The syringe slid home with a quiet, clinical finality. Maximillian's grin snapped off. His hand went to the puncture before his eyes went unfocused, confusion and then a panic that filled him like cold water. He staggered, voice jagged, trying to say something that stuck in his throat. Ethan lunged, but Xavier's other hand found purchase on his wrist, anchored and vicious. The two men spun—one desperate, one simply awake—and the room narrowed to fists and the terrible business of survival.
Viola moved like someone stepping into a room they'd already read. She grabbed the black case off the floor where Ethan had dropped it, flipped it open, and let the edge of the lid click like a metronome. "You brought the contract alive so you could kill him yourselves," she said to Ethan, voice clean. "You tried to double-cross the job. That's why I have a contingency for people who don't keep their end."
