Opening my eyes, I saw shock sweep over Blake’s face and I was able to roll out from under him.

He stood and turned just enough for me to see the hand-sized glass daggers that’d augured into his back and neck. He lurched toward me, and I directed the gun at his chest. “That’s close enough. Do not move.”

But he took another step, his foot landing on the snow-covered pieces of glass. He lost his balance, his feet flew out from under him, and he fell backward, landing solidly and unforgivingly on his back.

Driving those glass shards all the way in.

I went to his side. “Who’s the donor, Blake? Who’s the one paying to watch people die?”

He grimaced and then said, “Leeson.”

“I know about the grave. Who is the donor?”

He opened his mouth but no words came out.

“The 4D encryption, is that it?” I said. “The quantum research?”

Blake smiled faintly and squeezed my hand, then drew in two long, labored breaths and gazed past me at the snow lashing down at us through the shattered ceiling.

Then he stopped moving, and when I felt for a pulse, I found none.

Gone.

I checked myself to see if the glass had found me.

Three pieces had embedded into my left leg, but it wasn’t enough to worry about at the moment. Not life-threatening.

After retrieving the thumb drives from Blake’s pocket, I hurried outside, SIG drawn, to see how Ralph was doing with Mannie.

I found my friend standing beside the back of the truck.

Mannie was nowhere in sight.

“Did he get away?” I asked.

“Not quite.” Ralph patted the truck.

“He’s in there?”

“Oh yeah.”

I holstered my weapon. “How are you going to get him out?”

“I haven’t really thought that part through yet. Blake?”

“No longer a threat. You alright?”

“Yeah. You?”

“I’m okay.”

He was staring at the glass sticking out of my leg.

“Oh, that,” I said. “I’ll be fine.”

For a moment I considered prying the glass out, but I had the sense that it would bleed quite a bit and I didn’t want to deal with that right now.

What did Blake mean by mentioning Leeson’s name?

Wait.

I’d been making an assumption this whole time—that the man I’d chased into the subway was the only one to show up at the cemetery. But Duane had told me that he went there to meet the donor. Someone else could’ve easily come by while I was in the tunnel and either found the graveyard empty or noticed the CSI team and left.

We could tackle all that in a minute.

The sirens told me that backup was close. Well, with a big enough team, we could address how to get Mannie out of this truck.