Private Dublin

Chapter 81

“Sam?” Andi whispered between shuddering sobs. “Sam!”

She ran to the dead man’s side and fell to her knees a couple of meters from me. She took his head in her hands and stared down at his glassy eyes, sobbing.

“Sam,” she repeated, wiping her face. She looked at Chalmont, her expression hardening. “You killed him.”

“He was in my way,” Chalmont said.

Andi was on her knees between us, obscuring part of me, but when he uttered those words, she wiped away the last of her tears and stood up to face him defiantly.

“And what about me?” she asked. “Am I in your way too?”

Chalmont waved his gun at her. “Move aside.”

Andi stayed where she was, directly in front of me. “Sam was one of us,” she said. “He was loyal to the cause. He was true to his oath. He was a friend.”

“Step aside, Andi,” Chalmont told her.

Still she didn’t move.

“Step aside.” He was more insistent now.

“What does it all mean?” she asked, her tone hollow. “What does any of it mean? You tell us we have to keep the faith. That we are the true custodians of order and righteousness. That our day will come. That we’re making the world a better place.”

She hesitated and looked down at Sam’s body.

“But you just murdered him,” she said. “This wasn’t about making the world a better place. This was about you. What you want. You shot him as though he was worthless.”

I stayed perfectly still. I sensed the enormity of this moment for Andi, and knew if I said anything, I risked sending her back toward the beliefs that had twisted her mind. Sam Farrell’s death had made her see clearly that for all their talk about righteousness and honor, Propaganda Tre were only interested in themselves and in the power they could obtain through manipulating others. I think Raymond Chalmont also sensed the importance of the moment and recognized his loss of control over the mind of a previously faithful follower.

He raised his gun, and for a moment there was no sound except for the wind stirring the leaves and the creak of swaying branches.

“What is this, Raymond?” Andi asked. “What am I really part of?”

She glanced at me, and I saw nothing but regret in her eyes. Tears welled up in them.

“Get out of the way,” Chalmont commanded, aiming his gun directly at her.

Andi wiped her eyes, and her entire demeanor suddenly changed. Her posture stiffened and she raised her gun and shot him without warning.

The bullet hit him in the shoulder, knocking him back. He pulled the trigger instinctively and Andi cried out as the shot hit her in the stomach. She fell beside Sam Farrell and her pistol clattered along the road.

I raced to grab it and turned it on Chalmont, but he had already made it to the Mercedes and slid behind the wheel. He threw the car into gear and reversed away at speed. I tried to shoot out the tires, but my shots went wide. He killed the headlights and then spun the vehicle around, before racing away into the darkness.

As the sound of his engine faded, I heard a moan and turned and ran to Andi’s side.