Chapter 45 DALLAS, TEXAS FIVE MONTHS LATER A quarter of a mile of gravel separated the blacktop county road from Bradford’s front door; a quarter of a mile between foyer and mailbox. For the most part, the distance was meaningless. He wasn’t home often enough to worry about collecting the mail— Felecia did that for him, and anything urgent was sent…

Chapter 44 DALLAS, TEXAS Munroe stepped from carpeted Jetway into carpeted terminal with nothing for luggage but the satchel filled with the few items she’d accumulated in the week since Neeva’s death. She’d been in the United States for two days and was only now returning to Dallas, to the closest thing she had to home. Hadn’t spoken to or heard f…

Chapter 43 With the dead guard’s key ring in hand, Munroe started toward the nearest cell in the underground prison. Tried keys until she found the right one. Unlocked and slid the bar free. The cell was empty, and the air filled with the same fetid stench that had been there when Neeva was inside. She strode to the next. Unlocked it. Slid the door…

Chapter 42 The woman with the keys and sensible shoes opened her mouth to scream, and in the gap of silence between shock and sound, Munroe’s other hand wrapped around the woman’s face. The shrieking came, and continued to come, but muted, while the woman chomped at Munroe’s fingers and clawed with her nails, and Munroe, once more amped up on adren…

Chapter 41 MILAN, ITALY Hands in her jacket pockets, Munroe stepped from the bistro and scanned the main hall of Milan Central below, searching for a danger she might not recognize even if spotted. She’d left Neeva behind, tucked away at a rear table with her back to the room so that it would be impossible for someone to recognize the girl in passi…

Chapter 40 HOUSTON, TEXAS Bradford exchanged his jacket for a service technician’s shirt: gray, grimy, and still bearing another man’s sweat— at least he assumed the stink belonged to Roger, the name stitched in red letters above his pecs. Another man’s shirt, another man’s pheromones— a simple illusion for a simple plan: He would walk in the front…

Chapter 39 Alone with Lumani, Munroe stepped to the bathroom, returned with a towel, and draped it over his legs in a concession to his modesty. She squatted again, looked at him eye-to-eye, and this time Lumani didn’t challenge or avoid her gaze, although gradually his focus moved from her face to her torso and he stared at the jacket. “I hit you,…

Chapter 38 For the second time between sunset and sunrise, the electrodes worked their magic. Lumani flailed and twitched, this time naked and bound, and what should have been satisfying in some small way left Munroe hollow. When the current had ended, she leaned over and removed the probes. When Lumani had caught his breath, she stared down at his…

Chapter 37 Munroe guided Neeva through the crowd of onlookers, gatherers who’d arrived in the wake of the sirens and lights, past the police cars. There were others, too— fellow hotel patrons who, after the shooting ended, and realizing the police had arrived, had also made their dash for freedom, adding to the confusion and the crowds. They contin…

Chapter 36 Without moving his eye from the scope, Lumani returned the phone to his pocket, drew a breath, and tried to block out the sting. He shouldn’t care, had no reason to care what she said. Prove himself stronger and smarter than his opponent. Reclaim the package. Kill what stood in his way. Succeed in the mission. These were the things that …

Chapter 35 The door handle moved again. Subtle. Audible only because Munroe anticipated the movement. With the Jericho aimed toward where she expected a body and the two spare magazines shoved tight against her waistband, Munroe moved the few steps to the desk. The heavy side faced out where it could provide the most benefit in shielding her body f…

Chapter 34 In the low light coming from the bathroom, both women stared at each other: Neeva at what had been added, Munroe at what had been taken away. “You look different,” Neeva said. “So do you.” Younger. More helpless. Tinier, if such a thing was possible. “Trying to wash out the curls only gave me a clown wig,” Neeva said. “I figured this was…

Chapter 33 The tram stopped at a light, and Lumani’s car, pointed in the wrong direction, was forced by traffic to continue on its way. With Bradford’s phone, Munroe utilized online maps and based on location searched out nearby hotels. Eye on the traffic, she waited another stop and then, last minute, nudged Neeva toward the door and maneuvered to…

Chapter 32 They rode in silence to Cadorna and left the station for the streets and the plaza that led to the buses and trams, an open-air square, clean and colorful with bright sculptured art. To the left, touristic and inviting, rose the massive walls of the Sforzesco castle, and Munroe went in the opposite direction, navigating through pedestria…

