Chasing The Dawn (Luke Temple - Book 2) (Luke Temple Series) (25 page)

“Sir?”

“Excuse me Carabinieri, this is provincial Officer Danene at Teramo HQ.”

“What is it?”

“Sir, I have a call here that I think you are going to want to take. I tried Officer Beltrano but could not get through; I thought you may be with him.”

“No I am not. What is it?”

“I don’t know, but they are claiming …” the junior provincial officer went quiet.

“Go on …”

“Well, Sir, they are claiming they have found two bodies out in Battaglia.”

“Right, and? Officer Danene you will have to follow this up, I am in the middle …”

“Sir, the bodies … they are being reported as two Asian men, possibly Korean.”

Delvechi’s eyes widened, fragments of ideas ran through his mind.
The girl …
she had been the element he didn’t fully understand. He had felt she couldn’t just be here for the gala, he
knew
it.

“How far is Battaglia from Teramo? Not far, right?”

“Not very far, Sir … seven miles.”

Two dead Asians – possibly Koreans – so close to Teramo
. What in the name of God is going on?

“Sir, shall I put the call through?”

“Yes, quickly. And Officer?”

“Yes Sir?”

“Keep trying to get hold of Beltrano.”

Luke jumped forward, grabbing the Beretta as the closest gun. He locked one into the chamber. Brun put down the glass and stared wide-eyed at Luke. Chung Su was torn between Brun and the door.

Brun ran a hand over his face, trying to sound calm. “Probably the late post.” He straightened, in his heart he had a dark feeling.

Luke beckoned for Chung Su to move away from the window. He positioned her against the wall then did the same with Brun. Flicking the safety off, Luke motioned for silence. He tiptoed toward the hallway, keeping his back against the wall. The open-plan nature of the downstairs of the house allowed freedom to listen. He heard nothing and returned to Brun and Chung Su.

“Professor, I want you to answer the door. Do not open it fully, whoever it is get rid of them immediately but with good nature.” Luke spoke in German for definite clarity and kept his voice low.

Brun nodded, the faintest sign of resignation in his eyes. He caught Luke’s gaze for a moment, then looked back at Chung Su. “I am so sorry, Miss Chung … we were working for one and the same cause.”

With that, he made his way through to the hallway. Luke raised the Beretta and followed, keeping himself pressed against the wall so that when Brun opened the door he could not be seen. Luke stopped short and let Brun approach alone. The professor reached out and rested his hand on the door latch.

The last thing Luke saw of the professor was a brilliant flash of light consume him, followed by an intense heat and a noise that sounded like the end of the world … then there was nothing but darkness.

Sarah.
The world began to drift back into focus, at first the ringing was a distant echo playing from down a dark tunnel. Then gradually it crept closer, intensifying in pitch and volume. The darkness retracted and slipped away, leaving a haze of low light and the deafening ringing. Luke’s eyes flickered open, he was unable to focus, what was left of the world was a blur. After several moments his mind began to grip him; the first thing to become real was the haze of dust; it swirled in front of his eyes, his face pressed against the floor. Before his brain could work through what had happened the pain kicked in. It started in his ears, the ringing still deafening, his head throbbing. Then a sharp pain in his right leg began to pulse.

Brun …
the professor flashed across Luke’s mind, and then the horror of what had happened hit him, the last image of Brun consumed in flames. He tried to rotate his head, a pain shot up his neck, but he managed the movement. He now faced the living room and was confronted with the same haze.
Get up Luke … get up
. He willed himself to move, he had to stand and assess.

He knew he had a very short window to get the blood flowing, which in turn would generate the adrenaline he would need. He managed to get his torso primed, but his right leg kept giving way with excruciating pain. He did not want to look at any wounds at this point, that would have to come later. Mustering his remaining energy, he staggered to his feet, the pain ringing down the right side of his body. The dust was beginning to settle and he could now make out the devastation around him. The explosion had torn the doorway and front entrance hall to pieces; the dust was from the smashed and pulverised brickwork. Taking a step toward the now-gaping hole where the door had been, Luke saw a smoke trail coming from the stairs. The wooden banister was twisted and gnarled across the steps and smoke was gently rising from a black charred mass lying draped underneath.

