She blinked at him. Peter leaned forward from his chair onto his elbows, his face poking into view, angled above a still-steaming bowl of mashed potatoes.

“That’s what you’re saying?” she asked. “That you’re willing to stop it all?”

He stared at her, feeling the pull of a thousand buried instincts as they fought their way to the surface. He opened his mouth to reply.

In his pocket the RoamZone vibrated.

Time decelerated, his senses on overdrive. Ahead, a room glowing with warmth, a table set with cheer. Behind, the cool of the dark hallway lifting the hairs on his neck. The phone in his pocket, calling him to duty.

It had taken so much to get him here, to the threshold. He couldn’t bring himself to retreat from the door, to tear himself away.

He dug for the phone, lifted it to his ear, spoke the words. “Do you need my help?”

A draft from the hall blew in, snuffed out the yellow and orange candles on the table. Black smoke spiraled up from the wicks. Mia searched his face, as if looking for something she could no longer find.

Through a staticky connection came a single syllable: “Yes.”

It took a split second for Evan to recognize the voice.

It was Jack’s.

Keeping the phone pressed to his face, Evan dipped his head apologetically and backed away from the light.

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments

Last year, Orphan X introduced Evan Smoak to the world. It is no small feat in this day and age to bring a new character to readers, and I would like to thank the exceptional crew at Minotaur Books for doing it so beautifully. Andrew Martin, Hannah Braaten, Hector DeJean, Jennifer Enderlin, Paul Hochman, Kelley Ragland, Sally Richardson, Martin Quinn—Evan and I look forward to working with you for many years to come.

I must also acknowledge Rowland White at Michael Joseph/Penguin Group UK, as well as Izzie Coburn and the sales team, Ellie Hughes, Lee Motley, Matt Waterson, and their counterparts in Australia and New Zealand, for an equally astounding job.

And my reps, the best in the business:

—Lisa Erbach Vance, Aaron Priest, John Richmond, and Melissa Edwards of the Aaron Priest Agency

—Caspian Dennis of the Abner Stein Agency

—Trevor Astbury, Rob Kenneally, Peter Micelli, and Michelle Weiner of Creative Artists Agency

—Stephen F. Breimer of Bloom, Hergott, Diemer et al, and Marc H. Glick of Glick & Weintraub

And Evan’s circle of consultants:

—Geoffrey Baehr, the brain

—Billy S____, the muscle

—Brian Shiers, the fighter

—Michael Borohovski (cofounder and CTO of Tinfoil Security), the intrusion engineer

—Melissa Hurwitz and Bret Nelson, the M.D.s

—Philip Eisner, the wordsmith

—Eddie Gonzalez, the translator of street slang

—Maureen Sugden, the (finest) copyeditor

—Bob Mosier, the automobile virtuoso

—Tore Saso, the banking expert

—Dana Kaye, the publicist (who fought Evan’s every effort to stay off the grid)