All of this was my fault.

Odin had been the only constant in my life since I left the convent.  He was with me through sniper school and every assignment I was given all over the country.  Even when I was deployed, he was cared for by volunteers at the base in Virginia, waiting for me to return.

Without him, I would have been completely alone.

No matter what I might have done, he was always there waiting for me when I got home.  He didn’t judge, and he was never afraid of me.  When I was too lost in thought, he would always be there to bring me out of it.  He was always, always there when I needed him.  He was my companion and my friend.

“He’s gone.”  My voice echoed around the empty room.

With my eyes closed, I leaned over to place my forehead against his.  For a moment, I thought he moved, but I realized it was just my own body shaking.  I tried to tighten my muscles to make the trembling stop, but it didn’t work.  I took a long breath, and when I glanced up, someone was standing in front of me.

The kid with the bombs strapped to him.

He was closer to me now than I had ever seen him in the past.  On his face, I could clearly see the path of every tear, and on his clothing, every grain of sand.  There were wires sticking out from under his shirt and leading up to his hand, which was wrapped firmly around a detonator.

“What do you want?” I cried at him.  “I can’t take it back!  I can’t fix it!  You’re dead, and now he’s dead, and I can’t fix any of that shit!  What the fuck do you want from me?”

He continued to stare at me with dark, sorrowful eyes.  I couldn’t look away from him—all I could do was stare back and ask inane questions of a ghost from my past.  His eyes drifted to Odin and then back to mine.

“Is…is she gone, too?  Did you see her here?  Did he kill her?”

He didn’t respond.

“She’s…she’s all I have left.  If something happened to her…if that guy killed her…nothing else will fucking matter anymore!”

His head slowly shook from side to side.

“Why are you here?” I screamed at him.

He blinked several times, and his mouth opened.

“Don’t you see it?”  I knew the voice was my own.  Even though it appeared as if the kid was talking, I still knew it was me.  As soon as I heard the words, I knew what he meant.

“Lia’s like you,” I whispered.

“I didn’t want to be there,” the kid said in my voice.  “Forced into a war I didn’t want any part of and didn’t understand.  I followed because I was told to follow.  I didn’t understand what was happening.”

One of his hands moved down and rested against the shape of the explosives wrapped around his waist.

“I killed you.”  My hands were still shaking, and I tried to hang onto Odin’s body to make them stop, but it didn’t help.  The rest of me was shaking hard enough to shake his body as well.

“She’s the same.”

“I didn’t make her come here,” I said as I rapidly shook my head.  “She…she wanted to…to be here…”

“She wanted you.  She didn’t understand the consequences.  How could she?”

“But I told her everything!”

He didn’t have anything to say about that, only looked at me pointedly.

“Did I kill her, too?”

He didn’t answer.

I stood up and pointed the Beretta in his face.

“Did she fucking die here because of me?” I screamed at him.

He didn’t have any more words, so I shot him.

The noise echoed through the apartment, and the bullet blasted a hole in the wall of the bedroom.  I shot three more times, and the kid slowly faded away into nothingness.

Dropping to my knees, I took Odin’s head in my hands one more time.

“I’m sorry, buddy…so fucking sorry…”

I squeezed my eyes shut, told myself to get a fucking grip, and pushed away from him.  I stumbled out of the bedroom, holstered my Beretta, grabbed my SIG and the assault rifle, and ran back outside to Rinaldo’s car.  I broke every traffic rule in existence to get to Rinaldo’s office in just a few minutes.

“She’s gone,” I said as soon as I walked in.  “I went to the apartment, and she’s not there.”

Rinaldo’s eyes tightened, and he glanced around at the other men in the room before looking back to me.

“I was afraid of that,” Rinaldo said with a nod.  “He’s not answering my calls, either.  I sent him a message that the hit was called off, but he didn’t reply.  Where the hell is your shirt?”

I glanced down at my bare chest for a second before I looked back to Rinaldo.  I should have been cold, but I didn’t feel anything.

“Soaked in my dog’s blood,” I replied.  “He killed Odin.”

Rinaldo’s eyes closed briefly, and he shook his head.  His throat bobbed before he spoke again.

