The Seven Sequels bundle

by Orca Various

  “Anticipation increases pain tenfold. For example, do you think you could stand having a fingernail pulled off slowly with a pair of pliers? Or having a finger slowly bent until the joint dislocates and the bone breaks? Even if you can stand these things once, you know that there are nine more digits awaiting attention.”

  Gorky turned to Laia. “Could you listen to Steve’s screams as one of my friends destroyed his hands?”

  Laia said nothing.

  “What do you want?” I asked.

  “Indeed, I should finish my story. I would hate you to suffer for nothing. Arturo’s act over Palomares was dramatic, but it did not have the effect I had wished for. Instead of reacting with violent horror, the world sat enthralled for three months as the Americans searched for and then worked at recovering the lost fourth bomb. They almost became the heroes of the drama.

  “Even worse, from my point of view, the Americans soon discovered Arturo’s role in the incident. It was never made public, of course, but behind the scenes, immense efforts were made to discover who had employed him. I went on the run, changing my identity many times in the subsequent years and never staying in one place very long. I managed to stay one step ahead of the Americans, but my network was dismantled. Even Bob abandoned me, but through all those years of running and loneliness, there was something that kept me going.

  “After I had delivered the explosives to Arturo, I did not return to France immediately. It was a dangerous thing to do, but I missed my homeland. I took the opportunity to check up on some of my sleepers. When the B-52 exploded, I knew Arturo was responsible and that it would not be long before he was discovered. I headed for the border but could not resist a brief stop in Barcelona to see Maria. She knew nothing of Arturo’s role in the explosion or that he was one of my sleepers. I took great precautions to see that each sleeper knew as few others as possible.

  “Maria was horrified at the incident and angry at the Americans for putting so many lives in danger. I was about to tell her of my role—to boast, I suppose—when Maria asked me if I remembered David McLean, the young Canadian soldier with the broken ribs. I said of course, and she told me that he had visited her only the day before. I was shocked, since I knew it was as big a risk for him to come back to Spain as it was for me. I asked Maria what David was doing here and she said he had been sent to try to find a saboteur and prevent a terrorist act. He had known the area targeted, and that planes were involved, but he’d had no idea what was going to happen until the B-52 exploded over Palomares. He had been depressed at his failure to stop the explosions, but he told Maria that he had hidden a fifth bomb.

  “I encouraged Maria to talk, presenting myself as someone like her, who cared deeply for my fellow man. McLean and Maria had talked long about what he should do about the bomb. She argued that since the bomb was hidden in a place where no one would ever find it and was no threat to anyone, he should keep quiet about it. That way, it would be one less bomb that could be used to kill people. She said that he agreed not to tell anyone of the bomb’s existence.

  “I was thrilled when Maria told me this. I saw, in that hidden bomb, an opportunity to make the dramatic gesture that Arturo and I had dreamed of. Imagine a nuclear device detonated beneath the United Nations in New York or outside the Kremlin in Moscow or even here in Madrid! With that bomb, I could change the world. What time I had, I spent searching the world for David McLean and the hills above Palomares for the bomb. I found neither—until now. You will lead me to the bomb.”

  “What makes you think we know anything about it?” I asked. Gorky’s story made sense and linked my grandfather to Palomares, but how could this old man possibly know who I was, let alone why Laia and I were here?

  “I am old and not up to scrambling around the hills as I once could, but I have not totally given up hope. I have a modest apartment in Almería, and two days ago, I received an anonymous phone call identifying you two and telling me that you had the key to the bomb’s location. The rest was easy—Palomares is not a large town. Lucio has been following you since you arrived.”

  “The guy on the red scooter?” Laia asked.

  “Indeed. In fact, he would have followed you this morning straight to the location of the bomb—that is where you went, I assume—but he had mechanical troubles with his scooter. When he caught up with you, he phoned me, and we had to resort to this unpleasantness. But it is almost over. I have told you my story and, I hope, convinced you that I will stop at nothing to get what I want. Shall we go, or do I have to ask Lucio to begin removing fingernails?”

