- Home
- James Patterson
Avalanche Page 10
Avalanche Read online
Page 10
“Later,” Pumpkin says. “I’d like to play with her some more.”
“Now! Kill them now!”
Pumpkin taps the woman he thinks is Ali on the shoulder. “Wake up, honey.” He rolls her over and is disgusted. “Who is this bitch? Where’s Ali?”
“Over here.” Ali stands at a distance behind a boulder and aims a gun at Al-Fayed. “Let Robert go, or I kill the beard.”
“Really?” says Al-Fayed. “From that distance? With a handgun? A woman?” He extends his arms in a cross and walks slowly in her direction. “Go ahead. Take your best shot. You will miss. My men will not.”
“I’m not kidding. I’ll shoot!”
The three bodyguards raise their Uzis and point in Ali’s direction. Robert looks over to Carola. Their eyes meet. He shows her the gun under his chest. She nods.
Al-Fayed moves closer to Ali. “This is hard for you. Your kind shrinks from violence, even when it is absolutely necessary. I will help you, count it out for you. One! Two!”
Ali narrows her eyes, aims.
“Three!”
She squeezes the trigger. The air rips at the sound. Al-Fayed doubles over—gut shot. He touches his stomach and lifts a bloody finger. His bodyguards look on with amazement. “Kill her,” Al-Fayed utters with a choked voice. “What are you waiting for?”
Robert rolls over and fires at one of the thugs, hitting him in the face. Robert continues rolling on the ground until he is under the first SUV. Carola turns to the closest man and wrestles with him for the gun. Robert takes aim at the man’s calves and fires two shots—one in each leg. The man falls, and amazingly enough, Carola is left standing with the machine gun. “Hey, assholes! This is for Eugenio!” she screams. She squeezes down on the trigger and sprays lead indiscriminately. The third bodyguard is hit in his shoulder, in his thigh. He turns and unloads his own gun.
Before Robert’s eyes, it’s a double annihilation.
The bodyguard jerks like he’s hooked up to a car battery. Carola flails in the first rays of sunlight.
Riddled with bullets, Carola appears in strobes, her hands above her head, her hair tossed about, her blood splashing through the air. She spins. She falls.
The bodyguard, as if suddenly unplugged, collapses.
The mountain rumbles in the distance.
Robert hears the sound—and realizes that the gunfire has set off an avalanche. He knows they have very little time. “Ali! Get to the mine!”
“Oh, how divine.” Pumpkin surveys the surrounding area and sniffs the air like a hound. “I was hoping for a hunt.” He sees Ali run and follows her.
Al-Fayed limps over to where his last living bodyguard lies groaning on the ground, holding his legs. “Worthless!” he spits. He leans down and picks up an Uzi and the aluminum briefcase. He looks under the SUV for Robert, but he is not there.
Al-Fayed limps down to his Ferrari and settles in the leather seat.
A wall of snow fifteen feet high can now be seen tumbling down the mountainside. Like a great broom, it sweeps up trees and rocks and everything in its path.
The heavy-breathing engine of the 250 GTO comes to life. Al-Fayed is pleased. He has his car, his money, and the two USBs. He will have a private surgeon at his house in less than an hour. And the Modigliani—he still may be able to unload it on an ignorant drug dealer.
He will put out a contract on the Americans, and they will disappear. He puts the car in gear and speeds down the mountain pass.
Chapter 49
The wall of snow tumbles down the mountain, a giant wave of ice and debris. Ali is the first to the mine’s entrance. She turns to look for Robert. He’s still twenty yards away, and the sound of breaking trees, tumbling rocks, and snow is deafening. “Run, Robert! Run!”
Suddenly Pumpkin stands before her. “Oh, my lovely!” he sings out. He flips open a butterfly knife and holds his arms out. “Come to me.”
“No!” Ali aims the gun. She fires, hitting him dead center in the chest. The impact pushes him back, but his arms only fall for a second. He even smiles. “Do you really want to hurt me?” he asks. She fires again to the same result.
“It’s fate. We should be together,” he says. “Forever.”
