by Steven James
Shade pulled the photo from the camera.
Click. Another picture.
He could have killed Bowers at any time. Yes of course. Even right now. But over the last four months, Terry had been very helpful filling him in on Bowers’s past, and Shade believed he had a better punishment than death for Agent Bowers: fear.
Make him live in fear.
As the last photo printed, he scrawled a note, “I’m still here.— Shade.” Then he opened the envelope, slipped the note and the photos inside, and sealed it shut.
Yes. Let Bowers live in fear. And Shade already knew the best way to do that. Terry had told him the secret last month.
Let Bowers face his past. Let him face the mirror image of himself— Richard Devin Basque.
Shade double-checked the Denver address and dropped the letter into the mailbox beside the Mission Bay parking lot. It wouldn’t be difficult to get Basque declared “not guilty” at that fiasco of a trial in Chicago. Buy off a few jurors. Hardly a challenge at all. Then he’d deliver Agent Bowers to Basque and let him do what he did best.
“Bring it on,” huh, Bowers?
All right. If you insist.
Then the ex-CIA assassin Sebastian Taylor smiled, lit a cigarette, and strolled through the cryptic moonlight to his car, thinking of fear.
The best punishment of all.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Special thanks to Robert Bess, Lieutenant Andy Mills, Courtney Thompson, Sonya Haskins, Rhonda Bier, Sarah Bender, Trinity, Ariel, and Eden Huhn, Dr. Debbie LeCraw, Pam Johnson, George Hill, Lonnie Hull DuPont, Pamela Harty, Jennifer Leep, David Lehman, David Beeson, Shawn Scullin, Cat Hoort, Kristin Korno-elje, Michelle Cox, Al Gansky, Lucyah Della Valle, Janice, Frank, Roger, and the other staff at Ripley’s Aquarium of the Smokies, and a big thanks to Dr. Todd Huhn, Chris Haskins, and Dr. John-Paul Abner for listening and for all of your helpful criticism and input. You three guys are idea machines.
And finally, to Liesl. Your patience and encouragement mean the world to me. This isn’t my book. It’s ours.
Steven James is a critically acclaimed author and award-winning storyteller. He has written many collections of short fiction, scripts, and inspirational books that explore the paradox of good and evil. He lives at the base of the Blue Ridge Mountains with his wife and three daughters.
Look for the next Patrick Bowers thriller,
The Knight,
in summer 2009.