He closed his eyes and looked out of the Lexus’s cams again. The third man was pinned, his lower body crushed between the Lexus and the SUV, but somehow the man had a silenced rifle in his hands and was shooting up the hill. Breece felt a flash of admiration for the man. A real trooper. True grit.

Breece grabbed the mental shifter of the car, threw the Lexus into reverse, tapped the accelerator. On screen, the man collapsed to his hands and knees as the Lexus backed away from the SUV. Breece braked, shifted gears, then jammed the Lexus forward again. The man’s face snapped up, loomed in the cameras, eyes wide in shock and horror, and then all went black as the Lexus crushed what remained of the would-be assassin against the SUV.

Breece opened his eyes again, still down on one knee. The world was quiet suddenly. Breece’s breath came fast and his heart was trying to pound its way out of his chest. He was drenched in sweat and burning hot. Were there any others out there?

The man he’d punched stirred on the ground next to him, and Breece grabbed him by the hair, and held the man’s own silenced pistol to his face.

“How many of you?”

The man coughed. “Three.”

“Who sent you? What was your mission?”

The man said nothing.

“Who sent you?” Breece raised his voice.

The man shook his head. “They’ll kill me.”

Breece clamped his hand over the man’s mouth, lowered the gun, and obliterated the man’s knee cap with a single shot.

The man screamed into his hand.

“I’m going to kill you,” Breece whispered to him. “The only question is whether you want to die fast or slow.”

He waited for the man’s muffled screams to subside, then put the tip of the silencer against his other knee.

“Ready to talk?”

The man nodded miserably, tears flowing down his face.

“Who sent you?” Breece asked again, pulling his hand off the man’s mouth.

The man closed his eyes and panted for a moment, and Breece thought he’d have to shoot the other knee. Then the assassin opened his eyes. “Zarathustra,” he said. “I’m PLF.”

Well, well, well. He hadn’t thought the old man had it in him.

He got the rest of the assassin’s story, and then it was time to go.

He put the silencer tip against the downed man’s forehead. “Any last message you want me to deliver?” he asked his would-be killer.

“Please,” the man pleaded, eyes locking with Breece’s in fear. “I’m PLF, like you. Let me live. You’ll never see me again. Please, man. I wanna live forever!”

Breece thought of his parents, their bodies decomposing just yards from here. “We don’t all get what we want,” he told the man. And then he pulled the trigger.

Chapter 26: Asian Travels

26

ASIAN TRAVELS