Metal Fatigue Read Online Free PDF Page A

both of them, and under normal circumstances she would have responded in kind. But the fact that Mole might be only minutes away — plus her misgivings about Roads being alone in the cellar with one of Keith Morrow's gangsters — dispelled any pleasantry she might have attempted.
    She briefed Komalski as quickly as she could. As soon as she was sure he knew what to do, she hurried back into the house.
    The cellar door had swung shut since she had left, but no attempt had been made to seal it again. It opened easily, and she craned her neck through the doorway to listen for movement. Voices floated up at her from the pitch-black space below, too faint to be understood but not indicative of trouble.
    "Phil?" she called.
    The voices stopped for a moment, then he replied: "Barney?"
    "Are you okay?"
    "Fine. Come on down."
    With the aid of the torch, she negotiated the narrow flight of steps. The wall to her right vanished as she descended. She swept the light across the cellar. It seemed to stretch forever into the shadowy distance, cluttered with benches and inactive computer terminals. A hurricane appeared to have blown through the room, emptying filing cabinets, searching through cupboards and opening boxes at random.
    Roads was sitting on a stool in the middle of the room. The tension she had sensed in him earlier hadn't gone, but he had it under control. Opposite him, a tall black man leaned against one wall. The man was totally bald and, beneath a black skinsuit, economically muscled. His eyes glittered oddly in the torchlight, sparkling like jewels. As he raised a pair of dark glasses to cover them, Barney realised they were artificial.
    "This is Raoul," said Roads. "Morrow sent him."
    The man grinned a mouthful of gold teeth and offered his hand. Barney hesitated, then shook it, hoping her nervousness didn't show.
    "I haven't touched anything," he said. "Just locked the door on my way in and waited."
    "No-one else has been here?" asked Barney, forcing her clenched jaw muscles to move.
    "Not a soul. I've confirmed that the Mole triggered the alarm deliberately when he left. The team sent in to investigate had only been in the area a few minutes when the Head ordered them to leave and contacted me."
    "Why you?"
    "Until a week ago, I ran this operation. I can tell you what's missing."
    Barney walked across the room to peer at the debris — anything other than him. "But can we believe you?"
    "Implicitly." Raoul grinned. "At least, as far as this room is concerned. On anything else, you'll have to take your chances."
    "And why's that?"
    "Why do you think?" Raoul's smile only widened. "When you work for the Head, you don't speak freely with RSD. Not without his permission, anyway."
    "Thanks, Raoul," Roads broke in, standing. "Barney and I will go up and talk to the team while you get started. We need a complete inventory of everything in the room, plus a list of anything missing — although it looks like the usual story, so far. If you'd like some help, just ask."
    "A couple of officers for the grunt work. That's all."
    "I'll send them down."
    As Roads and Barney climbed the narrow stairs, the black man seated himself before a terminal and began tapping into the system. When they had reached the kitchen, Barney let free the breath she had been holding.
----
    While she and Roads had been busy, the footsquad had deployed itself throughout the streets and alleys around the house, sealing the area from what little traffic there was at that time of night. A request to Power Central had not yet been answered, and the night was still pitch black. Until the lights along Old North Street and its tributaries returned to life, the scene would remain shrouded with shadows, like the frieze of an empty tomb. Roads sent four officers down into the cellar: two to help Raoul, two more to go through the motions of fingerprinting and photographing. He obviously didn't expect any new evidence to emerge from the procedure, but they had to try