by Alex Archer
Dillon feinted and she almost fell for it. His uppercut grazed her cheek. He recovered and came at her again, but she pivoted as he closed, stepped back and hit him with the flat of the blade again.
“Maybe you’re right, Dillon, that the answers are in the plants. And as much as I’d like those answers to be found, pray that someone can do it...that someone can’t be you.” She switched the sword to her left hand and rose on the ball of her foot, spinning and kicking and catching him in the chest. The impact sent him against his grill. He grabbed at it to stay on his feet, and she kicked again, this time against his knee. He cried out.
“You’ve too much blood on your hands, Dillon. You have to answer for it.”
He was in pain, tears thick in his eyes and his lips twisted in an ugly grimace. His knuckles were white; he was holding on to the grill that tight.
“I can pay you, Miss Creed. I can make you rich. There’s still plenty of money left from the emeralds. You’d never have to worry—”
“There’s not enough money in the world to make me look the other way.” Annja pictured the bodies of the dead Dslala and Moons, pictured Edgar drowning. She stepped in and brought the pommel of her sword against the side of his head. He collapsed, woozy and half conscious.
She reached into the “V” of his shirt. Dangling from a cord around his neck was a woman’s gold ring with a large emerald anchored into a simple setting. She tugged it free.
“Something to remind me of you,” Annja said.
Then she dragged him to her sailboat.
She’d easily make her flight tomorrow.
And she’d be in what amounted to Coron’s downtown by dinnertime. There was a little restaurant near the airport she’d spotted, a sign advertising Philippine specialties. It had been a long while since she’d had a big plate of adobo, slow-cooked pork and chicken, crisped and oh-so-amazingly spiced. Her stomach growled in anticipation.
* * * * *
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ISBN-13: 9781460327807
First edition March 2014
RIVER OF NIGHTMARES
Special thanks and acknowledgment to Jean Rabe for her contribution to this work.
Copyright © 2014 by Worldwide Library
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