He tightened his grip on Nantz’s mouth and his arm around the target’s neck, and shoved the butterflies out of his brain with every ounce of mental strength he possessed. They vanished as suddenly as they’d arrived. Hoping to keep Nantz’s consciousness at bay, he concentrated on the humid warmth against his palm and the rise and fall of Embray’s voice.
“What I’m looking into is a new type of cryptocurrency with unlimited potential.” Embray raised his voice, drowning out the faintshush shushof Nantz’s shoes kicking against the carpet.
So far, so good. The butterflies hadn’t come back and Nantz wasn’t making enough noise to attract attention. Nor did he have the self-defense training to break the hold O’Neill had on him. Fuck, he hadn’t even tried a headbutt.
Capland should already be downloading the laptop’s hard drive. Another minute tops and the drug would kick in. Fiveminutes and all the information on Nantz’s laptop would be theirs.
Embray kept talking…droning on and on about numbers and markets.
Nantz’s squirming weakened.
“Try not to kill him,” Cosky warned in a whisper, his voice buried beneath Embray’s monologue. “He needs to be alive to answer our questions.”
O’Neill rolled his eyes, but eased up on the neck lock. Nantz’s struggles weakened even further. A few seconds later, he went limp.
He could be faking his collapse...or not. It was about time for the drug to kick in. O’Neill loosened the neck hold even more. No response. Their target just hung there. Limp.
Cosky moved around to the front and pulled back his eyelids. “He’s out.”
As O’Neill carefully lowered Nantz to the floor, Cosky pulled out his phone and quickly typed out a message. Probably to Rawlings, telling him to come collect their target. At least that’s what their plan called for.
While Simcosky was summoning their ambulance, O’Neill knelt beside their target, unbuttoned his jacket, and ripped open his dress shirt. He was relieved to see the rise and fall of Nantz’s chest. But even more relieved, the electric buzzing and freaky butterflies didn’t make another appearance.
Since Nantz’s skin tone was more olive than white, his neck wasn’t as red as O’Neill had feared. But if the security detailed noticed, he’d have to come up with an excuse.
Target down. He broadcast through theNeealaho.
Embray suddenly broke off his litany of nonsense to ask in a sharp voice, “Clark? What’s wrong?” He paused a moment before adding, “Clark! Clark? Can you hear me?”
His voice was loud enough to catch the attention of Nantz’s security. Three men burst through a door at the back of the office.
Embray looked up. “Call an ambulance!” he barked. Which was also Capland’s cue to turn off the jammer.
“Jaspers, call 999,” a bodyguard with a hawkish face and a sturdy build said before turning to Nantz. His suspicious gaze assessed Nantz’s prone form, lingering on the slight red around his neck. Then scanned the four other men in the room. “What happened to him?’
“He just collapsed,” Embray said. “One moment he was fine and the next he was down.”
“Why’s his shirt open?” The guy’s sharp eyes traveled back to his employer’s neck. “And why’s his neck red?”
Still kneeling beside their fallen target. O’Neill grunted. “Both those are on me,” he said without apology. “I tried to break his fall and caught him around the neck. Guess my hold was tighter than I thought. As for his shirt. I opened it in case he needed CPR.”
The lead bodyguard dropped to his knees opposite O’Neill and reached for his client’s pulse.
“He’s got a pulse. He’s breathing.” He twisted to yell over his shoulder. “What’s the ETA on the ambulance.”
“Ten minutes,” someone shouted back. “Traffic’s backed up.”
Now that was good to hear. Hopefully, Wolf could back the traffic up even more.
“Tell me exactly what happened.” The lead bodyguard nailed O’Neill with a combative look.
O’Neill shrugged. “No idea. He staggered, muttered something, and collapsed. I barely caught him before he hit the ground.”
The bodyguard’s eyes narrowed. “What did he say before he collapsed?”
“No clue. It was garbled. I didn’t catch it.”
The bodyguard grunted, then looked toward Embray. “What about you?”