She realizes now that he is wearing a Kevlar vest. She aims higher, at his distorted face. She closes her eyes and pulls the trigger. The gun clicks empty. Robert grabs Pumpkin’s shoulder, swings him around, and punches him.
Pumpkin staggers back toward the cave entrance, then drops his blade across Robert’s cheek, slicing the skin. He laughs. “Not so pretty anymore. That’s only the begin—”
A wall of ice falls and crashes violently into Pumpkin. He cartwheels, then is swallowed up.
Ali pulls Robert into the cave and falls on him. She holds his bleeding face and kisses him.
In an instant, Carola, the bodyguards, the North Korean woman are all buried. The SUVs are flipped upside down as if they were children’s toys. They float off in the river of snow. The sound is deafening, until it’s over, and everything is quiet.
Chapter 50
Al-Fayed pulls his Ferrari into his garage. He gets out, bent over, and limps toward the staircase holding an Uzi in one hand and the aluminum briefcase in the other.
“Drop zee gun!”
Al-Fayed turns to see Hervé, Greta, and four police officers standing at the open garage door, all aiming guns at him.
“This is private property. You have no warrant,” says Al-Fayed. “Be gone. Or I will have your jobs.”
“You are under arrest,” says Hervé.
“For what?” demands Al-Fayed.
“For holding illegal weapons.”
Al-Fayed looks down at the gun in his hand. He laughs. “This is nothing we can’t work out. I have right here in this briefcase one hundred million dollars in bearer bonds. I could put it down and walk away.”
“Now we have two charges,” says Hervé. “Attempting to bribe a law enforcement official. Shall we go for three?”
“Yes! Indeed! We shall!” says Al-Fayed. He lets the Uzi blaze. Three of the officers fall. Hervé fires three shots, each one landing squarely in Al-Fayed’s chest. He falls backward.
Hervé and Greta run to his side.
“Where are the Americans?” asks Hervé.
“Where are the USB drives?” Greta asks.
Blood pours from Al-Fayed’s mouth. His eyes go dim.
She reaches in the pockets of his finely tailored suit and pulls out a USB drive and Eugenio’s Porsche key.
Hervé calls on his cell. “Three officers down. We need an ambulance. Immediately! Send a helicopter.”
Chapter 51
The entrance to the cave is now a dimly illuminated wall of ice.
The broken boards have been pushed inside. Together, Ali and Robert jam them in the ice, making a ladder to the opening at the top of the cave entrance. They climb to the top.
Robert takes one step in the snow and sinks to his shoulders.
He climbs back down into the cave and comes out with the four extra boards. “We’re gonna have to walk on these until we get down to where the snow is hard-packed.”
After an hour-long hike, a Rega helicopter circles overhead and lands in front of Ali and Robert.
Hervé hops out and runs up to the couple. “This must be the beautiful Ali Monroe.” He extends his hand.
“It’s Al-Fayed!” Robert says raggedly. “He was behind the whole thing. The kidnapping, the USB drives…”
“Yes, we were waiting for him back at his chalet.”
“Is he in custody?”
“He is dead.”
“Carola and the others are buried up by the abandoned mine, in the avalanche.” Hervé nods.
“We must get you medical attention. Greta tells me you are something of a hero.”
Robert laughs.
“He is!” says Ali as she puts her arm in his.
Chapter 52
Robert’s arm is in a sling. Fine thread holds his cheek to
gether. He sits at the interrogation desk in the Gstaad police office reading over a typed statement before signing his name at the bottom.
“We found the girl. They are bringing her in right now,” Hervé says to Robert.
“May I see her?” he asks.
“Yes, but I must tell you: it is not a pretty sight.”
In the morgue, Robert bends over Carola’s corpse. He pushes the hair from her face and brushes her cheek.
“She’s still beautiful, even in death,” he says to Hervé.
“’Tis a tragic waste.”
“Yes. It is.”
Outside the police station, Robert sips in the clean mountain air. His phone rings. He answers it.
“Hello, Robert. It is Greta. I hate to give you déjà vu, but the USB drive—there was nothing on it.”
“Eugenio’s key?”
