Ben found himself locked in an internal struggle. Part of his mind told him that Wolf had to die. Another part of him, the part that had so dreaded having to kill a former friend and comrade, was relieved at the prospect of letting someone else do it. Which would happen in about the next two seconds if he simply stood by and did nothing.

But there was a third part of his mind that wanted to overrule both. The part that couldn’t let this happen either way. And that was the part that prevailed. Ben raised his pistol, squared his sights on the man with the hook, and now it all came together, smooth and effortless. The four-pound trigger broke crisply and the gun flashed and boomed in his hands and the 147-grain full metal jacket bullet erupted from the barrel and reached the target in six hundredths of a second and drilled him straight through the brain pan.

One shot, one kill. The man with the hook was dead even before his body slumped over the edge of the shelf and dropped like a sack of wet washing into the hollow, still clutching the sawn-off. His hook clanged against the rocky ground. He twitched once, then lay still.

Wolf had jumped to his feet like a startled leopard, poised for action, moving to reach for the rifle at his side. Ben stood up and put away the Browning. Raised both hands in the air to show that he was unarmed. He called out, ‘Jaden. Stop.’

Wolf froze. Staring at Ben, his eyes narrowing in recognition. He said nothing.

Ben called out, ‘You know me. I’m Ben.’

Wolf replied, slowly and suspiciously, ‘Yeah, I know who you are. Major Hope. What a surprise, you just happening to turn up like this.’

‘I’m not a major any more.’

‘Then what are you? Just another gun for hire, right?’

Ben said nothing. In that moment he had no plan, no clear idea of what he was doing. All he could think was that somehow they could talk their way through this. But Wolf had other ideas. His arm flashed out to make a grab for the rifle.

Ben whipped out his pistol again and beat him to the draw. ‘Don’t even think about it, Jaden. We’re not going to do that.’

Wolf stopped. He let his arm hang loose at his side, but he didn’t move back from the rifle. ‘Then what are we going to do?’

‘We’re going to talk,’ Ben said. ‘You and me. Right here. We’re going to figure this out. But first I need you to take a step away from the weapon.’

Wolf edged away. His eyes were hard. ‘They sent you here, didn’t they?’

‘I’m not going to lie to you, Jaden. I never have.’

‘Then don’t, Ben. Tell me that they sent you to kill me.’