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Prologue

AT THE BEGINNING OF the end

Drip, drip

Splat, splat

Rattle, rattle

Clank, clank

Whoosh, whoosh

Thud, thud

“FUCK”

Groan

I tried to lift my head up after the second time the metal pipe smashed into the back of it, but it was too , and blood dripped down over every inch of my face and splattered on the cold cement floor across my booted feet I didn’t want to think about how deep that puddle was or hoide it was spreading That was a lot of blood Too much blood All of it er, so I couldn’t see the scattering of men around me as they took turns with fists and whatever else they could find to work me over where I was chained up to the exposed pipe above my head I rattled the handcuffs—handcuffs that I used every day to try and keep this city in line—against the pipe, but kneasn’t getting free anytime soon

The sound of aon the floor as one of my assailants moved closer to me had the last little bit of air that survived the last blohooshing out ofto turn htly as I could to keep these brutal bastards frounder the torturous onslaught, but uy like him ould never break I would die in this shithole at the hands of these murderers and miscreants, and no matter how much they threw at me, how much they tried to destroy the vessel it was housed in,to keep the world safe frouished I would never cave, never bon, and never let a guy like Connor Roark win