I’m going mad, thought De Vries.

“If you tell me,” said the man, “I may let you live.”

The scientist’s back thumped against the wall. “Wh-what?”

“You heard me. It’s the one chance you have. The only chance.”

The man was so close now. De Vries held his hands up in a gesture of surrender, a plea for mercy. He knew who this man was. Everybody in the network was talking about him, yelling about him, screaming about him. The insane American and his dog. Colonel Joe Ledger and Ghost. Monsters, both of them.

Ledger stepped very close now and placed the blade of the knife against De Vries’s cheek. The flat, not the edge. It was almost a caress, almost tender, but in the worst possible way.

“You’re him,” gasped De Vries. “You’re Ledger.”

That made the American smile.

But it was not a good smile. No, not at all. There was death in that smile. There was hell in it.

“Joe Ledger isn’t here right now,” said the man. “I am.”

“I … I don’t understand…”

“Tell me while you still have a tongue.”

De Vries felt his bladder go. A moment later, his sphincter failed as well. Then his knees. He thumped down to the floor, his trousers filled with piss and shit.

He could not look at Ledger. He dared not look away. So De Vries closed his eyes, squeezing them shut. He jammed his balled fists against his head.

And he told the monster everything he knew.

He talked for a long, long time.

When he was finished, when there were no more follow-up questions, De Vries toppled over and curled into a ball on the floor. Waiting for the knife.

Waiting for the pain.

He lay there for a very long time.

So long. He felt as if his mind and body—perhaps even his soul—were shutting down. Preparing to be ended. Preparing to meet God. Or the devil. He prayed to saints whose names he had thought he’d forgotten. To a god he had abandoned before he’d entered university. He wept, and he prayed.

Perhaps he even slept.

When he finally summoned the courage to open his eyes, he was alone.

Completely alone.

With the awareness of having soiled himself. With the knowledge of how deep his betrayal had run.

Alone with the bodies of everyone he worked with.

Alone.

But alive.

CHAPTER 62

THE PAVILION

BLUE DIAMOND ELITE TRAINING CENTER

STEVENS COUNTY, WASHINGTON

Top and Bunny didn’t have long to wait.