Brun.

Luke struggled to take it in, the noise in his ears and the pain in his body took up most of his consciousness.

Turning back toward where he had been laying, his right leg gave out and he stumbled onto the bottom step. Looking down, he saw the root of the pain for the first time. Jutting out of his upper thigh was a thick splinter of wood; it was about eight inches long and was buried deep. Taking steady breaths Luke looked around the ruins. He saw several pieces of wood fractured and scattered amongst the brick and plaster. He touched his hand onto the protruding part of the splinter; even gently touching it gave a stab of pain, but it was better not to remove it, it was stemming the blood flow for now. Through the ringing he heard a faint muffled cry. He had forgotten about Chung Su in the immediate aftermath, but now he heard coughing and a delicate whimper. He hobbled through the smashed glass and brickwork towards the lounge. The once-high archway separating the rooms was now cracked, but it still held. Chung Su was crouched against the wall, blood running down her cheek. The force of the blast had caused all the pictures to smash onto the floor and the ornaments and glass in the cabinets to shatter along with the windows.

The immediate priority was to get out of the house, for no other reason than to breathe some fresh air. Luke could hear nothing but the high-pitched ringing and he didn’t have the energy to expend on shouting commands. He positioned himself in front of Chung Su. She looked up with large frightened eyes; she was shaking. He beckoned for her to stand but she made no attempt. With great effort he leant down and tried to lift her up from under her arms. Instinctively, she grabbed both his forearms to help get her to her feet, the grip on his right forearm caused him to wince and grit his teeth with pain, but eventually through joint effort she was up and standing. He edged over to the bay window and checked the bottom of each of the frames. A couple had jagged glass edges still sticking up, but one was completely clear. He looked out of the window into the distance, a voice in the back of his head reminding him to
check surroundings.

As if listening through a funnel, Luke began to hear the distant noise of people screaming and shouting. It was a clear indication that they had overstayed their welcome. Moving back into the lounge, Luke gently manoeuvred Chung Su over to the window. She was like a zombie, moving only because he was directing her. As they reached the window he motioned for her to step outside.

Chung Su took her position on the small lawn in front of the window and stood there frozen, staring back into the house. It was only at that point that Luke noticed she held the Sig Sauer in her hand;
she must have picked it up off the table. And the Beretta?
Luke swore at himself for forgetting that he had been carrying the Beretta in the hallway. Now he staggered back off to try and retrieve it. He used his left foot to kick away bits of brick and furniture to try and uncover the pistol. Each kick sent more dust flaming outwards and he began to choke on the harsh particles as they bit at his throat and lungs. Finally he uncovered the weapon. It was intact and only had some scratching around the metal casing. Locking his hand around it, he checked the chamber, before limping back through the lounge and scrambling out onto the lawn.

He could now see the damage from the outside. He was lucky to be alive. He made some quick calculations and figured it must have been a relatively small device, possibly a plastic explosive, yet the focused detonation and impact was an anomaly, normally explosive would move out at an exponential rate from the blast centre. As he examined the damage he could see that had not happened. The blast had been centralised around the entrance of the property.
Sophisticated … but improvised.

***

People in the houses surrounding the professor’s had all come tearing out of their homes at the sound of the explosion. Luke did not wait to interact; he limped, dragging Chung Su, over toward the front gate. His senses were dull but he had the presence of mind to keep checking his surroundings for any signs of follow-up attacks. In his heart he was desperately hoping that it was a hit and run as he was not sure he had the energy reserves to fight.

With every step he could feel the wood rubbing the muscle and tissue inside his leg. Blood was now soaking through his borrowed jeans. He stopped for a moment as they passed Brun’s old white rust bucket. Luke knew that to get back to where he had left his car would take too much effort. Speed was all–important. The local residents would have called the authorities.

“Your leg … it is bleeding.”

Luke did not hear Chung Su’s weak comment, his hearing had not fully returned. He hated having one of his senses lacking, it put him off-balance. However, in these moments his Group 9 training took over.

“Your leg is bleeding!!” Chung Su raised her voice.

