with a spear-hand blow, feeling the crunch of the man’s windpipe underneath his fingers.
He gasped for air and Rhett began delivering blow after blow to his chin, throat, and chest. He stomped downward onto the man’s knee, cracking it, and toppling him over. Rhett mounted him and dropped down with elbows onto his face until it was nothing but a spongy red mess.
He sat up, breathing hard.
“Why?” he said. The man didn’t reply so Rhett climbed off him and found the gun on the bathroom floor. He fired one round into the man’s knee and then bent down and stuck his thumb into the small hole, pulling at the wound until it tore.
The man screamed.
“Why?” Rhett said again. The man didn’t respond and Rhett aimed the weapon at his genitals. “I promise you , it’s more painful there.”
The man, blood caked into his eyes, grinned. “You talk too much.”
He whipped out a blade concealed in his sleeve and lunged at Rhett.
Rhett absorbed the forward momentum of his arm and twisted it around with one hand, sending the blade back into the man’s eye. As he screamed, blood spattered over the carpet and walls. Rhett stood and pinned him against the floor, placing his foot on the hilt of the knife.
“Tell me why, now.”
The man was near passing out. “They’re gonna have some fun with your mark. Six of ’em. They’re gonna make her husband watch before they turn her inside out. Maybe they’ll fuck him too.”
“You telling me she didn’t leave? She’s still here?”
There was no response. Rhett pushed on the knife, forcing it down another quarter of an inch. The man shrieked so loudly it echoed in the room.
“Why? What’s so important about her?” Rhett demanded.
The man was delirious from pain and didn’t say anyt hing. He was clawing at the foot, trying to get at the knife that was sticking out of his eyeball. Rhett removed his foot and walked over to the bed. He slipped on a pair of clothes, throwing the rest of it into his suitcase. He looked to the man one more time before heading out the door.
CHAPTER 14
Rhett walked into the terminal at JFK and stood in the TSA line to get screened. He pulled out a false identification for a Robert K. Adelman along with his boarding pass. The airport was packed with travelers though he couldn’t tell why. It was just another Tuesday and no holidays were on the horizon.
He exhaled loudly as he slipped off his shoes and put them in a tray.
Starlight never sent more than one agent at a time. If the man was telling the truth and they had sent six, it meant it was war. Why would one target, a minor congresswoman, be so important? They’d had far more significant targets in the past, and each time only one agent was dispatched. Something wasn’t right.
Rhett noticed a young couple in line, holding hands until the last moment before they had to separate and go into different metal detectors. They held hands again on the other side. He pictured Stephanie, an image forcing its way into his mind: her broken and nude body lying on a floor. Her husband tied up in the corner, weeping at the sight of six men gang-raping and torturing his wife.
The man wasn’t exaggerating about turning her inside out. When Starlight needed to send a message, no message was more brutal. They never asked Rhett for that kind of wet work because they knew he would decline, but he had heard rumors about the brutality.
One mark they had tied upside down and used a blowtorch on for over an hour until every inch of skin had peeled off his body. They had left him there and he died several days later from infection. The man had been a war criminal—a common occupation for Starlight contracts—but still, he had a family. A family that had no idea who he had been in a previous life, and who would never know what had happened to him.
The family had become destitute without him. The mother, partially disabled from a genetic disorder
He gasped for air and Rhett began delivering blow after blow to his chin, throat, and chest. He stomped downward onto the man’s knee, cracking it, and toppling him over. Rhett mounted him and dropped down with elbows onto his face until it was nothing but a spongy red mess.
He sat up, breathing hard.
“Why?” he said. The man didn’t reply so Rhett climbed off him and found the gun on the bathroom floor. He fired one round into the man’s knee and then bent down and stuck his thumb into the small hole, pulling at the wound until it tore.
The man screamed.
“Why?” Rhett said again. The man didn’t respond and Rhett aimed the weapon at his genitals. “I promise you , it’s more painful there.”
The man, blood caked into his eyes, grinned. “You talk too much.”
He whipped out a blade concealed in his sleeve and lunged at Rhett.
Rhett absorbed the forward momentum of his arm and twisted it around with one hand, sending the blade back into the man’s eye. As he screamed, blood spattered over the carpet and walls. Rhett stood and pinned him against the floor, placing his foot on the hilt of the knife.
“Tell me why, now.”
The man was near passing out. “They’re gonna have some fun with your mark. Six of ’em. They’re gonna make her husband watch before they turn her inside out. Maybe they’ll fuck him too.”
“You telling me she didn’t leave? She’s still here?”
There was no response. Rhett pushed on the knife, forcing it down another quarter of an inch. The man shrieked so loudly it echoed in the room.
“Why? What’s so important about her?” Rhett demanded.
The man was delirious from pain and didn’t say anyt hing. He was clawing at the foot, trying to get at the knife that was sticking out of his eyeball. Rhett removed his foot and walked over to the bed. He slipped on a pair of clothes, throwing the rest of it into his suitcase. He looked to the man one more time before heading out the door.
CHAPTER 14
Rhett walked into the terminal at JFK and stood in the TSA line to get screened. He pulled out a false identification for a Robert K. Adelman along with his boarding pass. The airport was packed with travelers though he couldn’t tell why. It was just another Tuesday and no holidays were on the horizon.
He exhaled loudly as he slipped off his shoes and put them in a tray.
Starlight never sent more than one agent at a time. If the man was telling the truth and they had sent six, it meant it was war. Why would one target, a minor congresswoman, be so important? They’d had far more significant targets in the past, and each time only one agent was dispatched. Something wasn’t right.
Rhett noticed a young couple in line, holding hands until the last moment before they had to separate and go into different metal detectors. They held hands again on the other side. He pictured Stephanie, an image forcing its way into his mind: her broken and nude body lying on a floor. Her husband tied up in the corner, weeping at the sight of six men gang-raping and torturing his wife.
The man wasn’t exaggerating about turning her inside out. When Starlight needed to send a message, no message was more brutal. They never asked Rhett for that kind of wet work because they knew he would decline, but he had heard rumors about the brutality.
One mark they had tied upside down and used a blowtorch on for over an hour until every inch of skin had peeled off his body. They had left him there and he died several days later from infection. The man had been a war criminal—a common occupation for Starlight contracts—but still, he had a family. A family that had no idea who he had been in a previous life, and who would never know what had happened to him.
The family had become destitute without him. The mother, partially disabled from a genetic disorder
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