Private Berlin (Private 5)

Mattie grabbed her and pulled her away as she continued to shriek.

CHAPTER 130

LYING THERE ON the floor, I can’t help my hard wiring. I’m feeling the kicks Ilona gave m

e and I’m loving the painful throb.

And I’m hearing the pain in her voice and am loving life all the more.

“Why?” I say with a grin. “Because I like it, Ilona. I like to be there when the lights go out. And I like making them go out even more. I like to be there when the life drains out of ’em. I like to feel, smell, taste, and hear death. It’s as simple as that. Always has been. Cow, pig, mother, child. It’s all the same to me.”

The farmer is circling to my left. I can see his rubber boots in my peripheral vision. “What kind of animal are you?” he demands.

“A predator,” I reply. “Didn’t you know? Killing is in our nature.”

Eberhardt takes a step toward me, as if he is going to kick me too.

But then over the sound of the rain, I hear sirens in the distance. The farmer stops. He hears them too.

He takes several careful steps backward away from me.

Cracking, splintering, the floor beneath his left rubber boot collapses.

He breaks through up to his thigh and is wrenched violently backward.

I’m up and moving even before I realize he’s dropped the shotgun.

I take two quick steps and kick him right on the point of the chin.

Eberhardt’s head snaps back, out cold. I spin, looking for Mattie.

But she’s already on me.

She smashes me in the ribs with a piece of wood.

It stuns me. I go to my knees. She steps up to hit me again.

But I drop into a sitting position and lash out with my foot, connecting with her ankle.

She buckles and falls.

I roll to my feet and kick her in the stomach. I hear all the wind go out of her.

The sirens are closer now. I can hear them wailing.

I look at Mattie Engel. “Time for just one more, I’d say.”

I can see she doesn’t understand.

But then I grab little Nicky by the neck.

I lift him, choking, and drag him back toward my screwdriver lying there on the floor. I throw him down. I grab the tool and then headlock the screaming little boy, exposing his neck as if it were a lamb’s.

I look at Mattie, who’s struggling to get up. She can’t even talk.

“Show me your eyes,” I shout. “I want to see them when Niklas’s go dark.”

“Falk!” Ilona screeches behind me and to my left.