One Minute to Midnight (Black Ops: Automatik) Read Online Free PDF

candidate.” Lying came so easily.
    Eddie waved her toward the back. “Well, come into the office and we’ll take a look.” His hand dipped into his pocket and jingled his keys in a habitual move. The man cried for attention.
    He left the blinds closed and shut the door behind her. The office was undisturbed by business. Baseball memorabilia lined a shelf. The wide desk held a quiet computer, a blotter and Eddie’s phone. The most valuable asset of the space lined the wall behind the desk.
    A map of the town. She immediately located the hotel and where she was. East and West stretched out to the sides, where the houses thinned and larger buildings dominated. Then nothing. Swamps and prairie.
    “Please sit.” Eddie gestured toward the visitor chair. She complied as he took his own seat. “Now, what kind of developing do you do?”
    “Mixed use, mostly. Businesses on the bottom and residential up top. It really maximizes available lots.”
    He scanned her face, neck and shoulders as she spoke. Assessing and undressing. Her skin crawled at the thought of him exposing it. His hands remained on the desk, but she could see one twitching a little. He wanted to jingle his keys. “I can imagine something like that here.” He turned in his chair to look at the large map. “Construction would make jobs, and the new shops would get people excited.”
    Railroad tracks cut long scars across the eastern portion of the map. Every direction could be fed from that hub. Perfect for the gunrunners.
    “You’re talking more like a politician.” She smiled at him when his gaze returned to her. “Usually real estate people go for the dollars and cents first.”
    He twisted his mouth, smug. “Guilty.” A glance at the wall directed her toward a photo portrait of him and a woman. “That’s the wife talking. Donna’s the mayor of Morris Flats.”
    So this woman would know about the gunrunning. Eddie would as well. They may even be part of it. His monogrammed dress shirt indicated he was the kind of person who’d fight to maintain his power and status. And sell guns to the others around the country with the same agenda.
    “So she’ll have a good idea of the personality of the town.” Though she wanted to put her thumb in the base of his throat until he told her all the details of the gunrunning operation, Mary maintained her businesslike interest. “Is Morris Flats open to new development?”
    Eddie tilted his head back and forth in a broad show of considering her question. “Depends on the area and what we’re putting in. Some people are pretty well knee-deep in their own concrete, if you know what I mean.”
    She ignored his obvious metaphor. “Do you have a smaller map of town, like that one?”
    He glanced behind him, then sprang into action at his desk. Business must not have been flowing into his office often, considering how many drawers he had to open in his search. Mary sharpened, alert, when a heavy object clad in leather clunked in a drawer. Eddie had a holstered gun in the desk.
    Adrenaline flashed through her limbs as he reached in the drawer. She could make it over the desk in a flash and close the drawer on his hand if she had to. But he was too loose, oblivious to what he’d just revealed to her to be an immediate threat. He pulled out a map on standard paper and held it out to her.
    She took the map with her left hand, her right ready to reach into her purse for her pistol. “What about the east side?” She pointed at the map and maintained her cool while the muscles in her arms tensed. “The industrial look is very popular right now, and converted old train yard buildings along with new construction could do quite well.”
    Eddie closed the drawer and leaned closer to her. “East?” He clicked his tongue and scratched at his earlobe. “West is better.”
    “Too bad.” She drew her energy in, sending the message that Eddie was losing a sale.
    He shrugged and tried to maintain his smile. “Remember I