Kingdom of Darkness Read Online Free PDF Page A

though.’
    Grant nodded. ‘Yeah, they had to squish everything to fit it into the stage. It’ll look fine on camera, though. Put the right lens on, and they can make a broom closet look like a ballroom.’
    ‘So what happens in here?’ asked Eddie. ‘If it’s for Nitrous 3 , I don’t suppose you’ll be delivering any long speeches about world peace.’
    ‘Nah, nothing boring like that, dude,’ said Grant cheerfully. He pointed towards the main entrance. ‘I’m gonna smash through there in a Ferrari, then do a drift to knock down the North Koreans shooting at me. Then I run up the stairs after the mad general with the suitcase nuke. We have a big fight, he uses all these darts and guns and crazy shit built into his bionic arm, and I end up hanging from that thing up there.’
    ‘That “thing” is Foucault’s Pendulum,’ said Nina icily, glancing at the gold-plated sphere dangling on a long wire above one end of the lobby.
    ‘What, it’s part of a clock?’
    ‘No, it’s—’
    ‘Thought it was just some cool swinging ball dealie. Anyway, there’s a big electromagnet inside it, so I use it to deflect a bullet he shoots at me—’
    Eddie normally let his disbelief be suspended very high when it came to action movies, but the former Special Air Service soldier couldn’t let that go unchallenged. ‘Don’t think so, mate. Magnets don’t affect bullets.’
    Grant regarded him uncertainly. ‘You sure?’
    ‘I’ve got some experience in that area, so yeah.’
    ‘Huh. Wouldn’t have thought the writers would get that wrong. I’d better tell ’em – don’t want people to think the story’s stupid!’
    ‘God forbid,’ sighed Nina.
    ‘Still, it’s a movie, so the rule of cool applies, right? Anyhow, he misses and I swing across and use the magnet to grab his bionic arm so that he’s trapped, then I shove the detonator I took out of the nuke inside his arm, and just before I jump to safety I tell him, wait for it . . . “Know what my favourite book is? A —”’
    ‘ A Farewell to Arms ?’ Eddie predicted.
    ‘Yeah, that’s right, good guess! And then his arm explodes. Awesome, huh?’
    ‘It’s certainly incredible,’ said Nina, struggling to restrain an eye roll that would have snapped her head back with its sheer momentum. ‘Although don’t take this the wrong way, Grant, but it all sounds kinda . . . far-fetched.’
    ‘Nah, it’ll be great. The writers know what they’re doing.’
    ‘The same writers who think bullets are magnetic?’ said Eddie, smirking.
    Grant considered that, then dismissed the thought. ‘Anyway, it’s cool, huh? It’ll look totally like the real thing on film. Hey, maybe we could have the premiere at the real United Nations. You could put in a word, Nina!’
    ‘I’ll think about it,’ she said, having already done just that for the millisecond the suggestion deserved. She walked deeper into the set, looking up at the tiered balconies. The resemblance to the real United Nations building was indeed uncanny . . . enough to trigger an unexpected pang of emotion within her.
    A mixture almost of homesickness – the feeling that this was where she should be – and sadness . Loss. Until two months earlier, the UN complex had been the focus of her work, her base of operations as an archaeologist with the International Heritage Agency. Now, she knew it was unlikely she would ever return. She gazed at the facsimile, lost in reverie.
    Footsteps behind brought her back to the present. ‘I’m going to miss this place,’ she said quietly, thinking it was Eddie.
    It wasn’t. ‘What do you mean?’ asked Macy, stopping beside her. Another curious look, this time with concern behind it. ‘You’re just taking a break from work, like a sabbatical . . . aren’t you?’
    Nina didn’t reply, but the silence was broken by Grant. ‘Okay, dudes. Let’s go have lunch. And talk.’
    His expectant grin told the couple that he had more in mind than social