Deadly States (Seaforth Files by Nicholas P Clark Book 2) by Nicholas P Clark Read Free Book Online Page A

underground car park, where he assumed the bomb
had detonated. The security guard paused for a moment as if to protest
before remembering his place as he returned to what he had been doing.
    The lights in the underground car
park had been knocked
off in
the blast and the only light permeating the darkness was coming from
the street
entrance at the front
of the building—the escape route that
had been used by those fleeing from that part
of the building. Half a
dozen
emergency workers were already
in the car
park tending to
the injured and Jack quickly sought them out as he tried to work out
who had been killed in the attack. In the very
heart
of the car park
the twisted wrecks
of several vehicles were marking the focal point of
their efforts.
    As he approached the rescue workers Jack
mentally adjusted his
perception in an effort to avoid dealing with the worst of the carnage.
There were many suspicious lumps of a substance that looked a lot like
burnt
meat lying around the floor—until this was
over they would
remain nothing more than lumps
of burnt
meat in Jack’s mind. Jack’s
spirits lifted a little as he recognized the man lying
on the ground as
the paramedics worked
on him—it was Robert. Jack moved as close
to him as he could before walking into an angry glance from
one of
the emergency workers which told him in no uncertain terms to keep
the hell back.
“What happened?” Jack asked, as he looked down at Robert.
    The same paramedic flashed Jack another angry look. It was not
the time or the place for an inquisition and every stupid question that
was asked would only delay help to other injured people.
“I was talking to one of my cousins who I met down here in the car
park. The others from your office were waiting in the cars. Without
warning the car that I was to travel in exploded. I was knocked off my
    feet. I got back up again and I ran over to the burning cars to see if
there was anything that I could do for them. That’s when the petrol
tank of a nearby car exploded. That blast caught me worse than the
big explosion,” Robert’s voice grew weaker. “I caught some shrapnel.”
Robert looked down at his torso. Blood was seeping out of a fist
wound in his side. Jack was no medical expert but he had dealt
with enough wounds in his time to know that Robert’s injury was not
life threatening, as long as he got the proper medical attention.
“A
    flesh wound, old friend,” Jack said.
Robert smiled.
“I
had a feeling that you were going to say something like that,
    Jack.”
“Do you have any idea who might have done this?” asked Jack.
Robert shook his head.
“If you had asked me earlier who I thought
might
do something
    like this, I would have said you. But
even you Jack wouldn’t be crazy
enough to try to blow up a building that you were still inside,” Robert
added.
    “It’s nice to know that you have such a high opinion
of
me,” Jack
said, with a smile.
The paramedics had almost completed their
emergency treatment
and they got ready to move Robert to the back of a waiting ambulance
which had only just come to a stop at the main street entrance.
“Do you want me to go with you to the hospital?” Jack asked.
Jack wasn’t overly concerned if Robert lived or died but he wanted
to find out who tried to blow him to bits. Regardless
of what Robert
had to say, it was quite clear to Jack that Robert was hiding something
from him.
    “No Jack, I would prefer if you would stay
here and find
out as
much as you can and then come to see me later,” Robert said.
Jack smiled warmly at Robert to give the impression that he was
being fooled by the diversionary request. Robert had some other reason why he didn’t want Jack to go with him to the hospital and Jack
had the strong suspicion that reason had a lot to do with the bomb. If
Robert did suspect someone of planting the bomb then he, or they,
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    were no longer safe. If they were still in the country then they would
soon disappear, permanently, and if