  I shuddered at the mention of fingernails, but before I could think of anything to say, Laia spoke. “I will show you where the bomb is,” she said calmly.

  “You can’t,” I blurted out. “This maniac will set it off in the middle of a city somewhere. He could kill thousands of people.”

  “He might,” Laia said, looking at me, “but what is certain is that I cannot sit and watch them torture you. I would tell them sooner or later, so why subject you to all that pain?” She seemed almost frighteningly calm, and what she said made logical sense. It was quite likely that I would tell Gorky where a hundred bombs were hidden after the first couple of fingernails had been ripped off. Even the simple threat of doing that to Laia would get me talking. It was wrong, but we weren’t trained spies or secret agents. We were just a couple of scared kids. How could we be expected to stand up to torture by someone who had probably been trained by the KGB?

  “Excellent decision,” Gorky said, levering himself to his feet. “Let us go and get the fifth bomb.”

  EIGHTEEN

  The drive back was more comfortable than the drive to the ruined building. We traveled more slowly, matching the pace of Gorky’s rather old and battered Toyota—obviously, spying didn’t pay very well. This time, Laia and I weren’t blindfolded, and our feet weren’t tied, but it was still difficult to stay balanced with our hands tied behind our backs. I had a moment of hope when I rolled heavily onto my cell phone and felt it vibrate, but there was no way I could reach it with my hands tied.

  “Stop here,” Laia ordered when we reached the point where the road was closest to location number five. I let Laia lead the way as we worked our way around the hillside, wondering if she had some sort of escape plan in mind. I couldn’t imagine what it might be. Our hands were still tied, and we were surrounded by four fit-looking men.

  Progress was slow, with Gorky being helped along and having to take frequent breaks to catch his breath, but we eventually arrived at the rockfall. One of the Spaniards said something too fast for me to catch, and the others laughed. “What did he say?” I asked Laia.

  “He said his grandfather used to say there were ghosts living here and that they used to steal sheep.”

  One of the other Spaniards looked over at me and said, “Habrá fantasmas más pronto.” I understood that. He had said there would be more ghosts soon. I really hoped Laia had a plan.

  “Where is it?” Gorky asked. He was visibly excited now, looking around and waving his cane.

  Laia led us over to rock fourteen. “You have to move that rock,” she said.

  Gorky gave orders, and two of his men hauled the rock aside. Gorky moved forward and peered into the dark hole. “Where is it?” he asked again, withdrawing his head. “I need a flashlight.”

  The Spaniards looked at each other and shrugged. Laia flashed me a warning look and shook her head very slightly. I realized that I was still wearing my backpack, held in place by my arms tied behind me. Our flashlight was still in it. I kept silent.

  “It’s in there,” Laia said. “About three or four meters in. Untie my hands and I’ll go get it.”

  Gorky looked uncertain, but he had little choice. Laia and I were the only two who could squeeze through the tiny hole, and enlarging it would be a big job. “Okay,” he said. “I don’t think you will escape into the hillside.”

  Lucio cut Laia’s hands free. For a moment, she stood and massaged her wris
ts. She leaned toward me to give me a kiss on the cheek and whispered, “Come in fast as soon as they cut you free.”

  “Be careful,” I said out loud, as I nodded to show that I understood what she had said.

  “Very touching,” Gorky said. “Now get me the bomb.”

  Laia squirmed through the hole and disappeared. I slowly edged forward, wriggling my hands to try and get the feeling back in them.

  “I’ve found it,” Laia shouted, her voice echoing out of the blackness. I thought Gorky was going to start dancing, he looked so strung out. All the men except Lucio had edged farther away from the hole, looking nervous. I guessed they weren’t particularly keen on transporting a thermonuclear bomb in their van.

  Laia grunted loudly. “What’s wrong?” Gorky shouted.

  “It’s really heavy,” Laia shouted back. “I can’t move it on my own.”

