Tidal Rage by David Evans (bill gates books to read txt) 📕

The site elevated towers would have been a perfect location on high to watch the entrance into the archways.

Cutler could not take a chance he was being observed. Nowadays, with mobile phones, his picture could already be with Werner, if someone were indeed watching him. He cursed himself; he should have sent Hoagie, who would be unknown to Werner. Cutler’s hackles were up; he could not tell why, and it was always hard to explain these often correct but tenuous feelings of danger, but he knew he had to check it out.

He side-stepped between the construction barriers and veered to the left into the darkness of what once was the moat. He knelt there for several seconds and listened intently. The sound of footsteps crossing the small drawbridge confirmed his fears; he had been observed. The stalker had seen him exit the archway and was now making his way onto the street to follow him.

Just before the observer exited through the gap in the panels onto the street, Cutler pounced out of the darkness of the moat. He hit the man immediately with a rabbit punch to his jaw, dragging the big muscle-bound man down into the grassy moat. A street fighter rather than a professional, Cutler thought. Cutler assumed he was local hired help rather than one of Werner’s assassins due the ease with which Cutler had been able to sucker punch him.

The bloodied man tried to headbutt Cutler with the back of his head, but Cutler dropped his head down so the bottom of the observer’s cranium encountered the top of Cutler’s forehead. While the blow made Cutler stumble, it laid the man out flat. He would not gain consciousness for several more hours.

Cutler went through the unconscious man’s pockets where he discovered binoculars, a mobile phone, and a flick knife with a seven-inch blade. He found the man’s wallet, which contained his driving license and security pass with the man’s photograph on it and the words ‘Door Security’, which confirmed to Cutler the man was locally hired.

Cutler read through the latest phone messages. It was clear that he had been followed, as the observer had relayed a message to a second assailant. The message said, ‘Go to high ground on the Gateshead side of the bridge to track him on the way back.’ There was a picture of Cutler on the smartphone, but it was too dark and pixelated to make out his face.

Cutler took out his phone and texted a message to Hoagie to bring him up to speed.

Hoagie, on receiving the text, immediately went to a local map of the area he had retrieved earlier from reception. He scanned the map and highlighted two areas on the map which he would choose if he had been on a reconnoitring mission. The first had been on top of the Baltic Mill overlooking the bridge and the other, the Sage. This modernistic building is a large, cultural centre holding concerts, displays, and galleries. The building has three pyramids in clear glass which are cocooned atop by reflective rounded panels. From a distance, they looked like clouds. The Sage sits atop a small plateau some 150 yards away from the Baltic centre and Tyne, and with a good view down to both the Millennium and Tyne bridges.

Hoagie ignored the constant requests from Richter for information about what was happening while Hoagie changed into a black tracksuit and handmade, black, lightweight army boots.

Richter began to complain again to Hoagie, who in the meantime retrieved two plastic restraints from his rucksack. Richter looked confused as Hoagie neared him.

“Yes, you deserve to know, but I need to whisper it to you, Richter. You know the saying, loose lips sink ships,” Hoagie said quietly.

He put his lips to Richter’s ear and in a swift movement had pressed his finger into a pressure point on the side of Richter’s temple. Richter collapsed unconscious onto the bed. Hoagie secured his wrists and ankles with the plastic strips and placed a gag around his mouth.

Hoagie left the hotel and walked through the darkness of the parking lot. There was a small wall he hurdled, which took him down Mills Road. He hugged the wall on the far side in darkness until he crossed the road to the Baltic building. He circumnavigated the building, and it became apparent that this building was closed for business that evening. Hoagie noticed the whole building perimeter was covered with closed-circuit television cameras and excluded this observation post as too dangerous for any type of operation.

He retraced his steps towards the hotel until he entered the parking lot to the Sage. To anyone watching he was just one of the many people either entering or exiting the parking lot, and Hoagie was pretty sure the other observer would be watching the bridge for Cutler’s return, and not the parking lot.

Cutler retraced his steps and re-entered the forger’s premises under the archway. The look of shock on Imran’s face told him everything he needed to know. Cutler swept the side of his right hand into Imran’s throat and as he gasped for breath, Cutler pushed him through into Bruno’s office, where he collapsed.

“We’ve been doing business a long time, Bruno. You know who I work for and know not to cross them, so I gather it’s this little shit who gave me up,” Cutler said, maintaining the pretense he still worked for the United States government.

Bruno stood up with the aid of a walking stick and looked at the forlorn figure on the floor. “You would guess right. I do over half my business with your government, and you don’t bite the hand that feeds you,” Bruno replied honestly.

“So that leaves you,” he said to Imran, pushing him with the toe of his shoe.

“What pictures do you have of