The stadium lights suddenly snapped on, exposing Cobus with their brutal white glare. He spun, a hunted animal searching for threats. He saw a tunnel opening in the stands across the track. For a moment, it looked like his best shot at escape. Then he saw the shadow of a man in the tunnel, coming for him. Cobus scrambled for the only cover he could find in the open arena.

Wan emerged from the tunnel, Glock pistol in hand as he searched for Cobus. He scanned the stadium. There was only one place Cobus could be hiding: the metal starting gate for the dogs. Wan moved warily down the track, toward the starting gate. Drawing near, he raised his gun.

Just as he rounded the corner of the gate structure, Wan turned and was momentarily distracted by the sight of the stuffed mechanical rabbit staring back at him.

Capitalizing on the distraction, Cobus leaped over the metal gate, tackling Wan and sending his pistol flying. Wan tried to dive for the gun, but Cobus was on his back before he could reach it.

The two men savaged each other as they wrestled in the dirt—both trained martial artists accustomed to violence. As Cobus got the upper hand, Wan drew a stiletto blade and spiked it into Cobus’s shoulder.

Cobus tried to yank the knife out, but it was planted in bone, and his hand was too slick with blood to maintain a grip. As he tugged at the knife, Wan snaked around his back and got him in a choke hold.

Bees swarmed in Cobus’s vision, and he could feel himself fading as his brain starved for oxygen. He reached back with the arm that hadn’t been stabbed, clawing for Wan’s face, trying to gouge the eyes. Instead, he found an ear. He would have to take what he could get before he passed out in the next two seconds. He yanked with all his remaining strength, and Wan’s ear came free with a pop. The grip on Cobus’s neck relaxed at once.

Badly wounded, both men rose to their feet to regroup. Wan touched the wet, bare section of scalp where his left ear had been. He looked up to see Cobus clutching the severed ear in his fist. He tossed the bloody flesh in the dirt, and both men turned back to the business of killing each other.

bam!

Cobus and Wan ducked instinctively, then turned. Ten yards away, Inspector Audrey Lam stared down the barrel of her SIG Sauer P250 handgun at the boss of the Sun Yee On triad. She had been stalking Wan Koi through Macau all night, waiting for him to be alone. She had lost him briefly in the park, but now she finally had her chance to punish him—in a place where no one would witness his death.

“Don’t move.”