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CHAPTER 1

OLIVER STONE WAS COUNTING SECONDS, an exercise that had always cal with soht Sooing to go He did know one thing for certain He was not going to run He was through running

Stone had just returned froinia, where Abby Riker, a woman he’d s for since he’d lost his wife three decades prior Despite their obvious fondness for one another, Abby would not leave Divine, and Stone could not live there For better or worse, ed to this town, even with all the pain it had caused

That pain ht become even more intense The co hoht No debate was allowed, no negotiation suffered through, no chance of any compromise The party on the other end of the equation always dictated the terms

A fewCar tires had bitten into the gravel that lined the entrance to Mt Zion Cemetery It was a historical if huained pros their white counterparts had always taken for granted, like where to eat, sleep, ride in a bus or use the bathroom The irony had never been lost on Stone that Mt Zion rested high above fancy Georgetown It was not all that long ago that the wealthy folks here only tolerated their darker brethren if they wore aout drinks and finger foods and keeping their obedient gaze on the polished floors

Car doors opened and car doors closed Stone counted three clunks of ainst metal So a trio Of men They wouldn’t send a woht sieneration

Glocks or Sigs or perhaps custo on whoardless, the weapons would be chauns would be holstered under nice suit jackets No black-clad storo-fast choppers in quaint, well-connected Georgetown The extraction would be quiet, no important person’s sleep interrupted

They knocked

Polite

He answered

To show respect

These people had no personal grudge against hiht not even knoho he was It was a job He’d done it, though he’d never knocked beforehand Surprise and then the er had been his MO

A job

At least I thought that, because I didn’t have the courage to face the truth

As a soldier, Stone had never had any qual to terminate his War was Darwinism at its most efficient and the rules were innately co the the military had been different in a way that left him permanently mistrustful of those in power

He stood in the doorway, fraht behind him He would have chosen this er side Quick, clean, no chance of iven them their opportunity

They didn’t take it They were not going to kill him

It was actually four ht apprehension that his observations had been flawed

The leader of the pack was trim, five-ten, short hair and efficient eyes that took in everything and gave nothing in return He ate, a black Escalade There was a time when Stone would have rated a platoon of crackerjack killers co for him by land, sea and air Those days, apparently, were over A quartet of suits in a Cadillac on steroids was enough

There were no unnecessary words uttered He was expertly searched and ushered into the vehicle He sat in the middle bench seat, a man on either side of hiainst his They were tensed, ready to block any atteht ofsuch an attempt Now, outnumbered four to one, he would lose that battle ten times out of ten, a blackened tattoo painted on his forehead, a third eye his reward for the fatal o it was probable that four men far better than these would lie dead as he walked away to fight another day But those days were long in the past

“Where?” he asked He never expected a response and didn’t get one

Minutes later he stood alone outside a building virtually every A More her-ranked than the ones who had just dropped hi The personnel became more skilled the closer one approached the center They escorted hile one of them was closed, and it wasn’t simply the lateness of the hour This place never really slept

The door opened and the door closed Stone was alone onceA door opened in another part of the room and the man entered He didn’t look at Stone, but motioned for him to sit

Stone sat

The man settled down behind his desk