King of War Tech novel · Chapter 19 of 24

Chapter 19: The Garage

The Admiral had thrown Imogen his car keys at the club door, and she took the turn onto Main Street at forty miles an hour.

"Sub-level three," I said. "The truck is at the far end, under the plaque."

"Go," she said. "I'll be at the corner with the engine running."

The tower garage was nearly empty at 9:10.

I walked down three levels past the security booth in my old facilities polo, which I had kept in the duffel.

The guard on duty looked up and looked away.

Nobody looks at the help.

The truck sat at the far end of the concrete floor behind its velvet rope.

It was a dusty green ton-and-a-half with a cracked windshield and a rooster on the door, holding a missile in its beak.

Under the plaque, somebody had written THE RIDGEBACK UNIT, and under that, in Clyde's favorite joke, WARM, DRY.

I stepped over the rope.

Clyde's key hung on my ring.

I did not need it for the panel.

I knelt by the passenger door, pressed two fingers into the seam under the glove box, and felt the catch give.

Behind it, wrapped in a shop rag, lay a steel case the size of a deck of cards.

The drive.

Three years of first Sundays, in my hand.

"Evening, Tarrant."

The chief of security stood at the foot of the ramp with his arm in its sling.

Two men flanked him.

Behind them, headlights swung in, and a tow truck backed down the incline with its beacon turning.

"I knew a janitor wouldn't visit a dead man's truck for fun," he said. "Hand it over."

Keep reading free with an account. Start King of War Tech from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.