Vance froze, his heart dropping into his shoes. He turned slowly, staring back toward the dark maw of the basement stairs.Shaw was leaning against the foyer’s doorframe, looking remarkably upright for a man who should have been in full respiratory failure. He was casually wiping the tiny bead of blood from his jaw with a thumb, a wide, mocking grin splitting his face."You guys," Shaw chuckled, the sound bubbling up with genuine amusement. "You really are special, aren't you?"Robert’s eyes widened in dawning horror. "The toxin... the Sting... it’s enough to kill a bull elephant...""Yeah, well," Shaw said, pushing off the doorframe and taking a slow, predatory step forward. "A bull elephant doesn't have a Riggs-funded internal filtration system and a metabolic rate that burns through neuro-toxins like they're cheap tequila."Shaw’s laugh grew louder, a sharp, barking mockery that made the hair on Vance's neck stand up."You really thought I’d let you prick me without a reason? I n

Shaw leaned his back against the mirrored wall, looking down at Vance with a pitying smirk.He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small silver tin. Popping a mint into his mouth, the scent of wintergreen filled the small space."You guys in the Chimera are so proud of your labs," Shaw said. "You think you’re the only ones playing with chemistry?""My boss spent five years in a hole in Siberia with nothing to do but study how to make the human body do things it isn't supposed to. You injected me with a 'Sting.' I've had worse reactions to bad shellfish."He stepped over Vance’s mangled legs, the tip of his boot barely an inch from a jagged piece of bone."The thing about you, Director, is that you believe in your tech more than you believe in the people who use it. You saw me collapse because I wanted you to see me collapse.""I needed to know what you’d do with a five-minute head start. And look at you… you didn't even make it to the driveway before the house decided it didn't l

Vance tried to lunge off the table, but his shattered knees buckled instantly, sending a fresh wave of agony through him that made him howl like a wounded animal."YOU BASTARD! I'm a Director! You can't do this!"Shaw didn't even flinch. He stood in the doorway, framed by the dim hallway light.He looked at the two broken men, one screaming in a pool of his own blood, the other sitting in the corner, and felt nothing but boredom."See ya, boys," Shaw chirped. With a mocking, two-finger salute, he stuck out his tongue at them like a petulant child. He stepped into the hall and slammed the steel door shut.Thunk-clack.The sound of the heavy deadbolt filled the room like a coffin lid closing."HEY! OPEN THE DOOR! HEY!" Vance’s screams hit a fever pitch, his fists feebly pounding against the metal table as the realization set in: the mercenary truly didn't care if he lived or died.Outside, Shaw whistled a cheerful tune, his footsteps fading into the distance. He left the Director and

Shaw didn't turn around, but his head tilted slightly as Zarek entered the room."You're up early, Boss," Shaw chirped. His voice was as light as if he hadn't just spent the last hour breaking a man's kneecaps. "Or late. Hard to tell with the way you've been burning the candle at both ends."Zarek didn't answer. He watched Shaw’s left hand, the one that had been twitching in the basement, now holding a wooden spoon with rock-steady precision. The mercenary looked entirely revitalized, his skin glowing under the warm kitchen lights, the 'Sting' long since processed by his lethal biology."The Director is dying in the basement, Shaw," Zarek said, a low rumble vibrating in his chest. "And you’re... cooking?""I'm multitasking," Shaw corrected, flipping a thick cut of ribeye with a pair of tongs. "Vance is stewing in his own stubbornness. Robert is watching him. And I realized that if we're going to hunt a ghost today, we’re going to need more than just spite and caffeine."Shaw final