by Tom Wood
‘What do I need to do?’
‘There’s nothing you can do. Maybe if you hadn’t made the show with the bottle I would have told you not to drink the wine. But we’ll never know, will we?’
‘There has to be something.’ Not desperate. Determined.
‘I have no antidote. I didn’t poison you only to save you.’
‘Help me.’
‘Why?’
‘Because then I’ll owe you.’
‘The debt of a corpse is of no use to me.’
‘But if I live.’
‘You won’t. That’s the point.’
She shook her head. ‘There’s always a way. There’s always something. You poisoned me. So you know everything about the drug. You know how to stop it or slow it down.’
He did. He never used a weapon unless he understood how it worked.
‘Why?’ he asked again.
‘Because you’re a loner, and you know you’re a harder target that way, it also makes you vulnerable. One day you’ll need someone to back you up. There’s no one better to do that than me. Who else has proved themselves like that? You don’t trust anyone, but you know, when it comes to it, you can rely on me like you can rely on yourself. You’ll never have that again.’
She spoke like a sales person making a compelling pitch, demonstrating to the client why they needed the product or service. But she needed to sell it more than anyone working on commission because she was trying to stay alive.
‘Well?’ she said, unable to stand Victor’s silence any longer.
‘I’m thinking about it.’
‘Think faster, please.’
‘How do I know you’ll keep your word? You could be lying.’
Her eyes lit up, because she knew she had got to him. She had hooked the client, now she needed to reel him in, to reassure, to get rid of the buyer’s guilt before it impeded a sale.
‘You don’t,’ she said. ‘But we have the same principles. If our roles were reversed right now, would you be lying or would you honour your word?’
He said nothing, because it was a rhetorical question. They both knew the answer.
‘Eat,’ he said. ‘Eat as much as you can as fast as you can. Anything sweet. The more sugar the better. Drink as much soda as you can stomach. You need to spike your blood sugar. Insulin will slow the effects of the neurotoxin. Then get yourself to a hospital. You might buy yourself enough time to make it before the paralysis kicks in. If you haven’t got there by then, you’re done. After paralysis comes heart failure. At the hospital, you’re going to die. There is no antidote for the toxin. Your heart will stop. There is nothing you can do to prevent that. But if you’re strong enough, they’ll bring you back.’
‘I’m strong enough,’ she said, heading for the kitchen.
He opened the door to leave her to her fate, one way or the other.
Table of Contents
Also by Tom Wood
COPYRIGHT
ONE
TWO
THREE
FOUR
FIVE
SIX
SEVEN
EIGHT
NINE
TEN
ELEVEN
TWELVE
THIRTEEN
FOURTEEN
FIFTEEN
SIXTEEN
SEVENTEEN
EIGHTEEN
NINETEEN
TWENTY
TWENTY-ONE
TWENTY-TWO
TWENTY-THREE
TWENTY-FOUR
TWENTY-FIVE
TWENTY-SIX
TWENTY-SEVEN
TWENTY-EIGHT
TWENTY-NINE
THIRTY
THIRTY-ONE
THIRTY-TWO
THIRTY-THREE
THIRTY-FOUR
THIRTY-FIVE
THIRTY-SIX
THIRTY-SEVEN
THIRTY-EIGHT
THIRTY-NINE
FORTY
FORTY-ONE
FORTY-TWO
FORTY-THREE
FORTY-FOUR
FORTY-FIVE
FORTY-SIX
FORTY-SEVEN
FORTY-EIGHT
FORTY-NINE
FIFTY
FIFTY-ONE
FIFTY-TWO
FIFTY-THREE
FIFTY-FOUR
FIFTY-FIVE
FIFTY-SIX
FIFTY-SEVEN
FIFTY-EIGHT
FIFTY-NINE
SIXTY
SIXTY-ONE
SIXTY-TWO
SIXTY-THREE
SIXTY-FOUR
SIXTY-FIVE
SIXTY-SIX
SIXTY-SEVEN
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