While I was getting washed, rinsed, and repeated, my mind was on the symbol. No matter how much I’d hoped otherwise, I’d known this day was going to come. Everything my father had lived for was to prepare me for this. He had drawn that symbol in the dirt of the Cazador compound to show me what to look for and given me a letter to fill me in and absolve him of his last responsibilities. The letter was still unopened, sitting in one of my gun safes back in Alabama. He was certain that as soon as I read it, his borrowed time would be up. Dad thought I hadn’t read it because I was a coward. Maybe he was right, but I didn’t want to just murder the stubborn old bastard. How would it happen? Would he keel over the minute I read it? That was a hell of a thought, because I didn’t have much choice now.

Franks met me at the Blackhawk. It was all warmed up and ready to go. “I’ve been ordered back to Las Vegas.”

I climbed in after him. “Any new word on the attack?”

“Grimm Berlin got the bounty. MHI got the assist. Congratulations.” Franks actually sounded bitter. “Case closed.”

A few minutes later we were in the air. By that point I was too tired to even try wheedling any further information out of Franks. I knew it wouldn’t do any good. He seemed even more reclusive than normal. I used the rest of the flight back to get in another nap. Hunters get so used to working stupid hours and being exhausted that most of us develop the ability to sleep the instant the opportunity presents itself.

“Wake up.”

The neon brilliance of Las Vegas was outside the window. I stretched. That had been a solid power nap. Franks was holding something out for me. It took me a second to realize it was an open laptop. He pressed it into my hands, took the audio line out of his headset and plugged it into mine. I flipped it around so I could see the screen.

Special Agent Dwayne Myers, former interim head of the Monster Control Bureau, had aged a lot over the last year. His hair had thinned further and turned whiter. He’d lost some weight, and it wasn’t like Myers could afford to lose much weight to begin with. Thin, tired, face lined with stress, and dark circles under his eyes, Myers was looking haggard. “Pitt. This is a secure video conference, but I need to keep this brief. I will deny this conversation ever took place.”