Chapter 31 Munroe hunted for transportation along the side streets of Nice. Here the pedestrian traffic was lighter and those who took note of their passing fewer, but even off the main streets and busy walkways, the occasional passerby turned to stare at Neeva and her odd getup, which worked as much as a distraction from her face, and as such a di…

Chapter 30 The consulate waiting room had long since emptied, and in an unabashed land grab, Munroe stretched out on the longer couch, one arm draped over her face, the other by her side. An hour until she could contact Bradford, an hour for the Doll Maker’s latest trick to turn around and around inside her stomach, feeding and nourishing the cance…

更多英文有声读物中英对照同步视频请加V.X.g.z.h：yyxxzlk Chapter 29 OUTSIDE LE GAYAN, PEILLE, FRANCE Out of Monaco, up into the hills, roundabout to roundabout, Munroe headed away from the coast. The rearview offered no glimpse of Lumani, but she didn’t need to see him to know that, like a shadow following the beacon, a shark circling for blood, he was out there. The d…

更多英文有声读物中英对照同步视频请加V.X.g.z.h：yyxxzlk Chapter 28 With every movement exacted in precise counterpoint to frustration and mounting anxiety, Lumani removed scope from rifle. Twist. Breathe. Pack. Think. If ever he hated Uncle, hated him to his core, this was that moment. So close. Within a minute this entire ordeal would have been over, and in that minu…

更多英文有声读物中英对照同步视频请加V.X.g.z.h：yyxxzlk Chapter 27 Munroe pulled Arben’s torso into the driver’s seat of the Passat, shifted his legs under the steering wheel, closed his door, and positioned him so he reclined with the seat. Leaned his head so that he faced his own window. Weapon to his hand, to the side of the head she’d battered, rag between her fin…

更多英文有声读物中英对照同步视频请加V.X.g.z.h：yyxxzlk Chapter 26 They entered Monaco at the principality’s northernmost border without anything to mark the crossing but a change in signs and a sudden tightness in building density. The GPS led them south along the coast, down pristine streets bordered by trees and beautiful landscaping, streets slowly filling with mo…

更多英文有声读物中英对照同步视频请加V.X.g.z.h：yyxxzlk Chapter 25 BEYOND MONTEBRUNO, ITALY Proof of life arrived in the same way news of death had come: a noise that jarred the quiet, an alert that lit the screen with blinding revelation. Munroe stared at the phone a long while, neither moving nor blinking. The Doll Maker had made his play, and now it was her turn. T…

更多英文有声读物中英对照同步视频请加V.X.g.z.h：yyxxzlk Chapter 24 IRVING, TEXAS The truck driver stayed motionless in the space of the open cab door, the dilemma clear on his face: return to the men on the ground who might shoot him if he jumped, or deal with the gun pointed at his head and the stranger who might shoot him when the driving was finished. Bradford repe…

更多英文有声读物中英对照同步视频请加V.X.g.z.h：yyxxzlk Chapter 23 OUTSIDE MONTEBRUNO, ITALY Neeva stared out the car window. Struggled to make sense of the shadowy movements, arms and blows and strikes that blended into one another while slipping farther away from the car, until, in the darkness, she couldn’t tell who was who or what was what. Her palms were damp and…

更多英文有声读物中英对照同步视频请加V.X.g.z.h：yyxxzlk Chapter 22 IRVING, TEXAS Bradford navigated the streets toward Veers Transport, head in the zone, that place where the plan of action and the action itself joined into a single point of focus. Jahan and Walker followed in the Trooper several blocks behind and out of sight. As a team, they knew nothing more at thi…

更多英文有声读物中英对照同步视频请加V.X.g.z.h：yyxxzlk Chapter 21 WEST OF VERONA, ITALY Under the fluorescent lights of the gas station overhang, Munroe refilled the Opel’s tank. The proprietor stared out from beyond the glass of the mom-and-pop-style convenience store with arms crossed，as if he was prison guard and she the only convict in this otherwise empty statio…

更多英文有声读物中英对照同步视频请加V.X.g.z.h：yyxxzlk Chapter 20 PROVA, ITALY Hands on the wheel, stolen phone hidden beneath her thigh, Munroe tapped her thumbs in random rhythm to thought, parsing kilometers, counting minutes through the silence while the sun made its final stretch across the sky. Inside the Schengen zone, they’d transferred from Slovenia to Italy…