“No. This one had a great deal of code. But you told me this one is only the cure. We are missing the sickness. It is still out there somewhere. Do you have any idea where it may be?”
“No.”
“Aside from its catastrophic effects, the code could be very useful to us.”
“Yeah, I’m sorry. I’m going back to my normal life. I don’t know anything about this stuff anymore.”
“Okay. Well, thank you for your help,” Greta says before she hangs up.
Robert walks over to a stone wall. He wedges free one of the rocks and glances over both shoulders. He slips his hand in his pocket. He pulls out a USB drive with a small X carved in the plastic. “This is for Carola,” he says as he puts the drive on the wall and smashes repeatedly with the rock until it is nothing but broken bits of plastic and metal. He sweeps the pieces up in his hand and drops them in the nearest trashcan.
Chapter 53
Robert and Ali sit at either end of a black leather couch. A balding man with bright eyes and a dark mustache sits across from them.
“Robert, Ali, what brings you two to couple’s counseling?” the man asks.
“She ran off with an Italian playboy half her age,” says Robert.
“Not half!” she says. “Three quarters.”
“And she left me a little note on the mirror, saying she wanted a divorce.”
“And how did that make you feel?” the therapist asks.
“How do you think it made me feel?” asks Robert.
The therapist pushes on. “Did you feel abandoned?”
Robert nods. “That was in there.”
“He killed a man with a sickle and scythe,” Ali says seriously. “So maybe angry was more like it.”
The man cannot hide his concern. “Is this true?” he asks.
“Actually, I killed two or three, depending on if you count Pumpkin or not.”
Ali flashes a sly smile. “It kind of turned me on.”
“I’m not sure it’s sustainable. I mean, I don’t want to kill a man every time I want to have sex with my wife.”
“This is…legitimate,” says the therapist. “Ali, do you hear Robert’s concern?”
“Yes,” Ali replies, biting her lip. “But it was pretty hot.”
“I drove a thirty-million-dollar car,” Robert adds.
“And how did that make you feel?” asks the therapist.
“Really, really good.”
About the Authors
James Patterson has written more bestsellers and created more enduring fictional characters than any other novelist writing today. He lives in Florida with his family.
David Inglish has inadvertently led police on a high-speed chase, shaken hands with a bishop, jammed with Neil Young, and tubed in Bali. His novels Before the Flock and W. B. Bugg’s Change of Heart are available in paperback and on Kindle.
There’s Always a Deal at BookShots.com
Visit BookShots.com or Download the App Today
Thank you for buying this ebook, published by Hachette Digital.
To receive special offers, bonus content, and news about our latest ebooks and apps, sign up for our newsletters.
Sign Up
Or visit us at hachettebookgroup.com/newsletters

Miracle at Augusta
The Store
The Midnight Club
The Witnesses
The 9th Judgment
Against Medical Advice
The Quickie
Little Black Dress
Private Oz
Homeroom Diaries
Gone
Lifeguard
Kill Me if You Can
Bullseye
Confessions of a Murder Suspect
Black Friday
Manhunt
Filthy Rich
Step on a Crack
Private
Private India
Game Over
Private Sydney
The Murder House
Mistress
I, Michael Bennett
The Gift
The Postcard Killers
The Shut-In
The House Husband
The Lost
I, Alex Cross
Going Bush
16th Seduction
The Jester
Along Came a Spider
The Lake House
Four Blind Mice
Tick Tock
Private L.A.
Middle School, the Worst Years of My Life
Cross Country
The Final Warning
Word of Mouse
Come and Get Us
Sail
I Funny TV: A Middle School Story
Private London
Save Rafe!
