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Mexico that you don’t leave witnesses.”
    â€œBut you said he didn’t witness you.”
    She stood up and came over to me. “Mike, what is this all for? You knew we were going to war with these guys. You can’t have imagined that we were just going to talk our way out of anything.”
    â€œCouldn’t I?” I yelled. “You kept emphasizing that this was not about killing Players; it was about stopping them. John had me write up the sales pitches. Did you even try that with the Mu? What about the Koori? Or did you just go in shooting first and asking questions later?”
    â€œCome on, Mike,” she said. “Grow up. We did target shooting every single day. We practiced stacking up at a door and making a hostile entry. We ran the mountains. We did obstacle courses. Did you really think all of that was so that we would be in better shape to talk ?”
    â€œYes,” I said. “Yes, I did think that we were going to talk, because that’s what we said we were going to do. That’s what John said, and it’s what Walter said, and it’s what you said. And you know what? It’s what Kat and I did with the Minoan.”
    â€œAnd how did that go for you?”
    â€œWe ended up having to kill her,” I said, turning off the water and drying my hands. “But we gave her a fair chance. She knew why we were there, and she had a choice. We didn’t just ambush her.”
    â€œAnd now Kat is at the emergency room,” Mary said. “And we still have seven Players to kill. Still no word from Barbara and Douglas—they were going for the Olmec—or Molly, Henry, and Phyllis—they were going for the Harappan. We’re getting murdered out there, so maybe you’d better start to act like this is the war that it is.”
    â€œYou lied to me.”
    â€œLied? Mike, you are such a—”
    â€œWhat? Such a what?”
    â€œA child. I used to think that you joined Zero line for me, but I was wrong. You joined because you’re a Boy Scout. You really thought we were going to end this all peacefully, and you could go back home like nothing had happened.”
    â€œI didn’t think that. I killed that sheriff. I robbed that bank.”
    â€œThen what? You thought that you were going to retire on some remote farm somewhere and live the quiet, peaceful life of a hero? You probably imagined me right there beside you.”
    â€œMary,” I said through gritted teeth, “you’re old news. Kat and I are together now. I don’t need—I don’t want you.”
    â€œOh,” she said, and then stopped without saying anything else.
    â€œYeah.”
    Her voice was quieter now. “What did I ever do to you?”
    â€œYou left me. When I thought I needed you most. And . . .” I looked out the window and then moved back to the chair by the door. “And then I realized that I didn’t really need you. You did your job. You got me into this mess. You got me to believe, and you were right—Endgame is real. But we have very different ideas about what to do about it.”
    â€œThe Players are killing us,” she said, still standing where she was, not turning to look at me. “I wish we really could talk our way out of this.”
    â€œYou weren’t expecting that?” I asked. “You thought that going in like cowboys, shooting everyone we see, was going to work? At least Kat and I had realistic expectations. We knew that we were going up against killers. Assassins. We knew we were outmatched. You had too much faith in a couple of ex–Green Berets.”
    â€œBruce was a vet. He wouldn’t tell me how many he killed, but he said he could remember every face.”
    â€œI always see the sheriff.”
    â€œThe Mu didn’t look like a killer. She looked like a kid.” Mary turned to face me. “We thought it would be easy. I had a clean shot and I didn’t