Massive Attack (A Guy Niava Thriller Book 1) by Dana Arama (e reader for manga .txt) 📗

insisting on leaving a gap would win the conversation. After all, the nurse was right. The temperature outside had dropped, and with it the chances of finding another open window. In the end, she gave in and opened the window slightly. I made my way towards it. The room was lit dimly with nightlights. I could just make out three patients lying in their beds. The one furthest from the window was asleep. The patient in the middle bed was standing behind a partitioning curtain. He was probably being tended to by the argumentative nurse. The third patient, closest to the window, lay still, staring out at the night sky. He was covered in plaster casts from head to toe and looked like a mummy. The cool air probably felt wonderful on his face.

He saw me immediately. His head rose from the pillow and then his gloomy face showed a look of astonishment. A bolt of lightning illuminated the sky behind me. I waited for the thunder to start rolling and moved my hand towards the crack in the window. Swiftly, I lifted the pane. The patient in the cast, a young teenager, started smiling. I put a single finger to my lips to signal him to keep quiet and he nodded his head. I jumped into the room and slowly closed the window. The curtain opened just as I turned away from the window and the nurse looked at me, not recognizing me. Her eyes scanned my doctor’s badge.

“Thanks for coming to visit, doctor,” the youngster in the cast lied. “It was nice to see you, and you have made me very happy.” I smiled at him and answered, “I promised I would come during my next shift.”

The nurse smiled at us and said, “I don’t recognize you, but at last our Jeremy is smiling. It’s too bad you didn’t come earlier. Maybe you can persuade him to close the window.”

In response, I winked at the boy and he grinned widely.

The nurse collected the garbage she had left behind her, washed her hands with disinfectant soap and left the room.

Jeremy said, “This has been the most exciting thing that has happened to me since I arrived here. You really are welcome to visit me again.”

“Thanks Jeremy.” I smiled again. “I hope you get out of here fast!”

Once I was out in the corridor, I whispered, “Did you record everything?”

In the earpiece I heard, “The information has been passed on to the Americans. We are continuing operations as well.”

I knew that outside the waters of the territorial US, there were thousands of ships, and in order to find the one that Yassin was hiding in, we would need supporting data. The GPS devices which we planted in the suitcases had now become crucial.

Murat Lenika,

En route to an unknown destination,

November 15, 2015, 2:38 a.m.

The buzzing of the device I had put on the wooden chair next to me woke me up. I glanced at the clock. I had slept only one hour. The number flashing across my screen belonged to the disposable phone I had given Yassin. Unwillingly, I pressed accepted the incoming call. The more excited Yassin became the more he monopolized people around him. Or maybe it was just me. Maybe it was intentional, allowing me to leave the spice shop, making me feel as if I had been saved and then, a few hours later, calling me again. For what? Perhaps he realized that I knew too much? Or maybe he wanted to make sure that I wouldn’t run out on him? Perhaps he had a role for me in his layout plan. When it came to Yassin, one could never know when the next big surprise would come, and how.

“Murat, I need you here now!” he said, excitedly. I looked at my watch again. How on earth did he sound so awake and so enthusiastic in the middle of the night?

“Where is here?” I asked. Inside my head, the remnants of the amphetamines and total exhaustion were fighting each other.

“There is no use in explaining it to you… You aren’t coming alone, anyway. Just tell me where you are, and I will send you a personal driver.”

“Okay… I answered, after a moment. He may have said something else, but I’d drifted back to sleep again. “I’ll get my gang together.”

“You’re coming alone. Your bodyguards aren’t needed here.”

His comment was like a bucket of cold water washing over me. Now, I was wide awake. I needed a moment to organize my thoughts, so I said, “I’ll get back to you with the address.” I hung up.

I woke up Aldo first, and then Alex. “They are coming to pick me up soon,” I told them. I couldn’t look them in the eye. They jumped from their beds and Alex said, “I’m going to make coffee. Or would you rather take a pill?”

Aldo and I said in unison, “Coffee!” and Aldo added, “Can he just summon us like this, boss?”

“Not ‘us’…”

Aldo stared at me. “You mean you are planning on going to him alone?”

Alex looked in from the kitchen, shook his head and said, “I don’t like it, boss.” The look on his face said it all and still he said, “I have to notify your father, boss.” He sounded almost apologetic, but decisive. “Or you take one of us with you, to watch your back.”

I gave him a comforting smile. “What about the coffee?” I asked, and when Alex returned to the kitchen, I said to Aldo, “Wait until morning. If I’m not back by then, it is time to start worrying.”

“Boss, if you’re not back by morning,” he answered me, “it’ll be too late.” I was afraid he was right, but I didn’t know what to say. I was too deep in Yassin’s secrets, which I kept from my closest friends for their sake.

“He is probably planning a party in Vegas or something wild like that. Stop worrying.” I smiled, but Aldo, who knew me well,