Read Online The Rock by Chris Ryan - Free Book Online Page B

peaked. Breathing was like swallowing razor blades. He had nothing left in the tank.
    ‘My fucking nose!’ Killen shrieked. ‘Shit. Get this over with.’
    Stone grabbed Gardner by his shirt and plunged his head into the bathwater. He fought back. Thrust his right hand out of the water and searched in vain for the guy’s face.
    He felt his lungs compress. A pressure formed behind his eyeballs. He thought they might explode any second. His muscles were dead weight, as if parts of his body had already surrendered. He shook his head from side to side to try to loosen Stone’s grip. No good. The prick had him on lockdown. Struggling only wasted more precious oxygen.
    His world darkened. Killen’s voice, distant and distorted:
    ‘Game over, Joe.’
    Game over.
    The water shaded dark red, and Gardner was sure he was going to die.

13
     
    0304 hours.
     
    A second later Gardner realized he wasn’t being held underwater any more. The blood in the water didn’t belong to him. He jerked his head up, and out. Precious air burned his lungs.
    Stone was face down in the tub, the back of his head like an island.
    An island with a bullet hole.
    Gardner hocked up bathwater. He turned around, clocked Killen on his feet. Glock hanging by his side, looking daggers to his left. Gardner followed his gaze. Land stood in the doorway holding the smallest handgun he’d ever seen, a Ruger LCP .380. Lightweight and less than three inches from stock to barrel, it was the kind of firearm a female spy might conceal in her purse.
    ‘Don’t move,’ Land shouted at Killen, his voice wavering.
    ‘Or what? You’ll shoot me with that fucking peashooter of yours?’ Killen’s eyes drifted to the corpse in the bathtub. ‘Then again, Eddie always did have shit for brains.’
    Gardner felt his energy returning. He focused on Killen. Disarm the fucker. Put that son of a bitch down once and for all.
    ‘This is your last warning,’ Land said.
    Killen chuckled. He glanced at Gardner. ‘You’re a fucking disgrace, Joe. Betraying your own kind with these back-stabbing nonces.’
    Then Killen drew his pistol faster than Wyatt Earp on speed and fired a single shot. The bullet struck the light fitting, plunging the room into darkness. Gardner made a leap for Killen and found thin air. Then he felt himself collide with Land, knocking him aside. The front door slammed. Gardner skipped past the MI6 man’s prone body – and backtracked as the Glock punched holes in the door.
    Killen’s stifled voice carried through the door. ‘Come after me and I’ll fill you in like a fucking survey.’
    Gardner counted to ten. Risked approaching the door, coming at it from the side. Sliding up next to the frame, he rested his hand on the knob, then flung the door open.
    The corridor was empty.
    Killen had fucked off.
    He retreated inside the room. Found Land on the bathroom floor.
    ‘Damn monster butted me with his pistol,’ Land said. Gardner peeled Land’s hand away from his head, revealing a four-inch cut from his temple to the bridge of his nose.
    ‘Needs a few stitches but otherwise you’ll be fine.’ Gardner pressed a wet towel to the wound and ordered Land to hold it in place.
    ‘What did I tell you back in Rio, old chap?’ asked Land.
    ‘My memory’s kind of fuzzy.’
    ‘I said I might be the last friend you’d ever have.’ Land frowned at Stone’s corpse, as if he’d trodden in dog shit, and nodded.
    ‘Give me a hand,’ Gardner said, pulling out the bath plug. The hole slurped the slick red water. Gardner heaved one of Stone’s legs over the side, Land tentatively working the other. The legs felt as if they were weighed down with sandbags. Once they’d laid Stone flat in the tub, they pulled the shower curtain across.
    ‘Gonna need more than a bottle of Cilit Bang to clean this up,’ said Gardner.
    ‘The Firm will take care of it.’
    ‘You boys must be experts at cleaning up your own shit.’
    ‘Admit it. You had me down as the type