Nirvana Bites Read Online Free PDF

time.
    To the left of the lift, a corner turned back on to stairs leading to the floors below. The lift doors remained open as I ducked out and crept down the first dozen stairs. Maybe I was overreacting, but I began to understand what people mean when they say they feel the hairs rising on the back of their neck. I patted my pockets absent-mindedly, looking for inspiration. The first yielded a travelcard, my keys and what was left of the tenner Mags had given me, bless her heart. The second yielded Nick’s mobile. Told you it wouldn’t be hard to get him to share his toys. I gazed at it thoughtfully for a moment before punching in the number on the card Stan had given me.
    The phone rang twice before he answered. The bastard wasn’t screening his calls either. What was he playing at?
    â€˜Stan. It’s me,’ I hissed. ‘What’s going on?’
    â€˜Oh, hi, Jen,’ he replied in the gloomy tone I was becoming accustomed to. ‘I’ve got a couple of guys here taking the aquarium away. Can’t stand the sight of it any more. Where are you anyway?’
    Before I had a chance to reply, he butted in. His voice changed, running from gloomy to bewildered, racing through irritated and ending in shit-scared within seconds.
    â€˜Hey! Wait a minute! What are you…? No! NO!! Jen! Help me!’
    There was a thundering crash and the phone went dead. From the floor above me there was a spine-chilling scream, followed by an assortment of bumps and thumps.
    Shit! Shit! Shit! What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? For a second my finger hovered over the 9 button on the mobile. No! Wrong move! Even if I wanted to call the cops, there was no time anyway. I looked round wildly. On the landing on the floor below I spotted a wall-mounted cupboard marked EMERGENCY EQUIPMENT . I yanked open the door. Two fire extinguishers – one standard red, the other black and slightly smaller. And an axe. No time to think. Ignore insistent bowel sensation. I tucked the axe handle under my armpit and grabbed an extinguisher in each hand. Have you ever tried climbing stairs, trying not to make a sound, while carrying two fire extinguishers and a large axe? Amazing what a shot of pure adrenalin can do.
    I reached the top step and peeped round the corner. A white guy, bald and stocky, wearing navy overalls, was backing out of Stan’s door towards the open lift. He was staggering under the weight of one end of a vast box covered in a black cloth.
    â€˜A couple of guys,’ Stan had said. Just two. I’ve faced worse odds in my time. I have three brothers. I had surprise on my side. The fact that that was pretty much all I had on my side was at least unknown to the opposition.
    I gently placed the red extinguisher on the stair and gripped the axe in my right hand. Then before you could say ‘Kamikaze’ I leapt into the hall, shrieking like a banshee and simultaneously threw the axe at Baldy’s head. I followed it with a left-hand swing, sending the black canister in the same general direction.
    Time compressed. Entire aeons were condensed into instants. The axe whistled past Baldy’s nose and embedded itself in the wall. Milliseconds later, the canister catapulted on to the box in his arms, which crashed to the floor with the sound of breaking glass. I grabbed the red extinguisher and swiped at the pin. Oh bliss! Oh joy! I got it first time, and before Baldy had a chance to recover I aimed the foam jet straight into his face.
    I was still yelling, ‘Up here, guys! Up here! Quick!’
    Baldy staggered backwards into the open lift. It was weird that over the cacophony of my shrieks, his curses, and more crashing and smashing from inside Stan’s flat, I could still distinguish the pop-pop sound of the gun silencer. A couple of bullets thudded into the wall beside the lift. I ran to the penthouse door, hugging the wall and aiming the hose round the corner and into the room, at