[Rogue Warrior 18] Curse of the Infidel Read Online Free Page A

Shunt?”
    He walked me through the changes, which involved putting the doohickey into a new slot on the same card, then moving a small switch on the board. One of those changes—or maybe the swearing—did something —lights began flickering madly inside the machine.
    “Dick, the police are out front,” warned Mongoose.
    “I’m waiting on Shunt,” I told him. “What about the robbers?”
    “Still in the building somewhere.”
    I have to confess that part of me wanted to go downstairs and teach those knuckleheads a lesson. But sneaking downstairs and gift wrapping them for the police would expose me to the surveillance cameras at the base of the stairwell and on the main floor. I consoled myself with the hope that they might venture upstairs, whereupon I would greet them warmly.
    “Shunt, what’s going on?” I demanded.
    “I need sixty more seconds.”
    “Bad guys are running out the front door,” cut in Shotgun over the radio. “They’re armed.”
    Good, I thought to myself, that will keep the police busy for a few minutes.
    A second later, the floor came up from beneath me, and what sounded like a freight train drove over my head.
    The boys downstairs had blown the place up.

(III)
    Having witnessed more explosions than I care to recall, the pop and crackle of a mere grenade going off behind a distant wall no longer excites me.
    This blast was on a different order entirely. Seven on a ten scale: it blew a hole in the floor a few feet away from me. Flames shot up through the hole in an impressive display of color and heat.
    I observed the flash from my back.
    “Shunt!” I yelled as I struggled up from the floor. My voice must have been loud enough for him to hear all the way back in New York.
    “We got it,” he answered. “Go, go, go!”
    I reached into the computer. Flames had spread out from the hole. The ceiling seemed to be on fire. Something flared to the right of me.
    Black smoke began pouring from a computing unit behind me. Something yellow poked out of the black grill of the one next to it.
    I grabbed the doohickey and turned toward the door—which was not only on the other side of the hole, but blocked off by one of the computer units, which had fallen just beyond the hole.
    Without thinking, I grabbed the computer unit I’d just been working on and climbed to the top, then scrambled over the large cases and moved toward the door. The air was thick with smoke and acrid fumes. My eyes felt as if they had been soaked in pepper spray, and my throat could have sanded down an oak tree.
    The explosion had blown the door inward, where it rested on one of the fallen computer units. I was able to slide down headfirst, landing in the hall in a tumble.
    I’m not sure what the temperature was, but it was certainly hot enough not to have to worry about the infrared motion detectors. I threw myself to the floor, then crawled toward the restroom.
    The air near the floor was a bit clearer, and the damage out here wasn’t nearly as bad as in the data center. Still, I seemed to be moving in slow motion. Mongoose yelled in my ear, but it was impossible to make out with the symphony of alarms set off by the explosion. Besides those in the bank and the buildings on either side, it seemed like every car alarm in the city was sounding.
    I was about six feet from the men’s room and escape when a dark shadow burst into the hall ahead. It moved so fast that my first thought was that it was a cloud of smoke.
    The next thing I thought was that it was a fireman. But firemen, even in Berlin, don’t dress head to toe in black.
    I’m guessing we stared at each other for a full second before either of us moved.
    I ducked toward the restroom. He did, too—and kicked me in the face. I hadn’t seen it coming, and took practically the full force of his size 20E boot to the front of my skull.
    I’m guessing at the size. The impact certainly seemed to warrant it.
    I rolled back, then tried to grab him as he rushed past me