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smiled.
“Yeah? What is it?”
    “You guys spray
in this mold for some tactical reason? Or is it just for show?”
    His smile faded
and his lips thinned. He brought the gun down to my mouth.
    I clenched my
jaw shut tight as he tried to force the barrel past my teeth.
    Jim knelt down
and used his free hand to squeeze my cheeks. Bill did the same. Eventually they
succeeded.
    I sat there,
restrained by a man bigger than Bear, with two skinny agents holding my mouth
open like they were feeding some kind of wild animal. Only it wasn’t a bottle
of milk in my mouth.
    “I’m going to
give you one more chance, Noble,” Bill said, his voice escalated to a yell.
“Why did you kill that family?”
    He removed the
gun from my mouth.
    “We didn’t,” I
spit the aftertaste out, “kill anyone.”
    Bill nodded at
Nathan and turned.
    The grip on my
body loosened and Nathan and Jim pulled me from the floor. Pushed me back to
the wall and spun me around. They leaned in so that my cheek pressed tight
against the cold concrete.
    Soft thuds hit
the floor behind me. Bill pressed the barrel of the gun against my head. “Sorry
to do this to you, Jack.”
    My eyes met
Jim’s. He smiled, turned away.
    I held my
breath and waited for the shot, wondering whether my ears would register the
sound of the gun firing before the bullet penetrated and shut down my brain.
    And then every
muscle in my body tightened at the banging that cut through the air.

Chapter 4
    “Christ,” Bill
exhaled loudly and grabbed the back of his head. “Let him go. Put the table
back.”
    Nathan and Jim
let go of me. I turned, pressed my back to the wall and inched toward the far
corner of the room. The two men slid the table to the middle of the room. Bill
stood in front of the door, his head turned.
    The three men
nodded at each other.
    Bill cracked
the door.
    “Yeah?”
    The voice
responded low and hushed. I couldn’t make out the words. Bill covered most of
the door with his body. Nathan hung back in the corner nearest me. Jim stood a
few feet from Bill.
    Bill took a
step back, looked over his shoulder at me and shook his head. “Nathan, watch
him for a minute.”
    “OK,” Nathan
said.
    Bill and Jim
stepped out. The door closed behind them. Nathan walked backward to the door.
He kept his eyes on me.
    “Bet I could
take you down,” I said.
    Nathan laughed.
“They let you Jarheads smoke some good stuff, huh?”
    I gave him a
half smile and winked. “Ten seconds, fifteen tops.”
    His smile
faded. Eyes narrowed. “Screw you, Noble. You wouldn’t stand a chance.”
    I took a step
forward. I held my shoulders back and my arms out to the side and back, ready
to attack.
    Nathan banged
on the door.
    The door
clanked open and Jim stuck his head in.
    “What?”
    Nathan nodded
in my direction. “He’s getting flighty.”
    Jim
disappeared. The door stayed open. Nathan didn’t move. I had hoped my actions
would get him out of the room so I could have a few minutes to check the table.
No such luck. Jim and Bill returned.
    Bill looked at
me. He shook his head. “You must give one hell of a reach around, Noble.” He
pulled out a pair of steel handcuffs. Stepped toward me, slowly, his eyes fixed
on mine. “You’re being sent back to the States.”
    The left side
of my mouth lifted into a smile. I held my hands out in front of me. I kept my
eyes fixed on his.
    “On whose
orders?”
    Bill didn’t
respond. He grabbed my right wrist with his left hand, slapped the one side of
the handcuffs over my arm, lifted and tightened and then did the same to my
left wrist. He took a step back, lifted his head and looked me in the eye
again. “Keller.”
    I nodded.
Keller or Abbot, it didn’t matter. The decision came down from both of them. I
was sure of that.
    “You’re not out
of this garbage yet, Noble. They’re taking over the investigation, that’s all.”
    He turned,
pointed at Nathan with a nod and stepped out of the room. Jim followed.
    Nathan walked
toward