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out of here, but he wouldn’t obey one more goddamned order from Alvarez.
    He passed a group of grim office workers. A few of them took a look at Niko’s face and shied away from him. No doubt from the feral grin he felt splitting his face. Five years of reining in his hatred had formed a toxic cesspool at the bottom of his soul. Now that deadly mix of hate, shame and despair boiled up, threatening to overwhelm him.
    Keep it together. You don’t want to scare Aunt Madalena to death. Wait until you’ve got Alvarez in your sights before you lose it.
    Several minutes later, an announcement came over the public address system, first in Spanish and then in English, telling people to surrender quietly. Good. His Trojan software had given the authorities the access they needed.
    Niko left the administration building through the underground tunnel and headed toward the housing complex, passing a number of groups of panicked people along the way. When they looked to him for instructions on what to do, Niko slowed down, schooled his features into a more civilized expression, then told them to gather in the large cafeteria.
    This latest group consisted mainly of women from the housekeeping and administrative staff and their children. “If the authorities come inside, you’ll be safer in one room where you are out of the way of any gunfire,” he explained. He told himself he wasn’t worried by the fact he didn’t hear any sounds of fighting. “If our men succeed in driving back the authorities, they will let you know over the public address system when it’s safe to come out.”
    Niko made a shooing motion with his hands when the women just continued to stare at him. “Go!”
    Finally, one of the women reacted. She grabbed the hand of the young girl next to her and took off at a run toward the cafeteria. With any luck, the raiding party would find the women and treat them as the victims they were, rather than criminals. The women deserved a better life. Their only mistake was working for a monster like Alvarez. None of them had participated in any illegal activities. They’d just been working here in order to feed their families.
    Setting aside thoughts of the women’s futures, Niko entered his security code into the locked door at the end of the tunnel. A second code overrode the emergency lockdown instructions.
    The door clicked open and Niko raced through. He left the door unlocked, in case he needed to come back this way with Aunt Madalena. Then he made a beeline for his aunt’s room.
    A lvarez had just spilled his seed and rolled off of Madalena when the bedroom shook. She gasped as the bed swayed with such force that she had to clutch the covers to stop herself from rolling into Alvarez. She wanted him as far away from her as possible, even though this coupling had been more about control than violence.
    “What’s happening?” she cried out as the bed shook again. “Is it an earthquake?”
    Alvarez jumped to his feet, cursing under his breath as he searched for his pants. A second later, the emergency alarm blared through the loud speakers.
    “We are under attack,” Alvarez snapped. “Get dressed. We’re leaving.”
    Freedom!
    The last thing she wanted to do was escape with Alvarez. Whether government forces or a rival criminal gang, Madalena would rather throw herself on the mercy of the attackers than go anywhere with this monster. But from the tight set of his jaw, she knew that if she tried to run now, Alvarez would shoot her with the pistol he held in his hand. She had no idea where the gun had come from, but even though she was reasonably certain that he’d only shoot to wound her, she needed full mobility so she could escape when the opportunity presented itself.
    Catching the clothes that Alvarez threw at her, she quickly put them on. As soon as she slid the last button through its hole and slipped into her ballet flats, Alvarez grabbed her arm. “Hurry. We must make it to the escape tunnel before