I watched its progress in the rearview mirror, a dry, sour taste in my mouth, fear causing my heart to rise in my chest. Our cul-de-sac was the third one down on the right, just before the road bent round sharply. The Land Cruiser passed the first cul-de-sac, then the second.
Fifteen yards short of ours, the brake lights came on.
Oh no, no. Please, no.
‘Daddy, why aren’t we moving?’
‘Come on, Daddy. Come on, Daddy.’
The Land Cruiser turned into our cul-de-sac, then disappeared from view. I knew then as much as I knew anything that its occupants were coming for me.
I pulled onto the main road and accelerated away, the voices of my two children and Jack Calley – desperate, dying Jack Calley – reverberating around my head like distant, blurred echoes.
About the Author
Simon Kernick is one of the world’s most exciting thriller writers, and a #1 bestselling author in Britain. He arrived on the scene with his highly acclaimed début novel, The Business of Dying, which introduced Dennis Milne, a corrupt cop moonlighting as a hitman. His big breakthrough came with his novel Relentless, which was selected by Richard and Judy for their Recommended Summer Reads promotion and rapidly went on to sell over 300,000 copies.
Simon’s research is what makes his thrillers so authentic. He talks both on and off the record (but usually off) with a number of contacts in the police and security services, including Special Branch, the Anti-Terrorist branch, and SOCA (the Serious and Organized Crime Agency), so he gets to hear first-hand what actually happens in the dark underbelly of international crime.
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Also by Simon Kernick
The Business of Dying
The Murder Exchange
The Crime Trade
A Good Day To Die
Relentless
Severed
Deadline
Target
The Payback
About Atria Books
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2012 by Simon Kernick
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information, address Atria Books Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.
First Atria Books trade paperback edition September 2012
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
ISBN: 978-1-4767-0620-7
ISBN: 978-1-4767-0622-1 (eBook)
The Last 10 Seconds: A Novel Page 30