The Book of Daniel Read Free Page B

changed. My eyes barely had time to register George’s body lying sprawled, mangled and bloody on the ground before I was grabbed roughly by the arms. A fist came shooting out of nowhere, hitting me sharply on the chin and sending my gun tumbling to the floor. My head rocked back, and when it came forward again, the face of a demon awaited: a squat lump of a head, shaved clear of hair; eyes lurking in their sockets like a mugger’s knife; a nose that looked like it had been chewed up, spat out and ground under the heel of someone’s boot for good measure; and all underscored by a malign grin full of crooked teeth. From the height of the owner, I surmised that this must be Sam. He looked better with the mask on.
    “Hello, handsome,” he breathed on me. “Nice of you to join us again. As you can see, we haven’t been idle while you’ve been away. It seems Dave here wasn’t quite as incapacitated as you thought, much to your friend’s surprise.” He paused to look meaningfully over his shoulder at George. “Perhaps you’ll be more cooperative, if you want to avoid sharing his fate. And because I assume you’ve just phoned the police, it looks like we’ll need to skip the pleasantries and get straight down to business.”
    Sam punctuated “business” with another solid blow, this time to my gut, knocking the wind out of me. I struggled for breath, but there was nothing wrong with my mind. “You don’t… need to worry… about the police,” I managed. “Couldn’t get a… signal.”
    “Aww, that’s too bad, assuming you’re not lying through your teeth. It doesn’t change anything, though,” he said, picking the gun up off the floor, “because I’m running out of patience with all this shit. So, for the last time: where’s my fucking parcel?”
    I finished coughing the effects of Sam’s punch out of my system. “I don’t know what parcel you’re talking about, and even if I did, why would I tell you where to find it? After what you’ve done to George, why the fuck should I do you any favours?”
    The grin faltered for a moment, then returned, like a dark sun reappearing from behind a cloud. “Because if we don’t get what we want,” he said, holding up one of the photos of Jo that I kept in my wallet, “we might have to swing by your home, Mr Stein, and vent a little frustration there. Know what I mean?”
    The rage boiled up inside of me like a hot spring, and with a roar, I tried to channel my anger into a desperate lunge towards Sam. For a moment it looked like I was going to make it, but even my fury wasn’t enough to overpower three men. They ploughed me over into the wall of the shed, and held me there as I tried to buck free of their grip.
    “Whoa! Calm down, calm down! No need to get so excited. I’ve got nothing personal against you or your missus. This is purely business; we came here to do a job, and unfortunately things have got a little complicated. But once we’ve got what we came for, that’s it. We’ve got no reason to take any further action. Your wife, she’s just… leverage.” He savoured the word for a moment before drawing close to my face again. “Trust me.”
    Unbidden, an image of the serpent in the Garden of Eden came to my mind, but even though my every instinct screamed not to trust this bastard, I knew that I had no choice. There was no way I would be able to regain control of the situation. It was probably already too late for poor George. And I couldn’t care less about whatever was in the parcel Sam was after. I was, most likely, staring death in the face—and smelling its nicotine-tainted breath—but all that mattered was that I could see a way to make sure Jo was safe.
    Just as I opened my mouth to yield to Sam, he suddenly dropped to the ground, as abruptly as if someone had opened a trapdoor underneath him. But the real cause was just as surprising: there on the ground, pulling on Sam’s ankles, was George. Even though I knew it was him, it