Terminus by Joshua Graham Read Free Book Online Page A

Hartwell said.  “I get one day off to spend with my son, and—”
    “You happen to be a celebrity.  So what you do in public reflects on me, too.”  She grabbed Matthew’s hand and dragged him off, leaving Jonathan by himself at the aquarium’s exit.
    It occurred to Nick that Elaine could easily do this job for him.

11
     
    IT WAS THE UTTER CALM THAT STARTLED YURI back to consciousness.  Just how many hours he’d been out, he couldn’t tell—the face of his digital watch was smashed.  The throbbing pain in the back of his head made him wonder if his skull had been too.  He touched it, then looked at his fingers in the sunlight.
    No blood.
    And sunshine—The storm had passed.
    He stood there for a long moment, feeling the knot that ran from the base of his head and into his left shoulder blade.  A dagger of pain impaled his neck at the slightest turn of his head.
    He let out a childish yelp. Hopefully Jonas hadn’t heard it, or Yuri would never hear the end of it until they arrived in Ensenada.   
    How long until then?
    All around, the stench of dead fish engulfed him to the point of nausea.  He couldn’t—
    He saw the crate.  Broken open and its contents missing.
    The package.
    Gone!
    Despite the tense muscles that felt more like steel rods in his neck and spine, Yuri whirled around, his feet splashing in ankle-high water.  Where was that suitcase?  Could Jonas have broken into the crate and taken it?  It made no sense for him to do that, but they were out at sea and he was the only other person on board.
    The boat leaned slightly to starboard and creaked.  He almost called out but instantly thought better of it.  If Jonas had gotten greedy and decided to confiscate the package...
    Yuri reached around his back for his gun.
    It too was gone.
    At least he still had a small knife strapped to his ankle, though he hoped not to use it.  Knives were so much messier than guns.
    He swore under his breath.  Yuri’s contact in Osaka had assured him Jonas was reliable, minded his own business relaying passengers discreetly across international waters.  With no way of getting to dry land without him, Yuri was for the time being literally at Jonas’s mercy.   He’d have to be clever, gain a physical advantage, and compel Jonas to stick with the original terms of their arrangement.  Then, when Yuri and the package safely arrived, he’d teach that slimy mercenary a lesson.
    Pulling himself up, Yuri listened carefully for any sign above.
    Nothing but the lapping of waves against the bow and the doleful lament of seagulls.  Their dirge grew louder as he gripped the cold metal handrails and struggled to keep his footing on the steps that brought him up onto the deck. 
    It took a while for his eyes to adjust in the brightness, even though his back was turned to the warm sun.  Careful not to make any sudden moves, he turned around and scanned the deck, slick with water.
    “Jonas?”
    No answer.  No sign of the man needed to pilot the boat to shore.  Yuri’s stomach clenched at the thought of being stranded at sea—or, worse, being murdered, fed to the sharks so Jonas could sell the package’s contents to the highest bidder.
    He took a cautious step forward.
    Something hard and round bumped against his toes.  Glancing down, he noticed some uncoiled rope spread haphazardly across the deck.  It seemed to thin out into a taut line right past where it bent around a leg of the chrome rail.  Following it, Yuri saw that it went over the deck and down into the water.
    He didn’t know the first thing about boats, but it almost looked like Jonas had tied an anchor to the rope and cast it overboard.  Yuri approached the edge of the deck, following the rope.
    Then he saw it.
    At the end of the rope, Jonas’s pale corpse dangled, eyes wide with surprise, mouth agape, blue tongue hanging out.  The rope was wrapped around his neck—which, judging by its perverse angle, was broken.  During the storm,