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Back The Enemy Save as PDF
Chapters (69)
  1. Table of Contents
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  69. 68

“Stop!” he shouted, his voice firm and clear.

One of the royals moaned. It was the young man with the bloated face. He was the son of a duke. He’d once been something of a party animal. Now he was a shambling wreck whose brain was so riddled with disease you could hardly even call it a brain anymore. It was just a tangle of damaged nerve endings, randomly firing off, as if someone had poured water into a fuse box.

He walked on.

“I command you,” David said, louder this time, “to stop.”

Still the royals staggered down the corridor. Whining, stiff-legged, red-eyed.

The guard turned to David. Scared. “They’re not going to stop,” he said.

“They will stop,” David snapped, and he stepped forward.

The young royal sped up, his arms stretched out. Drool was pouring from his open mouth and had soaked his filthy shirt.

There was a deafening bang, and the corridor filled with smoke. The royal went down, a bullet in his skull.

“You idiot!” David yelled, wrenching the gun from the guard’s grasp. “That was the Marquess of Tavistock!”

He battered the guard to the floor with the butt of his rifle.

“You can’t go shooting them, you moron,” he said. “We need them alive. They’re no bloody danger.”

Another royal, a middle-aged duchess, grabbed hold of David’s sleeve, and he angrily shoved her away. She hit the wall and gulped with surprise.

David hauled his shaking guard to his feet. “Grab hold of them and drag them back to their room, for God’s sake,” he commanded. “Just don’t let them bite you.”

Jester appeared, running down the corridor with Rose.

“Any sign of the rest of them?” he called out.

“Not yet,” said David. “It’s only a matter of time, though. They won’t have gotten far. They’re too stupid. But how the hell did they get out?”

“The door was forced,” said Jester.

“Was anybody guarding them?”

“Not as far as I know. We don’t always keep a guard on them. And with two of your boys tied up at the sick bay . . .”

“So someone let them out?”

“Looks like it.”

“Could it be the squatters?”

Jester shrugged. “It could be the Holloway kids. Maybe they’re up to something.”

“I want you to find whoever did this, Jester, and I want them punished. Properly punished.”

“Okay.”

“And where the bloody hell’s Pod?”

“Last I saw him he was heading for the ballroom.”

“Right. Come with me.” David strode off down the corridor.

“Where are we going?” said Jester, hurrying after him.

“To the ballroom.”

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