  Gorky looked at his men. They knew what was coming and took a few shuffling steps back, shaking their heads. Gorky looked at Lucio. It was obvious that he would never get through the hole. “Do you have any rope in the van?” Gorky asked. Again the shuffling and head shaking. “You will go in and help your girlfriend,” the old man said, turning back to me. “Cut him free,” he ordered Lucio.

  I stepped forward as Lucio drew a thin, evil-looking blade from his belt. As he sawed at my bonds, Gorky produced a small automatic pistol from his pocket. “Don’t try anything funny,” he warned.

  “If you shoot me, you’ll never get the bomb,” I said, hoping I sounded confident enough to make the old man hesitate. My hands were free. I swung the backpack off my shoulders, held it in front of me and dived for the hole. The backpack was through and my shoulders were scraping painfully against the rocks when I heard Gorky shout something. I felt hands grabbing at my legs. I wriggled frantically, kicking my feet. My right foot connected with something solid, and I heard a satisfying cry of pain. The grip loosened, and I was through.

  “This way,” Laia urged from the blackness in front of me. “Against the wall on your right.” I struggled to my knees, shoved the backpack in front of me and, ignoring my cuts and bruises, worked my way toward Laia’s voice. There were some quite large rocks on the ground, and I kicked up a choking cloud of dust as I clambered over them. I tried not to think about what might be in the dust.

  The light from the outside faded quickly, and I was in total darkness by the time I felt Laia’s hand on mine. We fell into each other’s arms, almost weeping with relief. “It’ll take them a while to dig a hole big enough to get through,” Laia said. “If we move a bit farther in, they’ll never find us.”

  “This was a brilliant idea,” I said. “Was the bomb actually heavy?”

  “I don’t know,” Laia replied. “It’s a nuclear bomb! I stayed as far away as possible, hard up against the opposite wall from where we spotted it earlier. I never even saw it.”

  I began to laugh, as much from the release of tension as anything. I was almost hysterical, but Gorky’s voice sobered me up quickly. “Come out. Bring the bomb with you and no harm will befall you.”

  Laia and I huddled silently against the wall. “I will give you one final warning,” Gorky shouted. I could see a shadow partly blocking the patch of daylight. It seemed far away.

  The crack of a pistol shot was deafening in the confined space of the tunnel. “Come out now,” Gorky ordered. His voice was followed by two more shots. I thought I heard a bullet whine past, and I tried to push us both into the wall at our backs.

  “Move deeper in,” I said in an urgent whisper. As quietly as possible, we worked our way farther into the darkness, until we turned a corner and couldn’t see the hole anymore. There were no more shots. We sat with our backs against the rough stone of the wall. “I think we’re safe here,” Laia said. “Let’s get the flashlight and see where we are.”

  I fumbled with the zipper of the backpack. “A drink of water would be nice too,” I said as I felt around for the rubber tube of the flashlight. The beam looked incredibly bright after the pitch darkness. I shone the light into the bag and brought out our water and two granola bars. We ate and drank thankfully.

  “I don’t suppose your cell phone has a signal in here,” Laia said through a mouthful of granola bar.

  “I doubt it,” I said, but I pulled the phone from my jeans pocket. There was no signal, but the phone was on and there was a text from DJ. What’s up? You called but no one there. DJ.

  “I must have pocket-dialed him when I was rolling around in the van. I wish I’d known—DJ could have come and rescued us.”

  Laia laughed. “Felip might have been a more useful call.”

  “I would even have settled for Chad,” I said. “He would have distracted Gorky by trying to sell him something.”

  We both laughed, enjoying the brief release of tension, and then Laia became serious again. “Do you think they were really going to kill us?”

  “I think they were,” I said, equally serious. “The bomb means a lot to Gorky. He wants to do something terrible with it because he has this crazy idea that it will change the world. I can see why Grandfather insisted on keeping the bomb hidden from him. Gorky won’t want to leave any witnesses.”

  “Do you think he’s really mad?’ Laia asked.

