Page 28 of King’s Ransom

‘Hurry up,’ Hooper urged.

‘. . . two . . . one . . . time.’

The countdown expired and—bang!-bang!—two small explosive charges went off near the bodyguard’s feet.

They were tiny blasts, just strong enough to blow off the plastic hooks of his two gravity boots and . . .

. . . to my horror, to everyone’s horror . . .

. . . the bodyguard detached from the elevator . . .

. . . and with a muffled shout through his gag, he fell into darkness, his wide eyes locking on to mine as he dropped away into the bottomless shaft.

Only it wasn’t bottomless.

Ten seconds later, a sickening thud echoed up the shaft.

‘Fucking hell,’ Audrey said.

We all stood in stunned silence at the edge of the shaft.

Audrey didn’t move.

Special Agent Hooper’s mouth hung open.

Director Longmuir was staring into the middle distance, no doubt composing the report he would have to write about this later.

Even the asshole insurance guy, McCade, looked shaken.

But Ms Kimura took it the worst.

She began to babble. ‘I didn’t know he’d actually drop him . . . I mean, I—’

Then the voice returned, this time from the little speaker attached to the boy’s collar.

‘Really? Wow. You let that poor man die over an amount of money that Mr King would hardly even notice?

‘Anyhoo, then. Let’s see what you’ll do for the boy.

‘Oh, and my price just went up by twenty million dollars.

‘$40 million. In bitcoin. Sixty seconds. Your time starts now.’

With his boss Director Longmuir watching, now Special Agent Trey Hooper took charge.

He rounded on Quinn McCade. ‘Okay, insurance guy. Do you pay this time?’

Now it was McCade’s turn to look totally flustered. Gone was the cool confidence with which he’d dismissed the life of the bodyguard.

He pulled out his phone. ‘I’ll . . . I’ll have to call the office. I’m not authorised to remit a payment that large.’

‘Make your fucking call,’ Hooper barked. ‘While you do that, we’ll try another option.’

As McCade stepped away to speak into his phone, Hooper snatched Ms Kimura’s iPad from her and said, ‘All right, lady, this amount of money is nothing to your boss. What do you say we pay the extortionist now and get it back later?’

Ms Kimura stared at the elevator shaft but said nothing.

Tears ran down her face.