“Two.”
It was a split-second decision, but all Jack could do was buy time. “I’m stepping toward the doorway,” he shouted from the hallway, “and I don’t have a weapon.”
The Dark stopped counting, and for the next few seconds, there was only the sound of falling rain on the roof.
“Hands up where I can see them!” the Dark shouted.
Jack took a deep breath. This was definitely not the plan. Jack moved into the doorway with hands up over his head. The sole source of light in the room was a battery-powered lantern on the table, but it was sufficient, and the sight took Jack’s breath away-especially the blood on the floor beside Vince. Shada was on her knees at his side. The Dark stood behind her with his gun pressed against the back of her head.
“I swear I don’t have a gun,” Jack said.
“It wouldn’t help you anyway,” the Dark said. “Come out, McKenna.”
Jack did a double take at the name “McKenna,” but when the girl from the fish market stepped out from the shadows in the corner of the room, he knew it was just more of the Dark’s sickness.
“Everyone is going to do exactly as I say,” the Dark said. “Show them, McKenna.”
The girl opened her coat to reveal what she was wearing underneath. Even in the dim lighting of a boarded- up hotel room, it didn’t take an expert to see that she was wired for explosives. Her earlier exchange with Jack- when she told Jack that the Dark didn’t have to find her in order to kill her-hadn’t been paranoia. Now it made sense.
The Dark showed Jack the cell phone in his free hand. “Remote detonator,” he said. “Something I learned from Jamal’s father. Life’s funny, isn’t it?”
“Nobody else has to die,” said Jack. “Just take the money and go.”
“I’ll go,” he said, shoving Shada’s head forward with his pistol, “but I’m taking this slut with me.”
“You don’t need Shada,” said Jack.
“Don’t tell me what I need,” he said, his anger rising. “We’re talking real Internet porn-star potential-right, Shada? Let’s give your friends a little sneak preview. Tell them who made you into such a slut.”
She didn’t answer. The Dark only berated her further. His voice turned into that same abusive rant that Jack had heard on those unwatchable P2P videos.
“Who did it, huh?” he said, getting into role. The pistol forced Shada’s head forward, and again he shouted: “Who did it to you?”
She answered in a weak voice. “Not Chuck,” she said. “He was number six.”
“Then who? Tell me!”
“Not the men in college. Not number five. Or four. Or three.”
She looked up just enough to catch Jack’s eye-and Jack had a double epiphany. The Dark’s interrogation of Shada was like a replay of his final moments with McKenna before stabbing her to death. He was forcing her to go back to that first lover, the one who had taken her virginity and-in his twisted mind-turned her into a slut. For McKenna there had been only Jamal, and it suddenly came clear to Jack. When Vince found her on the bedroom floor, dying and delirious, and asked her that same question-Who did this to you?-McKenna had been conditioned to give him the answer that she’d given the Dark: Jamal.
“Not that boy on the beach,” Shada said. “Number two.”
She paused, again catching Jack’s eye, and the second half of the two-part epiphany was confirmed. Shada wasn’t just counting down her lovers.
“Definitely not two,” she said, making sure that Jack was with her as she counted down like mission control toward a synchronized launch time for a simultaneous attack.
“One!” she said, and they sprang into action.
Shada jerked away from the gun. Jack dove at the Dark and knocked the phone-the detonator-to the floor. His momentum carried them both all the way to an old chair against the wall. Their combined weight smashed the chair to pieces, their bodies hit the floor, and the gun discharged. The girl screamed as the errant bullet splintered the door casing behind her.
“Run!” Jack shouted.
He heard someone racing toward the door as he and the Dark fought for control of the gun. They rolled hard to Jack’s left and slammed into the radiator. Jack got hold of the Dark’s wrist and smashed his hand against the pipe until the gun dropped to the floor. The two men were still locked in a wrestling match as Jack swung his leg around and kicked the gun across the room. Jack saw it disappear somewhere in the shadows-but he didn’t see the broken chair leg coming at his head. The blow stunned Jack, and as much as he tried to fight through the pain, he could feel the Dark slipping out of his grasp. Only then did Jack see the cell phone resting in the center of room. He knew that if the Dark got to it first, they would all be blown to bits. He tried to pull the Dark back to him, but his strength was gone.
The Dark reached for it.
“Freeze!” Shada shouted, and the crack of a pistol stopped everyone. It was her warning shot. The gun that Jack had wrestled free in the struggle was now in her hands, and the Dark was in her sights. The Dark didn’t move, but his open hand hovered ominously over the cell phone on the floor.
“Put the gun down, Shada,” the Dark said.
“Don’t tell me what to do!”
With tentative steps, and with her gun aimed at the Dark, Shada slowly crossed the room to check on Vince. Her warning shot seemed to have roused him. Shada knelt at his side, but he didn’t speak.
“Shada, I’m talking to you,” said the Dark.
Jack struggled to focus, fighting off the blow to his head. “Don’t listen to him, Shada.”
“Quiet, everyone!” she said.
Jack backed off, but the Dark continued in a chilling tone. It was the strong, almost hypnotic voice of control.
“Shada, this isn’t what you came back to do.”
“Yes, it is. I want you dead.”
“Only I can help you now.”
“You deserve to die!”
“You need me, Shada. That’s why you brought me the money.”
“You killed my daughter, you monster. I brought the money so I could get close enough to kill you.”
Jack could see the anger on his face, but the Dark continued in the same even tone that almost seemed to cast a spell over Shada. “And then you were going to make a run for it, weren’t you?” he said.
She didn’t answer.
“You don’t have to run alone, Shada. We can run together.”
“Shut up!”
“Tell Jack why you have to run, Shada.”
“Quiet!”
“If you kill me and let Jack live, it’s only a matter of time before he figures out that you were in Miami when Ethan Chang was killed.”
“Stop it!”
“And that you were also in Miami when his friend was killed.”
She didn’t deny it. She wouldn’t even look at Jack, and her connection to Neil hit Jack like a sledgehammer.
“You tricked me,” said Shada. Her gun was trained on the Dark, but Jack could hear in her voice that she was beginning to crumble.
“Nobody tricked you, Shada. You knew the truth.”
“You made me think Jamal was out to kill me, and you said Chang could lead him to me.”
“That was true.”
“Not true!” said Vince, groaning. It startled everyone. It was the sound of a dying man, and Jack wished he would save his strength.
“Don’t listen to Paulo,” said the Dark. “You did the right thing, Shada. Chang was a blackmailer.”
Her aim was turning unsteady, even as her voice quaked. “You said it would only make him sick, not kill
