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across the lobby.
    ‘Everyone get back now! Take whatever cover you can!’ He backed away from the elevator doors, pushing his arms forward to move people away. ‘Take cover behind whatever you can. Get back! Now!’
    He ran back across the lobby, watching the elevator continue its relentless descent. His heart pounding, he knew every life was in imminent danger.
    ‘Do you think it’s him, Roscoe?’ asked Savage, appearing fearful as he struggled to act in the immediate face of danger.
    ‘I don’t know, but we need to get everyone as far away from the elevator doors as possible.’
    ‘Back!’ yelled Savage, following Roscoe’s lead.
    Roscoe watched as the floors ticked past.
    Nineteen, eighteen, seventeen.
    ‘We need to be ready for him, Peter,’ said Roscoe.
    Savage deployed three armed officers at the elevator doors. Crouching down, each officer released the safety catches on their semi-automatic weapons.
    Fourteen, thirteen, twelve.
    Savage reached across and handed a Glock 26 to Roscoe.
    ‘You know how to use this better than anyone.’
    Roscoe knelt directly in front of the elevator doors. He would be the first to fire.
    Ten, nine, eight.
    Standing behind his officers, Savage pulled his own weapon. The foyer was silent, all eyes fixed on the elevator countdown.
    Five, four, three, two, one.
    Lobby.

CHAPTER 11
    ROSCOE’S FINGER TIGHTENED on the trigger.
    Sweat ran down Peter Savage’s back.
    Everyone across the marble lobby held a breath.
    And the elevator doors opened.
    Silence.
    Inside, an office chair was slowly spinning to a halt.
    Roscoe’s finger twitched on the trigger as the chair made its final turn to face forward.
    Screams.
    The mutilated naked body of a middle-aged man was exposed to all. The body was bound to the chair by a leather belt, his chest cracked open and his heart ripped to the surface.
    At the sight of the blood-soaked body, Savage heaved and turned away. Unable to look upon the obliterated body, he walked away from the elevator. Breathing deeply, he tried to fill his lungs and to regain his composure.
    Roscoe slowly lowered his weapon. The floor of the elevator was soaked in the man’s blood. He stepped forward to the edge of the door and saw the dead man was holding a sign written in blood:
    ‘HOTEL UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT.’
    Behind him, Roscoe heard screams continue from the shocked onlookers as he very carefully lifted the dead man’s head to try to identify him. Immediately he recognised the man as Michael Duncan, one of the hotel’s specialist security drivers. Roscoe had appointed him the previous week on the personal recommendation of Jackson Harlington. Duncan had been detailed to bring Harlington’s business partner, Oscar Miller, to the hotel earlier in the day.
    Roscoe walked back from the elevator and indicated to the three armed police officers to disengage their weapons. He looked across at Savage and saw he was still shaking.
    Knowing he was being watched, Savage forced himself to take a hesitant step towards Roscoe. Breathing heavily, he attempted again to regain his composure.
    ‘What kind of man are we dealing with, Roscoe?’ asked Savage, failing to hide the tremble in his voice. ‘I’ve never seen anything like this. What has he done to him?’
    Savage became hypnotised by the sight of the dead man’s body, unable to draw his eyes away from the shattered chest and eviscerated heart.
    ‘Is that his heart?’ he asked, unable to comprehend what he was seeing. ‘My God, Jon, he’s an executioner.’
    ‘Look at me, Peter,’ ordered Roscoe, stepping across to Savage, putting his arm around his shoulder and steering him away from the elevator. ‘This is brutal, but you’re the officer in charge and you have to show it.’
    ‘I can’t, Jon. Look what he’s done. He’s some kind of animal. Insane.’ Roscoe could hear the panic rising in Savage’s voice.
    ‘If the body’s come down from the twenty-fifth floor, it means the Harlington family are