Joshua`s Hammer Read Online Free PDF Page A

and handed it to his sister. She shot him another dirty look, and although she didn't want to open it, she couldn't help herself.
    "What'd you spend your money on now?" Trumble asked.
    "There was this other girl at the pool. She had an ankle bracelet, which looked pretty cool, but Julie didn't have one." Daniel said it almost shyly.
    Julie held up the delicate gold-plated bracelet with a tiny gold Minnie Mouse charm. "What am I supposed to do now, Mother?" she asked plaintively.
    "You could try thanking your brother," Gloria said.
    Julie looked at her brother, the expression on her face softening, and she shook her head. "Thank you, Daniel," she said.
    Danny grinned. "Just don't hang around me and my friends half naked like that. It's embarrassing."
    Trumble put his arm around his son's shoulder and pulled him close. "Did I ever tell you that I love your'
    "Ah, Dad." Daniel squirmed.
    Julie was misty-eyed. "All the time, Father, and to all of us," she said very seriously, back to her old self.
    The shuttle train stopped at the Kangaroo 57-61 rows. They got off with a few other passengers who headed off to their cars. Trumble had forgotten which row they were in.
    "Fifty-seven," Gloria said.
    Trumble glanced at his watch. It was just six. Tomorrow they were going to Sea World and it was going to be a great day because the kids were finally beginning to settle down. Washington would be pretty good after all, he decided. He might even have time to get back into tennis. Once upon a time he and Gloria had been pretty good, but now he was so out of shape that he didn't think he could last one set, let alone an entire match. Maybe they could get Julie interested in the game--of course, she'd want the best tennis outfits in Washington. And maybe he and Danny could go fishing, or maybe even sailing on the Chesapeake, he'd always wanted to try that.
    He heard a car coming up behind them, and he turned as a dark gray van headed way too fast directly at them.
    Trumble shoved Danny aside, between parked cars and he raised his hand for the driver to slow down as he tried to reach Gloria and Julie twenty feet back. The van was right on top of them as its side door came open, and he got the impression of a man crouched in the back with a large gun. It was a Kalashnikov, the thought registered on his brain, and an instant later he heard the distinctive clatter of the Russian assault rifle on full automatic.
    Gloria and Julie were shoved violently backward, blood
    spraying on the mini lids and rear windows of several cars from a dozen wounds. He simply could not believe what he was witnessing. Not now. Not here. It was impossible!
    "No!" Trumble cried out. He spun around and threw Danny to the pavement, shielding his son's body with his own. Some people in the next row stopped short, and a woman screamed. Bullets slammed into the cars, sending glass flying everywhere.
    The van screeched to a halt about twenty yards down the row and immediately started back, tires squealing.
    Trumble hauled Danny to his feet. "Get out of here, Danny! Run!" He shoved his son toward the next row, then scrambled around the front of the car, blocked for the moment from the direct line of fire. He was moving purely on instinct now, adrenalin pumping through his body, his mind numb by what was happening. This was America. Disney World, the safest place on earth. They were home.
    All he could think of were Gloria and Julie. He had to get to them now.
    He heard the van screech to a halt directly behind the car he was crouched in front of, and he moved to the left fender where he could see the front of the van. A man sat behind the wheel, looking around wildly as if he expected the police to show up at any moment. Another man ran past the car. Trumble could see him through the windows, a deep, black, sick anger welling up inside his gut. They had come after his family all the way from Saudi Arabia. The bastards! The fucking bastards!
    "Dad! Dad!" a little boy shouted in