“We thought it was Rage,” said Top. “With Outlaw, I mean. He didn’t go after us, though. But … even so, maybe I should have hit him with Sandman just to be safe. This is on me.”

“You can secure that line of thinking right now, Pappy,” said Church sternly. “This is not on you. On any of you. End of discussion. Now … did Outlaw say anything before he left?”

“No, sir. I told him to go outside and get some air, and he did.”

“And you think he went straight to the pier and took a boat?”

“Yes, sir. Followed his footprints here. His and Ghost’s. I’ll retrace those steps to see if there’s a spent Dragonfly. Either way, he’s gone. My guess is he used the sound of the choppers to cover the boat’s engine noise.”

Church was silent for a long time, but Top knew him well enough to understand that the big man was thinking things through. So he waited as the sun clawed its way over the horizon and turned the black waters to a sea of blood.

“Pappy,” said Church, “I need you to listen very closely to what I have to say. You may not like it and doubtless won’t agree that this is the right play, but it’s what I feel is best.”

“Already don’t like the sound of it,” Top admitted glumly.

“Let him go,” said Church.

“Say again?”

“You heard me. You and the rest of Havoc finish processing the island and then turn all materials over to the crew now on the ground. Come back here and write your after-action reports. I do not want you or any member of your team to go looking for Outlaw. I don’t want to make it an order, however. I am asking for you to trust my judgment.”

“That’s a big ask.”

“I know it is.”

Top closed his eyes and contemplated putting his fist through the first really solid wall he could find.

“Outlaw is way the hell out on the edge,” he said. “You didn’t see what he did in there. Those people on the medical staff were monsters, no doubt, but they were unarmed. He chopped them into dogmeat and pissed on their corpses. That’s not the Outlaw we both know. He’s crossed a line, and I don’t know if leaving him alone out there is in his best interests. Have you run this past the docs?”

By that, he meant Dr. Rudy Sanchez, Joe Ledger’s best friend and psychiatrist; and Dr. Jane Holliday, the head of the RTI integrated sciences division. Both of them had argued against Ledger being cleared for this mission. The arguments had gotten heated, but Church won because Church tended to win. And now this.

“This is my call,” said Church. “Mine alone.”

Top sighed and sat down on a piling. “You’re a religious man, aren’t you?”