57

Tower Bridge, London

How about them goddamned apples, Clancy thought, a knife hilt-deep in his neck. It turns out you can make amends.

He’d started the ball rolling by killing the vice president rather than the president. Nobody’d miss the guy. Gina Hayes, though? That’d be a real gutshot to progress, and it turned out Clancy had developed some strong feelings about that—or at least a healthy dose of curiosity as to what a women-run world might look like. They couldn’t fuck it up any worse than the gents, and who knew? It might be an improvement.

He could have stopped there, but then he’d gone and shot the Grimalkin right through the eyes.

Bet that cat doesn’t land on his feet.

His wheezing laugh sprayed blood.

He wasn’t sure he’d have had the cojones to shoot the legendary assassin if that gypsy-looking woman’s knife hadn’t lodged itself clean against his carotid artery, its tip scratching his spine. The blade was the only thing keeping him from bleeding out. He wouldn’t last until the EMTs arrived.

As a dead man shooting, he’d chosen the Grimalkin over the gypsy, and he felt tickled goddamned pink about that decision.

Pow.

Pulling the trigger sapped the last of his energy. He fell backward, just missing the sofa. His field of vision was shrinking, like he was looking through a pair of binoculars. He reached toward the knife, planning to pull it out. No use in waiting.

That’s when the elevator dinged again. Who was riding it up this time? Captain America? The Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders? Now that was a final surprise he wouldn’t mind, but when the door opened with a whisk, he saw something even better.

His old partner, Agent Lucan Stone, his arm in a sling.

Was Stone about to learn that Clancy had done something right, here at the end? Well, I’ll be double-hot-damned. There really is justice in this world.

The knife came out with a squirt.

Clancy’s lifeblood flowed out of him, along with a final thought. Lutsenko and his cronies were going to lose this war. They may have the best men, but they did not have the best minds.

Hell, it turned out they didn’t even have the best warriors.