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.With both hands, the giant Fulani lifted the sword a few inches and, with it, the dying Basque.Abu Auda's green-brown eyes flashed with anger as he watched Iturbi wriggle like a rabbit on a spit.When the man slumped dead on the blade, Abu Auda pulled the scimitar out.Mauritania wiped his narrow sword on a white altar cloth and touched the button on the cane that retracted the blade.Abu Auda washed his sword in the font of holy water and dried it on his burnoose.His desert robes were now not only dirty but bloody.Abu Auda sighed.“It's been a long time since I've washed in the blood of my enemies, Khalid.It feels good.”Mauritania nodded, understanding.“We mustn't linger.There's still much to do before we strike.”The two men stepped over the dead Basques and slipped through the Cathedral and out into the night.An hour later, Jon, Randi, and Peter were on the highway, driving away from Toledo.First they had stopped in the city, where Jon had retrieved his laptop and bag from the trunk of his rented Renault.The car was untouched, containing only the cut ropes.With luck, Bixente had escaped back to his life as a shepherd.As Jon loaded his belongings into the touring car, Peter and Randi put the top on it, and they sped away, Peter driving.Now as the spires and towers of the fabled city of El Greco faded in the distance, Peter slowed to just beneath the national speed limit of 120 kilometers an hour.They did not need to attract police attention.Randi settled into the rear of the classic touring car, where the old seat still gave off a scent of expensive leather.She listened as Jon and Peter discussed in the front seat which route to take to Madrid, where they would report in and regroup.“Just don't go back the same way Jon drove, in case the Basques were tailing him.” She repressed her irritation as Peter took her advice.Why was she so testy around Jon? At first she had blamed him for her fianceacute; Mike's death in Somalia, and later for Sophia's tragic murder, but she had since grown to respect him.She wanted to put the past behind her, but it nagged like an unfulfilled promise.The odd part was she felt he would like to forget about it, too.They were frozen by too much history between them.“God knows what we'll find next,” Peter said.“Let's hope it's the molecular computer.” The “retired” SAS trooper and MI6 spy was muscular and lean, perhaps just a shade too lean under his priest's costume.His hands were curved brown claws on the steering wheel, and his face was narrow, the color and texture of leather dried out by years of wind and sun.It was so deeply lined that his eyes seemed embedded in canyons.But even in the night, those eyes remained sharp and guarded.Then they suddenly twinkled, amused.“Oh, and Jon, my friend, you seriously owe me for this little scratch.But I suppose I owe you for a bump on your noggin, too.”Peter reached up and lifted off his churchly black hat to reveal a bandage wrapped around the top of his head.Jon stared at the bandage and shook his head as Peter adjusted the hat back onto his head.“I'll be damned.So you were the Algerian orderly at the Pompidou who caused all the trouble.” He remembered a flitting sense of familiarity as the orderly had run backward down the hospital corridor, waving a mini-submachine gun in warning to keep everyone at bay.It was Peter's head that had left the trace of blood on the banister.“So you were there to protect Marty, not to kill him.That's why when you finally shot, it was high.”“All true.” Peter nodded.“Happened to be in the hospital keeping an eye on our friend when I heard he had a 'family' visitor.Since Marty has no close family left, if you don't count the dog we picked up on the Hades thing, I got the wind up and flew up there didi mau with my little Sterling.Saw you spot me and had to bunk or blow my whole pantomime.”From the back, Randi said, “Which means SAS or MI6 is watching Marty.”“Ah, a trifle old for the Special Air boys, but MI6 does still find me useful from time to time.Whitehall is salivating over this DNA gadget [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]