更多英文有声读物中英对照同步视频请加V.X.g.z.h：yyxxzlk Chapter 19 LAS COLINAS, TEXAS Physical confirmation that they’d finally picked up Logan’s trail brought on the same adrenaline rush as the first crack of weapon fire in a combat zone. Miles Bradford backed out of the bathroom doorway. Jahan’s head ticked up in acknowledgment, and they tag-teamed the return, left …

更多英文有声读物中英对照同步视频请加V.X.g.z.h：yyxxzlk Chapter 18 MIREN-KOSTANJEVICA, SLOVENIA Through the rifle scope, Lumani tracked the gray car’s approach. Kept the crosshairs on the windshield, on the driver, as the vehicle pulled from the road into the small gas station. Within the limited parking area the car waited for another vehicle to move, and when it fin…

更多英文有声读物中英对照同步视频请加V.X.g.z.h：yyxxzlk Chapter 17 DALLAS, TEXAS Bradford pulled the Explorer into Capstone’s parking spot, a haphazard straddling of the line that welcomed someone to ding his doors. Adrenaline rush followed by adrenaline dump and around again, sleep deprivation, caffeine and sugar crashes, one after the other, combined to bring him to…

更多英文有声读物中英对照同步视频请加V.X.g.z.h：yyxxzlk Chapter 16 The courtyard wasn’t large enough to swing a three-point turn,so Munroe took the Opel out in reverse through the thick, gated arch while Lumani stood to the side, his eyes tracking her. The first address, with an estimated time of arrival of less than ten minutes, had already been entered into the GPS,…

更多英文有声读物中英对照同步视频请加V.X.g.z.h：yyxxzlk Chapter 15 ZAGREB, CROATIA For the first time in three days, Munroe breathed outside air: late morning and early spring air, colder than Dallas and filled with the must of old stone and wood. Smelled faintly of diesel or oil, the way an old barn might, and after endless hours among the rot and mold and bleach of …

更多英文有声读物中英对照同步视频请加V.X.g.z.h：yyxxzlk Chapter 14 IRVING, TEXAS Samantha Walker laddered over Bradford’s body, from knee, to shoulder, to wall, and then settled, balanced, at the top and belly-crawled in a slow move toward a better view. She’d gone up instead of him because she was the smaller and lighter of the two, and her whisper fed into his earpi…

更多英文有声读物中英对照同步视频请加V.X.g.z.h：yyxxzlk Chapter 13 Munroe could count them by the footsteps, time them by the pace; she stepped into the hallway and stood in Lumani’s way before he reached her cell. He breached her personal space, smiling slightly as if her antics amused him. Behind him were the Arbens, bullies waiting for the fight. One held a hanger …

更多英文有声读物中英对照同步视频请加V.X.g.z.h：yyxxzlk Chapter 12 IRVING, TEXAS Veers Transport was first on Bradford’s hit list for finding Logan because it had everything he looked for: Trucks. Office. Warehouse. Seclusion. Red flags. On the surface, the company was legitimate and profitable, and if not for the information found in the Doll Maker files, there would…

更多英文有声读物中英对照同步视频请加V.X.g.z.h：yyxxzlk Chapter 11 DALLAS, TEXAS Miles Bradford stood in the middle of the war room and dumped two Kevlar vests on the floor. Jahan and Walker stared at him, both silent and sullen. “Fight it out between you,” he said. “I’ll be in my office.” More specifically, he’d be on the floor in his office, beneath the desk, grabbi…

更多英文有声读物中英对照同步视频请加V.X.g.z.h：yyxxzlk Chapter 10 ZAGREB, CROATIA Munroe sat on the mattress, back to the wall, eyes closed, forearms resting against her knees. To wait in darkness was familiar from long ago, to allow the night to swallow her and take with it the fear of helplessness and the impatience for action. One breath followed another while ins…

更多英文有声读物中英对照同步视频请加V.X.g.z.h：yyxxzlk Chapter 9 GATESVILLE, TEXAS It was nine in the morning when Bradford drove into the parking area of the Mountain View prison unit. He had no legitimate reason for being here on such short notice, much less on a weekday and outside of visiting hours. It had taken an hour and a half on the phone during the drive do…

更多英文有声读物中英对照同步视频请加V.X.g.z.h：yyxxzlk Chapter 8 The door slid open, a hollow metal clank that let in better air, way too much light, and set Neeva’s pulse racing. It couldn’t have been five minutes since that… that person … he, she, “it”, whatever, had come to gawk, and visits were never this close together. Teeth clenched, she positioned to a crouch…