Swimsuit
Sam's Letters to Jennifer
3rd Degree
Double Cross
Judge & Jury
Kiss the Girls
Second Honeymoon
Guilty Wives
1st to Die
NYPD Red 4
Truth or Die
Private Vegas
The 5th Horseman
7th Heaven
I Even Funnier
Cross My Heart
Let’s Play Make-Believe
Violets Are Blue
Zoo
Home Sweet Murder
The Private School Murders
Alex Cross, Run
Hunted: BookShots
The Fire
Chase
14th Deadly Sin
Bloody Valentine
The 17th Suspect
The 8th Confession
4th of July
The Angel Experiment
Crazy House
School's Out - Forever
Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas
Cross Justice
Maximum Ride Forever
The Thomas Berryman Number
Honeymoon
The Medical Examiner
Killer Chef
Private Princess
Private Games
Burn
10th Anniversary
I Totally Funniest: A Middle School Story
Taking the Titanic
The Lawyer Lifeguard
The 6th Target
Cross the Line
Alert
Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports
1st Case
Unlucky 13
Haunted
Cross
Lost
11th Hour
Bookshots Thriller Omnibus
Target: Alex Cross
Hope to Die
The Noise
Worst Case
Dog's Best Friend
Nevermore: The Final Maximum Ride Adventure
I Funny: A Middle School Story
NYPD Red
Till Murder Do Us Part
Black & Blue
Fang
Liar Liar
The Inn
Sundays at Tiffany's
Middle School: Escape to Australia
Cat and Mouse
Instinct
The Black Book
London Bridges
Toys
The Last Days of John Lennon
Roses Are Red
Witch & Wizard
The Dolls
The Christmas Wedding
The River Murders
The 18th Abduction
The 19th Christmas
Middle School: How I Got Lost in London
Just My Rotten Luck
Red Alert
Walk in My Combat Boots
Three Women Disappear
21st Birthday
All-American Adventure
Becoming Muhammad Ali
The Murder of an Angel
The 13-Minute Murder
Rebels With a Cause
The Trial
Run for Your Life
The House Next Door
NYPD Red 2
Ali Cross
The Big Bad Wolf
Middle School: My Brother Is a Big, Fat Liar
Private Paris
Miracle on the 17th Green
The People vs. Alex Cross
The Beach House
Cross Kill
Dog Diaries
The President's Daughter
Happy Howlidays
Detective Cross
The Paris Mysteries
Watch the Skies
113 Minutes
Alex Cross's Trial
NYPD Red 3
Hush Hush
Now You See Her
Merry Christmas, Alex Cross
2nd Chance
Private Royals
Two From the Heart
Max
I, Funny
Blindside (Michael Bennett)
Sophia, Princess Among Beasts
Armageddon
Don't Blink
NYPD Red 6
The First Lady
Texas Outlaw
Hush
Beach Road
Private Berlin
The Family Lawyer
Jack & Jill
The Midwife Murders
Middle School: Rafe's Aussie Adventure
The Murder of King Tut: The Plot to Kill the Child King
First Love
The Dangerous Days of Daniel X
Hawk
Private Delhi
The 20th Victim
The Shadow
Katt vs. Dogg
The Palm Beach Murders
2 Sisters Detective Agency
Humans, Bow Down
You've Been Warned
Cradle and All
20th Victim: (Women’s Murder Club 20) (Women's Murder Club)
Season of the Machete
Woman of God
Mary, Mary
Blindside
Invisible
The Chef
Revenge
See How They Run
Pop Goes the Weasel
15th Affair
Middle School: Get Me Out of Here!
