The Enemy by Tom Wood Read Free Book Online Page B

crouched down behind the crates, he couldn’t see Krausse or his men. There were no groans or screams so he knew there was no one wounded. The man he’d stabbed was silent, unconscious. Victor didn’t know what was going to happen next and standing up didn’t seem like the best way to find out. If they planned on shooting him too, the crates would provide some protection, assuming there was anything inside. If not, at least they blocked line of sight.
    ‘You can come out now,’ Krausse said.
    ‘I’m actually quite comfortable where I am.’
    Krausse laughed. ‘Tell me, my new best friend, how long are you planning on staying behind there?’
    Victor checked the gun, a Glock 17. Aside from a few scratches it looked reasonably maintained. He released the magazine, saw that it was loaded with 9 mm FMJs and quietly pushed it back into place. He carefully moved the slide to look into the chamber. It seemed clean but he blew into it in case there was any dirt. Glocks were as reliable as the sunset; still, it didn’t hurt to be sure. Victor loaded a round into the chamber, pulling the slide slowly to lessen the noise.
    He said, ‘Let’s say until you leave.’
    ‘I’m starting to like you,’ Krausse said back. ‘And I really mean that. But you know as well as I do that I can’t let that happen.’
    Victor thought quickly. He couldn’t stay where he was for long. The more time he took to act, the more time they would have to surround him. He slipped off his suit jacket.
    ‘What about our deal?’
    ‘Our deal?’ Krausse laughed again. ‘You mean the deal we made while you had a gun pointing at my face? If that’s the one you mean, your bargaining position has been severely weakened since then.’
    Before the shooting had started, Krausse was at Victor’s one o’clock, Shotgun at his two, and the two other men at ten and nine. Victor figured that if he moved fast and Krausse and Shotgun hadn’t strayed too far, he could drop them both before they could return fire.The problem was the guys at nine and ten o’clock, and the fact that if Victor killed Krausse and Shotgun he would get bullets in the ribs from the other two in return. Alternatively, if he killed those two, shotgun pellets would shred him instead.
    Victor heard whispering but couldn’t decipher the words. He could guess the topic of conversation well enough however. Him, or more specifically, how best to kill him. They were unlikely to be students of military tactics, but it wasn’t difficult to pull off a pincer movement when outnumbering the enemy four to one. And even Sun Tzu would find it hard to come up with a workable defence against such an attack.
Think
, Victor told himself.
    Overhead, a strip light flickered.
    He heard footsteps approaching from either flank. In moments they would attack from both sides at once. He’d be dead in seconds. No time left to formulate a plan.
    He fired.

CHAPTER 7
    The first strip light exploded in a shower of sparks and glass. Victor took out another three lights with his next three bullets, needing an extra shot to destroy the fifth. The last to go was the strip light directly above him and he used his left arm as a shield against the raining shards of glass that followed its destruction.
    The floor plunged into darkness.
    Victor threw himself to the floor on his right, head and arms now out of the cover of the crates. He couldn’t see anyone but fired at where Shotgun had been standing a few seconds before. Two shots, a double tap, torso height.
    The yelp and sound of stumbling told him he’d scored a hit but not a fatal one. The Glock’s muzzle flash gave away his position and he immediately rolled clear before the returning fire blew holes through the wooden floor.
    Victor was on his feet and moving fast, not caring about the noise he made, only concerned about putting some distance between him and his enemies. He knew there was a corridor of clear space through the stacks of crates and he blindly