更多英文有声读物中英对照同步视频请加V.X.g.z.h：yyxxzlk Chapter 7 When the office door opened, Munroe didn’t turn. Her focus remained on the Doll Man, whose expression shifted with a fleeting glimpse of pleasure that passed as quickly as it had arrived. “You’ve met Valon,” the Doll Man said, though he wasn’t looking at Munroe. The newcomer was the English speaker from…

更多英文有声读物中英对照同步视频请加V.X.g.z.h：yyxxzlk chapter 6 Boniface Akambe was a large man. Not only in his height and girth but in that he wore fine clothing, drove a new four-wheel-drive Land Cruiser, and owned several successful businesses. He was also a good-looking man with soft skin and a desirable-size gap between his top front teeth. Akambe had twelve c…

更多英文有声读物中英对照同步视频请加V.X.g.z.h：yyxxzlk CHAPTER 5 DALLAS, TEXAS Palms against the glass, Miles Bradford stood precisely where he’d been when Munroe had toppled. His eyes roamed from the frontage where she’d fallen to the neighboring buildings and then over and across the Dallas North Tollway, up one office tower and down the next, creating a mental map…

更多英文有声读物中英对照同步视频请加V.X.g.z.h：yyxxzlk Chapter 4 ALTITUDE 29,000 FEET, U.S. AIRSPACE, OVER THE GULF COAST Valon Lumani looked down at the woman lying on the bench seat, so docile, so relaxed. Studied her face and tracked the length of her long body, and as he’d done the first time he saw her, he scoffed. Because she was a woman. This was the solution …

更多英文有声读物中英对照同步视频请加V.X.g.z.h：yyxxzlk Chapter 3 Down the hall and through the glass walls, Jahan shifted away from the monitors, watching their approach, swiveling the chair back and forth until Bradford entered the war room. Before Bradford spoke, Jahan said, “Confirmed the VIN numbers to the ambulance. “Found the service depot and am working on tyi…

更多英文有声读物中英对照同步视频请加V.X.g.z.h：yyxxzlk CHAPTER 2 Samantha Walker was five-foot-two, brunette, buxom, wide-smiling, and naturally tanned. She was the type of inviting cliché that men in bars mistakenly groped and called “honey,” only to later call “bitch” after she’d broken their nose. Walker was a military brat: an only child, a dual citizen with a U.…

更多英文有声读物中英对照同步视频请加V.X.g.z.h：yyxxzlk CHAPTER 1 DALLAS, TEXAS Palms to the glass, watching the lot from his office window, Miles Bradford saw her topple. The fall was a slow-motion sort of thing, the type of tilt and drop that made him hesitate, unsure for a long second whether to laugh or worry. He held his breath, urging her up. Any second now, kno…

更多英文有声读物中英对照同步视频请加V.X.g.z.h：yyxxzlk Chapter 39The departure area was filled with those waiting to board the nonstop flight to New York. The crowd was a mixture of teenagers and twentysomethings, with their scruffy clothes and beat-up backpacks, interspersed among the well-heeled and the economy tourists, all of them jammed into a small space that, …

更多英文有声读物中英对照同步视频请加V.X.g.z.h：yyxxzlk Chapter 38 The necessities of the evening over, Munroe took the stairs up; ten floors in a slow climb that allowed her mind to purge everything left after those two hours at the restaurant. Of the four who’d gathered at the table, Munroe was undoubtedly the only one who had stepped away with a lighter burden. Pre…

更多英文有声读物中英对照同步视频请加V.X.g.z.h：yyxxzlk Chapter 37 Munroe was smiling again, an ear-to-ear, shit-eating grin that Bradford could only return in kind. To see that smile, even with the damage that had been done to her face, made him damn near euphoric,and having her here, having her safe after so many tortured hours of the unknown, was such a giddy relie…

更多英文有声读物中英对照同步视频请加V.X.g.z.h：yyxxzlk Chapter 36 It was speed that saved her, was always speed that saved her. Munroe drove a responsive fist to his kidney and a boot into the back of his opposite knee. Followed him down when he stumbled. Scooped the knife and pulled him upward, all in the time it would have taken for him to trip and catch his balanc…

更多英文有声读物中英对照同步视频请加V.X.g.z.h：yyxxzlk Chapter 35 On the best of days Munroe had little patience for power-playing tug-of-wars with ignorance or arrogance, and today was not the best of days. She flipped the boss’s blade into her palm, sprung it open, leaned over the counter, and hissed a vivid description of what she would do to the desk clerk once s…