Read Online The Outcast by Michael Walters - Free Book Online Page B

station.”
    â€œAnd the other one?”
    Tunjin tried to shake his head, moving it as far he could on the hard pillow. “No, I didn’t know him.” He paused, a thought suddenly striking him. “He didn’t either.”
    â€œWho didn’t what?”
    â€œThe uniform. The one I knew. He didn’t know the other guy either. They’d never met before.”
    Nergui looked up, with the air of someone who had finally heard something of interest. “Why do you say that?”
    â€œYou always know what to ask, don’t you?” Tunjin said. “I don’t know. It was obvious, somehow. They were both being professional, both doing their job. But the first guy—the one I knew—he didn’t know who the other uniform was, what he was doing there. He was treading warily around it, but you could tell he was curious.”
    â€œSo there was more than one team operating?”
    â€œWell, that’s it,” Tunjin said. “Now you mention it. I don’t think this was any kind of official operation. It wasn’t a big deal. It was just being handled by whoever was on duty from the city-centre crew.”
    â€œSo who was this other uniform?”
    â€œThat’s the question. If he’d been from the city-centre team, my guy would have known him. If he wasn’t—”
    â€œThen why was he there?” Nergui nodded. There were times when he resembled a patient teacher calmly waiting for his students to catch up with his thought processes. “So what happened then?”
    â€œI’m not sure,” Tunjin said. “The protesters were shouting, chanting something. There was a bunch of tourists at the far side of the square. It looked pretty calm, no sense that it would get out of control. We were just chatting, watching it all. It was baking hot, and I was feeling a bit dehydrated. The uniform—the one I didn’t know—offered me a bottle of water—” Tunjin paused, considering the implications of what he had just said.
    â€œAnd then you saw something?”
    Tunjin blinked. “You can be scary, you know that? But, no, I’m not sure that I saw something.” He paused. “I think my attention was drawn to something. Subtly.”
    â€œThe uniform? The other one, I mean.”
    â€œThe other one. Yes. I didn’t register it at the time. But, thinking back, yes, I think he somehow made me aware of it.”
    â€œIt.”
    â€œIt. Him. The man. At the far end of the square.” He stopped, reconstructing the scene in his mind. “The man in the overcoat. Too heavy for the weather. The man opening his coat.”
    â€œHow did you recognise it?” Nergui said. “What was happening, I mean.”
    â€œDoripalam,” Tunjin said. “One of those briefings. The US stuff on the war on terror.”
    â€œI’d never seen you as the seminar type.”
    Tunjin shrugged. “Easier than working. No, I thought it was quite interesting. Probably not very useful, but interesting. I take these things in, you know.”
    â€œI’m sure. But you recognised it from that?”
    â€œI suppose so. The stuff on suicide bombers. The film that Doripalam had. How to handle it. I thought it was nonsense here.”
    â€œBut you knew what to do when you saw it?”
    â€œYes. It was strange. I knew exactly what I was seeing. I knew how I ought to handle it. I knew there was only one way.”
    â€œImmediate termination.”
    â€œThat’s what they say. No time to give warnings, no time to disable the bomber. If you get it wrong, they’ve triggered the bomb anyway. All you can try to do is halt them before they can do it. Immediate termination.”
    â€œAnd that’s what you did.” It wasn’t a question.
    â€œThat must be what I did.”
    â€œAnd you had a firearm?”
    Nergui had asked the question quietly, but the words again derailed Tunjin’s