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out the door and up to the roof!”
    The room fell silent. Ronald felt the stares of the others bore into him. A flame of anger erupted inside his chest. It was one thing to dress down his overbearing wife. Almost comical, because quite frankly, Ronald agreed with everything Agent Coleman said to Collette.
    But no one would get away with talking to Ronald that way. Not even in the midst of a global crisis.
    “Agent Coleman! Contain yourself. You work for us, remember? You need to apologize to my wife, right now, for such intolerable behavior or you’re fired.”
    “Fired? Fired? Are you insane? No wonder the world is falling apart. It was full of idiots who voted in the King of Idiotic Morons to the throne!”
    Collette’s face blanched. Before Ronald could stop her, a wrinkled hand full of over a million dollars’ worth of jewels reached out and slapped Agent Coleman. The crack as her skin connected with the agent’s cheek reverberated nicely off the acoustical walls.
    Agent Coleman’s reaction was swift and harsh. Ronald didn’t even get a chance to blink before the man’s balled-up fist caught Collette under the chin. The force of his punch knocked her backward almost five feet. She crumpled into an unconscious ball on the cold marble floor.
    “What the…?” Ronald finally managed.
    Agent Coleman responded by pointing his shiny SIG Sauer directly between Ronald’s eyes. “I said it’s time to leave and I’m not kidding. Not another word, or I swear we’ll leave you here. Wonder how long you'd last before those flesh-eating mongrels smell you and figure out how to climb stairs?”
    The burning in Ronald’s gut from earlier ignited into an inferno. He glanced over at Collette’s limp body. Two agents picked her up and moved toward the front door. Nodding once to Agent Coleman, Ronald stepped back and grabbed his briefcase from the desk. Agent Coleman never lowered the weapon as they walked out the door and headed to the roof.
    Ronald was breathing hard by the time they reached the helipad. The sounds of the city under siege rose from the streets below. Smoke from other buildings engulfed in flames blocked out the morning rays of sunlight. Gunfire and the screams of terrified New Yorkers made Ronald’s skin prickle in disgust.
    The noise he wanted—needed—to hear, was absent.
    No sirens.
    No emergency personnel racing to help the downtrodden.
    Only screaming and gunfire.
    Collette was already strapped into her seat. Ronald climbed inside and settled in next to her. Agent Coleman veered off to speak with the pilot. Ronald took the opportunity to stare out the open door to the city he loved more than any other place in the world. Manhattan had been his home, his domain, his kingdom, for over thirty years. He felt a lump of tears swell in his throat when he realized the first two buildings he’d constructed were in flames.
    He glanced down at Collette. A bruise had already formed under her chin, and there was a large knot on the side of her head where she'd hit the floor. Ronald felt more concern and sorrow for the structures on fire than his own wife. The reality of the notion made him numb.
    What kind of man feels no grief for his wife, yet weeps like a child for a pile of metal and drywall?
    The disturbing musings were cut short by two gunshots. Ronald spun around in his seat in time to see Agent Coleman stumble and fall to the ground about three feet away. With his SIG Sauer still clutched in his hands, Agent Coleman continued to fire.
    Ronald had no idea what he was shooting at.
    On instinct, Ronald leaned down and covered Collette’s body with his own, attempting to shield her from the bullets.
    It would be the last—and possibly first—act of kindness he ever did.
    Because Agent Coleman missed his target.
    Ronald heard the agent scream, yet it only lasted a split second. The noise was replaced by a gurgling, chomping sound.
    Collette woke up and wiggled from underneath him. “What the hell is