Read Online Point Blanc by Anthony Horowitz - Free Book Online

came to a stumbling, sweating halt. He had broken out of the
woods but he was still hopelessly lost. Worse--he was trapped. He had come
to the edge of a wide, filthy lake. The water was a scummy brown and looked
almost solid. No ducks or wild birds came anywhere near the surface. The
evening sun beat down on it and the smell of decay drifted up.
    "He
went that way!"
    "No
... through here!"
    "Let's
try the lake."
    Alex heard
the voices and knew that he couldn't let them find him here. He had a
sudden image of his body, weighed down with stones, at the bottom of the lake.
But that gave him an idea. He had to hide.
    He stepped
into the water. He would need something to breathe through. He had seen people
do this in films. They would lie in the water and breathe through a hollow
reed. But there were no reeds here. Apart from grass and thick, slimy algae,
nothing was growing at all.

    One minute
later, Rufus appeared at the edge of the lake, his gun still hooked over his
arm. He stopped and looked around with eyes that knew the forest well. Nothing
moved.
    "He
must have doubled back," he said.
    The other
hunters had gathered behind him. There was tension between them now, a guilty
silence. They knew the game had gone too far.
    "Let's
forget him," one of them said.
    "Yeah..."
    "We've
taught him a lesson."
    They were in
a hurry to get home. As one, they disappeared back the way they had come. Rufus
was left on his own, still clutching his gun, searching for Alex. He took one
last look across the water, then turned to follow them.
    That was when
Alex struck. He had been lying under the water, watching the vague shapes of
the teenagers as if through a sheet of thick brown glass. The barrel of the
shotgun was in his mouth. The rest of the gun was just above the surface of the
lake. He was using the hollow tubes to breathe. Now he rose up--a
nightmare creature oozing mud and water, with fury in his eyes. Rufus heard him
but he was too late. Alex swung the shotgun, catching Rufus in the small of the
back. Rufus grunted and fell to his knees, his own gun falling out of his
hands. Alex picked it up. There were two cartridges in the breech. He snapped
the gun shut.
    Rufus looked
at him, and suddenly all the arrogance had gone and he was just a stupid,
frightened teenager, struggling to get to his knees.
    "Alex..."
The single word came out as a whimper. It was as if he were seeing Alex for the
first time. "I'm sorry!" he sniveled. "We weren't
really going to hurt you. It was a joke. Fiona put us up to it. We just wanted
to scare you. Please..."
    Alex paused,
breathing heavily. "How do I get out of here?" he asked.
    "Just
follow the lake around," Rufus said. "There's a path."
    Rufus was
still on his knees. There were tears in his eyes. Alex realized that he was
pointing the silver-plated shotgun in his direction. He turned it away,
disgusted with himself. This boy wasn't the enemy. He was nothing.
    "Don't
follow me," Alex said and began to walk.
    "Please!"
Rufus called after him. "Can I have my gun back? My mother would kill me if
I lost it."
    Alex stopped.
He weighed the weapon in his hands, then threw it with all his strength. The
handcrafted Italian shotgun spun twice in the dying light, then disappeared
with a splash in the middle of the lake. "You're too young to play
with guns," he said.
    He walked
away, letting the forest swallow him up.

    ----
THE TUNNEL
    ^ >>
    THE
MAN SITTING IN THE gold, antique chair turned his head slowly and gazed out the
window at the snow-covered slopes of Point Blanc. Dr. Hugo Grief was almost
sixty years old with short, white hair and a face that was almost colorless
too. His skin was white, his lips vague shadows. Even his tongue was no more
than gray. And yet, against this blank background, he wore circular wire
glasses with dark red lenses. For him, the entire world would be the color of
blood. He had long fingers, the nails beautifully manicured. He was dressed in
a dark suit buttoned up to his neck. If