The mercenary pulled the steel door closed behind him with his eyes on Klay. Tenchant hobbled across the room and pressed the lock button. Klay heard the low hiss of the door’s steel bolts slide into place.

Tenchant turned and wiped his face with the back of his weapon hand. “You should really hear yourself sometimes.” He impersonated Klay: “‘Don’t worry, Tench. I never leave a man behind.’” He snorted. “And that ‘who’ obsession. You said it to me my first day, you know. You said it on three stories we worked together, and then you said it again on the plane over here like it was the first time.” Tenchant spat onto the floor and mocked Klay again: “‘There’s always a who.’

“Well”—Tenchant spread his arms wide—“HERE I AM!”

Tattoos raged over Tenchant’s upper body. A large sun on each pectoral. A double lightning bolt on his right shoulder, a Celtic cross on his left. His makeshift bandage did not hold. The bullet hole in his abdomen burped blood.

“You kill me. Just the fucking arrogance you bring to it, you know? And the whispering . . .” He mocked Klay’s low growl: “‘Back in a minute, Tench.’ Making me lean in to hear every goddamn word. Well, now’s your moment. You want me to tell her? Or you want to fucking mumble it?”

Hungry, holding Sehlalo’s hand, looked at Tenchant.

“He’s CIA, honey,” Tenchant said. “Always has been.”

Hungry shut her eyes and took a steeling breath.

“This is your mess, Klay. I tried to avoid it. I called you on your phone. Over and over. Tried to get you back here. I had them distracted looking for fucking addresses. You could have kept them going.” Tenchant pulled a desk chair to the middle of the room and sat down. “But you couldn’t be bothered. Miss Edna got hungry, wanted to go out. I asked her to wait, reminded her of her daughter’s wedding. But no. The fat bitch had to get her cupcake on. Asked what I was doing.”

Hungry glared at him. “She knew you were hacking us.”

“That right?” Tenchant seemed to consider that, then nodded at Sehlalo’s body. “I should’ve gone for the greatest risk first, but Julius was right-handed, and he was holding a coffee cup.” He grimaced. “He was faster than I expected.” He coughed and turned to Klay. “You weren’t supposed to get anywhere, but then, well . . .” He pointed his weapon at Hungry. “You got inside the very special prosecutor.”

“Let her go,” Klay said.

“Unnecessary. All of this,” Tenchant continued. He pointed to a red and black thumb drive lying on the floor. “I got a virus into their computer system anyway. Everything’s destroyed.” He coughed again. “They’ll paper this up. ‘We regret to inform you . . . Assailant or assailants unknown . . .’ You take on corruption in this country, it could be anybody at all.”