The Memorist

Chapter 93

Thursday, May 1^st-8:03 p.m.

David watched as a brick fell out, a crack in the airshaft opened wider and a substantial splash of light spilled in. Flattening himself against the wall, protected by an outcropping of stone, he watched as another brick fell. And then another. As much as he’d prepared for this, he was still caught off guard. David had never believed in the inviolability of this crypt. But none of that mattered now. He still had time and surprise on his side, even if they did break through and find the chamber.

Trying not to breathe or make any noise, David carefully and slowly moved his explosives out of the path of light. Inch by inch, he pulled each component back into a darker corner of the crypt.

“Don’t move,” a man shouted. “I have a gun.”

David had timed his efforts to the perfect moment in the symphony but could he wait that long? Holding his breath, he listened to the Americans who’d broken through the brick cistern on the far side of his hiding place. Everything would be decided in a matter of minutes…it all depended on his last decoy.

“I have a gun!” the American shouted again. “Don’t move.”

Releasing the remaining rat in the cage and cursing himself for not catching more of them, David watched the rodent scurry across the rutted dirt ground.

“Damn it, Tucker. It’s just more of those damn rats,” another voice shouted.

A beam of light caught the rodent as it darted to the west wall and slipped through a crack.

“I think we should head back up. This is a wild-goose chase,” the man said.

“Wild rat chase,” the other joked.

Laughter between the men echoed in the chamber but it seemed slightly farther away. Were they retreating? It sounded like they might be. David sat in the dark and listened intensely. He wasn’t sure how long it took for the men to leave because from his hiding place he couldn’t see anything and the music overwhelmed the now faint sounds the two men made. The question was should he wait for his marker in the fourth movement or do this now? Could he still afford to wait? What if Paxton’s men hadn’t given up? What if they were just lingering? To be this close to his goal and fail because he wanted an elegant ending-wanted to detonate the device precisely at the end of the concert… Did that make sense? No, there was no reason to hold off. He reached out for the wires.