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this one will be your doing.”
    She stopped and looked back.
    He was standing over the man he had hit in the head earlier, the gun pointed at his head. “As it is, he’ll wake up with a bad headache. Or you can go through that door and he’ll never wake up at all.” He pulled the hammer back.
    Jana slowly raised her hands and said, “Please don’t shoot him.”
    “Don’t try another stunt like that unless you want to be shot yourself. Got it?”
    She nodded. “What next?”
    “We’re going to bury my brother, then take a trip.”
    “Where?”
    “A nice open field. He never liked being cooped up.”
    “I mean, where are we taking a trip to?”
    “You’ll find out soon enough.”
    “Why take me anywhere? If you’re going to kill me, just do it here and be done with it.”
    “I’m trying to save you from being—” He paused. “Never mind.”
    “From being killed? By that nuke you planted?”
    He arched his eyebrows in surprise.
    “I’m not stupid. There’s only one kind of bomb that looks like that. You think I want to live somewhere else while that thing murders everyone I love? I don’t.”
    “You’re confused. I’m not running a democracy and I don’t give a shit what you want. I sure as hell can’t leave you here to blab to the cops. That leaves me with two options, kill you or take you with me. So save the lip and be glad I’m choosing the latter.”
    “Did you hear a word I said? I don’t want to—”
    Dane grabbed her by the arm and pulled her toward the door. “You talk too much.”
     
                  Back in the Jeep and in search of a suitable place to bury Riff, Dane tried to make sense of what he was doing. Once he found the woman inside the house, he had no choice but to do something with her. But what? The professional thing was to kill her and move on, but he couldn’t.
    Losing Riff changed everything. Born a year apart, they had been partners in life. Dane the level head. Riff the impulsive. Together, it worked. He fed off Riff’s cold aggression, using it to stay focused when doubts crept in. His mind kept drifting back to the teenagers in the pickup. And the woman. Riff would’ve had no problem taking care of the her, innocent or not. “Bus iness is business, big brother,” he would’ve said.
    But Riff wasn’t here, only Dane and the woman, and things didn’t seem so cut and dry anymore. They were confusing as hell.
    “Hello, am I alone in here?” Jana said as she nudged Dane on the knee with her foot—after her attack and attempted escape at GCE, he bound her hands with nylon wire ties—and startled him from his reverie.
    “What?”
    “I was talking.”
    “Imagine that.”
    “Please go back and turn that bomb off before it’s too late.”
    “Lady, don’t start up again. I’m not in the mood.”
    “How much are you getting paid?”
    “Enough for this to be my last job. Ever. Happy?”
    “Happy? Your bomb might kill every family member and friend I have, and you want to know if I’m happy?”
    “Sorry I asked.”
    “Who do you work for?”
    “You’ll find out soon enough. The whole world will.”
    “What’s that supposed to mean?”
    “It means there’s one hell of a week ahead, lady.”
    “My name is Jana.”
    “Whatever.”
     
     
    2:14 AM EASTERN DAYLIGHT TIME
    CABIN, GULFSTREAM 216
     
    For years Hart had dreamed of the Glorious Beginning, and always the dream had been to witness it from this one awesome perspective. The road had been long and filled with obstacles, the complexity overwhelming. Now the moment had arrived. His psyche was operating in two distinct modes, one of frenzied anticipation, another that matched his outward appearance; s erene, beyond petty emotion. One wanted to revel in what he had personally accomplished, and what was to come. The other was driven to accept his role, great though it was, as a pawn in a grand universal scheme of destiny over which he had no control. The former gave him the drive he