Target: Alex Cross
Page 30
Someone at the other end of the hallway popped out of an apartment and started to run. A young man in a white T-shirt disappeared down the stairwell. It distracted the shooter in the apartment, too. For an instant, everything went quiet.
When I had dragged Antrole a few feet down the hallway, his collar gave way and ripped completely from his coat. I tumbled backward onto the floor and felt a sting of pain, a finger on my left hand turned awkwardly. I desperately reached out to grab my partner again. It felt like I had dropped him down a well. I shouted something, but by now my ears were ringing so badly I don’t even know what I said.
That’s when it happened. The grenade detonated.
A giant wave of light and heat. I don’t know that I’d ever experienced anything close to it. I couldn’t even say it made a sound, my ears shut down so fast.
I felt pain on my forehead, but only for a moment.
Then everything went cloudy.
Then it went dark.
CHAPTER 6
ALEX STOOD WITH the nearly naked men on the edge of the building, looking toward the sound of the gunfire. She casually raised her camera and focused it. She knew exactly which building the sound was coming from.
She knew which building it was because she had chosen it. Just as she’d set up this photo shoot.
It was one of several contracts she had taken here in New York City for a Mexican drug cartel. Fashion photography provided her with a cover for the way she made her real income.
Alex snapped photo after photo, watching the flash of the explosion through her lens almost a second before the sound of it reached her ears. It was a low, hollow thump. But first she saw the windows blow out and a burst of flame shoot into the air. It was spectacular.
She heard Chaz say, “Damn, did you see that?” A smile crept across her face again. An explosion like that would solve a lot of problems. No loose ends. In her business, there was nothing worse than a loose end.
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Epub ISBN: 9781473536166
Version 1.0
Published by Century 2018
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Copyright © James Patterson 2018
Excerpt from Ambush © James Patterson 2018
Cover photography © Colin Thomas / Alamy / Shutterstock
Cover design © www.blacksheep-uk.com
James Patterson has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this Work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
This is a work of fiction. All characters and descriptions of events are the products of the author’s imagination and any resemblance to actual persons is entirely coincidental
First published in Great Britain in 2018 by Century
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A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 9781780895178