Silence Breaking (Storm and Silence 4)
‘Where. Is. She?’
The naked man on the ground refused to answer, most likely due to the fact he was unconscious. I had never been one to accept excuses.
Drawing back my foot, I brought it forward to solidly collide with the main part of the man’s male anatomy.
Thud!
‘Aargh!’
‘Where?’
‘Nnn…what? I don’t…’
Thud!
‘Arg!’
‘Where? Speak!’
No answer. Not an acceptable result. Not anywhere at any time, but most especially not now—when it was all about her.
‘Anderson! Renshaw!’ I called. ‘Get in here, and bring rope!’ And some sharp implements. ‘Everyone else, spread out! Search the woods!’
And if you don’t find her, don’t bother to come back.
The words didn’t need to be spoken. My eyes conveyed them perfectly. Anderson and Renshaw came hurrying into the hut with one rope each slung over their shoulders. My other men scattered like dust in the wind. Very determined, very deadly dust.
‘Who in God’s name do you think you are?’ the man on the ground howled as my men twisted his arms behind his back and started to tie them together. ‘I’m a soldier of the presidency armies, and—’
I whirled to face him, cutting him off with a single, razor-sharp glance.
‘If I were you,’ I told him, every word a well-paced splinter of ice, ‘I would not mention the name of that band of blaggards again. Unless you want certain portions of your anatomy permanently removed.’
The soldier swallowed and closed his mouth. Adequate. He’d live at least a little while longer.
‘Get him out there on a horse. Karim will interrogate him while the rest of us go after Dalgliesh and find out what’s happened to Miss—’
Just then, a strange sound cut me off. A shrill, discordant whistle reminiscent o
f a choking nightingale.
Or…almost.
Without knowing exactly why, I turned and strode towards the window. Outside, my horse stood waiting for me. And on the back of my horse…
‘What are you waiting for, Sir? Let’s go!’
Her.
It was her.
On my horse.
‘Look, Sir!’ One of my men appears beside me, completely redundantly pointing at the female sitting there as if she had no cares in the world. ‘She’s safe!’
Yes. She was safe. Safe on my horse.
My feet started moving before I knew what was happening.