Read Online Black List by Will Jordan - Free Book Online

air assailed him, along with the wail of police sirens rapidly growing closer. His heart was pounding in his chest, the pulse thundering in his ears.
    ‘I’m out,’ he said, the phone pressed tight against his ear. ‘Where to now?’
    ‘Head west, then take the first side street you can find,’ the woman commanded him, her voice chillingly calm despite the intensity of the situation. ‘You need to get off the main road fast.’
    ‘Okay.’
    ‘If you have a hat or a hood, put it on. And don’t run. You’ll only draw attention to yourself,’ she advised, as if sensing that he was about to break into a sprint. ‘Try to look natural.’
    ‘Easy for you to say,’ Alex said under his breath, pulling the hood up over his head.
    She ignored that one. ‘Do you have a cell phone of your own?’
    ‘Yeah.’ Instinctively he reached into his pocket to retrieve it.
    ‘Get rid of it now. They’ll use it to track you.’
    ‘But...’ He started to protest that the phone was worth a lot of money and that he could simply switch it off, then thought better of it. Now wasn’t the time to debate technicalities. ‘Fine. Fuck it.’
    Passing by a public litter bin, he tossed it in without breaking stride. The wail of sirens were loud and urgent in his ears now. He could see the blue flash of lights reflecting off nearby windows, and did his best not to cringe at the knowledge that the men now hunting him had come screeching to a halt not fifty yards away.
    As commanded, he turned left at the first junction into a residential street of three-storey apartment blocks, managing somehow to keep a steady walking pace. His legs felt like jelly, and he was certain that every person he passed was staring at him, yet he forced himself to keep his head down and carry on walking.
    He’d always been good at blending in, at passing unnoticed. Just an anonymous young man in a hoodie making his way home. Nothing worth remembering.
    ‘Why are you doing this?’ he couldn’t help but ask, painfully aware of how exposed he still was. ‘Helping me.’
    There was a pause, brief but noticeable. ‘Not now. You have more important things to worry about.’
    Of that he had no doubt. ‘I see an alleyway up ahead,’ Alex said, spotting a service alley that ran between two buildings. Having lived here for the past year, he knew the area fairly well by now. ‘If I remember right, it leads down to a canal... Oh fuck.’
    Just like that, his growing hope of escape was dashed as he spotted a pair of police officers heading in his direction, their bright fluorescent jackets standing out like beacons in the dim glow of street lights.
    ‘What is it?’
    ‘Two policemen, heading right towards me.’ His pace had slowed noticeably as indecision took hold. ‘I won’t make it to the alley.’
    ‘Are they running or walking?’
    Alex forced himself to look at them, to assess the slow, measured tread of their boots on the cracked pavement. ‘Just walking, I think. They’re talking to each other.’
    ‘Are their hands on their weapons?’
    ‘Not that I can see.’
    ‘Then they’re just a foot patrol walking their regular beat,’ she decided. ‘Walk past them, carry on talking into the phone and don’t pay them any attention.’
    ‘Are you fucking kidding me?’ Alex hissed. ‘They’re not stupid. They’ll know something’s wrong.’
    ‘They pass hundreds of people just like you every day. They won’t stop you unless you give them a reason to, so calm down and keep walking.’
    He was committed now anyway, he realized. He couldn’t turn around without making it look like he was deliberately avoiding them, and attempting to flee now would only make things worse. One way or another he had to tough it out.
    Forcing himself to maintain what he believed to be a casual walking pace, he made his way reluctantly towards the two police officers. Every step was a conscious effort that became harder and harder every time, yet he forced himself to