Ransom For Hire - Appointment In Hell Read Online Free PDF Page A

mouth.

Chapter 5
    Even though it meant getting the thing’s blood all over his hand, Ransom kept a tight grip on Romock’s neck as the Imp moved them through Hell again. This time they ended up on a street between highrise buildings. Every single building was a blasted out shell, empty, the windows broken and smashed, the roofs and walls collapsing, the very picture of decay and abandonment.
    The street under his boots was paved with people.
    Dead souls were lined up, one after the other, face down in the streets so that their backs and asses and bare legs were turned upward. They lay under Ransom’s feet and he had no choice but to walk across them, the flesh soft and yielding under his boots even if it wasn’t really still there. Ransom tried not to think about it.
    “Where to, Imp?”
    Romock pointed at one of the buildings. It looked the same as all the others to Ransom, blackened and broken and void of life. But it was where Romock pointed, so it was where they went.
    Across the dead he walked, shutting his ears to their muffled groans of pain, and then through the empty doorway and into the bottom floor of the building. The space was open from wall to wall, one huge area. The inner walls and ceiling were crumbling, dropping debris everywhere.
    Shadowy forms moved near the far end and Ransom stepped further inside slowly. He couldn’t make out what they were. But this was Hell. They couldn’t be anything pleasant.
    “Where is she, Imp?”
    “She down there,” Romock answered, raising a hand to point at the end where the dark silhouettes moved.
    “Who else is here?”
    Romock shrugged. It seemed to hurt him, pulling on the injuries to his body.
    “A lot of help you are,” Ransom grumbled.
    “You let me go then.”
    “Not a chance.”
    Carrying Romock, Ransom crouched low and moved forward. The things down there had either seen him already or they hadn’t. Either way, it couldn’t hurt to be careful. Being careful rarely got anybody dead.
    Halfway across the floor, he got a better look at the creatures in the room with him. All big, all misshapen. Not demons. Trolls.
    A gravelly voice laughed. “How’s it been, Ransom?”
    Oh dear God, Ransom thought.
    Yulwavi.
    “Didn’t expect to see you here, big guy.” Ransom stopped trying to creep up on them and stood up tall. Too late for being careful now. He counted heads. Four Trolls. No Julia.
    He squeezed Romock’s neck tighter. “Lied to me again, Imp.”
    Romock tried to laugh but it turned into a choking gasp as Ransom cut off its air with a forceful squeeze.
    “Didn’t expect you either, little Harbinger.” Yulwavi’s voice was stone grinding on more stone.
    “You know, that’s twice today someone’s called me by that name. I hadn’t heard it in over a year before today.”
    “You been out of the game, little Harbinger. Don’t mean you ain’t still what you is.”
    The Troll’s booming voice was amused. He moved forward into the light more so Ransom could see him. Dark green skin covered in moles and bumps and scaly patches, rough leather clothing barely restraining his bulk, arms the size of small tree trunks. Just what Ransom remembered Yulwavi looking like in life. A low forehead disguised an intelligence that made Yulwavi even more dangerous than most of his kind.
    Ransom sighed heavily. He hated Hell. “So how’s this going to go, Yulwavi?”
    Yulwavi shrugged. “Going to pound you, Ransom. You put me here.”
    “No, your life put you here. I just killed you.”
    “That’s fair. You did that. And I lived my life. Just like my friends here.” The three other Trolls stepped up to stand beside Yulwavi. Even being smaller than Yulwavi the three of them were still massive blocks of flesh.
    Ransom looked from one ugly Troll face to another. “Did I kill any of you?”
    One of the Trolls raised a hand.
    “I killed you?” Ransom asked him.
    The Troll nodded his shaggy head.
    “When?”
    A look of pained concentration came over the