And then this morning they’d made mad passionate love, or had mad hot sex—call it what you will, world, they’d pleasured the hell out of each other and had been planning a return engagement.

But then reality stepped in and changed all that. What was the saying? People make plans and God laughs. The Old Boy must be in hysterics right now.

The weight of it all—seeing Donny die before her eyes contributed no small measure to her madness, she was sure—coupled with the fact that Donny was unable to see this through himself, had spurred Hari to make this grand futile gesture of revenge against the man who’d killed Donny’s brother.

And then the sun had set late, confirming her suspicions that a world of darkness and famine lay ahead. So what did she have to lose?

Hari wasn’t a killer, couldn’t imagine herself in a million years shooting or stabbing someone. But she’d seen what the Prime Frequency generator had done to Ellie. So if she couldn’t kill the killer, she could at least mess him up beyond his wildest nightmares.

Of course, she had no idea this would even work. Maybe Ellie had been a special case. Maybe being in direct line with the Prime signal would do nothing to anyone else. But this was the best she could come up with on such short notice.

She did a slow turn. She had plenty of company in the Sheep Meadow. Scattered groups and solos, little more than shadow shapes, strolled or stood around. Some sat on the grass and smoked and drank, some made out. Belgiovene would be coming alone so she ignored the groups. She’d never seen him—Donny hadn’t been able to find a photo—but his description was a slim man with a black mole on his chin. Not that the mole was much help since she wouldn’t be able to see it until he was in her face.

She spotted a thin figure making purposeful strides straight for her. A sudden urge to forget all about this insanity and run for it nearly overwhelmed her, but she fought it and stood her ground.

He stopped before her. He had close-cropped black hair and the moon rising over the trees cast enough light to reveal the mole on his chin.

“You’re standing in my spot,” he said in a deep voice.

His words caught her off guard. “Your spot?”

“I’m supposed to meet a woman I do not know in the center of the Sheep Meadow tonight.”

Hari found herself at a loss for words. She hadn’t planned this out too well. How to keep him in this spot while she backed off a safe distance. And what was a safe distance?

“Are you that woman?” Belgiovene said. “Because if you—” He broke into a harsh laugh as he looked to his left. “You see everything in Central Park, especially after dark.”

Hari followed his gaze to the west where a naked man stood with his back to them, looking up at the buildings along Central Park West.