Now what was she? A weapon? A mercenary? A madwoman? A killer?

Christopher’s words came back to her. He had urged her not to meet with Mobius. He had pushed her to let it all go, but she had foolishly refused, and now she was in too deep.

She had done nothing as Christopher shot Verbeek’s two sentries and bypassed the alarms. She had simply looked down at the two dead men, numb, like it was all a dream, like she was floating through someone else’s life.

She could have stopped there, but she didn’t. She followed Christopher inside, dragged Verbeek out of his bed, tied him naked to a chair, and …

The water in the sink was still running, cascading over the hammer and washing the blood and chunks of flesh down the drain. She gasped and covered her mouth in shock. Something about all of it surprised her, like someone else had done these things, and she had just woken up to find them. It wasn’t her hammer. The blood wasn’t there because she had used it as a method of torture. She hadn’t broken into this man’s house and used that hammer to smash the man’s toes.

A mental image of Verbeek’s little toe bursting like a ripe grape caused her to retch again.

Christopher knocked at the door and said, “Can I come in?”

“Just a minute.”

Cleaning herself up as best she could, wiping away tears that she hadn’t even realized she had cried, she opened the door. He gave her a knowing smile and said, “It’s your first time. Nothing to be ashamed of.”

“Ashamed of what? Being an actual human being?”

“This is what you wanted.”

She said nothing.

“He’s ready for round two.”

“I can’t. I never wanted this.”

He reached out and brushed her hair away from her face, stroked her cheek. She didn’t pull away. “You’re right. You’re better than this. I’ll call the jet. There’s still time for you to go home.”

“Wait, I didn’t mean—”

“Isabel, I told you this crusade would take you to dark places. I should have never let you come this far.”

“I make my own decisions. Nothing’s changed. If this is what it takes to find Kruger, then this is what I’ll do.”

She walked back to the sink, shut off the water, and picked up the hammer.

“Everyone breaks eventually,” Christopher said, “but Verbeek was special forces. This is only getting started.”

Isabel thought of all the people Kruger had murdered. She thought of her soon-to-be-adopted son. She thought of the blood running out from beneath Tyler’s door. Then she pushed past Christopher and made her way to Verbeek’s bedroom.

It was time for round two.

Chapter 88

Kruger sat at a small table and opened his laptop, which connected to the Internet via a secure satellite uplink. The drywall around him was hung but hadn’t been mudded and finished. A small cot that was about two feet too short for him sat in the corner. Not that such accommodations bothered him or that he planned to sleep. He wouldn’t rest until the mission was complete. He popped two caffeine pills and booted the laptop.