Deadly States (Seaforth Files by Nicholas P Clark Book 2) (13 page)

of the sun’s rays, which
of sight
of all standing at
labels on the bottles—after all, he had nothing to hide; nothing to feel
guilty about; nothing to worry about. Nitric
Acid, Sulfuric
Acid and
Toluene. Jack grimaced at the
Americanism on the bottle of sulphuric
acid. This really was a sign that European influence in the country was
disappearing quickly.

A definite smirk spread across the lips
of the cop as he watched
Jack survey the chemicals. The apprehension and discomfort caused
by the very
presence of the chemicals was more important to the cop
than any
possible use that could be made of them in an effort to extract information from Jack.

“I always loved Chemistry at school,” Jack said, with a wry smile.
The smile dropped from the cop’s face.
“Let us hope that you still love Chemistry
once you have experienced this lesson. Hey Jack?” replied the cop.

Jack smiled and the cop stepped back a little.
Suddenly a door at the back of the room burst open and three large
men entered the room, closely followed by a familiar and unexpected
face. The face was scratched and sporting several small hospital plasters, but it was largely unscathed. Robert Theiler
didn’t drop a step as
he strode towards Jack; fussing with the lower buttons on the jacket of
his suit as he approached. Robert pulled out a stool next to Jack, and
without dusting it off, he sat down.
“It is good to see that you are alive, Robert,” said Jack, in a curious
tone. He was not unhappy that Robert had made it through the blast,
but that
Robert
had him kidnapped
made
overt joy
seem somehow
inappropriate, if not suspicious.
“Really Jack?” asked Robert, as the whites
of his eyes bulged with
silent anger. “You will forgive me it I ask you to convince me of that
just a little more comprehensively. One minute we are having a nice
chat in your
office, then not five minutes after I leave you I am being
thrown across a parking bay like a ragdoll. So you will forgive me if I
ask for more than just your words of good wishes.”
There was an awkward pause as Robert waited for a reply.
“There is nothing I can say to you Robert. You are clearly very angry right now. If you take a few days to think this over you will seethat
of all people in this country, I am the one person least likely to have
been behind the bombing. After all, blowing up a building that I am
still in would be a very unusual way to kill someone else.”
Robert slammed his fists into the table.
“That’s just what I thought you would say. But you know as well
as me that the best place for an assassin to hide is in plain sight. That
blast was never going to bring the building down. It is perfect—you
get to play the victim and at the same time you get to walk away free,
as my killer.”
“You
know that
isn’t true, Robert.
You know that
or I would
be
dead already,” Jack protested.
“No Jack! I
don’t know that. This happened in your building and
until I have a more credible suspect, you are my man.”
Jack sighed again.
“Then you had better get
on with it,” Jack said. “I have no names
to offer you and I have no intention of pretending otherwise.”
“We shall see!” snapped Robert. “Hold him.”
One of the bodyguards grabbed Jack by the shoulders and held on
to him tightly. Jack made no effort to struggle.
Robert stood up and then he slid the chemicals and basin
over to
Jack.
“These are my favourite chemicals in the whole world, Jack,” Robert explained. “During the struggle we would use this place, and these
chemicals, to build the bombs that would
one day win
our freedom.
That freedom is due in no small part to these three fellows. Each one is
very powerful on its own; mix them together and you have something
truly wonderful. Tri-nitro toluene, or TNT, as the world has come to
know it. One of the first high explosives, and in my
humble opinion,
still the best.”
There was another pause.
“Do you plan to blow me up?” asked Jack, with genuine concern.
Robert threw his head back and laughed.
“No Jack, I
do not
plan to blow you up. I simply wanted to give
you a quick Chemistry lesson. I like to share.”
“Consider me well and truly taught,” Jack said.
“But here is the real lesson,” Robert continued. “In the early days,
when we were perfecting the
method, we
encountered a few
small
problems.
Acid
burns
and
solvent
though we did lose a few workers.
poisoning.
Nothing
too
serious,
One case in particular left
quite
an impression
on me. Before we knew to cool the two acids
over ice
when we mixed them with the toluene, things got a little out
of hand.
The mixture gave out so much heat that it boiled almost instantly. The
poor guy making up the mixture literally had his skin burned off. But
that was not the thing that struck me most.
As he gasped for breath,
with blood running down what was left of his face like tears, he started
rubbing his eyes. He rubbed them so hard that the mess
of jelly was
scooped right
out of the sockets. You see, such was the irritation to his
eyes caused by the solvent, and even though his hands were covered in
burning, concentrated acid, he simply
couldn’t stop rubbing. Instinct
took
over. He rubbed that acid into his eyes until they had gone, and
there was no
one in the room able to help him.
Contamination you
see.”
“That is a lovely story, but what has it got to do with me, Robert?”
Jack asked.
“Ah, now we get to the good
bit,” Robert
continued, as he began
pouring one of the acids into the basin,
quickly followed by the other.
Choking fumes
began to rise up into the air.
“We are going to hold
you and pour the solvent into your
eyes, and into your
mouth, and
down your throat. Then we are going to stand back and watch as you
kill yourself in the most painful way possible, as you use this mixture
of acids to get rid of the intense irritation caused by the solvent.”
“And why would I
do something that
stupid?” Jack asked.
“Not
even at gunpoint, old friend.”
“You will do something that stupid because you will not be able to
stop yourself. Not even my rather large associates here would be able
to stop you once the process begins,” Robert added.
“OK Robert, I have got the message. I genuinely have no idea who
planted that
bomb. I
have lots
of suspicions, ranging from the credible to the ludicrous. If you want to kill me then do it. You will not be
any closer to getting the answers that you are obviously so determined
to get. Give me a couple of days to try to find out everything I can