Read Online The Crypt by Jonas Saul - Free Book Online Page A

draw her weapon and begin shooting, Armond’s bodyguards would do the same. Could she survive such an assault? How many witnesses would there be? Was this one man her end goal? Kill him and she could die too? Was that all that mattered? Vivian had said something about seeing his new face. Maybe that was all this was supposed to be?
     
    Maybe, but no, she didn’t want to die nor did she want to spend the rest of her life in a Hungarian prison for murder. Armond would have stolen the life of another girl if that happened.
     
    In the half a minute they stared at each other Sarah realized that today was not a good day to kill him.
     
    She eased off the wall and slowly stepped through the door toward them. They all continued to stare at her. Two of the guards reached inside their jackets, no doubt to caress the butts of their weapons.
     
    She stopped about seven feet from the foursome. It felt like the world stopped around them as the tension rose.
     
    She stared at him as hard as she could, memorizing every facial expression, every dimple, every eye movement.
     
    “You’re looking good, Sarah,” Armond said.
     
    She didn’t respond. The two brutes lifted their arms out in unison, both holding a small compact piece.
     
    “Can’t fight your own battles?” Sarah asked.
     
    “Sarah, Sarah, Sarah,” he said while shaking his head back and forth. “You are one seriously hard person to kill. I swear, if the world experienced nuclear war, you and the cockroaches would survive along with those scorpions and beetles or whatever the fuck. But now things have changed.”
     
    “How so?”
     
    She felt her anger rising past controllability. Her mind raced across possible scenarios. Draw their fire. Shoot in self-defense . Kill Armond and walk away after an investigation. Try to execute the guards too. Vermin needed to die. That’s my job .
     
    “For many reasons. You’ve seen my face. The time and money I spent on it has now been wasted. Also, you’re in Hungary. That tells me that you’ve traveled a long way to hunt me down. You’re becoming a nuisance. You and Vivian have to go. And I’ve now realized something else.”
     
    “What’s that?”
     
    She stood in the mid-afternoon sun, listening to her sister’s murderer and with the control of a thousand men, refrained from diving for his throat and strangling him to a fucking bloody pulp. She had no idea where her self-control came from, only that she despised rules. The rules that stopped her. Even though she knew he was a psychopath and he was responsible for many ruined lives, she couldn’t throttle him to a mass of blood and skin.
     
    “I’ve realized that nothing I do will ever stop you. I cannot continue my business until you’re dead. You’re like a fucking Jack-in-the-box. You keep popping up. How did you know where to find me? Vivian? Of course, how could you know without her? And since I can’t stop her because she’s already dead, I have to kill you. Oh, and by the way, I know your sister is dead because I killed her myself. But, we both know that.”
     
    She knew he was goading her to make a move. Taunting her like a carrot to a horse. Her fingers twitched. One bullet. It would be done. She was tough. She could handle prison.
     
    One bullet.
     
    In the second she decided to kill him, she reached back for her weapon.
     
    Her hand was behind her back, gripping the butt of the police gun she’d stolen two nights ago. She lifted it out of her pants. In that second, the two guards who already had weapons in their hands lifted theirs up to aim at Sarah.
     
    She didn’t care. This was it. The end. This was her mission after all.
     
    She pulled the gun free and went to bring it around.
     
    Then her hand went instantly numb.
     
    A blackout was coming.
     
    “No!” she shouted.
     
    Her arm went numb. The gun fell from her grasp and hit the pavement. She met the concrete a second later.
     
    Then it was over. The blackout lasted two