The Killer Within Read Online Free

Browers said.
    “You’ve done your city a real service. I could use a man like you on my task force. Let me tell you a little about what we do…”
    They were the words Frank had longed to hear, Page 15
    words that would change his future, but he was no longer listening. The judge’s voice seemed to recede into the distance, and Frank felt a warm prickliness sweep across his scalp. His face felt flushed, and it was like his head was filled with cotton. He tried to speak but his mouth wouldn’t move. In a panic, Frank realized he couldn’t move at all. Then, as if someone else was controlling his body, Frank felt his hand move into his left pocket, curl itself around the handle of a gun he had not known was there.
    In a flash it all became clear in his mind, little details from the past several days. The accountant had said Frank’s name and drawn his gun slowly. What kind of an assassin says their victim’s name? The hit must’ve been a fake, meant to convince him he was on the right track. And at the Herald building, Arturo only had enough men for a token resistance, nowhere near enough to guard a major shipment. And then that business about Hector setting Arturo up?
    With horrifying clarity, Frank understood. It had all been a set up, the information, the fake hit, the bust at the Herald building, the guy in the uniform who’d just planted the piece on him in the hall, all arranged for one reason – to get Frank in this room before Judge Browers. Hector had given him a hero’s status, sacrificed some of his own men and even had Frank take care of Arturo, a thorn in his side. All to get Frank close to the judge, because without him, the task force would fall apart. The judge was the real target –
    which meant Frank had been a sleeper all along.
    While Judge Browers droned on about the duties of the task force, Frank struggled to warn him, but it was useless. His vision constricted until all he saw was Judge Browers at the end of a dark tunnel. Helpless, Frank pulled the gun out of his pocket. All he could do was scream in silence.
    Frank raised the gun. Judge Browers stopped talking, he stared at Frank, solemn-faced. As if from a great distance, Frank heard a commotion behind him.
    Doors slammed open, men shouted. Someone knocked his chair over, wrestling him to the floor. He pointed the gun, his finger squeezed the trigger, there was a shot.

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    He felt a needle-sharp prick in his neck. Then there was nothing.

    ****
Frank awoke after a long darkness to find himself in a hospital bed, with three faces staring down at him.
    There was Vera, Lieutenant Burke, and Judge Browers.
    Upon seeing the judge, everything came back to Frank in a rush. He sat up too fast and the room whirled dizzyingly around him. Vera helped him lay back down.
    “I…I thought I shot…” Frank’s voice sounded harsh and broken.
    “It’s okay, son,” Judge Browers said. “I’m all right, though it was a bit close for my taste.”
    “But what happened?” Frank asked. His last memories were a confused jumble.
    “The task force got wind the Ecuadorians might try to eliminate me,” Judge Browers said. “It became clear you were a prime candidate to carry out the hit.”
    “Your desire to get on the task force was common knowledge, always poking around their cases, sticking your nose in,” Lieutenant Burke said, shaking his head.
    He still couldn’t hide his annoyance. “All they had to do was arrange a big score for you, figuring the judge would ask you aboard, or congratulate you, or do something that brought you two together.”
    “But you’re not dead,” Frank said, turning to Judge Browers.
    He gave a tight smile. “We didn’t know for sure you were a sleeper until you pulled the gun,” he said.
    “But we were ready. One of our top priorities has been to get a hold of someone while they were under the influence of the drug. It’s the only way we can hope to develop a test for it or counteract its effects.”