Heart of Lies by M. L. Malcolm Page A

react that quickly. By the time anyone realizes a shot has been fired, I’ll be gone. In fact, I’ll enjoy shooting you. I’ll get nearly as much pleasure out of shooting you as I did out of putting a bullet in the mouth of that brainless communist bitch you lived with on Andrassy.”
    Erzsebet. The villa. It was now the property of the Ministry of the Treasury. A horrifying numbness overcame Leo as the full implication of Károly’s words hit him.
    Then the reaction set in.
    Black rage poured out from behind the closed door in his soul, filling his muscles with violent power. He stood motionless, poised to kill. He knew how to kill a man with his bare hands. The war had taught him that much.
    Károly was still talking. “Tell me where the necklace is, or I’ll start breaking pieces of you off until I find it, starting with your well-used testicles.”
    “It’s in a safe place,” Leo muttered through clenched teeth. As he spoke he shifted his gaze a fraction, almost imperceptibly, down toward the bed and then back to Károly’s. Look away, bastard. Look away for just one second
    Erzsebet’s killer stepped into the trap. Keeping the gun pointed at Leo, he leaned over and tried to pull up the side of the mattress with one hand.
    Using the bed as a springboard Leo came at him, lunging across the small bed with the speed and strength of a creature from hell. His raised forearm caught Károly full in the throat, pinning him to the wall. The man had no time to cry out, for the force of Leo’s blow crushed his larynx. His stunned reflexes were unable to fire a shot. Leo went for thegun, snapping two of Károly’s fingers as he twisted the weapon out of his hand.
    Leo saw the pain and terror in the man’s eyes, and exulted in it. With one push he shoved Károly face first onto the bed, then, lifting the gun high in the air, smashed the metal butt into his skull. Again. And again, until the sight of blood oozing from the back of the dead man’s head brought him to his senses.
    He became aware, first, of the heavy quickness of his own breath, as if he’d just awakened from a nightmare. Looking at Károly’s lifeless body, he felt no remorse, only a vague sense of having finished an exhausting task. He leaned against the wall to steady himself, and looked down. His pants and shirt were spattered with blood. Quickly he removed his shoes, took out the receipt from the Ritz, then stripped off the rest of his clothes. He then used a corner of his shirt sleeve to wipe his fingerprints from the gun. He left the gun, and the wallet with the counterfeit notes, on the bed beside the corpse.
    Someone knocked. Leo reeled toward the door. The chamber maid’s worried voice floated in from the hallway.
    “Sir? Are you all right? Is everything all right?”
    Leo snatched a towel from the wash basin and wrapped it around his waist. He composed his features and unlocked the door, opening it a fraction wider than was decent given his nakedness, using his body to block the woman’s view into the room.
    “Yes?” He gave her a devastating smile, designed to make her think that the sight of her at his door brought a special joy to his day.
    “I thought…there was a noise. You’re in no trouble?” she stammered.
    “I’m so sorry. This is so embarrassing. I fell out of bed. Can you imagine?” His smile invited her to imagine other things as well. “I guess I’m just too big for a small bed. I hope the noise of my hitting the floor didn’t disturb you.”
    “No, sir, it was the man in the room downstairs.”
    “Please give him my most sincere apology, will you? I’ll be checking out today so it certainly won’t happen again.” Another smile, this one requesting her assistance, telling her she was the only one in the world who could help him with so important a matter.
    “Of course, sir. I will explain, sir.”
    “Thank you.” He smiled once more. She melted. He closed the door.
    How much time did he have? He couldn’t