He went on past and around the block and I got out, but the driver had to remind me about the ten-spot I had promised him. I paid off like a slot machine.
That shows how excited I was. I had stopped thinking about the story I might get. The story was secondary now. What really mattered was that Fradin had to be rescued, and fast. The thing he had let slip was too big to fall into Marvak's hands under any circumstances. And I had to be the one who rescued him. There wasn't time to go for the police. Marvak would work fast.
Marvak did work fast.
I tried the front door first because that was the obvious thing to do. If I got caught coming in the front door I could say I had the wrong address and back out. But if I got caught at the back door, no amount of explanation would do me any good.
The front door was unlocked. It opened into what had once been an office. A flight of stairs led up to the second floor.
I listened—there wasn't a sound. "They went upstairs," I thought.
"Hold it, bud," a voice said behind me.
The voice had a chilled steel ring that sent my heart right down into my shoes. There was no mercy in it, no compassion, no pity. It was double-edged with the threat of death. It jerked my head around.
Marvak was standing there in the office. He had the gun out of his pocket now, pointing it straight at me.