The Revelation Code (Wilde/Chase 11) by Andy McDermott Page B

for several seconds – then a plume of water lanced in from the bottom of the screen and hit the Englishman in the face.
    Nina gasped as he thrashed and coughed. ‘ Eddie! ’

 
    5
    E ddie slammed painfully back to wakefulness as the frigid water hit him. He struggled to breathe, the sudden cold squeezing his chest tight – then realised he couldn’t move. His arms were pinned painfully behind his back. Still straining to draw in air, he shook and writhed, trying to get loose.
    No joy. Something was biting into his wrists. Handcuffs. No way to break them, but if there was enough slack in the chain, he might be able to bring his hands in front of him . . .
    He couldn’t. He was in a chair, a single metal pole supporting its broad back, and couldn’t spread his arms far enough apart to lift them up around it. His ankles were secured too, tied to the chair’s legs.
    But he felt the whole seat flex slightly as he struggled. If he kept going, he might be able to crack a weld or strip a screw—
    Movement nearby. He looked up, shaking icy water from his eyes, and knew he wouldn’t get the chance.
    Three men stared stonily back at him. The same bastards who’d attacked him on the street, shooting him with a Taser and bundling him into a van to be gagged . . . and drugged. They’d stuck him with something to knock him out. He had no idea how long he’d been unconscious, but he was both hungry and thirsty, with a groggy headache and raw, gritty eyes.
    His surroundings came into focus beyond the trio. A warehouse or factory, derelict, grey daylight leaking in through grubby windows high above. Dirty crates and unidentifiable rusting machinery glinted with cobwebs. Closer by were some metal cases, their cleanliness telling him they had been brought by his kidnappers. His leather jacket lay crumpled on the floor nearby.
    He also saw a video camera mounted on a tripod, connected to a laptop on a wooden bench. The red light by the lens suggested that he had an audience—
    A voice cut through his fear. ‘ Eddie! ’
    ‘Nina!’ he yelled back. ‘Nina, where are you?’
    ‘She’s not here,’ said the older man mockingly. ‘Prophet? He’s awake.’
    ‘Yes, I can see,’ came another disembodied voice from the laptop, an American man. ‘Dr Wilde, you can talk to your husband. Briefly.’
    ‘Eddie!’ Nina cried over the speakers. ‘Are you okay?’
    ‘I’ve been better,’ he replied, blowing more dripping water off his face. ‘And I’m fucking freezing. These twats just woke me up with a bucket of ice water!’
    ‘Watch your mouth,’ said the blond man, a plaster across his broken nose.
    ‘Fuck off.’
    The man’s face twisted with anger. Eddie saw the punch coming, but was completely unable to resist. It hit his stomach, hard, leaving him breathless.
    ‘No, stop!’ Nina shouted. ‘Leave him alone!’
    ‘Mr Chase,’ said the man with Nina, ‘I’d advise you to watch your language. Go on, Dr Wilde.’
    ‘You son of a bitch,’ she muttered, before raising her voice again. ‘Are you all right, Eddie?’
    ‘Like I said,’ he wheezed through gritted teeth, ‘been better. Where are you?’
    ‘I don’t know – somewhere in the tropics, I think. They took me from the apartment and brought me here.’
    Worry gripped him. ‘Is the baby okay?’
    ‘Yeah, as far as I can tell. They were going to drug me, but when I told them I was pregnant, they backed off.’
    ‘Oh, so they’re the caring kind of kidnappers. Good to know. What the hell do they want with us?’
    ‘They’re . . . they’re using you to force me to cooperate. Eddie, they say they’ll torture you if I don’t do what they want.’
    A different cold ran through him as he guessed what was in the cases. ‘Why? What are they after?’
    ‘It’s about the Book of Revelation, they—’
    Sudden silence as the call was muted. ‘Nina?’ Eddie shouted. ‘Nina! Put her back on, you fucking shithead!’
    The blond man punched him again as