Patience was one of the most useful qualities Rick possessed, and the one he valued the most. It had saved his life on countless occasions. Applying it correctly had allowed him to carry out numerous functions, all of which were closely connected to the part of his job he most hated but which was, unfortunately, most essential to his profession: killing.

  As an agent of the army whose specialization was classified high-risk operations, Rick had learned that without the necessary patience, some assignments could not be carried out. Sometimes that meant something as simple as having to wait until a person had to use the bathroom for a target location to be left momentarily unprotected. Or covering a distance of fifty feet over a forty-five minute period so as not to make a sound. Or staying glued to a headset for hours, waiting to hear a code word or sentence. But the time Rick really put his patience to the test was the first time he’d killed someone in cold blood.

  His objective was a general from the Secure Zone of the North, the zone with which war had broken out a short time before. Like any other solider, he had killed on previous occasions, but this was the first time he was going to shoot someone in the back, someone defenseless who wasn’t trying to kill him as well. Rick had been lying in wait on the roof top of a building located more than a thousand feet from where the general was supposed to be meeting with his men. He was covered in a blanket that camouflaged him, his right eye pressed up to the scope of his high-powered sniper rifle. He waited sixteen straight hours in that position, battling cramps, biological needs and, worst of all, his own mind, which would have wandered in such a long span of time if he hadn’t been able to control it. So, armed with patience, Rick had waited for his objective and eliminated him with one clean shot.

  The situation this time was much less demanding. Rick was hiding in some bushes, completely quiet, watching someone just fifty feet away from him. He’d only been waiting a half hour, but it still brought to mind the time he’d killed the general. The wait this time seemed simple compared to that. And it was a good thing, too, because his ribs didn’t feel like they were completely healed yet and were still giving him some trouble. He hated not being able to completely rely on his physical abilities, even if the situation wasn’t terribly dangerous.

  The man he was watching ran over to someone else. From where he was, Rick couldn’t see what they were doing.

  A loud crash that sounded like metal against metal rang out in the night.

  “Holy shit! He hit my car!” shouted one of the men, and they both took off running.

  Rick waited a second and then came out from behind the bushes and ran across the distance that separated him from the mysterious building. He pressed his back to the wall of the trailer that was at the entrance. He looked out toward where the two watchmen had gone. They were quite a ways away from the building and had their backs to him, and were now looking at a red van that had slammed into two cars.

  He knew there was still one guard inside. He’d spent the last two days staking out the place, studying the security guards and analyzing their shifts and their duties. Jack’s contacts—which were quite good—had gotten an ID on each of the guards. It was immediately evident they hadn’t been chosen for their experience. None of them had ever had a job like this before, nor had they served on the police force or in the army, so Rick knew it wouldn’t be hard to infiltrate the team.

  He slid over to the door of the entrance, slipped a wire into the keyhole, and inserted a lock pick. He heard a faint click and stood in front of the door. He didn’t hear anyone on the other side. He swiftly opened the door, went in with his gun drawn, and shot. He closed the door behind him and went up to the desk that was in the center of the trailer. It was the only furniture in the room. Rick placed his fingers beside the dart sticking out of the neck of the man lying back in the chair. His pulse was strong, but he’d be sleeping like a baby for quite some time.

  Wasting not a second he went to the door that led into the building and went through it. He could see absolutely nothing. It was pitch black inside. Rick felt the wall for a switch but didn’t find one. He took a flashlight out of his pants pocket and turned it on.

  As he shone the stream of light around the floor it revealed there was absolutely nothing there. Rick directed the light at the walls. There had to be a light switch in there somewhere. Nothing. Not one damn thing. The walls were an eerie black color and were completely smooth. It made no sense. As Rick pointed the light from the floors, to the walls, to the ceiling, he saw no plugs, no wires, no electrical conduit, no duct work. He couldn’t believe it.

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  The building was completely empty. There were no floors, ceilings, or walls that in any way divided the space up into different levels or smaller rooms. It wasn’t actually a building at all—just a shell covered in glass to give it the appearance of an office building.

