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Back The Last Drop of Blood Save as PDF
Chapters (60)
  1. Cover
  2. INTRODUCINGKATIE MAGUIRE
  3. ALSO BY GRAHAM MASTERTON
  4. Title Page
  5. Copyright
  6. Epigraph
  7. Contents
  8. 1
  9. 2
  10. 3
  11. 4
  12. 5
  13. 6
  14. 7
  15. 8
  16. 9
  17. 10
  18. 11
  19. 12
  20. 13
  21. 14
  22. 15
  23. 16
  24. 17
  25. 18
  26. 19
  27. 20
  28. 21
  29. 22
  30. 23
  31. 24
  32. 25
  33. 26
  34. 27
  35. 28
  36. 29
  37. 30
  38. 31
  39. 32
  40. 33
  41. 34
  42. 35
  43. 36
  44. 37
  45. 38
  46. 39
  47. 40
  48. 41
  49. 42
  50. 43
  51. 44
  52. 45
  53. 46
  54. 47
  55. 48
  56. 49
  57. 50
  58. 51
  59. About the Author
  60. An Invitation from the Publisher

She raised her hand to tell Robert to wait, and then she said, ‘How’s it going on, Bill?’

‘I believe we’re making a fair amount of progress here, ma’am. Sergeant Harvey’s sent me an email from Collins Barracks. He’s contacted the British Army bomb disposal unit in Belfast and they’ve identified four telltale signatures that link our bomb with three large bombs that they defused in the North.’

‘How long ago was that? I don’t recall reading anything about three large bombs up in Ulster. Not in the last six months or so, anyway.’

‘The most recent was at Thiepval Barracks, which of course is the British Army headquarters in Ireland now. That was in March last year. Another was found at St Lucia, in Omagh, which used to be a British Army barracks but now it’s a PSNI station. The third was discovered at Ballykinlar, but that barracks was abandoned in 2018, so they reckon the bomb must have been planted there sometime before then but failed to go off. It probably dated from 2009, or even earlier.’

‘So what are the similarities between those bombs and ours?’

‘I’ll come up and show you if that’s okay. That’ll be the easiest way.’

Bill appeared a few minutes later. He was accompanied by Conall, the same young gingery-haired IT expert who had downloaded the pictures of Katie and Kyna from the mobile phone that had been dropped by their intruder. Conall looked at Katie defensively through his thumbprinted spectacles and quickly offered her a selection of three different smiles – first puckered, then wide and then toothy – as if he couldn’t quite decide which would be most diplomatic.

‘They always say that the more trouble a bomb-maker takes to hide his identity, the more obvious it becomes who it is,’ said Bill. ‘It’s the amateurs who cobble IEDs together out of all kinds of bits and pieces they’ve bought at Hickeys – they’re the toughest to track down.’

He plugged a USB into Katie’s desktop computer and stood close behind her to explain what she was looking at. Conall stood a little further away, but every time Katie turned around to look at him he gave her another flustered smile. She wondered if he was visualizing her in bed, being kissed by a naked Kyna.