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Prologue

The assassin takes aim

This is his favorite er He’s calhtened In that split second before he takes a life, it’s as though everything happens in slow , deep and even, and of the steady beating of his heart

One living being about to destroy another There’s power in that, and beauty He’s grown to appreciate it over the years, to derive enjoy that had initially eaten at his soul

He’s not a psychopath Maybe others of his kind are If so, he envies the emotions that fill him to the brim He loves and hates with equal passion

Yet he rarely feels anything during a hit Not anymore When he’s on the job, he simply thinks of himself as a hunter—a hunter with a very specific prey

This particular hunt has been longer and erous as the assassin himself The man he’s about to kill displays many of his own traits, and he has no doubt his prey was once a predator himself

Then again, none of the els He doesn’t kill the innocent He dispatches the guilty

Theof what’s about to befall him

Taking a deep breath, the assassin gently squeezes the trigger

1

“Kate, I’ht now”

June Wallers, the nursing supervisor, bursts into the tiny roo down my dinner

Sighing, I put down my half-eaten sandwich, take a sip of water, and follow June down the hall It’s not the first time this week that my allocated dinner hour has turned into a ten-minute snack break

The economic cliet cuts leading to hiring freezes and staff layoffs Even now, the Eency Room at Coney Island Hospital is three nurses short of what it needs to function properly Other departments are also short-staffed, but their patient flow is more predictable At the ER, however, it’s always a madhouse