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"Yeah Yeah, I do" Reinhard drew his pistol He didn&039;t point it at anybody, but the e was clear "Go on, now"
Hook and Reynolds headed for the door Williaer, but he er his boss Eventually he went, too
Leaving Chapel alone with Reinhard
Reinhard didn&039;t even look at Chapel He sat down next to the table and started playing with his walkie-talkie again He looked nervous and ju stupid As far as Chapel was concerned that was both good and bad Itout hi Chapel with a chance, no matter how slim, to escape It also meant he wasn&039;t likely to shoot Chapel just because he was scared
Chapel supposed you had to take the good with the bad
He tried to listen for any sound coh The static co from Reinhard&039;s walkie-talkie was the only sound inside the shed
Whatever was going on, it wouldn&039;t take long to resolve Hook, Reynolds, and Williaht meant Then they would come back and explain hoas all a false alaro and check on Foster and Praczek, and find out that sunspots or an electrical stor else had caused the radio proble would be explained, and then the situation would return to norht back where he&039;d been: bleeding to death on the toolshed floor, with no hope of escape
This was the closest he was going to get to a diversion, he knew, and he couldn&039;t make any use of it
Except-
On the table behind Reinhard, so It was Chapel&039;s artificial ar on its own volition
BOULDER, COLORADO: APRIL 15, T+66:01
The arm wasn&039;t supposed to be able to do that It was supposed to power down automatically when it wasn&039;t attached If it didn&039;t detect skin contact through its electrodes, it shut down to save battery power
But its fingers were definitely e to er whined softly as it extended to its full length Chapel, as used to that sound, heard it clearly, but Reinhard didn&039;t react Maybe he couldn&039;tfrom his walkie-talkie
Chapel tried not to stare He kneas controlling the arm-the only person in the world, as far as he kneho could He reel&039;s voice She had wanted to convince him she could hack into any system, so she had briefly taken over his arm and made it wave at him He had been massively disturbed by her ability to do that He&039;d been horrified she had the ability
But nohat she was doing was infinitely creepier, he was glad for it
Reinhard was too busy playing with his walkie-talkie to look at the arust and threw it down on the table And then hebehind hi and unclenching
His reaction was immediate and violent He ju around to stare at the arm "What the hell?" he de for all the world like a living thing Its fingers flexed rapidly, waggling back and forth as the nore now Reinhardto achieve? Did she want to make it choke Reinhard to death? But no, that was impossible There was no way she could even see the arm or where it was-there were no cameras in the toolshed for her to hack into Shethe various motors at randoht the ar to get Reinhard&039;s attention She was trying to signal Chapel, to send hie
Too bad Reinhard was the one to receive it He reached for aht No! Do you have any idea how expensive that thing is? Do you have any idea what it&039;sso
Reinhard spun around and stared at Chapel ide eyes "What the fuck do you think you&039;re doing?" he deht Chapel had some way to make the ar Then he stared doard as best he could, toward the gag of duct tape over hisHe rushed across the roo and tear it off Chapel&039;s face His oeating red features were only a foot or so from Chapel&039;s mouth
So Chapel only had to whisper when he said, "That was due Maybe he didn&039;t realize what he&039;d just done Or maybe he just had no idea what Chapel was capable of
Chapel swung his legs up fast and wrapped them around Reinhard&039;s neck He eak froth enough left to put pressure on Reinhard&039;s carotid arteries
They&039;d taught hi If you can cut off blood flow to a man&039;s brain, even for a few seconds, he will see a flash of white lightand then he will fall unconscious and collapse in a heap
Reinhard obliged nicely, falling across Chapel in a sudden rush of weight
"Thank you, Top, forhis knees, he rolled Reinhard off and onto the floor The next part took a lot of work, and Chapel had to stop several tied to move Reinhard around until he could reach into the man&039;s jacket pocket Just as he&039;d expected, there was a handcuff key in there
He uncuffed hiot to his feet His head spun for a while and he saw red spots in his vision, but hefrom his wound He shoved a hand over the hole in his side, but the blood dripped through his fingers
First things first He found the roll of duct tape and wrapped a generous swathe of it around his midriff It was hardly sanitary and would never work as well as real gauze, but itout there and then Next he searched Reinhard&039;s pockets until he found what he was hoping for-his pistol The P228 that Hollingshead had given hie surprised Chapel in the limo
He looked down at the arm where it lay on the table It was a total loss, sadly Reinhard had s intact actuators whining and ed alnition It felt weird, but all the saave it one last squeeze It could be tough, saying good-bye to an old friend
But it was tiet out of there
BOULDER, COLORADO: APRIL 15, T+66:06
