"That's true," said Oliver thoughtfully. "It would be better to take out as many as we can tonight, but even I have to admit that this is going to be bloody dangerous for all of us. I'm not forgetting those snipers either. I'll bet she has them set up someplace high up in these fields that surround the place, waiting to take us out."
"Bitch," said Fergus, with feeling.
"Right," I said as the plan unexpectedly clicked together in my head. "This is how we're going to do it."
Mark
I sat on that naked cold steel floor reaching out and touching heartbeats, testing the contact with each, and withdrawing with satisfaction at every passing flicker of the impulses flowing through their heart muscle. I could reach them all from here, in this cold isolated room.
Occasionally I'd touch Snake Eye's heartbeat, sensing that five-to-one skip rhythm he had, and resisting the temptation to stop it forever there and then. I could and would wait.
Anne's heart was one I concentrated the most on, though. Small and feminine, metallic and strong. It was one I was growing to know quite well; so well that I was able to selectively seek it out. I had good reason for doing this. When the conflict started tonight, I would make certain that she would not be alive to see it out.
And then I sensed a change in the rate and rhythm of the heartbeats above me.
I stood up and extended my arms on either side of my body, fingers and palms upwards, as my own heart started racing in anticipation of what was to come.
Show time.