The Man Who Risked It All Read Online Free PDF Page B

is all-powerful. He held the sheet of paper out to me.
    “Hey! It’s your mission!”
    I took the paper with a trembling hand and tipped it toward the flames to read it. Names. A list of names and next to each one, an address.
    “What is it?”
    “You’ve got to kill them. All of them. It’s your first mission. The first.”
    Catherine’s whip cracked very loudly, setting off a flood of barking.
    “But I’m not a criminal! I don’t want to kill anyone!”
    “It’ll do you good,” he said, separating each word.
    A wave of panic came over me. My legs were shaking. My jaw was trembling.
    “No, it won’t. I don’t want to. At all. I don’t want to.”
    “You need to, believe me,” he said in a wheedling voice. “It’s because of your history, you understand. Your past is in darkness that you’ll learn to come out of. Don’t be afraid.”
    “I can’t,” I panted. “I can’t.”
    “You have no choice.”
    His voice was insistent. His eyes were boring through me as he slowly advanced toward me.
    “Don’t come near me! I want to leave!”
    “You can’t. It’s too late.”
    “Let me go!”
    I rushed to the great drawing room door. Locked. I rapidly turned the handle in every direction.
    “Open up!” I screamed, banging with my fists. “Open this door!”
    Dubreuil was getting closer. I turned around, my back to the door, and crossed my arms in front of my chest.
    “You can’t force me! I will never kill anyone!”
    “Remember: You gave your word!”
    “And if I took it back?”
    My reply brought an immense laugh from Dubreuil. A demonic laugh that froze my blood.
    “What’s the matter? What’s making you laugh?”
    “If you break your word …”
    He turned toward Catherine, a snarl on his lips. Catherine looked at me and gave a broad smile that was a grimace, a hideous smile that made me want to be sick.
    “If you break your word,” he went on in a slow, sardonic voice, as the flames gave a diabolical glow to his face. “If you break your word, then I’ll put your name on a list, a list that I will give to someone else.”
    At that moment, behind me, I heard the lock activate. I turned around, opened the door, pushed the servant aside, and fled across the hall.
    “You gave your word! You gave your word! You gave your word!”
    I woke with a start, panting, in a sweat. The sight of familiar objects around me brought me back to a universe that was known, controlled.
    I was both reassured to realize that it was only a dream and disturbed at the thought that reality might be just as I had imagined it in my nocturnal ravings. After all, I knew nothing about Dubreuil and his real intentions. I had entered a game of which I knew neither the rules nor the purpose. The only certainty: I couldn’t get out of it. That was the rule of the game that I had been mad enough to accept.
    It was 6 A.M. I got up and slowly got ready to go to the office. Life was reasserting itself, and I really had to get back to work, even if the very idea of going back to that vipers’ nest was enough to undermine my morale.
    Vanessa leapt on me as soon as I arrived, pursuing me down the corridor leading to my office.
    “I didn’t know if you were coming in today or not, but until I heard from you, I let your appointments stand. To be frank, Fausteri wasn’t too pleased about your absence yesterday. But I stood up for you. I told him that you sounded like death on the phone and that you’d looked really ill the day before. I don’t mean to boast, but if I hadn’t been there, he’d probably never have believed you.”
    Vanessa loved situations that gave her an opportunity to show she was indispensable, even if she had to make them up. I would never know if Fausteri had even noticed my absence. Indeed, Vanessa had such a need for recognition that she was quite capable of killing two birds with one stone, covering for me while at the same time earning congratulations for bringing my unjustified absence to our