Chapter One: The Rain-Bar

Marcus Vale leaned against the counter as if he had seen something that should not exist. Ethan stripped the suppressed pistol into three pieces and dropped them into the trash. Then he crouched beside the first killer and checked the phone. Only one thing was on the screen. A countdown. 00:04:36. Not an extraction timer. A cleanup timer. Ethan looked at the old security camera in the ceiling corner, then at the black SUV outside that had been idling for three minutes. "Everyone out the back," he said. "Now." Someone asked, "Who the hell are you?" Ethan did not answer. He put Marcus's arm over his shoulder and led him toward the rear exit.