Chapel felt woozy and nauseated even before he opened the door of the toolshed Cold night air swept in and nearly knocked him off his feet It made the waxy sweat on his face and chest feel like ice But heReinhard would remain unconscious He didn&039;t knohat he would find outside of the shed He desperately wanted to sit down and rest for a while But a lot of things had coive him this one chance He could not afford to waste it-he definitely would not get another one
He stu to keep low It was hard to bend fro out The pain froe constricted his chest and made it hard to breathe So he squatted down and duckwalked around the side of the shed to try to get his bearings
What he saasthan revelatory The shed stood about twenty yards away fro cabin construction with lots of s Most of them were dark Between the house and the shed was a wide patch of gravel where four cars sat, unattended Surrounding the gravel and the buildings were tall dark trees, le break in the forest led down to a road about two hundred yards away That had to be east, since the rough shapes of mountains loomed over the trees on the other side, whichred light, as if the forest were on fire Chapel soon saw that wasn&039;t accurate, however, as a new red light burst into life high over the trees to the south, a light that sank slowly toward the forest A flare, fired froun It was impossible to say where the flare had counfire open up-autouns,by the sound The muzzle flashes ca over there as well Thatindiscri at? They were acting like they were under invasion by a full-scale assault, but Chapel heard no return fire, saw noto earth
Whatever-it didn&039;t et away
Chapel ran east as fast as he could, ducking into the trees, headed straight for the road that lay beyond He heard shouting behind him, but he didn&039;t stop, didn&039;t look back
Just up ahead the trees gave way The road appeared, a single lane of blacktop painted a dih onto the road surface and sunpowder
Then a soft shoulder rammed into his arainst his She wasThey headed down the road toward an SUV parked fifty yards away, showing no lights As they got closer he saw Chief Petty Officer Andrews standing next to the open driver&039;s-side door She had a sun in her hand
The rear hatch of the SUV swung open, and Julia shoved him inside, into the rear compartment Chapel realized he could barely keep his eyes open, that he was so weak he was likely to pass out at any second
The hatch swung down to close hi in a lohisper Heard the engine of the SUV turn over
Enough He let go of consciousness and sank into darkness
BOULDER, COLORADO: APRIL 15, T+68:14
Reinhard stared down at the puddle of blood on the floor of the toolshed He rubbed his throat where the bastard had choked him His hand caulated blood froers "This is where I woke up Just before you arrived Myat flares"
He shook his head "They weren&039;t trained to handle that kind of Special Forces shit They were trained to work as bodyguards for celebrities and CEOs Not to guard against an attack by Arers"
He bent down and looked at the set of handcuffs lying on the floor, one cuff open with the key still in the lock
"I&039;ll admit it, I wasn&039;t ready for this either Maybe I should have known better I sahat Chapel was like on the road, when he took down Quinn But I also sa much blood he lost There was no way a man in that kind of condition could do what he did, not without help You&039;re telling me there was nobody here Just a stewardess and a veterinarian out in the woods" He shook his head again "No way I&039;ers involved Otherwise"
He didn&039;t want to turn around He didn&039;t want to look at the man who had come to debrief him He didn&039;t want to admit he&039;d failed "We did our best We followed the script, did exactly ere told I&039;ve worked for the judge a long tiive this my all, and I did I honestly don&039;t see hoe could have done any better"
"Ha," his debriefer said It was al funny here
"Are you going to tell me I&039;m fired?" Reinhard asked "Shit I know you are You&039;re here to tell me I screwed up and I&039;m off the payroll Gonna lose my pension, too I had fifteen years in that Well, I don&039;t knoho could have done better"
"Heh Hee ha hee," theotherwise"
Reinhard felt his heart skip a beat Was it possible he was going to walk out of this with a job? He knehat a mess this was He kne many kinds of hell the blowback would be Was it possible?
He started to turn around to look at the hed "No"
Which would have been good to hear, except the debriefer was holding a silenced pistol in his hand And the barrel was pointed at Reinhard&039;s side
"One-ha-probleh The plan was, Chapel would-hee hee-die while protecting the judge Ha hee We were going to present his body to the coroner and-heh-say that Quinn killed hiunshot was louder than Reinhard expected Silencers alere You expected a flat little cough, like when somebody fired a silenced pistol on TV Real silencers just unshot a little He looked down and saw a stain of red spreading across his side Exactly in the same place where Quinn shot Chapel
"See-ha-we still need a body, to ht," the debriefer said "Heh ha ho Gotta stick to the-ha-script That left ar to have to come off, too"
SUPERIOR, COLORADO: APRIL 15, T+69:33
It was a lot easier opening his eyes, this ti up after a good nap in a soft bed He felt a dozen ti hinore He looked up and saw a stucco ceiling above hiht for coain and fell back asleep