Mort by Martin Chatterton Read Free Book Online Page B

his LED head torch and inched inside.
    On the floor were fresh prints, clear in the dusty surface. Sir David, an expert tracker, could read them as easily as a book.
    Three people, one large, two smaller, had come this way recently.
    From the size of one set of prints, Sir David knew one of them was certainly Khan.The others were those of a man and a woman. Sir David had no idea who they might be or where they were now.

    Sir David looked down at his wrist. According to his monitor Smiler was heading directly towards him.
    He swallowed hard and checked the gun once more.
    As he did so he heard a rumbling growl from up ahead and, despite the cool of the ventilation shaft, Sir David felt a single bead of sweat trickle down his forehead.
    â€˜Once more unto the breach, old boy,’ he whispered, wiping his brow. He thumbed the safety catch to ‘off’.
    Ahead there was now dead silence. Sir David’s torch beam didn’t penetrate for more than twenty paces. He turned it off and pulled on the night-vision goggles. The goggles might make the difference, although Sir David had a nagging feeling that sabre-toothed tigers came fully equipped with built-in night vision.
    For a few moments the only sound Sir David could hear was the beating of his heart and he began to realise that, armed or not, a fully grown sabre-tooth would be hard to stop in a confined space like this. It might be better to return with some real back-up.
    Like a thermo-nuclear missile.
    â€˜No need to be silly about this,’ Sir David murmured. He took out his mobile and dialled Mort.
    â€˜It’s about Smiler,’ began Sir David as he lowered the barrel of the gun.
    And there, quite suddenly, less than half a metre from his face, was the sabre-tooth, his long fangs glowing ghostly green through the night-vision goggles. Sir David’s legs almost buckled and the phone dropped from his hand.
    â€˜Sir David? Sir David? Hello?’ Mort’s voice, tinny through the tiny phone speaker, went unanswered. ‘What was that about Smiler?’
    Sir David opened his mouth to scream and his finger scrabbled for the trigger of the tranquiliser gun but it was too late. Much too late.

With Trish and Nigel safely stowed in the storage cupboard in the ballroom, Khan headed for a supply store in the basement that Mort had thought was secret.
    But Khan had known about the store for years. Not only that, safely stuffed down the front of his grimy Mongolian underwear, he had an electronic universal key card that he’d swiped from Mort’s desk. You didn’t get to be ruler of the known world just by being big and mean. Sneaky also helped.
    As he waited for the lift to the basement,Khan glanced through a window. He could see the last of the afternoon light fading as the eclipse reached completion.
    Khan reached out a thick grimy finger and jabbed the lift button impatiently.
    Ten seconds later the lift arrived and Khan reached the store a minute after that. He slid the card into the electronic reader mounted on the wall and the heavy door opened to reveal a long storeroom lined with neatly arranged shelves of weapons and supplies. Everything looked clean and new and expensive because that’s exactly what it was.
    Khan was inside for less than forty seconds.
    From the shelves he selected a German-made hand-held rocket launcher and a set of US Marine-issue night-vision goggles. Ever since he’d found the store, Khan had dreamed about the fun he could have if he ever managed to get rid of his shock collar. He’d been practising with the equipment in the storeroom for years (although until now he’dnever actually risked firing anything). If Khan had anything to do with it, that was going to change today. He slipped the goggles around his beefy neck and left, the door sliding shut behind him.
    Taking a set of stairs, Khan dropped down another two levels and turned into another long corridor. He walked fifty metres before