Split Second Read Online Free PDF Page B

was the
case, would it be able to survive alcohol as well? She didn’t know, and fortunately, the intruder seemed to have accepted
her semi-bluff without question.
    “Toss your gun
and car keys over to me,” she demanded, pressing her advantage. “Now! Or I’ll
drop it in,” she finished, nodding toward the tiny stick in her right hand. Her
left hand, which held the large crystal wineglass, had a slight tremor as it
was, and the man had to fear the wine might splash upwards and ruin the drive by
accident.
    “I’ll do it,”
she warned again.
    “Look, give me
the drive,” said the intruder as calmly as he could. “If you destroy it,” he added,
his upper lip curling into a snarl, “I will kill you. Guaranteed.”
    He raised the
gun higher and extended it toward her head to emphasize the point.
    “But if you give
it to me,” he continued as pleasantly as he could, “I’ll let you go. I won’t
hurt you. I promise.”
    “A promise from
you means nothing to me!” spat Jenna through
clenched teeth. “After what I’ve seen tonight, I think you’ll kill me the
second you get this. So I have absolutely nothing to lose.” She raised her
eyebrows. “Can you say the same?”
    The man looked
uncertain.
    Jenna’s expression
hardened even further. “You have thirty seconds to toss your keys and gun over
here. If you don’t, I’ll destroy your prize, and you can explain what happened
to your boss.”
    She could tell
from his sick expression that she had him. And he never took his eyes off her
hands, which were still shaking enough to make him fear that an accident might
occur at any time.
    “You’re down to
twenty seconds,” said Jenna. “I will do it, even knowing you’ll kill me. You think that scares me? The love of my life was just murdered in front of my
eyes. I’ve lost everything tonight!
At this point, I don’t have much reason to live. I almost hope you don’t do
what I ask, so I can destroy this drive and have you put me out of my misery.”
    Jenna said
these words so convincingly that even she wasn’t sure how much of this was a
bluff and how much was reality.
    She paused for
a few more seconds. “Ten,” she said simply. “Nine. Eight. Seven—”
    “Wait!” said
the man facing her, panic sweeping over his features. “Say I let you go. How do
I know you won’t destroy the drive the second you’re gone?”
    “You don’t,”
said Jenna. “You’ll have to take my word for it.”
    “Do I have your word?”
    Jenna nodded.
“You do. I’m as interested in knowing what’s on it as you are. So you lose this
round. You give up your gun and keys and let me leave. But the information
you’re after lives. And given how resourceful you and your gang of thugs seem
to be, I’m sure you can still catch me and retrieve it, right?”
    “You make an
interesting proposition. But if I’m going to let you leave here, I need your
word on one more thing. I need you to keep whatever you find on that drive
privileged information. You can’t let it become widely known.”
    “Why not?”
    “Think whatever
you’d like about me, but trust me on this. It would be bad for everyone . My guess is that only a few
people in the world are capable of understanding what’s on there anyway. But
treat the information with total respect, even if you have no idea what it
means. Like it was a simple recipe for a hydrogen bomb.”
    Jenna’s eyes
widened. “Is it a catastrophic explosive?”
    He shook his
head. “No. Nothing like that. But trust me, it would be bad if it got out. Do you believe me?”
    She stared
deeply into his eyes, and for some reason she did. Perhaps the picture was
getting a tiny bit clearer. Both groups wanted Nathan’s discovery for
themselves, but would do anything to make sure no one else got it.
    “Tell me what’s
on the drive,” she said.
    He shook his
head. “I can’t. I’m not supposed to give you any information. Not even what I’ve
already told you. I only did because