“I think they’re hired killers,” Tim McKinney said. “Specialists.” He was tall and broad-shouldered, and had kept himself in fighting shape. He had been brought up on a farm and joined the military young. He had been either a Navy Seal or an Army Special Forces operator, depending on whom he was talking to, but none of these men demanded strict truth, because they had seen him kill. How he had learned didn’t matter.

Lonny Mann, who looked as though he had evolved to compete with McKinney for the same spot in the universe, said, “Hired? Who would hire anybody to do what the FBI would do for nothing?”

Ed Leonard said, “I think the FBI would have arrested those guys, or at least tried to, before they killed anybody. They arrested me, and I’m sure every last one of them hated me and would have loved to shoot.”

“I think you’re right,” said Holliman. “When I heard about it, I went online for a couple of days reading everything I could find about it. These were all killings. Executions. Nobody was trying to bring any of them to a court. Somebody bought himself some hits.”

“There you go,” said Lambert. “I read up on it too. This wasn’t even a dead-or-alive thing, like bounty hunters. It was just dead. When they got Ortega and Bysantski and Duquesne, they piped propane gas into the house and blew them up. Cops might love to do that, but they can’t.”

The men all sat in silence for a moment while the thought settled on them like a weight. Then Holliman said, “They got six guys already, six guys who never had anything to do with each other except when we did the breakout from Weldonville. These people managed to find all six, one of them in Florida, one in Buffalo, one in New York, and the others in Northern California.” He poked the table with his index finger. “It’s only a matter of time before they find the rest of us.”

“There are a lot of hired killers in the world,” said Lee Wolf. “I’ve done a bit of that kind of work myself, and I’m sure some of you have too. And I think that aspect of things deserves a closer look.”

“What part?” asked Holliman.

“It’s a business deal. First, a person has to decide he wants somebody dead. Then he realizes he doesn’t want to try to do it himself. He finds a guy, or in this case, probably a squad, to do the hit and tries to make a deal. The hit squad hears who they’re supposed to kill and how much the customer will pay for the job. They make counteroffers and agree on a price, a number of dollars. The hit squad isn’t after the target because they hate him, but to get that money. It’s business.”

“Right,” said McKinney.