Page 78 of Dublin's Danger Dancer

“Well that was stupid,” says Admir “You’re sinking a good ship.”

Liam walks towards where the jumper cables are and picks up two pairs he places them on Fergus arms. “If you don’t tell me the truth, I’m going to ramp up the voltage and until your brains are sizzling.”

“Stop!” I demand, “Just stop.”

“Oh, you’re going to protect your boss,’’ teases Admir.

“It’s true, I’m undercover.”

Fergus speaks up, “I told you she’s turned rogue. She was on the same ship the other day. She had a shot at you, multiple shots and she didn’t shoot,” he says, blood bubbling out of his mouth, rolling down his chin.

“Is that true?” Liam asks.

Freddie reaches for his gun, but Liam shoots first. The burnt smell of gunpowder hangs in the air, alongside the deafening roar of the shot. The bullet enters him right between the eyes, and he falls back almost dead straight. He turns and crouches down behind a box as Admir begins to shoot.

Admir presses the on button on the cables attached to Fergus and a disturbing smell of burning flesh flushes through the boat’s hull.

I lunge at Admir from behind, wrestling him to the ground. Liam stands over both of us. I stare down the barrel of his gun, waiting for the bullet to hit. Everything is still as if we’d been frozen in time, as if someone pressed pause and we are in a video. I see the filaments, the graphite of the gun and the different layers inside the mapped pistol pointed straight at my head. Liam’s wrist is grabbed by Admir.

He darts up the stairwell and can be heard diving off the boat into the blackwater below.

I raced to Fergus to unclip the electrifying cables from his arms. The flesh is burned and his head lolls at almost a ninety-degree angle.

“Ferg, Fergus…Fergus,” I say tapping on his face. “Fergus!” I call.

“I’m sorry,” he says, as I try to grip his head but it falls back perpendicularly.

“He is dead,” announces Liam.

I’m still staring at Fergus, unable to comprehend that he’s gone.

“So let me get this right, you are feeding all your intelligence to him and he was telling us?” Liam shakes his head, laughing.

A siren nears closer to the boat. I hope someone has heard the shots and called the guards. Until the same siren peters out into the distance.

“Sounds like there’s some issues tonight.” Liam snarls. “We need to go,’’ Liam says, pulling me up by the wrist.

“Why don’t you just kill me now!” I scream.

“The boat is sinking,” he says. “Do you want to go down with it?” He decides for me as I remain staring at Ferg. “I’m not asking you, Ciara, and telling you, let’s go.” He jabs a gun into my side.

Chapter Twenty

He pulls me to the road in front of the dockyards where a steady stream of taxis are passing. A black cab with two young women gossiping in the back row slows, Liam stepped in front of it pulling me with him.

“What the hell are you doing?” I ask.

“Shut up,” he says, pointing the gun at the old man in a tweed flat cap.

“Get out of the car!” he shouts.

The girls look at the gun and hop out either side, coming back to each other to hug, shaking terrified. Liam produces a wad of notes from his tux suit pocket and presses them into the taxi driver’s hand.

Liam turns his gun on me. “In,” he growls.

I get in and as soon as he gets in the driver’s seat. He locks the doors. As he drives at speed, I fall back against the leather seats, still warm from where the girls had sat.

There’s a glass panel between us.

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