LITMIR.BIZ

      CAMERON RICHARDS got off the plane in Phoenix, Arizona, and his partner, Willem Noth, met him at the airport.

      “What the fuck, Will?” Richards grunted as they met. Noth handed over a small nylon gym bag, containing Richards’s favorite pistol.

      “Care to be more specific?” Noth asked.

      “I thought we had presidential sanction in L.A.,” Richards grumbled.

      “Plausible deniability,” Noth explained. “You can’t have the White House dancing a jig because we knocked out some Arab mouthpiece.”

      Richards’s eyes narrowed. “So they have a manhunt going for me. I’m fucked.”

      “Cam, you’re swearing again. Have you taken your medication?” Noth asked.

      Richards eyed Noth, then grimaced. “Oh, sure. I feel betrayed, and the sudden reaction is ‘are you off your meds?’”

      “You’re supposed to be taking your pills,” Noth told him. “You are an operative of the Rose Initiative. You have an image to uphold.”

      “Image? As what? Some kind of vigilante loose cannon who isn’t worthy of praise?”

      “Are you off your meds?” Noth inquired.

      Richards closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “No.”

      Noth looked at him closely. “Do you have your bottle?”

      Richards fished in his pocket and took out an unmarked pill bottle. Noth pulled out his PDA and checked the contents against the readout he glimpsed.

      “It’s almost time for your next dose. Humor me and take it five minutes early,” Noth said.

      Richards opened the bottle and shook out two tablets. “Want one?”

      “Fuck you and eat your damn pills,” Noth growled.

      Richards tossed them into his mouth and swallowed. He opened his mouth and let Noth examine his cheek pouches and under his tongue for unswallowed tablets. “Happy? Let’s go get a Coke so I can wash the taste of these out.”

      Noth nodded, pocketing his PDA. He took a deep breath, then raised an eyebrow.

      The pair made their way to the food court, where Richards got a soft drink and an order of fries while Noth sat. The Rose Initiative operative pinched his nose as if searching thoughts trying to escape his nasal cavities.

      “What’s on your mind?” Richards asked, sucking on his soda through a straw.

      “Just thinking,” Noth said.

      “I’m not going to be given up, am I?” Richards asked, popping a fry into his mouth. “The media’s howling for my head.”

      “We’ve already got a half-dozen patsies in place, depending on where the investigation takes the government,” Noth explained. “All you have to do is lay low until we find you a new assignment.”

      Richards looked at Noth, his mood darkening as he regarded the liar sitting across from him. “I know too much, despite being an overly medicated little minion,” he said.

      “The smell from the pill bottle wasn’t right,” Noth admitted. “Don’t make a scene. I have a gun leveled at your gut under the table.”

      “The Rose Initiative takes out a piece of trash, before it can be revealed that he’s their garbage, right?” Richards asked.

      “What’d you do? Mold sugar pills to resemble the right medication?” Noth asked.

      Richards nodded. “Not that it matters now. You’ve got the drop on me.”

      Richards placed a fry between his lips, letting it dangle like a cigarette.

      “Spit that out,” Noth ordered.

      “Oh, come on, let the condemned have his last smoke,” Richards replied.

      “Spit it out,” Noth growled.

      Richards spat the fry with blow-gun force, zapping Noth in his left eye. The man’s reflexive jerk caused him to pull the trigger, but it also yanked his aim off target. The bullet seared into the lower spine of an elderly man sitting at the next table. The gunshot and the cry of agony created an uproar in the food court, giving Richards a chance to lunge across the table.

      Noth realized he’d left himself wide open, despite the gun in his hand. He pulled the trigger again, but Richards had cleared the top of the table, thumbs rammed into Noth’s larynx, fingers closing on the back of his neck. The third shot plowed into the tiled floor, panic lashing out like a writhing mass of hungry crocodiles through the crowd. Footsteps thundered, screams mounting, drowning out the third gunshot. Richards wrenched with all of his might, Noth’s vertebrae shattering under the force of his powerful hands.

      The gun clattered from dead fingers, and Richards charged through the crowd.

      He had to contact his pilot, Costell, and get to the base he’d set up for himself. The Rose Initiative would be hot on his heels, and there was no telling what would

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