of them had to be Jesse or Frank because the whole area was covered by a thin blanket of mist: one of their CS canisters must have got hit and was still spewing its contents into the wind.
    One of the drivers had nearly got away. His suited body was slumped by one of the small decorative trees just before the exit. Steam rose from the blood oozing from his gunshot wounds. It looked as if their armor wasn't designed to take AP rounds either.
    I passed by, suddenly thinking about the couple in the elevator. Then, stopping at the junction with the main drag, I focused on what to do next. I turned right and merged with the traffic.
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    3
    Flashing blue lights raced toward me as I headed in the direction of the city center, nearly blinding me as they screamed past.
    At the second option I turned right, up the road where Sergei and I had waited in the Nissan. The 88 was in my right hand, still rammed into Val's neck, forcing me to change gear with my left and hold the wheel in position with my knees.
    The target was amazingly compliant; in fact, unless I was reading it wrong, his body language seemed to be saying, No sweat, I'll just wait and see what happens next.
    The DOP was about ten minutes away and should have marked the end of Phase One and the beginning of Phase Two-the change of vehicles and move to the truck service station, from where we would all RV before moving over the border into Russia.
    Plan B was in action now. In the event of a gang fuck we'd each make our own way back to the lakeside house where we'd been based for the last two weeks, and wait for twenty-four hours.
    I was feeling very vulnerable and exposed without Sergei. I might have the Money curled up in the foot well but without help there was no way I was going to get it over the border. Sergei was the only one squared away with the world's most corrupt border guards, and he had been too switched on to tell anyone else how it was organized. I just knew that we were going in a truck adapted to conceal us all under the floor like Us (illegal immigrants), which Sergei would drive. That was his insurance policy, and the reason I'd given him the least dangerous job on the operation.
    The road started to bend right, heading out of the city. I had traveled this route to the DOP, both physically and in my head, dozens of times. It went through residential areas with snow piled neatly at the sides of the wet roads, street lighting and Christmas decorations reflecting off the gleaming cobblestones. From all around me came the sound of sirens, jolting me out of my pissed off-with-all-Russians mode. Blue lights flashed across a junction ahead of me. I took the next right; anything to get off the road and out of sight.
    I'd turned into a driveway leading to the rear of an apartment block.
    There was no lighting back there as I drove over to the far side and stopped under a covered parking space. Keeping the engine running, I sat with the weapon stuck in Val's neck as sirens screamed from all sides. Now what? No way was I going on foot. If spotted, the only way to escape would be to leave him. That wasn't an option; the Money stayed with me.
    Fuck it, there was nothing I could do but tough it out. The longer I stayed there the more police would be in the area looking for the