Brain Storm (US Edition) Read Online Free Page A

replaced the memory core after every communication. I physically destroyed the discarded cores immediately."
    There was another moment of almost silence broken by more grunts and groans of pain from the hostage.
    "We tracked you here and you have had training. She cannot evade us for much longer. If you tell us where to find her it will stop the risk of her being injured when we find her."
    "She may not have received any formal training but she knows enough to run rings around a bunch of bloody morons like you," the hostage spat through labored breaths. "And these fools you tricked into helping you," he raised his voice. "I'm sure they would love to know what's really going-"
    He was cut off by the sound of his own air being forced out of his lungs.
    "That's enough of that."
    There was muffled shouting as though the hostage had been gagged.
    "I'll leave you like that while you think about . . ." the questioner trailed off and then said, "Acknowledged, I will be on the alert."
    Had he been warned about an intruder? Sara backed away from the door and held her weapon ready in case he came through to check things out. No-one did and Sara started backing away. She filed what she had heard away in the back of her mind, whatever was going on in there was only pertinent as far as it let her know that at least one terrorist and one hostage was located in  that room. Anything else could wait until after the operation was complete. She had to back all the way to the foyer and then start her investigation again going through the perimeter rooms in the opposite direction. The first few rooms were just like those she had investigated on the other side and looking out though them only gave her a different angle out into the main hall and the half dozen terrorists in there. Then she came to a room located directly next to where the terrorists had stored their rusty barrels.
    She kept watch on the terrorists out in the main hall and slowly moved out of sight whenever they turned or moved so that she was potentially in their line of sight. She had to move slowly rather than quickly ducking out of sight because rapid movements would attract more attention. She studied the barrels from this vantage point and could clearly see the detonation device sat on the top of one of the barrels with leads trailing from it down the lids and into the barrels.
    Sara knew of at least six varieties of liquid explosive that coul d be used to make a device like that which was before her. Some of those types of explosive were perfectly safe unless triggered by a particular type of charge or device, others were so unstable that anything but the slightest shock would trigger an explosive reaction. Before she could make the bomb safe she had to find out what type of explosive these people were using. If it was any of the less stable varieties there was no way she could make the device safe, even if she removed the trigger the device could be set off physically by one of the terrorists.
    Sara trailed back a couple of rooms so that she was in one where the door was hidden from all of the terrorists’ positions by a thick concrete support column. Sara unlocked the door from the inside using a universal lock pick to bypass the simple electronic lock. She slipped outside and gently closed the door behind her. She walked softly, placing her feet with delicate precision on the highly polished grey marble floor, up behind the column which had sheltered her exit from the room from the terrorists. She lowered herself down to the floor just as silently being sure to keep all of her limbs out of sight behind the column.
    She twisted around and took a quick look at the terrorists. They still had their attention focused away from her. From here she could see they were looking at the front entrance to the gift   shop. Once carefully ordered displays in the windows of the shop had been cast into disarray and dark blankets had been hung up inside the windows. That, along with the