“I’m sorry about that.”

“Davies knew where we were living.”

“That’s what I was trying to tell you before all hell broke loose,” Rinaldo said.  “Davies went to get her—said he knew right where she was but didn’t tell me how.  He’s a new guy, and I honestly thought he was bluffing, but if she’s gone, he almost certainly has her.”

“Is she already dead?”  I didn’t want the answer to the question, but I had to ask.

“I don’t know,” he responded.  “I would think if she was, he’d tell me so I could pay him for the job.  I don’t know if that counts as hope or anything, but it’s a start.”

I flinched.

“Where would he be?”

“At the warehouse, mostly likely.  That’s where he’s been staying.”

The warehouse.  The combination drop-off site and living quarters near the school bus yard where I’d killed Lenny Yates and his companion some months back.  It was a good twenty-minute drive from Rinaldo’s office.  I turned and started out.

“Hold up,” Rinaldo said.

I turned to glare at him.

“Here you go.”  Rinaldo reached down behind his desk and pulled out the bipod and silencer for my Barrett.  “Found these in a truck near the rail yard.  I figured they were yours.”

“Thanks,” I mumbled as I reached for them.

“Anything you need?”

“Depends on what I find,” I told him.  “If she’s gone, I’ll have to call in that favor you once promised me.”

“What favor is that?”

I looked up at him, and all I could think was that he could have been—should have been—my father.

“I’ll need you to put me down, sir.”

* * *

During the drive to the northwest side of town where the warehouse was located, I used every relaxation and focusing technique I’d ever learned as a sniper to control myself and focus my energy.  The panic in the center of my stomach wasn’t helping me think, and I had to push it down if I had any hope of finding Lia and getting her away from Davies.

I pulled up to the building and slowly drove the car around to the back and parked it right next to the corner of the building.  There was a small back door partially hidden by a dumpster several yards away at the far end of the building, but I didn’t want to be too close to it.

A bullet slammed into the windshield.  It was stopped by the special glass but still left a mark where it bounced off.  The shot hadn’t come from the doorway but down near the fence that separated the warehouse from the school buses.  I slipped the shoulder strap of the assault rifle up one arm and around my neck.  I looked around the outside of the building as I climbed out of the car and crouched behind the door but didn’t see anyone.

Was this Davies guy shooting at me?

It didn’t have to be him—any of Rinaldo’s guys who hadn’t received the message could be gunning for me.  I looked off to my left where the line of trees next to the river darkened the area, which would have been a perfect hiding spot as the ground sloped down to the water’s edge.

There was a grassy area to the left just before the line of trees, and I ran in that direction, dropped down to the ground on my stomach, and aimed the assault rifle at the trees.  Several shots rang out as the butt of the weapon pounded against my shoulder.

Another shot rang out and hit the dirt near my boot.  Considering where I was, it was too dangerous to stay.  My enemy had the advantage of cover, and I had the disadvantage of needing to find Lia immediately.  Instead of continuing the firefight I was destined to lose, I moved back behind the edge of the building.

With the shooter at the rear of the building, I decided the back door wasn’t the way to get myself inside.  I ran along the edge of the building to the front where there were several windows boarded up.  The end of the AR broke through the boards and shattered the glass behind them easily enough, and once I’d made a big enough hole, I pulled myself through it.

I kept the AR at the ready as I moved to the first room’s door and shoved it open.  I looked in both directions down the hallway but saw no one.  There was a door to the left with music coming from the room behind it, so I moved in front of it and kicked the door in with my boot.

“Holy shit!”  The guy inside was in his early twenties with black, curly hair and dark eyes.  I recognized his face, but didn’t know his name.  Drug trafficking was most likely his occupation, but I didn’t care enough to find out who he was.

I kept my rifle aimed at his face.

“I’m looking for a girl,” I told him.  “Davies might have brought her here.  You want to live?  Tell me where she is.”

“You’ve got a price on your head,” the idiot informed me.

I turned the rifle to the little clock radio that also served as a docking station for his iPhone and blew it to pieces.  With the music silenced, I turned the weapon back to his head.