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 He won t leave, Dmitri said flatly.  I think he knows Brook.
 Yeah, I know Joe, Brook rasped.  Hey, Joe, tell you what why don t you go
on over to the Ming-Lee s Restaurant, see if you can scrounge us a couple cups
of coffee. Remember when I first met you I told you I d call you Joe,  cause
you drank so much of the stuff? By the time you get back, I should be down
from here. Her mouth quivered in an odd way. My heart contracted painfully as
I realized she was trying to smile. Even at such a moment she had compassion
for a frightened homeless man who didn t know what was happening.
Or maybe he did. Tears spilled from his confused eyes, running down his grimy
face into his tangled beard. Before I knew what he intended to do, he reached
up to touch a gaping wound on Brook s torso. I heard Dmitri s swiftly indrawn
breath, but I was incapable of even that much.
 Joe, take your hand away from me very carefully, Brook said in a voice
tight with strain.  A bad thing s going to happen to me, and I don t want you
to get hurt, too.
Crazy Joe looked up at her, his eyes dull with pain. Not& not& so bad
now.All& over soon. Slowly he lowered his hand and took a step backward.
 You ve been holding out on me, she said in a soft rasp.  You could talk all
along, huh? You re right, Joe, it ll all be over soon. Go now. I don t want
you to see this. She waited until he d turned from us. As he shuffled into
the night she spoke again, her voice no longer soft but sharply urgent.  And
that goes for both of you. The thing s strapped across my chest with a
leaf-spring detonator, and when my arms give way a little more and I sag
forward, it s going to go off. Her face twisted.  The payload s got silver in
it,Tash, I can feel it eating into me. Even if there were some way to get me
out of this, it s already too late. Jasmine didn t leave anything to chance.
 She didn t count on me finding you, I said tightly.  Look, if I can somehow
support you while I deal with the chains we might 
 The bitch didn t even show up herself. She sent a bunch of gay bashers who
probably got plenty of practice doing this kind of thing long before they
became vamps, Brook said with weak anger,a fresh gout of blood spilling from
between her broken teeth.  They had a high old time putting the boots to me,
and an even better time telling me how this thing was rigged so that when my
girlfriend that s you, babe, she added,   showed up, you d be faced with a
lose/lose choice. Don t fool yourself, Tash. Jasmine didn t just count on you
finding me. This whole setup was designed to tear you apart either with
silver, if you were crazy enough to try to saveme, or with guilt if you saved
yourself.
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 I m willing to risk the first one. I turned to Dmitri.  Take cover. If
everything goes bad, tell Megan and Kat and Darkheart what went down here
tonight 
 If you can get her down safely, I might be able to defuse the device, he
interrupted.  I m no bomb squad expert, but I ve had some experience. I don t
intend to hide behind the nearest building,l ubimaya .
 Maybe you re right. There was a thread of tired laughter in Brook s fading
voice.  I guess there was something Jasmine didn t count on, like my having a
couple ofmeshuggeneh friends with more loyalty than brains.
 When this is all over, remind me to get a Yiddish dictionary so I know when
you re insulting me, babe, I said with a small smile.  Okay, Dmitri, as soon
as I release the chains get ready to 
 I finally figured out why I got turned, Tash. If I hadn t been, I wouldn t
have met you and been given the two happiest days of my life. Through the
mask of blood on Brook s face her undamaged eye blazed mint-green as she
looked at me.  Love you, Mata Hari, she said softly.
 Getdown!  Dmitri s forearm slammed against my chest, knocking me toward the
sidewalk, but before I hit the concrete I felt his arms wrap tightly around
me, hugging me to him and covering my body with his. As we crashed to the
ground, the night suddenly lit up behind us with a painful brilliance.
The blast that immediately followed sounded like a freight train running at
high speed into a mountain.
 Oh, God, Brookie,no!  My scream was lost in the explosion. I tried to get
up, but something heavy slammed between my shoulder blades, driving me down
again.
 Cover your face! Dmitri s shouted command came from within inches of my
ear, but I could barely hear it. I was in a world of noise and chaos that
seemed to go on forever, and none of that mattered.
She d been a tough girl right up to the end. She d sacrificed herself by
deliberately detonating the bomb, rather than let me risk my life in trying to [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]