Dead Edge: the gripping political thriller for fans of Lee Child. Jack Ford

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      ‘You’re right, Tom. It wouldn’t have made any sense at all if we’d crashed back then. Both of us dying. Now that wouldn’t be good. So as this is about you… here you go.’

      Cooper’s strawberry blonde hair blew over and covered his eyes. One blue. One green. He didn’t need to look at her to know the woman had lost all sense. ‘I don’t know what’s got into you.’

      ‘Don’t you, Tom?’

      Maddie pulled back the hammer on the single shot nine-inch pistol. Span round a one eighty. Faced and aimed towards the bottom of a flowering cactus. Two shots. Two dead shovel-nosed cobras.

      She turned back to Cooper and said, ‘No, you probably don’t. You don’t even have a clue… Now your turn.’

      Cooper gave a half smile to Maddie. She was one of the best shots he knew. Hands down there was no competition. And many a time her steady hand had gotten him out of scrapes.

      ‘Can I pass on this?’

      Maddie shook her head. Spun the gun. Pushed the pistol grip towards Cooper.

      ‘Hell, no.’

      Cooper held onto his sigh. Then couldn’t hold it in any longer. He let it out. Hard and loud. Irritation began to seep up and over Cooper. Patience wasn’t always his strongest point. And right now, after almost a week in a cell and his tongue feeling like he’d caught it in a vice, his patience had just gone and run out. ‘Maddie, just give me the Goddamn keys, I want to go home.’

      ‘Do it.’

      ‘Do what? For Christ sake woman, I love you. You hear that. I love you. But this… This, what we’re doing right here, can we do it another time? Because I’m beat.’

      Maddie didn’t take away her gaze. ‘If you’re so hell bent on killing yourself, why don’t you just go on right ahead and do it? Put the gun against your head and pull the trigger. Go on… Save us all the time and heartache, Tom. Then we can lay you to rest on the top of a hill somewhere. I could pick some daisies from the ranch and Cora and I – remember her, Tom? Your daughter? Well, we could make the grave look real pretty. And we’d give you a big old stone with your name on. Here lies, Thomas J Cooper, he lived as he died; quickly, selfishly and it was over in a shot… So what do you say?’

      Cooper bent his six-foot-three frame down. His handsome, tired face towards Maddie’s brown freckled one. Inches away. Smelling the perfume he’d bought her from Paris. ‘I say, this time… this time you’ve finally lost it.’

      ‘No, Tom, you have. All the pills and…’

      Cooper jumped in. ‘Those pills are legit, Maddie. Prescribed from my shrink. They help me sleep, okay?’

      ‘Don’t kid yourself, Tom. You can’t do without them or…’ She trailed off and Cooper looked at her curiously.

      ‘Or what?’

      ‘… Or without the memory of her.’

      Cooper rubbed his head. ‘Jesus, has this all been about Ell… about… you know…’

      ‘Oh my God. You can’t say it, can you? You can’t even say her name.’

      ‘Of course I can.’

      ‘Then say it, Tom… I need to hear you say her name.’

      ‘Why?’

      ‘Why? You don’t think it’s strange that after all this time, after eight years you can’t say it? You’ve made her almost sacrosanct.’

      ‘That’s a dumb thing to say.’

      ‘Is it? Because God knows when we were together all you did was worship her. It was like living with a ghost, haunting every moment of what we did. How did you think it made me feel when I listened to you call her name in your sleep instead of mine? Or when I saw her things neatly boxed in the attic, like you were waiting for her to return.’

      ‘It’s all I had left.’

      ‘No it wasn’t, Tom, you had me but you never thought about that. You never thought about me.’

      ‘Jesus, this is crazy.’

      ‘It’s not, and God help me, I hate her more now that she’s dead than when she was alive.’

      ‘Maddie, what’s the matter with you?’

      ‘I just want you to say her name…Say it.’

      ‘You’re not thinking straight.’

      ‘Just say it.’

      ‘Look, what’s the big deal?’

      ‘Then say her fucking name.’

      Cooper kicked the car. Felt the pain. ‘I can’t. Okay. I can’t…You happy now?’

      Maddie blinked. Then blinked some more. This time it wasn’t the wind. Nor the dust. Nor the scorch of the sun in her eyes. This time they were tears. Tears which seemed to come straight from her heart. And as she watched the heatwaves rise up from the road ahead she took a deep breath and quietly said, ‘Come on, I’ll drive you home…’

FIVE MILES OUTSIDE GOROM-GOROM,

       BURKINA FASO, WEST AFRICA

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      The corpses burnt. Piled up high. Women on top of men and men on top of women and the bodies of the children blistered and charred as the greed of the fire reached them, devouring the flesh as they lay at the highest point, like a peak on a mountaintop, forming a summit built of the dead.

      And the fire spat out its smells and sent up black smoke which twisted and clouded, warping the sky of its light.

      The young soldier standing nearby yawned, then smiled as he finally managed to work out it was a picture of Mickey Mouse on the boy’s T-shirt. With his curiosity now satisfied, he threw the lifeless body into the burning flames. This was the last village. At least for now. The area had been cleared. All the houses, buildings and churches were nothing but ash, and now all that was needed was to wait for more instructions.

WASHINGTON, D.C.

       USA

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      The usual sound and visual recording in the ‘sit’ room was turned off. The only people left were Chuck Harrison, and Woods’ Chief of Staff and long-term trusted friend, Edward ‘Teddy’ Adleman as well as Lyndon Clark, Secretary of State, a tall, poised straight-talking black man.

      Clearing his throat, СКАЧАТЬ