Free Deadly States (Seaforth Files by Nicholas P Clark Book 2) by Nicholas P Clark Page B

win
our freedom.
That freedom is due in no small part to these three fellows. Each one is
very powerful on its own; mix them together and you have something
truly wonderful. Tri-nitro toluene, or TNT, as the world has come to
know it. One of the first high explosives, and in my
humble opinion,
still the best.”
There was another pause.
“Do you plan to blow me up?” asked Jack, with genuine concern.
Robert threw his head back and laughed.
“No Jack, I
do not
plan to blow you up. I simply wanted to give
you a quick Chemistry lesson. I like to share.”
“Consider me well and truly taught,” Jack said.
“But here is the real lesson,” Robert continued. “In the early days,
when we were perfecting the
method, we
encountered a few
small
problems.
Acid
burns
and
solvent
though we did lose a few workers.
poisoning.
Nothing
too
serious,
One case in particular left
quite
an impression
on me. Before we knew to cool the two acids
over ice
when we mixed them with the toluene, things got a little out
of hand.
The mixture gave out so much heat that it boiled almost instantly. The
poor guy making up the mixture literally had his skin burned off. But
that was not the thing that struck me most.
As he gasped for breath,
with blood running down what was left of his face like tears, he started
rubbing his eyes. He rubbed them so hard that the mess
of jelly was
scooped right
out of the sockets. You see, such was the irritation to his
eyes caused by the solvent, and even though his hands were covered in
burning, concentrated acid, he simply
couldn’t stop rubbing. Instinct
took
over. He rubbed that acid into his eyes until they had gone, and
there was no
one in the room able to help him.
Contamination you
see.”
“That is a lovely story, but what has it got to do with me, Robert?”
Jack asked.
“Ah, now we get to the good
bit,” Robert
continued, as he began
pouring one of the acids into the basin,
quickly followed by the other.
Choking fumes
began to rise up into the air.
“We are going to hold
you and pour the solvent into your
eyes, and into your
mouth, and
down your throat. Then we are going to stand back and watch as you
kill yourself in the most painful way possible, as you use this mixture
of acids to get rid of the intense irritation caused by the solvent.”
“And why would I
do something that
stupid?” Jack asked.
“Not
even at gunpoint, old friend.”
“You will do something that stupid because you will not be able to
stop yourself. Not even my rather large associates here would be able
to stop you once the process begins,” Robert added.
“OK Robert, I have got the message. I genuinely have no idea who
planted that
bomb. I
have lots
of suspicions, ranging from the credible to the ludicrous. If you want to kill me then do it. You will not be
any closer to getting the answers that you are obviously so determined
to get. Give me a couple of days to try to find out everything I can
    through my British government contacts and business contacts. If I
haven’t got any answers for you by then you can take me back here for
another little meeting and you can finish what you have started.”
“I am so glad that you said that, Jack. I told my
men that you
would see things my way.
And truthfully we have better things to do
than to clean your blood off the floors and walls of this place. It is going to be demolished, but not every
officer in the South
African police
force is willing to turn a blind eye to the odd unexplained bloodstain. I
will give you forty-eight
hours and not a
minute more. If
by then
you have some information that I can act
on then we will forget this
whole silly
business. If not, we shall return and, as you put it, finish
what we started.”
A wave
of intense relief
pulsed through Jack’s
body. He had
escaped; for the time being. That relief soon disappeared when the door
at the far
end
of the lab
opened. Jack’s
bound and gagged PA was
pushed through the
doorway
by yet another
heavy. Jack turned