The skylight would focus those rays down into the room. There was no corner they wouldn’t reach. She might be able to delay the inevitable, but as the sun progressed across the sky the whole room would eventually be illuminated.

Then she would die. The blood in her body would solidify. Her skin would wither and crack, and draw about her like a vise. Her eyes would turn to dust. Her bones would split like dry kindling.

She would feel every second of it.

She was going to die in agony.

The door to the atrium snapped off its hinges.

Cade stood there, perfectly calm.

Tania felt the urge to rush to him, to put her arms around him, almost like she was the silly little girl who’d first met Cade decades ago.

Then she remembered the collar and stayed put.

“Good timing,” she said, pointing to the skylight. “I thought you might put the grave robbery together with me if I just chose an appropriate body.”

“What are you talking about?” Cade asked.

“I . . . Bela Lugosi’s grave. I thought you would—”

“I didn’t come here for you,” Cade said. “Whatever you did, I didn’t hear about it.”

Tania’s mouth dropped open. She closed it quickly. Of course he hadn’t. Stupid of her, to expect him to come charging to her rescue.

He never had. He never would.

“Where is he?” Cade demanded.

“Wish I knew,” Tania said. “He left me here to burn. I would gladly watch you pull his intestines out.”

“Why didn’t you do it yourself? It’s not like you to be so reluctant.”

She flicked the collar with one fingernail. “Six ounces of plastic explosive. It’s actually really humiliating, but he—”

Cade crossed the room before she could finish. He reached his hands to her neck, and while Tania was still frozen with shock, snapped the collar in two.

Tania winced for a moment, waiting for the explosion.

Nothing. The two pieces of the collar, broken cleanly at the lock, sat on the floor. Harmless.

“He lied,” she said, her eyes wide.

“It’s what he does,” Cade said, already walking away.

She caught up with him, feeling the empty spot around her neck.

“How did you know?” she asked.

“I didn’t.”

She stopped. “You didn’t.”

He realized she wasn’t moving, so he turned back to her, completely calm.

“There was no alternative. Either you would have died with it on or died taking it off. Seemed like the best thing to do was get it over with.”

“And you would have made that decision with your own neck on the line?”

“Of course,” Cade said, still damnably calm. “The alternative would be to become Konrad’s slave.”

She glared at him. Unperturbed, he walked away.

Tania considered the facts. Cade was right. And he wasn’t lying. He would have torn the collar off as soon as it was placed around his neck.

She understood, suddenly, why Konrad had said Cade never would have let it happen to him.

Cade was already out of the building. She hurried to catch up.

His diversion with Tania had cost him valuable time, but he justified it to himself by pretending there was a chance Konrad would be at his clinic.

Laughable. He had to admit it now, even if he couldn’t tell her he’d figured out her message. Holt had outplayed him. Now he was reduced to breaking down doors, looking for Konrad like a blind pig rooting for slop.

His phone rang. The call was from Zach. The boy must have been back in D.C. by now.

“This is not a good time,” he said.

“Someone simply must teach you how to answer the phone.”

It was Holt. Alive. And one step ahead of him, again.

Cade didn’t bother asking how she’d gotten Zach’s phone.

“Where is he?”

“I’m fine, thanks for asking,” Holt said. “Even though you ran out on me. A girl could start to feel rejected, Cade.”

Cade was in no mood. She’d timed the call just right. Sunrise in a short while. No chance of finding her before then. “Where is he?”

She dropped the flirty tone. “Nothing for nothing. We want you to come in. Quietly. Your ass for his.”

“Where?”

“Do we have a deal?”

“Can we drop the charade? Tell me where he is. And I will be there. I know you will try to kill me. And you know nothing will stop me from coming for you.”

“Such a suspicious mind,” Holt said. But she gave him the address: the Federal Building, on Wilshire.

“Be here at sundown. Or we’ll send your boy back to the White House in a box.”

Cade hung up. He had no more time. He needed to find a place in the dark.

Tania spoke from behind him. “You look like shit, you know.”

He faced her. She stood there, waiting.

“Why are you still here?”

She thought that over. “Ask me again later.”

He started walking, tried to brush past her. “I’m working,” he said.

She put out a hand, gently, and stopped him.

“Wherever you’re going, you won’t make it,” Tania said. “Almost sunrise.”

Cade hesitated, unsure of what to do.

“And you’re exhausted,” she added. “You have a place to stay?”

Cade shrugged. “I’ll find a spot in an underpass somewhere,” he said. “Plenty of those around.”

Tania gave him a look. “I think we can do better than that.”