  “Yes,” I replied without a moment’s hesitation. “He’s totally insane. The bomb’s become a complete obsession with him. I don’t know if he could even set the thing off. Felip told us it was very difficult to trigger a nuclear explosion.” But then I thought of something else Felip had told us. “He doesn’t need to set it off. Didn’t Felip say that plutonium dust is what is really deadly? Something about only a thousandth of a gram being enough to kill you? If Gorky can get the plutonium out of the bomb, he could grind it up and pass it through the heating system of a building, or put it in a water supply, or even just throw handfuls into the air in the middle of a crowded city. He could kill thousands of people without any kind of explosion.”

  NINETEEN

  We sat in silence for a moment, contemplating the horrors of what Gorky could do. “I don’t see how we can stop him,” Laia said at last.

  “Neither do I. All we can do is wait here and hope he leaves. Then we can go and tell the police about it. With any luck, they’ll catch him before he does any damage.”

  “Where exactly is here?” Laia asked. I shone the torch around.

  We were in a low-roofed, narrow tunnel. If I stretched my arms out, I could almost touch both walls at once, and there wasn’t enough height to stand upright. The roof and walls were fairly smooth, but here and there, chunks of rock had fallen to the floor. Behind us, the tunnel sloped gradually up and curved away to the hole we had entered. Ahead, the tunnel was more level and headed off into the hill.

  Laia answered her own question. “It’s a mine.”

  “How old do you think it is?”

  “Who knows? Maybe a few hundred years, or even Roman or Carthaginian.”

  “Do you think there’s another way out?” I asked.

  “I doubt it,” Laia said. “In any case, it’s probably not a good idea to go wandering around.”

  I was about to agree when I heard a noise. “What was that?”

  “I think Gorky’s trying to enlarge the hole,” Laia said.

  “I’ll have a look,” I said, switching the flashlight off. Slowly, I crawled back to where the tunnel curved. I peered up the slope. Someone was working on the rocks around the edge of the hole. The noise we had heard was from rocks falling into the tunnel. I could see the shadow of a figure moving back and forth in front of the hole, which already looked bigger.

  I was about to turn around when I heard the faint sound of shouting outside, followed by more pistol shots. I crawled back to Laia as fast as I could. “Something’s going on outside,” I said. “There’s a lot of shouting and gunshots.”

  “No one seemed too keen on coming in here,” Laia said thoughtfully. “Maybe Gorky’s trying to encourage them.”

  �
��Maybe. In any case, I think we should move farther in. If it stays a single tunnel, we can’t get lost.”

  Moving through the tunnel was easier with the flashlight, but we didn’t get far. One more corner, and we came to a serious cave-in. A large section of the roof had collapsed, completely blocking the tunnel. We had passed no side tunnels, so all we could do was sit and wait.

  “They don’t have a flashlight,” I said, not sure whether I was trying to reassure Laia or myself. “They won’t come this far in.”

  “Of course not,” Laia agreed, but she didn’t sound convinced. “It wouldn’t make sense.”

  It didn’t make sense, but then, we had agreed that Gorky was crazy. Not much of anything he did made sense. We turned the flashlight off to save the battery and sat in the darkness. It was impossible to tell how long we had sat before I heard another noise. At first I thought it was rats, but it soon became obvious that it was something larger. “Someone’s coming,” I hissed.

  “I can hear them,” Laia replied. We could see a dull glow coming from around the corner, gradually getting brighter. “He’s got a flashlight,” Laia said. Now we were in an even worse spot than being tied up in the ruined room. We were deep in a blocked tunnel with nowhere to go and no way to defend ourselves, being stalked by an insane guy with a gun.

  “Do you think it’s Gorky?” I asked.

  “He couldn’t make it all the way down here. It’s probably Lucio or one of the others.”

  Great, I thought. There goes our chance of wrestling the gun away from him.

  “Pick up some stones,” I said. “As soon as he comes around the corner, start throwing. Aim for his head.”

  I felt around on the ground and picked up three pieces of rock, each about the size of an egg. Laia moved over to give us each room to throw. I got as ready as I could. The light was quite bright now. Where had Gorky found a powerful flashlight?