Eve could barely remember taking the filleting knives and the cleaver from the kitchen or the wood rasp from the shop. All she knew was that she had them.

Used them.

All of that, though, seemed to be part of a dream.

All of that happened within fits of a red cloud of lust and hate. A red darkness.

The two Fixers did not look even remotely human anymore. Eve did not want to look in a mirror because she knew that the red darkness was still there, waiting behind her eyes.

Even she, of all people, was afraid of it.

CHAPTER 82

ROTTERDAM THE HAGUE AIRPORT

SOUTH HOLLAND, THE NETHERLANDS

I settled into my seat and made sure Ghost was comfortable.

The jet was a middle-aged Airbus A350–900. Comfortable enough for the flight from Rotterdam to Berlin. I buckled up for safety, opened a bottle of water I’d purchased in the terminal, took a sip, then removed a collapsible rubber dish and poured some for Ghost. He drank noisily while eyeing the pocket into which I had tucked a bag of beef jerky.

“Du musst warten,” I told him.

Ghost, who did not like waiting even one little bit, gave me a long, withering look of complete disdain. He and I both knew that we weren’t even going to be off the tarmac before I caved and gave him some treats.

I wondered how Toys was. Yeah, not a joke. I’d been a real dick doing that to him. But, on the other hand, I hadn’t asked him to be my wingman, my father confessor, or my plucky sidekick. Besides, he hadn’t liked me to begin with, so I doubted it was going to derail a budding bromance.

Even so.

I’d shot him. And I knew the effects Sandman had. The nightmares. Toys had a lot of skeletons in his closet, and most likely he was going to meet every single one of them.

As I had when I’d been darted by the earlier generation known as Horsey. The original developer, Dr. William Hu, always claimed that shooting me had been an accident, a pistol malfunction.

Bullshit, of course.

Hu was gone now. A victim of one of Harcourt Bolton’s master plans. One of many, many victims of the man behind the Kuga mask.

I settled back and waited for the jet to begin rolling.

Before we even got up to ground speed, Ghost was chewing on a piece of jerky.

CHAPTER 83

ROTTERDAM THE HAGUE AIRPORT

SOUTH HOLLAND, THE NETHERLANDS

Stafford stood and listened to the massive silence on the other end of the cell call.

He did not dare break it or ask if the man on the other end of the line was still there.

Finally, Kuga spoke. His voice was much calmer than Stafford had expected.