Sam was in a corridor now. All of the corridors looked the same… no, this was the one with no sign of pictures having been removed from the walls. Gregory glanced at the screen. “The truth of the matter is that you care less about an answer to your question than you do about that mediocrity on the screen. When it comes time for you to pay attention to me, it will be my pleasure to elevate your consciousness to new levels of concentration. Did you remember to bring me a glass?”

She turned and started out. Gregory laughed out loud and fired the gun. She felt the bullet go by her head. A hole appeared in the wall in front of her. No doubt: the bullet had missed her head by less than an inch. For the second time in twenty minutes, Amy screamed.

Merrill heard the shot and her scream, the scream long and faint from somewhere in the building, almost an echo of an echo.

“Amy!”

He stopped where he stood. He wanted to look around, but at what? He was in an empty corridor — locked in, for all he knew. If he called her again, would she hear? Then what? What good would it do? He did not want to believe she had been shot, but if in fact she had just died, what was left for him? He was here only to kill and to die. He couldn’t imagine taking another breath.

Rest in peace. He had poisoned his luck at the very start. Since then, his own life had been nothing but agony and confusion. Some would say he deserved it.

If he lived, if somehow he got out of here, he would have to answer for her death. There was nothing he could possibly say. To whom? Her father? Then what? If her father let him live, what would Merrill do with the ruin that would be the rest of his life?

Merrill was sure he was being watched, but he couldn’t tell how. He knew current surveillance cameras were small enough to be hidden in the cracks of the moldings slathered on every wall he had seen in her so far. Anyone indulging himself in the hi-tech equipment he had already seen deployed was capable of anything. Given Chino’s money, he probably had the world’s best consultants in the job of keeping him a step ahead of everybody else. O’Malley had said as much. O’Malley had worked for Chino’s enemies? Why had Chino put it that way?