  As he swept the flashlight across the area again, the light passed over something rectangular pushed up against the wall. He brought the light back over it and saw that it was a long, wooden box. Rick went over to it, bent over and pulled the lid off. The body of a man was lying face up inside it. He shone the light on the cadaver’s face and recognized Scott from the pictures he’d seen at his apartment and from the reports Jack had given him. The corpse seemed to be quite well preserved but, in spite of that, Rick couldn’t immediately determine the cause of death. He saw no bullet wounds or any other kind of wound. He couldn’t take the body so they could do an autopsy on it, but he could check it over to see if he could figure out how he’d been killed.

  Sure that his oversized co-conspirator would keep the watchmen entertained, he knelt down and pulled up on Scott’s shoulders to get him into a sitting position. He lifted the body much too easily. It was extremely light, too light for a two hundred pound man, and Rick had applied more force than necessary. The dead man’s neck smacked into Rick’s collarbone, and his lifeless head hung over Rick’s shoulder. Rick felt something running down his back, as if sand were spilling out of the neck of the corpse. He jumped up and pushed the body away from him, and it collapsed back into the box. Something black was indeed running out of its mouth.

  Rick ran his fingers over the lips and examined the substance that was seeping out. It felt soft and dissolved between his fingers. It was ashes. Rick opened Scott’s shirt, took out his pocketknife and cut him open from his neck to his navel. Using both hands, he pulled the skin back and was astonished to see a heap of ashes. He found nothing solid, not a single bone or vital organ. It was as if they’d hollowed out Scott’s body and emptied the ashes from a huge fireplace into him without leaving a mark anywhere on his body.

  Then he heard something.

  Rick shone his flashlight all around him. At first he didn’t see anything, but then the light found a silhouette. He took two steps toward the middle of the room and saw movement. There was definitely someone there.

  And then he saw him.

  “Hey, you!” shouted Rick, aiming his gun at him. “Don’t move and don’t do anything stupid. I’m armed.” He couldn’t see him well, but he could tell they were more or less the same size. “Okay. Now turn around,” he ordered. But the intruder remained perfectly still with his back to Rick. “You hear me? Turn around slowly or you’ll be sorry.”

  Rick moved toward him and he saw the guy moving again. It was pitch dark and he couldn’t see well. He wasn’t going to let the intruder take him by surprise. Keeping his gun aimed at the man, he slowly moved toward him. The intruder was approaching him at the same speed and it looked like he also had a flashlight. Rick could swear he still hadn’t turned around; it looked like he was walking backwards. It made no sense.

  When he was a few feet away from the man, he reached out his hand and it bumped into something solid though he could see nothing there. The man still had his back to him. There appeared to be an invisible barrier between them. When Rick moved his hand again, he finally understood. Or at least he hoped he did.

  He took a step to the right and the man did the same. He stepped back to where he was and the man imitated him, replicating his movements exactly. It was incredible. Then came the final test. He moved farther off to one side and the intruder followed him until finally he disappeared.

  He’d gone past the edge of the mirror. What Rick had believed to be another person was actually his own reflection. And however difficult it was to believe, his image was reflected from the back.

  A growl broke the silence around him. It was definitely an animal, something like a dog or a wolf, but much deeper. Rick looked all around the darkness. Two red circles that hadn’t been there before disappeared them reappeared in the opposite corner. Rick shone the light toward them. The two spheres turned a yellowish color. They were surrounded by a shadow in the shape of a four-legged beast that was much bigger than a dog. The shadow continued to take shape as ribbons of smoke began swirling and floating around it. Two horizontal rows of icy-looking daggers appeared beneath the yellowish spheres. Rick had no doubt these were the teeth and eyes of whatever was materializing there before him.

  An even deeper and more threatening growl snapped Rick out of his momentary paralysis. He ran like a shot toward the door, making it there just in time to see the creature’s eyes flying through the air. He heard it land with a heavy thud. Rick ran from the building, slamming the door behind him just as the icy fangs were less than three feet away from him.

  There was a violent crash against the other side of the door and Rick, who was leaning against it, was launched forward and stumbled into the watchman who was still sleeping off the effects of the tranquilizer dart. There was a deafening howl, followed by another slam into the door which Rick feared would soon come unhinged. He tore out of the trailer with nothing in his mind besides getting away from there.

  Without ever looking back, he made it to his car three blocks away, started it and sped off.