Bubble: A Thriller (49 page)
He took a final look at the rotating sign, then placed one foot on a cross brace and climbed up onto the railing.
She made no attempt to stop him.
For a moment he stood on top of the railing, balancing there with his arms outstretched.
As the clock completed its circuit and turned the light from green to red, he fell slowly forward into the darkness.
Seconds later his body crashed through the glass roof, then carried on through the atrium of the department store before landing with a thud on the marble floor some fifty meters below her.
35 | JUST ONE MORE THING . . . |
REBECCA SLOWLY HOLSTERED
her pistol, then picked up the flask and mugs before heading off down the spiral staircase.
When she reached the roof at the foot of the mast she took out her phone. A shiny, silvery thing with a glass touch screen.
He answered on the first ring.
“Is it over?”
“Yes . . .”
“And?”
“Much as we thought.”
“Are you okay, Becca? I mean, considering . . . ?”
“I’m okay, Mange. Surprisingly okay, actually . . . better than I have been for ages.”
“Good to hear it.”
“How is he?”
“Mad as hell, and badly bruised across the chest, but he’ll survive. People like HP always survive. He’s with Nora. I still don’t understand how you dared to shoot. I mean, the buckle and the Kevlar casing were no bigger than the palm of your hand . . .”
A short distance away she could hear voices, radios crackling, keys jangling. She jumped nimbly onto the next roof, opened a small door, and disappeared into a dark stairwell.
“So what do we do now?”
“You can do what you like, Becca. Go back to your old life, meet someone new, have kids, and live to be a hundred . . .”
A moment later he added:
“Unless you’d rather do something else entirely . . . something that would really make a difference. You decide . . . red or black?”
“Nothing’s ever going to be the same, is it?” she said.
“Is that really so wrong, Becca?”
“Maybe not . . .”
She took a deep breath.
“Look, Mange . . . I should probably call you Farook . . . What is your name these days?”
She could hear him laughing, far away.
“What do you think of . . . Game Master?”
Photo by Jorgen Ringstrand
A
NDERS DE LA MOTTE
is a former police officer and was until recently director of security at one of the world’s largest IT companies. He now works as an international security consultant in addition to being Sweden’s most exciting and innovative new thriller writer.
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Buzz
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2012 by Anders de la Motte
English language translation copyright © 2014 by Neil Smith
Originally published in 2012 in Sweden by Alfabeta Bokförlag AB. Published by agreement with Salomonsson Agency.
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First Emily Bestler Books/Atria Paperback edition February 2014
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Designed by Dana Sloan
Cover design and art by Patrick Kang
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.
ISBN 978-1-4767-1294-9
ISBN 978-1-4767-1296-3 (ebook)
Chapter 5: Ghosts from the Past
Chapter 7: Just Because You’re Paranoid . . .
Chapter 8: . . . It Doesn’t Mean they Aren’t After You
Chapter 9: Guns, Guards, and Gates . . .
Chapter 16: Quit While You’re Ahead
Chapter 18: Impossible Things Before Breakfast
Chapter 22: And Those We’ve Left Behind
Chapter 23: Spheres of Reality
Chapter 24: Corporate Invasion of Private Memory
Chapter 29: Information is Power
Chapter 30: Underneath the Spreading Chestnut Tree . . .
Chapter 31: Point of No Return
Chapter 32: Insignificant Bearer