Loria twitched and blinked and said, “Put your gun down, Yoshida. You too, Kruger. Or I’ll have my security cut you down. We need to have a talk about all this.”

Burke winced. “Again, Ty, buddy … screwed. You see, I’m guessing that all of these men are contracted to you by Black Dog Protective Services?”

Loria didn’t answer, but the look on his face said enough.

“I discovered that Mr. Yoshida paid a very substantial sum to Black Dog and Carl Verbeek. These men don’t work for you. They work for him.”

Loria’s face had become so red that he looked as if he may burst. “Say something, Yoshida!”

The CIA agent let out a deep breath and said, “It’s all true. I realized after the massacre that I’ve done nothing with my life but cause pain and suffering. I’ve always just followed orders blindly and did whatever was best for me. I’ve been a selfish man. And this is my chance to do something good. What’s a little collateral damage compared to the greater good or making the world a better place?”

“And what about the rest of us?” Loria asked.

Yoshida pursed his lips and seemed to consider that. “You can all burn in Hell where you belong.”

Loria reached behind his back, likely to retrieve a pistol, and Burke could see Kruger and the blonde tensed to shoot their way out of the building.

“Wait! No one open fire,” Burke quickly said. “This truck is filled with a lot of oxygen tanks, which were on their way to a local hospital. I stole the truck and opened up all of the regulator valves just before driving in here.”

“What exactly does that mean?” Yoshida was the first to ask.

Burke rolled his eyes. “An oxygen-enriched environment is defined as any atmosphere with more than 23.5 percent oxygen. Considering that, think of the basic fire triangle. All three legs of the triangle must be present to produce a fire—a fuel, an oxidizer, and an ignition source. If asked to name some fuels, you would all likely name materials like wood, coal, oil, and gas. But would any of you list materials like aluminum, steel, stainless steel? Consider this. Why can we light a piece of wood with a match but not a steel rod? Because the ignition temperature of the wood is much lower than that of the steel rod, and the heat from the match is sufficient for ignition only on the wood. But as the oxygen concentration in an atmosphere increases, the auto-ignition temperature decreases. So materials that cannot be ignited in normal air may burn readily in oxygen-enriched environments.”

“Does anyone know what the hell the little man is talking about?” Kruger said.

Burke sighed. “How to explain this in a way you can all understand, including all you mercs on the catwalk? I’ve used this truck and the pure oxygen it was carrying to turn this building into an oxygen-enriched environment. That means that all we need is a small ignition source, like an open flame, or, say, gunfire, to set the atmosphere in this building ablaze. If any of you try to discharge your weapons, they will likely explode in your hands.”