“Yeah, I realize the irony, trust me, but I’m still going to do it.”

“If we get out of here.”

“Yeah, I also realize the impossibility of that at the moment.”

“I think you might be wrong about that.”

Knox sat up. “Really?”

“Don’t get your hopes up. It’s for a bad reason, not a good one.”

“What are you saying?”

“Have you noticed that ever since Hayes left they haven’t bothered to feed us or let us out of the cell?”

“Yeah, my stomach is reminding me of that pretty much every second. So?”

“So that tells me that our stay here is coming to an end.”

“Don’t waste food on corpses? How unlike our esteemed warden.”

“There’s no reason to keep us here any longer. There’s always a chance that someone might show up and search the place. Why risk it?”

“Where do you think they’ll take us?”

“I know from firsthand experience that there are abandoned mines around here. A drop down an old shaft, seal it back up. Apparently people up here are used to dead men being inside these mountains. That’s how this place got its name, in fact.”

Stone pressed his face against the wall, trying to wedge it between the edges of the slit so he could see out better. He squinted and could see the outline of the mountains in the distance. They might as well have been on Mars. Three feet of concrete, a hundred yards of open space, killer wire and a battalion of snipers with aggressive trigger fingers was all that stood between them and freedom.

No way out.

Knox said, “You get into this business you know any day your number could come up. And you deal with that. But you keep going because it’s your job, a job you swore to do to the best of your ability. Serve your country to the end.”

“Or until your country screws you,” amended Stone.

“When I was assigned to come after you, I really didn’t know what to expect. I knew you were a dangerous guy but figured you’d just gone bad like some do. But the more I found out . . . Well, if anyone ever deserved an apology from his country, you sure as hell do.”

“Funny, I was thinking the same thing about you, Knox.”

“My friends call me Joe, Oliver.”

Stone turned back to look at him. Knox was standing and holding out his hand.

Stone took it and the two condemned men shared a brief but heartfelt handshake.

“When do you think they’ll come for us?”