Read Online The Patriot Attack by Kyle Mills - Free Book Online Page B

before I let him in on where you were.”
    He let her words sink in for a moment. Had they increased his pain meds? He still hurt like hell but his processing speed seemed to be crawling. “The guy I talked to…the one in charge…”
    “Noboru Ueno. One of Japan’s most successful…” She paused for a moment to consider her word choice. “Entrepreneurs.”
    Smith shook his head weakly. “Jesus, Randi. Is there an organized crime boss on the planet you don’t have a relationship with?”
    She shrugged noncommittally. “Count yourself lucky that I have friends in low places. Noboru’s plans for you weren’t exactly all sunshine and lollipops. Unless I miss my guess, they’d have ended with you getting mixed in with the cat food at one of his meatpacking plants.”
    “And you trust this guy, but not Fred?”
    “I don’t trust anyone. You know that. But Noboru and I go way back and we have some shared interests. With Klein I’m never quite sure.”
    Smith forced himself into a sitting position. She watched him struggle, silently calculating how his condition would affect her plans but not offering any help.
    “I take it you’re here to spring me?”
    She nodded. “The doc says you’re in pretty bad shape but that it should be okay to move you if we’re careful. They’re bringing a wheelchair and I’ll take you to an apartment I rented through a dummy corporation. No way to trace it to either one of us. We can lay low there until you’re a little more mobile and we figure out how to get you back to the States.”
    “Fred can send a jet.”
    “We’ll see. No need to jump into anything blind.”
    He didn’t bother to protest, instead pointing to a pair of cargo pants folded in the corner. He rarely won an argument with her even when he was firing on all cylinders. Better to concentrate on getting the hell out of there before their host changed his mind.
    While he was struggling to get his zipper up with dead-feeling fingers, the door opened and the man he’d spoken with when he’d first woken up entered, followed by three very serious-looking companions.
    “Randi,” Noboru Ueno said, examining her from bottom to top, finally stopping at the black-dyed hair. “What have you done to yourself?”
    “You know how I hate to attract attention.”
    He reached for her hand and kissed it. “Impossible. You look radiant as always.”
    “Such a charmer,” she said with a barely perceptible smile. “Now where’s the wheelchair you promised me?”
    “And where are the items you promised me?”
    Randi pointed to the satchel lying on the table. Ueno opened it and flipped approvingly through what from Smith’s position appeared to be bearer bonds.
    “I could have just wired the money to your account in Croatia.”
    He shook his head. “I’ve come to enjoy the feel of paper in my hand.”
    Smith was too drugged to generate any meaning from Ueno’s subtle nod, but Randi wasn’t similarly handicapped.
    The men moved on her with blinding speed, but it wasn’t fast enough. Instead of backing away like they expected, she charged at the lead man, the blade reappearing in her hand and sinking to the hilt in his side. She spun, catching the second man in the head with an elbow as Smith threw himself out of the bed. He had the vague sensation of the IVs ripping out of his hand as he went for Ueno, but when his feet hit the floor, his legs wouldn’t support him. He collapsed at the man’s feet, pain and nausea washing over him as he tried desperately to get up and help Randi.
    The man who’d caught the elbow was shaken but didn’t go down. He managed to block the knife from getting him in the throat but the gash it put in his forearm looked to be six inches long and down to the bone. She feinted high on the only uninjured man left but she was off balance and he knew it. A foot sweep took her down hard onto the wood floor and the man with the wounded forearm managed to drop a knee on her arm, splattering her