Trader of secrets

Chapter Six

Liquida could now hear the faint padding of her running shoes as the soles slapped the harder ground leading toward the opening in the brush. A second later he picked up the sound of her labored breathing. Crouched down behind the reeds, he inched toward the path until he was no more than two feet from the well-worn ground of the trail.

He reached into the sling with his gloved left hand and felt the handle of the needle-sharp stiletto. Slowly he drew it out and held it down low, close to his body, parallel to his left thigh.

If he timed it right, he would spring up from behind the reeds just as her leading foot cleared the end of the wooden plank on this side of the creek. When he jumped, his sudden movement would cause her eyes to be instinctively riveted on his face. She wouldn’t notice the blade until her own forward momentum carried her body onto the point as Liquida thrust it upward under her rib cage. It would be over in an instant.

Liquida dipped his head low as he heard the rustle of brush on the other side of the creek. A second later the footfalls slowed as she negotiated her way carefully down the embankment; then came the first flat thud as the sole of her shoe landed on the wooden plank.

He could see her through the reeds. Two more hollow drumbeats followed as she raced across the narrow wooden bridge over the water.

She was close enough now that Liquida could smell her. He waited half a beat, then launched himself up onto his feet. He took one quick full stride forward directly into her path, closing the distance between them before the girl realized what was happening.

I am out of Herman’s hospital room like a bullet racing for the telephone at the nurses’ station. The doctor with a crash cart is working over Herman.

“What the hell’s goin’ on?” The cop is out in the hall again after getting the doctor.

I turn back and skip sideways as I yell to him, “Call Thorpe. See if he’s still in the building. If not, get one of his agents up here-now. Tell him it’s an emergency.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Just call him.”

By the time I reach the nurses’ station and the phone, I realize that I don’t have the number, and the phone number at the farm is unlisted. It’s in my cell phone, but Thorpe or one of his minions has that. God knows where it is, probably back at their office in a lockbox with other property.

I head for the elevator just as Joselyn steps out of the ladies’ room.

“Where are you going?”

“Liquida knows where Sarah is.”

“What?”

“They’re working on Herman!” I point to the room. “Liquida must have told him just before he went unconscious.” I am hammering the button on the elevator over and over again. The doors can’t open fast enough.

“Call the farm,” she says.

“I don’t have the number. It’s in my phone.”

“Shit!” says Joselyn.

“I got him,” says the cop. He’s talking into a handheld radio from his belt. “He’s in the building. He’s on his way.”

“Are you sure?” says Joselyn to me. “Maybe Herman doesn’t know what he’s saying.”

I shake my head. “He wrote it out.”

“It’s not too late,” says Joselyn. “It would take Liquida a while to get there.”

“Not if he left yesterday.”

“Oh, God!”

A second later the elevator doors open. Just as I’m about to jump in, Thorpe steps out. “What’s going on?”

The abrupt motion startled Sarah. She saw him flash in front of her. The evil in his eyes caused the blood to drain from her head. The fleeting electric impulse of having flushed some homeless vagabond living along the creek instantly evaporated. In the split second before they collided, Sarah knew she was in trouble.

She reached up with both hands toward his shoulders, trying to ward off the collision as she screamed, but it was too late. His clenched hand came up fast from underneath, catching her low in the abdomen, driving powerfully up into her stomach. The blow collapsed her diaphragm, forcing the air from her lungs.

The impact of his punch stopped her forward motion in midstride. He pushed again, another shot, jammed up under her ribs, leaving her feet to grapple for traction in the soft mud along the edge of the water. Sarah stepped back with one foot, turned it on a rock, and fell backward into the creek.