He had already reached the cul-de-sac and jogged quickly around the back of the two end houses.

There was silence, and then laughter. “Why don’t you come on out and give it a shot? I’m right here, Mr. Suburbia.”

Zack heard the cries of the residents in the background, but he heard the woman’s wails of agony in the air.

“Regardless of what you think, this isn’t personal. It’s a job—a very high-paying one, at that. And you’re doing your all-American best to muck it up. Fancy yourself a hero? Is that it? Trying to prove something to yourself? Are you some kind of weekend warrior looking to go full-time?”

Zack had reached the woods on the other side of Arrow Drive. There were at least three hundred yards between his street and Windy Tree Way. At night, it would take him several minutes to traverse the terrain. At least the wind was on his side.

“Could a weekend warrior kill all of those guys you hired? If so, you’d be out of business pretty quickly,” Zack said as he slipped into the trees and was enveloped by the suburban forest. He stood still, allowing his eyes to adjust ever so slightly to the intense darkness. The coming cold front and clouds had blotted out the waning crescent moon, and illumination was next to nothing, although the night-vision monocular helped. “But let’s not talk about me. Rather, let’s talk about what I want.”

“Let me guess—and it’s rather boring, I might add—you want me and my friends to release the hostages, your friends and neighbors, and be on our merry way. Does that sound about right?”

“A boy can dream, can’t he?” Zack shot back.

“No. He can’t. Not on this night,” Barrett said, his voice taking a serious, flat tone devoid of emotion. “It’s ‘adults only’ at this party. No matter what—and I really mean this—we are not leaving without that computer. I don’t know if you really have it, but if you do, I’ll make you a deal. You bring the laptop here, and we’ll leave. No questions asked. You get to be the hero, and we get what we came for. A simple trade: your lives for that laptop.”

Zack pushed deeper into the woods, the flickering lights from Windy Tree serving as his personal beacons.

“Can I call a friend? Maybe get a second opinion?”

“I don’t think so. The terms of this deal are binding. It’s a real take-it-or-leave-it, one-time-only kind of a deal.” Barrett paused, waiting for an answer.

“You drive a hard bargain, Barrett.”

Another pause, another wind-driven shudder of the trees around Zack as he stalked through the woods.