Luke turned to her, tears were in her eyes but she was not crying. With the sun falling behind her Luke was momentarily transported away. Her silhouette faded into a familiar outline, sound retracted into silence and stood in front of him was a dark shadow so perfect that it brought butterflies to his stomach. The excitement and emotion was overwhelming. Everything else fell away.

“Mr Reid … Mr Reid … Mr Reid!”

The silhouette vanished and Luke was stood again on the front drive of Professor Brun’s house. Chung Su was still frozen to the spot but she was shouting his name and looking out past the gate. Luke could not grasp what she was trying to show him. He turned his head to follow her gaze but saw nothing.

“Sirens …”

Luke could lip read. Moving as fast as he could he drew level with the driver’s window and threw his elbow through, smashing it. In an instant the door was unlocked and he was leaning under the driving column, pulling off the plastic casing and rearranging the wires.

Chung Su finally moved, running around to the passenger side as Luke unlocked the door. She sat timidly in the seat and could not stop herself from scanning Luke’s body.

Sensing her worry, Luke forced himself to sound calm. “Luke … my real name is Luke … It’s ok, it all looks worse than it is.” He had no idea why he had given his name, but it felt right to tell her, they were now very much in this together. “Let’s go, and we can sort ourselves out elsewhere. You ok?”

She nodded. She didn’t feel ok, but she nodded.

Luke threw the battered Peugeot into reverse, backing right up to the furthest point of the drive. He waited for a moment, shaking his head a couple of times to try and rid himself of the ringing. As Luke smashed his foot into the floor, the tired machine laboured in its response, but eventually the wheels span and they took off, both shooting forward violently as the Peugeot smashed into the green gate. Luke screamed in pain but kept his foot down. The gate gave out and he swung the car up the hill heading north, climbing away from the house.

The small province of Battaglia was nothing more than a few empty country roads and a smattering of Abruzzo-style villas and buildings. Even with the sun slipping away and the cold early evening taking over there was still a simple country beauty to the area. Delvechi steered his car into a quiet side street. He had expected there to be a lot of activity from the locals. Finding dead bodies could not be a normal occasion, but there was nobody in sight. According to the phone call the bodies had been found just around the corner, so Delvechi started in the direction he had memorised. After a few minutes of climbing he came upon a small alleyway running down to his left. Stacked high along one side were a range of cardboard boxes, wet and sunken. A few metres in front Delvechi could make out a man stood with his back to him.

“Bonjourno Signor,” Delvechi projected loudly and the man turned to face him. “My name is Officer Delvechi, are you the man who phoned the station?”

“Sì, thank you for coming out so quick.”

The man’s age surprised Delvechi. In fact, he was no man at all. He couldn’t have been older than eighteen.

“Where are they?” Delvechi asked

The teenager walked across to two large green industrial bins stood on wheels at the rear of a building. The young man then put a white rag to his mouth and pushed open the large slide-back lid.

The smell engulfed Delvechi; he turned his head away and coughed, fighting back the retching. The teenager offered him another rag that he had produced from his pocket. Delvechi took it and clamped it to his mouth. Leaning over the bin his eyes were watering. Inside there were flies zipping about, hyperactively crossing over a large blue sheet. Delvechi thanked the Lord that it was winter, or the number of flies would have been quadruple. Without being asked, the youngster lifted the sheet with his spare hand to reveal two dead bodies.

Delvechi had been through the training, but to be presented with two heavily decomposing bodies was still an intense shock. He had to take deep breaths through the rag. Only the heads and torsos were visible and the skin was a strange off colour, the cheeks were sunken and decomposing and one of the victims had yellow-tinged eyes staring skyward. Trying to take in detail quickly, all Delvechi could really make out was that one body was visibly shorter than the other, and even though heavily decomposing it was clear the taller of the two had a longer thinner face … the smell was overpowering. Leaning into the bin he pulled back the sheet a little further, revealing the legs. Both victims were fully clothed and there were no exterior signs of trauma. The bodies held no obvious clues to what had killed the men. He would have to call for forensics to take a closer look. One thing was certain; the two men were of Asian descent.