Chapter One: The Rain-Bar

Ethan Kane. CIA Special Activities Center field asset. Operational call sign: Ghost. Killed in action during an undisclosed mission near the Black Sea. The report was wrong. Ethan was alive. The name, however, was not supposed to be spoken again. The bell above the door rang. A man in a dark gray suit stumbled in from the rain. He was in his early forties, pale, wet to the bone, and pressing his left hand against his ribs. Blood seeped between his fingers. Conversation in the bar dropped by half a beat. Ethan looked at him for one second. Not drunk. Not a robbery victim. The man's right foot landed slower than his left, which meant the wound was affecting his breathing.