Shane nodded. He understood. He wasn’t allowed to talk about a lot of his missions either. But he recalled there had been a thing in the Argentinian capital over Christmas when the US Ambassador’s daughter had been kidnapped.

Shane figured these two guys had been involved and he could only imagine in what clandestine capacity, considering local political figures, Russian oligarchs, and American diplomats had all been suspects in the abduction.

Shane looked out the side window of the van. Eric Pierce had been picked up near his place of work. The fact he’d gone for a gun suggested they had the right guy. Was it the same gun with which he’d shot Lloyd Zenko? Shane hoped so. It would be nice to tie the crimes together in a substantial knot that helped send this guy all the way to death row.

Pierce owned a modest ranch house at the end of a quiet bay that looked ridiculously ordinary for the home of an obscenely wealthy and sadistic serial killer. The neighbors had been warned to stay put.

Agents from the local field office were staging a block away, tasked with knocking on doors and interviewing anyone who might know this guy. An Evidence Recovery Team was kicking their heels waiting for Shane and the TacOps agents to finish the initial walk-through. Shane wanted to examine the guy’s place. See if it revealed anything about the person who’d murdered his best friend.

He watched as HRT prepared to move on the bungalow. Shane itched to be part of his assault team but had promised to stay in the van until they’d checked the place for explosives. He knew how tense these operations could be, even the routine arrests. All it took was an automatic weapon in the wrong hands or a bunch of C-4 and a blasting cap on a door and people could get hurt. After Texas, and then losing Montana, Shane didn’t intend to be a distraction for the other members of Gold team.

A signal came over the radio. “Clear.”

Meaning neither electronic sensors nor canine ones had indicated the presence of explosives. He watched Cadell remove Hugo from the area. Diego was with his handler on Charlie team about to go in with the assaulters even though there didn’t appear to be anyone inside.

Gold team got the “go” signal and Shane watched his counterpart on Charlie team set a charge on the front door and everyone crouch in readiness to burst inside the neat little home that still had Christmas lights strung up around the yard.

Shane held his breath as they rushed inside. Watching was worse than taking part. Multiplied by a thousand after Texas.

Before Houston they’d believed their own myth—that they were unkillable. Now they’d lost two of their own in less than a fortnight and Shane knew it had affected them all.