Free The Edge of Armageddon by David Leadbeater Page A

exhausted, pacing like a caged lion. Hayden donned a flak jacket, checked her Glock and spare ammo, and bade Mano do the same. No chances would be taken from here on in. Both Ramses and Marsh had proven too clever to underestimate.
    Perhaps the terrorist myth was right where he wanted to be.
    Hayden doubted it, doubted it immensely. The fight inside the castle and the desperate death of his bodyguard had showed how anxious he’d been to escape. Also, was his reputation ruined? Shouldn’t he be trying desperately to repair the damage? Probably, but the man wasn’t destroyed to the level where he couldn’t rebuild. Hayden watched him stride as Kinimaka fetched them a couple of plastic chairs.
    “There is a nuclear weapon in this city,” Hayden said. “Which I am sure you know, since you brokered the deal to Tyler Webb and Julian Marsh. You are in this city and if the time comes we’ll make damn sure you’re not underground. Of course, your followers don’t know we have you . . .” She let it hang right there.
    Ramses pulled up, tired eyes fixing on her. “You refer to the double-cross of course, where my men will soon kill Marsh, take charge of the bomb and detonate. You must know this through Webb and his bodyguard since they are the only ones who knew. And you also know that they merely await my command.” He nodded as if to himself.
    Hayden waited. Ramses was sharp, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t slip up.
    “They will detonate,” Ramses said. “They will make the decision themselves.”
    “We can make your last few hours pretty much intolerable,” Kinimaka said.
    “You won’t make me call it off,” Ramses said. “Even through torture. I will not halt that detonation.”
    “What do you want?” Hayden asked.
    “There will be negotiation.”
    She studied him, looking intently into the face of the new world enemy. These people didn’t want anything in return, they wouldn’t negotiate and they believed death was but a step up to some kind of Heaven. Where does that leave us?
    Where indeed? She felt for her weapon. “A man who wants nothing other than to commit mass murder is easily dealt with,” she said. “With a bullet to the head.”
    Ramses pressed his face to the bars. “Then go ahead, western bitch.”
    Hayden didn’t need to be an expert to read the madness and zeal shining from those soul-dead eyes. Without a word she changed tack and exited the room, locking the outer door carefully behind her.
    Never too careful.
    The next room along housed the cell of Robert Price. She had gained permission to keep the Secretary here because of the imminent threat and his potential part in it. As she and Kinimaka walked into the room, Price turned a supercilious expression upon her.
    “What do you know about the bomb?” she said. “And why were you in the Amazon, attending a terrorist bazaar?”
    Price sank down into his bunk. “I want a lawyer. And what do you mean? A bomb?”
    “Nuclear bomb,” Hayden said. “Here in New York. Help yourself, you piece of shit. Help yourself right now by telling us what you know.”
    “Seriously.” Price stared. “I know nothing.”
    “You committed treason,” Kinimaka said, moving his bulk close to the cell. “Is that how you want to be remembered? An epitaph for your grandkids. Or would you rather be known as the repentant who helped save New York?”
    “As lovely as you make that sound,” Price’s voice rattled like a coiled snake. “I wasn’t involved in any ‘bomb’ negotiations and know nothing. Now, please, my lawyer.”
    “I’ll give you a little while,” Hayden said. “Then I’m gonna put Ramses and you together, in the same cell. You can fight it out. We’ll see who talks first. He would rather die, not live, and he wants to take every living soul with him. You? Just make sure you don’t commit suicide.”
    Price looked flustered at at-least some of her words. “No lawyer?”
    Hayden turned around. “Fuck you.”
    The