Middle School: How I Survived Bullies, Broccoli, and Snake Hill
From Hero to Zero - Chris Tebbetts
G'day, America
Max Einstein Saves the Future
The Cornwalls Are Gone
Private Moscow
Two Schools Out - Forever
Hollywood 101
Deadly Cargo: BookShots
21st Birthday (Women's Murder Club)
The Sky Is Falling
Cajun Justice
Bennett 06 - Gone
The House of Kennedy
Waterwings
Murder is Forever, Volume 2
Maximum Ride 02
Treasure Hunters--The Plunder Down Under
Private Royals: BookShots (A Private Thriller)
After the End
Private India: (Private 8)
Escape to Australia
WMC - First to Die
Boys Will Be Boys
The Red Book
11th hour wmc-11
Hidden
You've Been Warned--Again
Unsolved
Pottymouth and Stoopid
Hope to Die: (Alex Cross 22)
The Moores Are Missing
Black & Blue: BookShots (Detective Harriet Blue Series)
Airport - Code Red: BookShots
Kill or Be Killed
School's Out--Forever
When the Wind Blows
Heist: BookShots
Murder of Innocence (Murder Is Forever)
Red Alert_An NYPD Red Mystery
Malicious
Scott Free
The Summer House
French Kiss
Treasure Hunters
Murder Is Forever, Volume 1
Secret of the Forbidden City
Cross the Line: (Alex Cross 24)
Witch & Wizard: The Fire
Women's Murder Club [06] The 6th Target
Cross My Heart ac-21
Alex Cross’s Trial ак-15
Alex Cross 03 - Jack & Jill
Liar Liar: (Harriet Blue 3) (Detective Harriet Blue Series)
Cross Country ак-14
Honeymoon h-1
Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment
The Big Bad Wolf ак-9
Dead Heat: BookShots (Book Shots)
Kill and Tell
Avalanche
Robot Revolution
Public School Superhero
12th of Never
Max: A Maximum Ride Novel
All-American Murder
Murder Games
Robots Go Wild!
My Life Is a Joke
Private: Gold
Demons and Druids
Jacky Ha-Ha
Postcard killers
Princess: A Private Novel
Kill Alex Cross ac-18
12th of Never wmc-12
The Murder of King Tut
I Totally Funniest
Cross Fire ак-17
Count to Ten
Women's Murder Club [10] 10th Anniversary
Women's Murder Club [01] 1st to Die
I, Michael Bennett mb-5
Nooners
Women's Murder Club [08] The 8th Confession
Private jm-1
Treasure Hunters: Danger Down the Nile
Worst Case mb-3
Don’t Blink
The Games
The Medical Examiner: A Women's Murder Club Story
Black Market
Gone mb-6
Women's Murder Club [02] 2nd Chance
French Twist
Kenny Wright
Manhunt: A Michael Bennett Story
Cross Kill: An Alex Cross Story
Confessions of a Murder Suspect td-1
Second Honeymoon h-2
Chase_A BookShot_A Michael Bennett Story
Confessions: The Paris Mysteries
Women's Murder Club [09] The 9th Judgment
Absolute Zero
Nevermore: The Final Maximum Ride Adventure mr-8
Angel: A Maximum Ride Novel mr-7
Juror #3
Million-Dollar Mess Down Under
The Verdict: BookShots (A Jon Roscoe Thriller)
The President Is Missing: A Novel
Women's Murder Club [04] 4th of July
The Hostage: BookShots (Hotel Series)
$10,000,000 Marriage Proposal
Diary of a Succubus
Unbelievably Boring Bart
Angel: A Maximum Ride Novel
Stingrays
Confessions: The Private School Murders
Stealing Gulfstreams
Women's Murder Club [05] The 5th Horseman
Zoo 2
Jack Morgan 02 - Private London
Treasure Hunters--Quest for the City of Gold
The Christmas Mystery
Murder in Paradise
Kidnapped: BookShots (A Jon Roscoe Thriller)
Triple Homicide_Thrillers
16th Seduction: (Women’s Murder Club 16) (Women's Murder Club)
14th Deadly Sin: (Women’s Murder Club 14)
Texas Ranger
Witch & Wizard 04 - The Kiss
Women's Murder Club [03] 3rd Degree
Break Point: BookShots
Alex Cross 04 - Cat & Mouse
Maximum Ride
Fifty Fifty: (Harriet Blue 2) (Detective Harriet Blue Series)
Alex Cross 02 - Kiss the Girls
The President Is Missing
Hunted
House of Robots
Dangerous Days of Daniel X
Tick Tock mb-4
10th Anniversary wmc-10
The Exile
Private Games-Jack Morgan 4 jm-4
Burn: (Michael Bennett 7)
Laugh Out Loud
The People vs. Alex Cross: (Alex Cross 25)
Peril at the Top of the World
I Funny TV
Merry Christmas, Alex Cross ac-19
#1 Suspect jm-3
Fang: A Maximum Ride Novel
Women's Murder Club [07] 7th Heaven
The End