Page 45 of Light Me Up

The rotting dark hole in Lella’ sig grew larger by the second. Something was happening inside the man’s brain right now, like an aneurysm, or a stroke.

And what the fuck was that red spot on his skull? It glowed like a hot coal. Flaring brighter…

As did Noah’s horrified realization.

Fuck.Orazio’s cross was not the bomb.

Lella was.

Chapter 14

“No need for alarm!” Stefano’s voice strengthened as the crowd’s agitated murmuring swelled.

A burst of gunfire cut off his words, and the room erupted.

Pandemonium.

Shit.Some crazy fuckheads he couldn’t see were shooting into the densely packed crowd.

Screams. Falling bodies. The crowd surged toward the exits. Noah fought his way toward the front, channeling his panic into a brief burst of electromagnetic power, enough to blowthe lights out.

The screaming redoubled.

There was still a sickly green glow from the emergency lights, but it was dim enough now to keep him from being shot for a minute or two. The dimness also made the sigs glow brighter, and he needed every advantage he could get.

Lella swayed on the dais, his face shiny. Everyone else who’d been up there had bolted except for Stefano, still yelling orders no one could hear over the noise from the frantic guests bottlenecked atthe two exits.

Stefano yelled angrily in Lella’s direction but the man just stared into space, positioning himself exactly where his explosive-packed vest would do maximum damage and kill nearly everyone there when it blew.

Lella’s mouth hung open, eyes unfocused. He pushed open his suit jacket, slowly lifting up his hand in a jerky, robotic gesture. He made a clumsy stabbing gesture with his finger toward a cord dangling from his shirt. He missed it. Fumbled. Tried again. Kept on missing it. He stretched out his hand after each attempt, away from his body, as if trying to rememberhow it worked.

The cord had to be the detonator. One pull and they and the whole building would be blasted to kingdom come.

One pull.

One chance.

Noah still had Vilardi’s knife. He threw it. It flashed throughthe air…thunk.

Lella’s hand twitched convulsively, pinned to the black panel behind him. Blood welled around the half-buried blade.

Lella gasped hard, like a man waking from dreadful nightmare. He twisted to stare at the knife piercing his pinned hand, blood dripping onto his head from above.

He started to scream. Colors surged violently in his sig. The black hole flickered and wavered, growing smaller as the man struggled to retake control of his own will.

Then his free hand once more began its jerky, stabbing movements toward his detonator cord. The black hole wasgrowing again.

Lella fought hard, but he was going to lose. All of them would lose.

Noah leaped onto the dais and dove for him.

Chapter 15

“Pull the cord!” Konig screamed into the headset transmitter. “Pull it!”

Nothing. Lella wasn’t responding. Nothing and no one was responding. Even the livestream was useless now. Just chaotic darkness, moving shadows, screaming.

The one clear memory he had out of the button cam on Lella’s jacket, while he could still see out of it, was a glimpse of that man’s face coming toward him. Morelli’s mystery guest. But now his eyes were glowing a strange, bright yellowish orange that looked almost spectralin the dimness.

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