Iron to Iron (Wolf by Wolf) by Ryan Graudin Read Free Book Online Page A

Yokuto out of the way, there were no names on the Axis Tour roster that could possibly usurp the Japanese victor other than his own. Victor Luka Löwe—the greatest hope for the Third Reich’s Double Cross—was next. He felt it with each turn of the wheel.
Next, next, next
, through the dried carcass of wilderness, past the watchtowers and fort ruins of long-lost kingdoms.
    Luka rode ready: clenched muscles, adrenaline almost erupting from his ears. Fifty kilometers came and went. Then one hundred. By kilometer 250 and its accompanying fuel stop, Luka’s entire body had turned into a giant cramp, muscles
burning
to do something.
    But Katsuo was giving him nothing. The Japanese victor didn’t even look over his shoulder, much less weave or brake in a way that might cause Luka to wreck. He drove straight through the hellish-looking landscape. (The land was literally on fire in places, as if Hades had risen up and taken its rightful place by the roadside. Cracked earth, flames and all. The sight was unnerving, until you realized it was simply oil fields.)
    The first day out of Baghdad came to a close. Luka remained a knot of nerves. He sat by his pup tent, Luger on his knee, gnawing the last of his jerky with a jaw that had been in perpetual grit-mode all day.
    “Cigarette?” Adele offered him his own fare with an arched brow. “You look like you need one. Or ten.”
    Luka dug the pack from his jacket and tapped it against his gunless knee. One lone cigarette tumbled out. He handed it to Adele and moved to his motorcycle for a refill. They’d burned through over half of his stash, Luka discovered as he dug through his panniers. Too much, too fast to last until Tokyo.
    Not that this stopped him from stuffing a whole new pack into his pocket.
    The cigarette he’d given Adele was wedged between her lips. Unlit. “Match?”
    “The Li River is too far away,” Luka said as he handed one to her.
    Adele struck the match against her boot: spark and blaze. “I thought you wanted Katsuo to get comfortable.”
    “Comfortable is one thing,” Luka told her. “We’re almost halfway through this race, and Katsuo has gone beyond the defensive. He’s aggressive.”
    “So what’s your plan? Sneak into Katsuo’s camp and punch a hole in his fuel tank? If he’s as aggressive as you say, he’ll be as jumpy as you.” She nodded at the gun on his knee. “You’re going to get yourself shot.”
    “Wouldn’t be such a bad thing for you, Fräulein Third Place.”
    He’d meant it as a joke, but Adele didn’t laugh. “It would if you cashed in your blackmail currency from your hospital bed.”
    He wouldn’t. Luka knew this. He almost said it, but then stopped himself. There was no need to go around baring all the dents in his armor. Let Adele think her
her
ness was still a liability.
    “Your Li River plan is a good one,” Adele went on. “You shouldn’t just abandon it because Katsuo is getting a little narcotics happy.”
    “Bottlenecking Katsuo is impossible now that Georg and Yokuto are out of the picture. Even if we both pull ahead on that leg, he’d still claim the third space on the ferry.”
    “Then find a way to make the space count. You’ll be a heartbeat away from his bike. Cut the fuel lines or slit his tire or something else knifey.”
    “He’ll be watching,” Luka pointed out.
    “He can’t watch both of us.” Adele shrugged. “One of us can distract him while the other does the deed. If you take your hit at Katsuo now, we’d have to part ways. And, honestly? I’d miss this.” She held up her cigarette, arm straight as a
heil
into the constellation-cracked sky.
    This.
Secrets, smoke, stars.
This.
The stir inside his chest, the way his nerves smoothed out and reconnected with new warmth whenever Adele looked at him.
    He wondered if she felt it, too.
    He… hoped?
    “So would I.” Luka’s voice was so soft, so wrapped in layers of cigarette smoke, he wasn’t sure Adele would hear.
    The Wolfe