Eye of the Cobra Read Online Free

distant.
    ‘If I fall I will pull you off.’ She hated herself for admitting her fear.
    ‘Climb!’
    The rope tugged again at her waist. She felt terrified to detach herself from the safety of the belay, but there was no choice.
    ‘Climb!’ The rope tugged again.
    ‘No!’
    ‘I’ll drop the ropes. Then you’ll have to do it solo.’ He started to untie the two ropes.
    ‘No!’
    He stopped. She detached herself from the belay, tears running down her face as she started jamming her way along the crack. He did not take the rope in.
    ‘You bastard, take up the slack.’
    Long loops of rope hung down beneath her.
    ‘Take up the slack!’
    If she fell, it would be one hundred and fifty feet - the full length of the rope. She knew what he was doing - not giving her a choice. She had to make it or they would both be killed.
    Her hands jammed hard into the crack and she yanked herself forwards, her body shaking with fear and pain. He started to pull the rope in.
    ‘Please, more . . .’
    The rope stopped moving in when she hesitated. So she fought on, every muscle in her body screaming as she moved along the crack, inching her way towards him.
    The pain had reached a level almost beyond enduring when she felt his hand grab hers and yank her across him. She smelt the animal smell of his body. He clipped her into the belay at the edge of the overhang and climbed up the last easy section to the summit.
    She regained her strength and followed. He said nothing as she pulled up onto the rock slab. She staggered up and onto her feet, and raised her hand to slap him across the face.
    ‘You bastard.’
    He gripped her hand before it struck, and pulled her towards him. She struggled, excitement rising. Then her lips found his and she clung to him as he peeled the climbing-skin off her.
    She lay back against the cold rock and felt him rise up inside her and screamed out with the sheer ecstasy of it. At last. At last a man who would dominate her and possess her. At last a man who would make her feel like a woman.
     
    He held her against him as the last rays of sunshine covered the rock face.
    Enough. Enough.
    He would not need to climb again, he knew that. He would sink himself into the discipline that karate demanded. He would train long and hard, punishing his body, driving the agony from his mind.
    But this German girl. She was different, he needed her for this moment. He drank in the cool night air and looked down into the valley in the moonlight.
    He was in love with danger - only when he took risks did the guilt go away and Estelle’s voice stop echoing round his head.
    He turned away from the broken rock of the summit, and they dressed quickly, then began to work their way down into the valley. He felt the tiredness in his limbs, but most of all he felt the elation that came from knowing where he had to go and what he had to do.
     

 
    1991
     
     
    January
    Amersham, Buckinghamshire and London
     
    Danny Chase pulled himself up in the bed and leaned back on the pillows. Next to him, on a flexible arm, was a personal computer, and on the screen was the latest Reuters financial report. He punched in a few commands, studied the figures on the screen and groaned. Yet another investment that wasn’t working out - why couldn’t he get it right for once?
    His body was in good shape, he’d made sure of that. At fifty-five, he took satisfaction in knowing that he had the physique of a man half his age.
    She came in with a tray laden with toast, tea, orange juice and scrambled eggs. She had nothing on beneath the thin cotton dressing-gown, and this wiped the earlier thoughts from his head.
    ‘Good morning, darling.’
    She sat down beside him, rested the tray on the edge of the double bed and poured him a cup of tea. He took it from her gratefully, sipped it slowly, staring at her breasts. They were small and firm, the way he liked them best.
    She sensed his mood and let the dressing-gown fall from her shoulders, glancing at