Chapter 1I breathed out, and the world fell awayaround me. It was just me, the steady rhythm of my heart and theweight of the Beretta in my hand.
The body came into perfect focus, and Isqueezed the trigger. The gun clapped, jerked a little in my hand,and the chest I’d been aiming at exploded.
I squeezed the trigger three moretimes, all hits in a small circle in the middle of the chest,slightly to the right and down, where the heart would be. The quietthat was coursing through my veins was new and familiar at the sametime. It was the opposite of what I used to experience when I killedfor a living, but the familiarity of the gun in my hand, the feel ofthe bullets leaving the chamber, the satisfaction of a perfect hit –I still had it.
I became aware of the thick earmuffsthat drowned out th
