lready fallen. Karolyn watched it happen as if from a great distance, her body performing th

furrow into the paper-but she couldn't make herself care. The tablet still glowed in his other hand, still showed the burning

light, examined the signature against the exemplar he'd kept from their joint le

nged for t

and the movement sent fresh blood trickling into her eye from the cut on her forehead. She'd forgotten about the cut

e whisper

ty-three minutes, and my associates were very thorough with the accelerant." He reached into his breast pocket, withdrew a ciga

shape of the letter opener her father had used to open correspondence from the ma

exhaled a cloud of blue smoke directly into her face, and she smelled

mpleteness of your defeat." He tapped ash onto the carpet-her mother's Kashan, imported from Tehran, w

d by a timestamped video file. 7:30 PM. Thirty minutes ago. While she'd b

and unhurried. She watched them secure the French doors with chains. Watched them pour liquid from unmarked cans acro

idation. Your father should have accepted my offer last

s closed around

aintenance staff. She'd watched her father use it a hundred times, the economical flick of his wrist,

d withou

too confident in his victory. The blade caught the lapel of his Tom Ford tuxedo, sliced through wool a

ed a six-inch gash in his side that bloomed black a

e!" he

, she moved-not toward him, toward the wall panel where the emergency controls were hidden. Her finger found the button. A

d the letter

stumbling into the bookshelf. Her temple connected with the edge of a leather-bound volume-The We

he wool, the smoke from Douglas's fallen cigar, something else underneath. Whiskey. Douglas kept

splashed. The smell inte

er, strained with pain. "You could have lived. You

wim into view, saw her mouth moving-"Douglas, don't, not here, they'll investigate"-saw Douglas's han

ropp

wool, found the whiskey-soaked patches, turned orange and hungry. Karolyn rolled, tried

or, the private elevator that would take them down to the garage while the party continued seventy

arely audible, shredded by

es, and something else-relief, perhaps, that he woul

osed. The l

eager. She felt the heat on her legs first, then the pain, white and absolute. She beat at the flames with h

ndifferent. She could see the river, the bridge, the endless stream of headlights on the FDR Drive. She

in her hand, felt the skin split, but the glass held. Of course it held. It

ier above h

her shoulders, embed themselves in the burning fabric of her gown. She curl

was

then darkness. She thought of her mother in the garden, her father

ashed throug

She felt the pressure change, felt cool air rush past her face, and throu

omething that reflected t

o speak, tried to warn them away, but her throat was closed, burned, useless. H

smothering the flames on her gown. The pain didn't

they were descending, rappelling down the building's exterior face. The wind tore at her hair, her ruined

h something mechanical. Male. Flat. "Stay c

od. Her body w

racticed efficiency, and she felt something slide down her throat, felt her lu

egree, forty percent. Smoke inh

ir

ow

chanical filter, but she couldn't turn her head to see. T

n to me. You're dead. Do you understand? The Yates family is

Managed a sound, a c

you unde

ed to. The darknes