The Shadow Conspiracy
Page 26
So far as Harker could see, everyone was smiling, and some of the women were even crying, but as he reached the front, there was one unhappy visage amidst the crowd. That of a person who would rather be anywhere else but here.
The long face of Frank Stanton, Chloe’s father, stared at him with the enthusiasm of a dead horse when Harker offered the man a polite smile.
‘That charm offensive of yours really did the job. Thanks, Tom,’ Harker muttered from the corner of his mouth.
‘Give it time. The fellow’s a lot of fun once you actually get to know him,’ Doggie replied, though Harker doubted this was true. With a smile to the priest, he kept his back resolutely to the door as the organ music began to play. He then heard the door open, followed by the sound of heels clacking on stone, and as they got nearer he glanced back to steal a look.
Chloe appeared more beautiful than he had ever seen her before, wearing a white tiara and long white flowing dress trailing behind her.
He turned back to face the priest and took a deep breath. ‘OK,’ he muttered to himself, ‘let’s do it.’
Chapter 28
The dank, dark jail cell was sweltering hot as Herbert Pelosi shifted about on a stained and grubby mattress in the depths of Mumbai Central Prison. With a rusting bucket filled with his own slop in the corner, stinking the place up, he lay wrapped in the dirty grey blanket provided for him. He had pulled it as tightly around his body as possible so as not to expose any of his skin to the roaming hordes of cockroaches that visited the moment the lights went out.
It had been only two weeks since his arrival here, still awaiting the court’s decision, but every minute of every day and night had been spent focusing on one thing and one thing only: Alex Harker and the Knights Templar. He had promised himself during his first night in this shithole that, however long it took and at whatever cost, he would exact retribution on those that had brought such a miserable and undignified end to an otherwise stellar career. The Guardians and the Ark were of no real consequence, and in time he would pay them a visit, but that was far, far down on his list of priorities. Harker, though, was sitting at its top, his name in flaming letters and Pelosi didn’t know how yet, but he would find a way to destroy everything the man loved and cared about before finally putting him down like a dog.
Pelosi was still fantasising about the terrible things he would do when from further along the cell block he heard slow footsteps getting louder and louder, and then coming to a stop right outside his cell door.
‘Herbert Pelosi?’ a deep voice enquired, and Pelosi unwrapped the blanket from around his head, sending cockroaches dropping to the floor.
‘Yeah,’ he said, looking up at the figure standing before him.
‘The Herbert Pelosi?’ the deep voice enquired again.
‘I said yeah, what do you want?’
It was too dark to see the man’s face because the light coming through the small window only reached the cell door, but he watched as the figure knelt down and pushed his hands through the bars with both palms facing upwards – they were covered in blood.
‘It was quite the task to get in here.’
Pelosi leapt up off the mattress and stood in the centre of his cell, both fists raised as the bloody palms disappeared back into the darkness.
‘Who are you? What do you want?’ Pelosi growled.
‘I have something I would like you to do for me and your talents are exactly what I require.’
Pelosi now looked puzzled and he gingerly moved closer to the door. ‘Maybe, if you can get me out of here and the rewards are right. What do you want?’
‘We’ll get to that,’ the voice replied, and with a jangling of keys the door unlocked and then swung open. ‘Rewards can only be measured by the man who asks for them, so tell me, Herbert Pelosi, what does your heart desire most?’
Pelosi took another step closer until his face was within inches of the shadowy figure and he began to grin. ‘Oh, I have something in mind. Something beautiful.’
First published in the United Kingdom in 2020 by Canelo
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Copyright © R.D. Shah, 2020
The moral right of R.D. Shah to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 9781788633246
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places and events are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
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