Isaac just shook his head at her and stuck his hand out to the promoter.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake.”

As she cursed and turned away, he was momentarily struck dumb by the fact that she’d dropped the f-bomb.

Snapping back into action, he reached for her arm, but the promoter stepped in the way. “Now, before I give this to you”—he slapped the bills on his palm—“I want you to come fight two nights from now.”

Which would be a no-go. He was hoping to be out of the country by then. “Yeah. Sure.”

“It’ll be here, assuming we got no problems. You were frickin’ amazing—”

“Just shut up and gimme the cash.”

Isaac rose up onto the balls of his feet and stared over the milling heads, watching Grier’s fancy-dancy hairdo march out toward the back door. By and large the men got out of her way, but then, given her mood, she was probably capable of castration.

Just by force of will.

Drowning out the promoter’s jock-sniffer ass-kissing, Isaac grabbed the money, shoved his feet in his combats and took his sweatshirt and windbreaker back. As he ran off after his public defender, he buried the green in his pockets and double-checked on his guns, the silencers and his plastic bag piggy bank.

“Where the hell are you going?” Jim said as he and his boys followed at a jog.

“Wherever she goes. She’s my attorney.”

“Any chance of talking you out of this?”

“Nope.”

“Fucking hell,” Jim said under his breath as he shoved some guy out of the way. “FYI, Matthias’s number two left.”

“Black sedan,” the man with the piercings cut in. “The quarter panels were dinged and the thing was dirty as shit, but the tires were brand-new and there were electronics in the trunk.”

That was XOps for you, Isaac thought. Incognito and state-of-the-art at the same time.

As he broke free of the exit, the sound of cars and trucks starting up and taking off turned the night into a traffic disco. Amid the growling engines and flashing headlights, he looked around for her car. She’d drive something foreign, he was guessing. A Mercedes, BMW . . . Audi . . .

Where was she?

CHAPTER 11

CHAPTER 11

Undisclosed location, OCONUS

Matthias was well aware he was an agent of evil in the world.

Which didn’t mean he was totally bad. In large measure, the billions of innocent people on the planet were not on his radar screen and he left them alone. He also did not take candy from babies. Or shave cats. Or give the e-mail addresses of people who’d pissed him off to European sex-toy sites.

And he had, once—back in 1983—walked an old lady across a busy intersection.

So he wasn’t all bad.