Gamma Blade - Tim Stevens Page 0,2

hard plastic, he loosened the screws and lifted the mirror off the wall.

It was smallish, perhaps three feet by eighteen inches. He climbed back onto the bed, covered the mirror with the blanket, and knelt on it, applying steady and increasing pressure.

The mirror broke with a muffled snap.

The man lifted back the blanket, saw a neat diagonal crack. The smaller of the two pieces was six inches long and tapered to a point.

It would do.

He tore off a section of one of the pillow cases and wrapped it tightly around the thicker end of the shard.

The sound of footsteps outside the door spurred him to slide the remaining piece of the mirror under the pillow and turn to flop back. He drew the blankets up over him, his right arm concealed by his side, his hand curled around the makeshift knife.

A tap on the door. Then it opened.

A woman stepped through.

He tensed, the adrenaline flooding his veins, his heart rate soaring.

It was the woman whose face had come to him a few minutes earlier. The one he’d seen just before he’d been hit from behind and everything had gone dark.

His grip tightened on the shard of mirror glass.

She closed the door behind her, darkening the room once more.

He appraised her quickly. Around thirty years old. Pale, but not unhealthily so. Auburn hair hanging loose.

“Mr Harris,” she said. “I’m Beth Colby. Good to see you awake.”

She took a tentative step forward.

Two more paces, he thought. Two more, and he’d make his move.

Chapter 2

Thirty hours earlier

Joe Venn felt the early afternoon sun on his face like the heavens were smiling down on him, and immediately knew he was going to enjoy Miami.

He’d grown up in small-town Illinois and later in Chicago itself, where the winters were brutal. Now he lived in New York City, whose Januaries and Februaries gave the Midwest a run for its money. And although Venn was by now used to it, he wasn’t a cold-weather person at all.

Here, in Florida in late spring, you got the immediate sense that the sun never stopped shining.

Venn reached for a pair of retro-style aviator shades in his breast pocket and slipped them on.

Beside him, Beth laughed. “Now you really do look like a gangster,” she said.

They’d stopped at a car-hire kiosk and were now headed for the parking lot to collect the Prius. Beth had chided Venn when he’d said he was going to hire a car.

“There isn’t any need,” she said. “We can get a cab to the hotel. We can do the whole tourist thing on foot. Explore the city. We’re only here three days.”

But Venn didn’t like to be without a set of wheels, even in - especially in - an unfamiliar town. So they’d compromised. He’d get his car, but Beth would choose it.

And she chose a hybrid.

“If you’re going to damage the environment, at least minimize the harm,” she said, before he could mutter that over his dead body was he going to drive a Prius. Venn had been ready to argue the point.

But he held his tongue. It was getting easier to do, he reflected. His need to get his own way wasn’t as strong as it once was.

Maybe he was learning to be a husband.

Around them, Miami Airport was heaving. It was early Friday afternoon, and Venn supposed a lot of people were arriving or heading out for the weekend. Just like him and Beth. He swung his suitcase so that the handle popped out and he could pull it on its wheels behind him. Then he reached for Beth’s case.

“I can manage,” she said, deftly holding it out of his reach.

“It’s okay,” he said. “Give it to me.”

She smiled, sighed. “Venn,” she said. “I said I can manage. I’m not an invalid.”

No, but you’re pregnant, thought Venn.

Around eight weeks, if the scan was accurate. Neither of them had told anybody yet, Beth wanting to wait until she was past the first trimester.

Venn’s response to Beth’s news had stunned him a little. He’d found himself overwhelmed by a feeling of protectiveness - of her, and of the dividing ball of cells inside her - that was so intense, he’d been a little scared of it. Now he didn’t want to let Beth out of his sight. If she sneezed, he got worried. When she was a little late home, he felt the dread rise up and catch him by the throat.

He lay awake nights, Beth sleeping peacefully beside him, and wondered how the hell