|
|
|
|
|
|
|
glorious instant her eyes flared with green before night swarmed from the center. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Jerry froze against her. What the hell was she holding? He pulled her up by the elbow and marched her out of the room, down the hall and into the kitchen. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
"Where are you taking me?" |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
"I'm not going anywhere with you." She tried to pull her arm free. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Jerry spun her around and raised the gun to her forehead. "Lady, if I pull the trigger, your brains will be all over the kitchen floor. Is your secret really worth that?" |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The woman was trembling. She closed her eyes for a moment. She was going to talk, Jerry told himself. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
When she opened her eyes she said, "I'm afraid you'll have to pull the trigger." |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
He gave her several seconds but she didn't respond. "What the hell were you people doing back then?" |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The woman closed her eyes, waiting for the blast to explode away the back of her head. Jerry rested the barrel of the gun against a spot between her eyes. He let a full thirty seconds pass, but she kept her eyes pressed tightly and never uttered a word. Whatever she was holding back was so important that she preferred death to its exposure. He lowered the gun, but his curiosity would not go away. What she held back here was some kind of very forbidden fruit, and forbidden fruit meant power. And moneymuch more money than Roman's people were paying him, and so far that was top dollar. If he knew what kind of forbidden fruit, he might be able to determine potential customers and fetch himself a bonanza. It crossed his mind to torture it out of her, but she'd probably just make a lot of noise as the bones crushed. "Okay, you win," he said. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
She opened her eyes, her chest deflated. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Besides, Jerry thought as he opened the back door, there was the next face in the photothe chubby one in the beard. |
|
|
|
|
|