Belyakov smiled again. “When I found out you lived here, I made myself one promise before we arrived—that no matter what happened, and I mean no matter what, you would not die, not tonight, and not by my hand. In fact, I was getting ready to shoot him myself. But when that man showed up and walked deliberately up to Griffin without hesitation, ignoring me and my men, I knew immediately what he was going to do. And when I saw his face, I understood that whatever Griffin had done to him, it outweighed the grievance I had with him. So I let him do what he needed to do. Minus that knife, you were never in any real danger.”

Zack released Belyakov’s hand, and said, “They killed his father tonight.”

A flash of sadness flickered and was gone before Belyakov spoke again. “Then real justice was served, and the Russian in me is truly glad that he pulled the trigger. His father can rest easy knowing he’s been avenged.”

Zack nodded, understanding all too clearly the sentiment. The law could never really right certain wrongs, and it took the hard will of a wronged man to do it.

“Zack, until we meet again,” Belyakov said. He abruptly turned away and started moving toward the helicopter.

“Aleksei, don’t take this personally, but I hope that doesn’t happen,” Zack said loudly over the rotors, which had started to increase in speed in preparation for lift-off.

Belyakov turned his head, “You never know, Zack. You never know.”

Thirty seconds later, the residents of Hidden Refuge watched the black Huey helicopter with its occupants and one US government-issue laptop ascend into the dark night. Sam and Ben were talking to Stephen Flores near the SUV they’d commandeered, and David York held Barrett at gunpoint with the Glock Stephen had used to kill Griffin. Looking at Barrett, Zack recognized that the sociopathic Irishman had spiraled downward into his own compartmented world inside his head.

“You okay?” Nick asked quietly, now that it was just the two of them.

“I am. I’m also really glad you’re as smart as you are. If you hadn’t suspected something was wrong, I honestly don’t know how this would’ve turned out. Thanks, man,” Zack said, and embraced his brother, careful to keep his left leg turned away. “I love you.”

“Love you too,” Nick said, and disengaged from his brother. “Speaking of the original job we were supposed to do today, is that still on?”

Zack had been contemplating the same thing. “Not today, but if things unfold the way I believe they’re going to, it will get taken care of, and we won’t have to do a thing ourselves.”

“Roger that,” Nick said. “I really wasn’t keen on torching your place of employment, you know.”

“You know I have insurance and that I actually own the building, right?” Zack said.