Annja scanned the crowd. How would Miki carry the bomb?

“He’ll have a backpack,” Vic said as if reading her mind. “It’s the only way he can carry it in. Look for a backpack and you’ll find him.”

Annja kept her eyes on the binoculars even as she heard Vic sliding a magazine into the underside of the sniper rifle. “Are you almost ready?” she asked.

“Almost.”

Annja’s eyes continued to search the crowd. He had to be out there somewhere. But where? All she could see were thousands of people crushing into the streets and sidewalks. Buses whipped past. Small motorcycles zipped down the streets. She heard car horns blaring, almost communicating in some unspoken language.

How was she going to find him before it was too late?

MIKI FELT RELIEF as he spotted the wide, gently sloping entrance to the main concourse at the Galleria Mall. On either side of the steps leading into the ritzy shopping area, fountains arced gracefully through the air, spraying water into a receptacle on the other side. Pink rosebushes lined the steps, and the marble columns at the top perfectly framed the entire picture.

There was something inherently beautiful about it.

Miki looked at the mall and hefted the backpack again. That was where he would die.

He and everyone else.

“I’M SET.”

Annja slid out of Vic’s way. He settled himself with the barrel of the sniper rifle eased over the edge of the roof. His fingers found the scope sitting atop the barrel and slowly clicked off a few settings on two of the dials. “I’ve got a good picture.”

Annja continued peering through her binoculars. Miki had to be down there somewhere. He had to be.

But where?

“There.”

She heard Vic’s voice and her heart jumped. “Where? You see him? Where is he?”

“Dammit. False alarm,” Vic said.

Annja breathed again. She glanced right. Was that a backpack? She turned back and refocused her eyes.

“Oh, my God.”

MIKI TOOK THE STEPS SLOWLY, savoring his last conscious decisions. Who would have thought that his life would boil down to these last few minutes? That everything he had worked so hard to accomplish would become this distilled?

He breathed deep and tasted the smog-laced air tinged with the delicate scent of rose petals. The combination simultaneously repulsed and attracted him. Was this what his life had become—a synergy of diametrically opposite sensations?

He missed his family. The thought washed over him.

Could he really kill these people? Could he really detonate this bomb? He’d be responsible for thousands of deaths, and lingering sickness would infect thousands more.

Was this what God had planned for him?

“I SEE HIM.”

Vic’s voice floated out on the wind. He made another correction to the scope. “Yeah, I’ve got a good picture here. His angle’s wrong. I need to wait until he turns around.”

He could see Miki standing there on the steps.

Once he turned around, Vic could fire and take him out.

One shot.

One kill.

“Good eyes, Annja.”

He frowned.

“Annja?”

He looked up from his scope.

She was gone.

IT WAS WEIRD that doubt would creep into his mind at this moment. Miki frowned. Certainly, this was a natural thing. Probably all suicide bombers experienced this self-same realization right before they blew themselves up.

Still, it would be nice if he could have seen his family one last time.

He wasn’t even supposed to be doing this. Eduardo was the chosen one. He was the one who was supposed to carry this bomb into the hearts of wealthy Filipinos. He was the one who was supposed to bring them to their knees and subject them to the horror of what their money had wrought.

But now he was here.

He took a breath. It was time.

“Miki.”

He turned. And saw a woman.

ANNJA COULD SEE THE FEAR in his eyes. He doesn’t want to do this, she thought. He’s scared.

“Annja, what the hell do you think you’re doing?” Vic’s voice was like a harsh whisper in her ear.

“Get out of the way so I can take the shot.”

“Not yet,” she said.

Miki frowned. “What did you say?”

Annja spread her arms. “I’m not here to hurt you.”

“We’ve never even met,” Miki said.

“I know, but I was in the jungle camp.”

Miki’s eyes widened. “Agamemnon told me all about you.”

“Did he? Did he tell you how he kidnapped me by accident and how he was going to cut my head off?” she asked.

Miki nodded. “Some sacrifices have to be made for the greater good.”

“Is that what you’re doing here?”

“Yes.”

“Is it? By killing so many innocent people, you think that will help you achieve anything?”

“We will achieve much with my action,” he said.

Annja shook her head. “No. It will mean only the deaths of many people who don’t deserve to die. Not even you,” she pleaded.

Miki frowned. “Agamemnon told me he would look after my family in Cebu. That he would give them a lot of money. They will be free of the poverty that enslaved me.”

“He told you that?”

Miki nodded. “Yes. And that is why I must die.”

“DAMMIT!”

Vic slid along the roof, trying to get a better angle on Miki. What the hell was Annja trying to do? She was blocking his shot.

“Control to Sierra One, do you have the target in sight?”

“Stand by, Control,” Vic said.

Vic shifted again. He could just make out he side of Miki’s head beyond Annja’s shoulder.

“Get out of the damned way!” he shouted.

“Control to Sierra One?”

“Stand by, Control, stand by!”

Vic moved again. He had to get the right angle to make the shot.

“YOU DON’T have to do this.”

Miki shook his head. “There’s no other way. This is my destiny. I’m supposed to do this for the greater good.”

“No greater good comes from an act like this. Only the devastation and misery that you’ll bring to all these people and families across the world.”

Miki sighed. “You don’t understand.”

“Make me understand,” she said.

Miki shook his head. “There’s no time left.”

Annja started to speak. Then she heard something off in the distance. Police sirens.

Miki heard it, too. He looked at her. “My time is at hand.”

He reached into his pocket.

Annja jumped toward him.

She saw Miki’s hand start to pull something out of his pocket.

And then she saw his entire body shudder as an invisible hand seemed to reach out of nowhere and slap him hard.

She heard the bullet report a second later.

“SIERRA ONE to Control,” Vic said.

“Go ahead, Sierra One.”

Vic swallowed. “Target eliminated. Repeat—target eliminated.”

“Control to Sierra One…we copy. Good shooting.”

ANNJA KNELT next to Miki’s body. His eyes were open but bloody. Vic was right; the bullet hadn’t exited his skull, but stayed there and caused massive damage inside.

He was dead before he even hit the ground.

Annja looked at the detonator that he’d barely managed to pull free. He would have detonated it, she thought. He would have.

Behind her, she heard the sirens wailing and tires screeching as the cars and trucks drew to a halt. And then she felt a tangle of arms lift her back away from Miki’s corpse as the soldiers, agents and scientists rushed to make sure the device would not explode.

It was over.