Read Weapon of Vengeance for Free Online

line.
    BORN TO KILL saw him. His finger was still on the trigger. The finger tightened as his mind emitted a silent scream of alarm. In an instant, almost half the thirty-five-round magazine had emptied itself.
    Two of the bullets slammed into Yusuf’s right shoulder, spinning him around and dropping him. One of the other bullets shattered the windscreen of their car and found his mother’s jaw. It bored into Salima’s face, replacing the already quivering, bloodstained lips with a red, gaping hole. Three bullets found two more victims in the fleeing crowd. The others slammed harmlessly in the cars and the milling dust.
    â€œThere was so much blood … all around me.… I can feel it … even now.…” Remembering those moments, Rehana shuddered. Her fingers were making an involuntary rubbing motion, as though trying to wipe the blood clean. “No outsider can ever understand why our youngsters are so ready to seek martyrdom. Ruby, they don’t understand that we have no choice. We either die in a blaze of glory or slowly … inch by inch … one day at a time … but we die … and continue to die…” Her voice trailed away. “And still nothing changes.” Rehana’s cheeks were wet with tears, her voice barely audible. “Nothing changes … nothing … Ruby, we have to make it change.… We have to do something.…”
    *   *   *
    Harsh popping sounds shattered Ruby’s bloody march down memory lane. Her head hit the window with a crack, jolting her awake. The heavy tires of the Nissan van ground over loose gravel. Pebbles flew out with sharp, flat reports as the driver brought the vehicle to a halt. Except for puffs of dust swirling around, everything was still and silent.
    Ruby looked around befuddled, her mind still trapped in her mother’s violent memories. It took a moment for the red and yellow signboard across the building to register.
    DIYA DAHARA RESTAURANT.
    Its paint had seen better days.
    â€œYou must try the food here.” The driver had twisted to face them. “This place is famous.”
    â€œWhy don’t you help us with the menu?” Mark took the reluctant Sri Lankan by his arm and led him to a table below a fan.
    â€œAnd tell them to go easy on the spices,” Ruby added.
    He was plainly uncomfortable, but he ordered a copious meal.
    The service was efficient, but not surprising, since there were just a handful of customers. They had just cooled off with a chilled glass of King Coconut when the waiter carted in an array of steaming dishes.
    â€œYou have ordered food for the whole restaurant?” Ruby smiled as dish after dish arrived, soon covering the entire table.
    â€œI did not want you to go hungry.” The driver smiled, hungrily eyeing the food; making it clear that he certainly wouldn’t. For him, this had to be a great luxury.
    The aroma of yellow rice flavored with spices wafted out as the white-liveried waiter removed the lid from the first platter. Next he displayed fried chicken, crab curry in coconut gravy, deviled cuttlefish, white cashew curry, and coconut sambol. Their driver must have briefed the waiter to go easy on the spices, since Ruby was able to relish every dish, without breaking into hiccups. The wattalappan dessert she thought was to die for.
    Mark, though he cast several covetous glances at the bottles of Three Coins beer chilling in the cooler near the cash counter, made no move to order one. He knew Ruby seriously enforced the no-drinking-on-the job rule.
    The most amazing aspect of the meal was the bill. Ruby couldn’t believe it was just a tad more than what they would have paid for a sandwich back home.
    â€œSo why are we here again?” Mark asked when the driver went off to tend to the vehicle. “I thought you said this assignment was in India.”
    â€œIt is, but we first need to meet a man and