Total pages in book: 146
Estimated words: 136425 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 682(@200wpm)___ 546(@250wpm)___ 455(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 136425 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 682(@200wpm)___ 546(@250wpm)___ 455(@300wpm)
Huisman stared at her for a moment, the air ripe with potential violence. “He better, and Ms. Reed, if those bombs do not work, I will let your ex have you. I’ve kept him on a leash. For an old man he still has quite the sexual drive.”
“They will work,” Shannon replied, the tremor in her voice the only sign she was affected by his words.
“You should hope so. I will inform you when your son is here. Perhaps seeing you will make it easier for him to make the correct choice.” Huisman turned and walked out.
Devi got a glimpse of the guard outside the door and then it clicked closed again.
“We can’t let Zach use those bombs.”
Shannon reached out and took her hand. Her voice went low. “You are going to let Zach do what he needs to do to get you out of here. If I could have found a way to fake the bombs, I would have, but he’s monitored us far too closely, and despite what I said he could probably reverse engineer it at this point. He’s had a camera watching us for days. The last few adjustments I obscured with my body, but it won’t take much for him to figure out what I did.”
“Shannon, he’s talking about killing millions and starting a war that would kill millions more.” Devi couldn’t get a grip on the enormity of what that man was planning to do. He was going to burn the planet and for nothing more than revenge on his perceived enemies. He was going to take down her family.
“Sweetheart, if there is one thing I have learned in this life, it is that we can only do so much and the rest is fate. Maybe if it was only me, I would leave this life. I’ve hidden and wasted years because I was too afraid. I thought Zach would be better without me. I know Cooper was better without me. If you weren’t here, I would set that bomb off. I would kill us all and make the world a better place.”
It sent a chill down her spine, but she had to consider it. She had to consider that her life wasn’t worth the lives of everyone who would die next. “Could you do it?”
It would save her family since they were absolutely on the ground somewhere. Likely in Kathmandu. They would be there when the bombs went off. They would breathe in the air and they would die. She could make sure that didn’t happen.
Shannon’s chin came up. “I could but I won’t. Those bombs are connected remotely to a computer that will control its detonation. Any computer is hackable. But I’m putting this in the hands of fate and my son, who is the absolute best thing I ever did. Sometimes I’m sure he’s the only good thing I ever did. I will not let the woman he loves sacrifice herself. Besides, it’s not like he’s given me access to the actual canisters. The ones he had me design around are empty. They don’t contain the anthrax.”
“But these do,” a masculine voice said.
Shannon tensed, and Devi knew who was standing in the doorway before she even turned around.
Ray. He was the shadow always haunting them.
She worried he was hunting them.
Now it was her turn to stand in front of Shannon. He’d obviously come to take the bombs now that they were done.
This was happening. Anxiety pressed against her, but she forced herself to stay calm. “You should take them and go. I think Huisman is getting impatient.”
“Huisman is fucking insane,” Ray said with a chuckle. He nodded to the two men who stood behind him, and they moved in quickly, taking the bombs. Ray held back. He had a thin metal canister in his hand, one that would fit neatly into the space Shannon had built at the base of the small bombs.
So small to be so deadly. Shouldn’t something that could kill millions have more weight? Be harder to carry?
One of the men took the canister from Ray, promising to deliver it to Huisman.
Shannon waited until the other men stepped out before looking to her ex. “Ray, you have to stop this. I know you don’t care about many people, but you have to know this will affect you in the end, too. If he does this, the world ends.”
Ray’s gray head shook. “The world changes. It doesn’t end.”
“The one we know will end,” Devi said. “We won’t ever go back.”
“Little girl, I’ve spent the majority of my life working my way up. I’ve found the best way to make myself rich and powerful is to take from other people. When Huisman gets what he wants, I’m going to be a king, and I don’t care that my kingdom will be on fire. It will be mine and I will finally have what I deserve.” He stared at Shannon for a moment. “And you will be there at my side. I will make sure of it. You should know I won’t care that you don’t want to be there. In so many ways that makes it sweeter. So this better work or he’ll take it out on all of us, and anything that he does to me I’ll take out on everyone you care about.”