boot, and while she did Bakti took the opportunity to sneak a quick glance down the narrow street in an attempt to catch a glimpse of his friends.
Shylah glanced up and caught the satisfaction on Bakti’s face. He was certain everything was going as planned. She stood up and meekly entered the room in front of him. He let the door partially close, but left it unlocked with light streaming from the street through the large crack. He turned on the lights.
Only two bulbs worked and the light was more brown than white or yellow. She risked glancing at that bulb, but it had to be ancient. Why it wasn’t burned out ten years earlier, she didn’t know. She looked around the apartment. Clearly, it hadn’t been cleaned yet.
“Who owns this place?”
Bakti turned away from the door. “I do. I rent to various people by the week. They took it for a week. You can see they’ve made a mess. There are all kinds of things here I don’t understand.”
“Sadly, these men are making viruses. This entire apartment could be contaminated. Don’t touch anything.” She wanted to share that particular wickedness with Draden. It certainly wiped the smile from Bakti’s face.
“Viruses?”
She nodded. “The small village of Lupa Suku was wiped out by this virus. The three men created it.” She indicated the room. “See the equipment here? This is what is used to make this virus. There’s no vaccine. No cure. You must have heard of the Ebola virus. You’re an educated man. You know that these hemorrhagic viruses are lethal.”
He looked around the room, all the while shaking his head, not wanting to believe her. The door swung open and his three friends walked in. Bakti swung around toward them. The moment he saw them, the doubt was gone from his face, their presence bolstering his courage. She saw his hand move under his tunic to pull his weapon.
She killed him without hesitation. Before the body could topple to the floor, she’d thrown a small blade, no more than an inch long, but it lodged with deadly accuracy into the lead man’s neck, severing the artery. He went down hard, blood spraying across the room.
The two men behind him tried to fall back, but Draden was already there. He came up behind the last man, slamming his blade into the base of the skull. That left the one with the limp. He was caught between the two of them.
Draden shoved the dead body and the remaining prisoner into the house and slammed the door. Instantly the prisoner dropped to his knees and began begging loudly for his life, offering all kinds of money and favors.
He’s armed, Shylah cautioned.
Draden shrugged. Let him have his chance. Stay in the background. Let me do my thing.
Shylah sent him a ghost of a smile, all the while studiously avoiding looking at the dead men. Draden reached down and casually closed their eyes. He stared at the prisoner for a long time in silence. The longer he stared, the more anxious the man became.
“What’s your name?”
“Eko, my name is Eko.”
“I’m a little pissed right now, Eko. I was right behind you while you were following my wife. I heard all the very unpleasant things you intended to do to her right before you cut her throat. I have to tell you, I’m not happy with you. You have a wife. Maybe I should go find her and do those things to her and your daughters as well. Maybe I should make you watch.” He snarled it, deliberately as sinister as the man in front of him.
Eko cried out and rocked back and forth. “No, no, I was only talking big for my friends.”
Draden shook his head, deliberately standing directly in front of the prisoner. He knew Shylah was anxious that he was giving Eko a large target, but it was the best form of intimidation, while it also allowed the man to take his chance if he was going to. Better to keep Eko’s attention on him, not Shylah.
“I don’t think so. It’s clear you’ve done this before. Rented the apartment to women and then raped and killed them. Don’t deny it, that will only make me angrier.”
Eko shook his head. “They are nothing, these women. Unclean. Nothing. They live to serve men. We would never harm a worthy woman.”
Draden wanted to step right into the bastard and cut his throat right then. He took a breath and forced air through his lungs. “If