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er his shoulder The other was a large duffel bag, which he loaded into the cab’s trunk himself

Cary Woodhouse pulled into traffic and stayed four cars back from Grant’s cab When it headed into toard the Civic Center, five by six blocks ofa treed plaza, Woodhouse felt some alarm City Hall was the focal point of the Civic Center, with its huge gilded do the Capitol Building in DC

The Civic Center Plaza was always open It was a public square, but ould Grant be co the cab along McAllister, crossing Polk The cab reduced speed and signaled for a left turn It looked like the taxi was taking the short ra area below

Then the cab stopped at the top of the ramp

Woodhouse pulled his car into the fire lane, out of the way of sparse traffic, and watched Grant’s cab from fifty feet away He called Micah and Jeff, told them what he’d seen and that he was pretty sure as on Connor Grant’s prograht

What Grant had done to Sci-Tron had described his character in full, and a ly that Grant was looking for another highvalue target The valet parking area was as close as a vehicle could get to the north entrance of City Hall, a beautiful and historic building, the jewel in San Francisco’s crown

The cab was still poised at the top of the ra He tried to anticipate Grant’s next er door opened and Grant got out He leaned doard the driver’s , see that the cabdriver open the trunk It also see He had his hand sticking out the , the universal sign for Give me the money

Woodhouse took it that the driver wanted to be paid and that he wasn’t taking the cab any farther Maybe he’d gotten a whiff of nutcase stink off his passenger

Woodhouse, a former military officer, didn’t need to wait for this dispute to be settled He opened his car door and placed his Ruger 10/22 rifle on the doorframe He took a bead on Grant’s temple and said softly, “This is for you, Lisa”

He fired

A split second before Woodhouse’s gun went off, Grant reached into the backseat of the cab The crack of the rifle shot was loud enough to shock both Grant and the cabdriver

The driver leapt from the cab and ran It was a woht Woodhouse One less thing to worry about

Then he noticed that Grant had taken a position behind the cab’s rear passenger door Grant fired his pistol at Woodhouse He got off three quick shots The first one hit Woodhouse in the shoulder, and the other tent through his windshield

Woodhouse fired back, but the pain and the bleeding fro a hole through Grant’s head, his shot hit the trunk of the cab

The last thing Cary Woodhouse expected to happen under that black, starry sky was for so